SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, August 28, 2022

Dear Friends in Christ –

Yahweh has had enough. The people are worshiping idols. Jerusalem has become a city defiled. She is conquered, the Israelites taken captive and exiled to Babylon.

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion ... They carried us away in captivity requiring of us a song ... Now how shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land."

Haunting words sung by a despairing people.

Our text is after their return. Jerusalem is in ruin. Do they roll their sleeves up? Yes, but life is harsh. There's economic depression and people defaulting to pagan habits and imagining shallow rituals are sufficient to their righteous God who, through the prophet Isaiah, sets them straight with a message as important and direct today as it was 2500 years ago.

Folks, we are emerging from the pandemic exile and things are different. Over the next few weeks, we’ll seek a new normal of community that may happen many ways but none sweeter than arm in arm, and face to face.

Stop by. Begin establishing our future together, in service to/with Jesus. Our calling. Our joy.

In great anticipation –