Isaiah 43: 1-7 "Because He Loves"

Fear Not - Do not be afraid - words found continuously the bible, words spoken by angels and by prophets, by Jesus - over and over again.

Why should we not be afraid, especially when we consider the charges John the Baptist alludes to when he calls the people to repent of their sins? The charges the prophets made when they accuse the kings and the common people of Israel of idolatry? The charges that Jesus himself makes when He speaks of how we should not only not sin with our bodies, but keep the law within our hearts and our minds concerning adultery, murder, calling other people fools, loving God with all our mind, heart, soul, and strength and our neighbours as ourselves. We are a sorry lot. Not only are our hands dirty and need cleaning but so are our hearts and minds. It’s an unpleasant truth that no amount of wishful thinking can erase. We are all flawed by sin. To say we have no sin is to deceive ourselves.

Why should we not be afraid when God speaks to us: the Holy to the unholy; the Giver of the law to the breakers of the law? Why should we not be afraid of those things within us that lead us to do ill instead of good, things others would do to us, things that threaten our very existence, that threaten to destroy our families, our community, our nation, much as the Babylonian captivity threatened to bring an end to the people of Israel at the time of Isaiah?

Why shouldn’t we be afraid? The answer is found in today's reading from Isaiah, demon- strated in the baptism of Jesus, a baptism which ends with the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in bodily form like a dove and a voice from heaven speaking to Him

Look at the words of Isaiah "When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned." Then he says: For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour; Since you are precious and honoured in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life. Because I love you.... that's the key.

Because God loves us - we need not fear. Because God loves us - He has redeemed us.

Because God loves us - He has acted and bought us back from our slavery to sin. To buy back is what the word redeem means.

Because God loves us - He has given himself - He has given Jesus - in exchange for us.

A holy hand from heaven enters into the dust and ashes of our humanity, washes us, proclaims us clean and that God is pleased by it. God is pleased with his Son whom He loves as He begins the ministry that will cause Him to pass through the waters of death and to enter into the fires of hell. God is pleased because God loves us and knows that if we are to be washed clean that He must come to us and wash us.

This image of one hand washing the other says so much about what the gospel proclaims,

about what Jesus has done, is doing and will yet do, so much about what the church proclaims - concerning how God is with us and for us.

We need not fear the waters for God is with us - the rivers will not sweep over us. We need not fear the fire for God is with us - we will not be burned, the flames will not set us ablaze.

Because He loves us, because we are precious and honoured in God's sight, He will gather

us, as He gathered Israel, from those places where judgement and evil have scattered us, those places of the heart and soul in which we hide or to which others have consigned us. He is our Redeemer, our Saviour. We need not be afraid - for He is with us.

The Christmas story begins with: Fear not Mary, God has favoured you. You will conceive and bear a son and you will call him Jesus - for He will save his people, Emmanuel, for God is with us. That story is meant to be heard by all of us because God is with us.

Be not afraid Greig, be not afraid you who are chronologically challenged and may need to make adjustments to how or where you live during this year. Do not be afraid when you face the justice system, or a new set of study demands and expectations. Do not afraid those who are facing illness, change of family circumstance. I have called you by name, you are mine. You will not perish in the waters or in the fire.

Because I love you Alan, because I love you Tom and Joyce, because I love each one of you, I have called you by name. I have given Jesus for you. Jesus who descended into the waters of the river, who was drowned, who entered into the fires of hell and preached to the souls there. He was in the end not swept away by the waters of death nor set ablaze by the fires of hell.

Don’t be afraid, because I have come to you. I have given Jesus for you. I have lifted Him out of the grave and glorified Him. Sin and evil don’t have the last word. Fear not.

Powerful, wonderful stuff this. One hand washes the other, because God loves us, because we are precious in His sight.

And it means for us that it’s never too late. It means we don’t have to carry what we have done wrong around with us for all of eternity. It means we can begin afresh, no matter what others may say about us, or what others might do to us, no matter what we feel about ourselves. It means we come to God as the prodigal approached his Father: with humility, knowing that we are not worthy; with hope believing that God will feed us and watch over us far better than we can on our own

The old and new scriptures fit together so well. Their message is the same: return to God. Turn to God for He loves us and doesn’t want us to be destroyed. Join ourselves to the Holy One who has come to cleanse us, redeem us and make us safe. Allow Christ to baptise us with water and fire and the fullness of the Spirit. Live by Him and through Him as a brother to Him - as a sister to Him - for now and for eternity. For it is the active and powerful love of God for each one of us that saves us, not any work we may try to do to earn that love.