Through the prophet Isaiah, God is speaking at a particular time to a particular people. A people who had been exiled. The metanarrative of the Bible tells us they were displaced and deported because of their infidelity to the sovereign God. 

Because of their inability to obey the 10 commandments, many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem were taken into Babylonian captivity. 

Isaiah, the person, who is speaking on behalf of God to the people of God, is known as the gospel prophet because he is the most quoted prophet in the New Testament. Christians believe the songs about the Servant of God surrounding this passage of Scripture are about the Savior of the world... the One who sums up the 10 commandments by saying, "Love God and love neighbor. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The CLP Christian Commentary on Isaiah says Bible-readers can see the prophecies about the servants God would use to gather God's scattered fulfilled in Cyrus, a human ruler who had compassion on God's people in captivity and released them to return to their homeland. In Christ, who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The Righteous One who makes many righteous; and in the Church, the people of God co-missioned with Christ to represent God in the world.

Because I believe that even though the grass withers and the flower fades, the Word of God stands forever. I am confident that I can say without fear of successful contradiction that God is speaking a right now Word of unity to the divided and dispersed family of faith in our text for today. 

The prophet's original audience is a remnant of believers facing the task of rebuilding their country, their culture and their church -- if you will. This remnant has an arduous journey ahead of them. No doubt, some of them are afraid. So Isaiah reminds them that they are not alone. God is with them. Just as God was with Moses when he led their fore parents OUT OF captivity through the waters of the Red Sea... and then used those same waters to drown their enemies. Just as God was with Joshua when he led the next generation INTO the Promised Land through the flood stage waters of the Jordan River without drowning a soul. And just as God kept the three Hebrew boys from harm in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace... God will make sure that no harm comes to the exiles who are returning home..

Time and again, the prophet says, "Fear not." Fear not is not simply a command. Fear not is a prelude to assurance. Fear not is usually followed by a promise of God's presence OR a pledge of God's protection.

As members of the family of faith, you and I can also be assured that God is with us and we have nothing to fear.

Just as they were at the time of the text, the people of God today are scattered in different directions.

The family of faith is divided ideologically along red and blue fault lines. Divided theologically over the ongoing Gaza-Israel conflict. Divided economically AND in so many cases geographically by classism and by racism. 

Though many Christians may live, work and worship in close proximity to one another, the Church is far from being unified.

The poor among us are being dispersed by modern-day gentrification. Dispossessed in the 21st century by adaptations of the twisted 19th century notion of Manifest Destiny that I believe is a direct descendant of the 16th century process of colonization. There is this centuries-old idea baked into capitalism of the survival of the wealthiest. 

But conversely, Christ commands His followers to share our food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter.

How is it, my sisters and my brothers, that the Church is relatively silent as the urban poor are being economically evicted from their homes and their neighborhoods because the wealthy have set their sights on certain cities? What is the Church doing about the fact that the rural poor are being dispossessed as they lose their land to corporatization?

I wonder if we're aware that diasporas exist -- in this country and around the world -- because of humanity's refusal to obey Christ's commands.

IF we dare to love our neighbors AS we love ourselves, we would not be OK with the idea of an underclass. There would not be caste systems in the world that place people of a darker hue on society's bottom rung and we would not look the other way while those less fortunate are being scattered.

You might be thinking... Preacher, people not treating people the way they'd like to be treated is an age-old problem.

I would agree with you. But, I would argue that it's NOT a problem that Christ and His Church cannot solve by making every effort to achieve the oneness of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 

Regardless of our opposing ideologies and theologies. No matter what our political affiliation, economic status, ethnic group or locale is... mystically, ALL who receive Jesus as their Lord and Savoir are members of the family of faith. 

THE BIBLE says, there is one body of believers and one [Holy] Spirit, who inhabits ALL who were called to salvation.

Church, it's our assignment -- as workers with and witnesses for God -- to gather the family of faith together... to seek justice and to make peace.

Those of us who realize that God has "from one ancestor made all nations to inhabit the earth" are called and sent to a ministry of reconciliation. It is our task to sound the alarm that WE ARE ONE HUMAN RACE. The Church is ONE BODY OF BELIEVERS. In today's text God says WE ARE ONE FAMILY OF FAITH.

Isaiah models what we must do. He reminds his hearers -- who are a mixed multitude from many nations -- that God is their Creator. 

Modern-day prophet India Arie helps us to understand that all nations who inhabit the earth are made from one ancestor. On her album titled Testimony: Volume 2 Love & Politics, Prophet India has an interlude titled Same Grains. The song says: Every human being who is... who has been... and whoever will be... From the most famous to the most anonymous... we're created from the same things.

Science shows us what the prophet sings, every human being has grey brain matter, red blood cells; and a white skeleton.

God made. Every. Human. Being. This way. We're 99% the same.

Perhaps this is why the only time the word race is ever mentioned in the scriptures is when the Apostle Paul is speaking about a competition between runners.

Biologically, we are all members of one human race. Nobody has an inherent right to the top and no one has been designated by God to be at the bottom.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God says: "Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory.  It was I who created them."

This is WHO we are! A people knit together by our faith and trust in God.

And this is WHOSE we are! A people created by God... made daughters and sons of God by our faith in Christ Jesus.

This is WHY the Church exists! Christians are called to bring glory to God! And Jesus says God is glorified when the people of God are unified. 

In His high priestly prayer, our Lord and Savior addresses God as "Father," saying: "I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do." Jesus continues, "I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world." Our Savior petitions our Heavenly Father saying, Holy Father, protect them... so that they may be one, as we are one." And toward the end of this High Priestly Prayer, Jesus says, "As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world."

My sisters and my brothers in the family of faith... we have nothing to fear as we go with God... gathering the family of God -- from the north, from the south, from the east, and from the west -- declaring there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all who is sovereign over all and working through all and living in all.

I tell you, God will be glorified when the family of faith is unified.

This is the Word of God for the people of God and we give thanks to God as we prepare to go gathering the family of faith for the glory of God.