Through the prophet Isaiah, our Lord invites us:

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

Some verses later as Isaiah is developing the promise of restoration, refreshment, and rest, he writes,

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.

But, the promise is grand not only in terms of the depth of restoration, refreshment and rest; it is grand in terms of the breadth of its reach as well:

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate me from his people; and let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’ For thus says the Lord: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.’ And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord … I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer … for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

As the Lord prepares us to come once again into his house with one another by the invitation of his grace through Jesus Christ, let us come with rejoicing recognizing ourselves and one another as part of the historic fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, foreigners brought to his holy mountain, made joyful together in God’s house of prayer, sharing together an everlasting name, Christ-ian, that shall never be cut off.

File: Order of Worship for January 21, 2007