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I’ve been off for a while.  That is, I haven’t blogged, although I’ve kept up with reading the daily verses.  Part of the reason is that I’ve been leading a group this fall studying N. T. Wright’s Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense.  It’s an excellent little book with some really deep ideas and we have a good group that really enjoys discussion (which makes it an easy class to lead).

So, I’ve missed some blogging about some of my favorite passages during the past couple of weeks.  Probably just as well, because I don’t know that I was up to doing them justice with trying to do everything else.  It seemed appropriate to blog on the passages this week, including today’s passage, given the discussion we had in our Wright study this week on the chapter on Israel.  We sometimes forget that we are the inheritors of a tradition rooted in Judaism and the Old Testament.  Rejoicing in God’s gift of grace, we sometimes forget the gift of God’s law.  This is one of the things we discussed this week – the blessing that God’s law was for Israel – and through Israel, the world.  The law is all about relationships – with God and with one another.   I’m also reading a book by James Reston, Jr., Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors, that deals in part with the shameful way that Christians treated Jews in Spain (a failing that, unfortunately, is not limited either geographically or in time).  How easy it is to forget that Israel, the “Suffering Servant” is meant, as was foretold to Abraham, a blessing to all the nations.

18 For I know their works and their thoughts, and I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and shall see my glory,
19 and I will set a sign among them. From them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud—which draw the bow—to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.
20 They shall bring all your kindred from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring a grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord.  Isaiah 66:18-20 (NRSV)

We need to remember that we are a part of this heritage – that we are to be a blessing to all the nations – that we have our part to play in fulfilling the words of the prophet.