Listen here: “Not Profane“
- Isaiah said two important things in today’s reading: 1) that salvation follows justice and righteousness, and 2) that everyone who does not profane the Sabbath and keeps God’s covenant will be saved.
- We first note that this sounds like works-righteousness, like we have to be obedient in order to be saved. And that is a common theme in the Old Testament.
- The Old Testament does promote works-righteousness, not because it’s true, but because it is important that we understand God’s sovereignty; that we understand that salvation is a gift, not a reward.
- But the only way that we will really understand it is for us to try our best to achieve it ourselves, and realize that we can’t. Only then will we be able to accept it as a gift.
- If we could achieve it ourselves we would because we are prideful. We don’t want to need God, we want to be self-sufficient. And the OT lets that desire play out in order to demonstrate to us in history that we are not able to be self-sufficient.
- The Lectionary then provides an example of this in the faith of the Canaanite woman.
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