Words of Welcome

Isaiah 55:10-13 You know the theme song from the Sound of Music:         The hills are alive with the sound of music; With songs they have sung for a thousand years. The hills fill my heart with the sound of music.          My heart wants to sing ev'ry song it hears. These words may create a certain picture in our minds of Julie Andrews running across a mountain meadow in the Austrian Alps, singing to her heart’s content. But she has nothing on the prophet we know as Second Isaiah.  Isaiah joyfully declares to a group of exiles:    “For you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Is. 55: 12).  When you hear these words from the prophet do you catch a vision of joy and peace? Do you hear a song of joy and peace spreading across the mountains and through the trees? Since we’re in the middle of a pandemic that makes bur

Zechariah 9:9-12 Yesterday the nation celebrated Independence Day, though this year the celebration was somewhat muted. Most parades, public fireworks displays, carnivals, and other “normal” events were canceled. But, maybe we can use this moment to envision a freedom that extends beyond the nation. Maybe we can use this time to envision what God’s realm looks like. The reading for today from Zechariah 9 invites us to reflect on a different kind of parade from the ones we normally experience on the 4th of July. Jesus embodied this vision in his “Triumphal Entry” on Palm Sunday when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to shouts of joy. While we can’t avoid the connection to Palm Sunday, perhaps we can take a broader look at Zechariah’s message. With Zechariah, perhaps we can ponder what the restoration of peace might look like as God’s dominion extends from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. We rarely turn to Zechariah, which is the second t