"You are precious and honored and I love you..." Isaiah 43:1-7

One of the jokes that was often made at seminary was that if you found yourself in the middle of the exam not knowing the answer to a question on test- you should respond with the maxim “God is love.”  We joked that  using that statement on any exam should be good enough to get you at least get you partial credit on your answer.  

Explain the major tenets of the Protestant Reformation.  “God is Love.”  Partial credit

What did Jesus mean when he said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me?”  “God is love.”  Partial credit.

Who was the eleventh bishop of Western New York?  “God is Love.” Partial Credit.  That is actually Bishop Franklin.

From the earliest days of Sunday school we have grown up on this maxim “God is Love.”  We have been taught that the very essence, the very being of God is love.

 At the same God is love- it seems so trite, so pedestrian- so sentimental- so Hallmark “cardesque.”  God is love seems so gosh darn obvious- of course God loves us- on some level- I think we should just sing Kumbaya and be done with it.

Today right smack dab in the middle in Isaiah  right  in the middle of one of the most beautiful passages in the whole  corpus of Holy Scripture—God says to the Israelite people something he doesn’t say anywhere else in Holy Scripture, “You are precious in my sight,  and honored and I love you.”

A kumbaya passage, a God is love passage.

One of the biblical scholar that I read this week- said beware to the preacher that tries to the turn this passage into a Hallmark card- to turn it into a Kumbaya song- to package it up in a nice neat box with a shiny bow on top and remind people that God loves them—this is not some hallmark card passage- she wrote that this idea that God loves the Israelite people is matter of life and death.  

Remember that the Israelite people to whom God is speaking had been ripped out of their houses-- they’ve been dragged kicking and screaming across the desert by foreign invaders, deported to a far off land- they are up to their necks in trouble.  They have lost their way- they have no where to turn- they have all-- but given up hope-- when God  turns back to them and says through the prophet Isaiah---you are precious in my sight, and honored and I love you.  

Several years ago, I was speaking  to a teenager who was graduating from  High school getting ready to head off to college-she was a bright kid, going off to a really good school- she has a bright future ahead of her--she is going to go places in this world- as we were talking about college and SAT scores and  I got the sense that she was really down on herself- she told me that her SAT scores weren’t quite as good as some of her peers-  I didn’t tell her that her 1300 knocked the socks off my score---and as we were talking--- I said to her you are  so much more than some  SAT score, you are so much more than the college that you go- you are more than what you choose to do with your life.    

The world we inhabit has such a different message --those who are precious, those who are honored are people who score 1600 on their SAT, the football champions, those with the model’s body,  those who are married with 2.5 kids who seem to have their act together.

But the message of  the prophet Isaiah- the message of the Gospel, the message that God speaks out of the heavens at River Jordan at Jesus baptism is  the message that You are my beloved,  you are precious, and honored and loved by God,  it has nothing to do with accolades that the world tries to throw at, has nothing to do with having a happy marriage with 2.5 kid-it  but  it’s because God says to us just like he says to the Israelite people---- I have called you by  name and you- are-mine.  

So what if God loves us?  How can this be more than just a hallmark card--- Let’s turn back again to the prophet Isaiah and listen to what he says to the Israelite people—because you are precious, and honored and loved, because I have chosen you and called you by name:

“When you pass through the waters” God says,  “I will be with you; when you walk through the fire—you will not be burned. For I am the Lord your God, your savior.”   

This is life and death stuff.

What God pours out of heaven is a love that brings meaning and purpose and value to our lives, What God pours out of the heavens is a love that allows us to go on— in the face of terrible things --to find --a cancer diagnosis the death of a loved one. What God pours out of heaven is a love that loves in spite of the sin, in spite of the ugliness that tarnishes our lives. What God pours out of heaven is a love that accepts us even when the world says you are not good enough.  What pours out of heaven is   love that changes the way we look at ourselves and the way we look at each other- a love that reminds us that we are precious and honored. 

Can we believe the word of God today- Can we believe that God speaks these words not just to the Israelite people , but to us as well-- “You are precious and honored and I love you…?” Can we believe that God’s love is more than a hallmark card--- If we can believe it- it will mean the difference between finding life in this world or living in the valley of the shadow death. 

“You are precious and honored and I love you…”

AMEN