The word for today

 Isaiah 40

“Comfort, comfort my people,”
says your God.
“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and announce to her
that her time of hard service is over,
her iniquity has been pardoned,
and she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.”

A voice of one crying out:

Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness;
make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
Every valley will be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill will be leveled;
the uneven ground will become smooth
and the rough places, a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will appear,
and all humanity together will see it,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

A voice was saying, “Cry out!”
Another said, “What should I cry out?”
“All humanity is grass,
and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flowers fade
when the breath of the Lord blows on them;
indeed, the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flowers fade,
but the word of our God remains forever.”

Zion, herald of good news,
go up on a high mountain.
Jerusalem, herald of good news,
raise your voice loudly.
Raise it, do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
See, the Lord God comes with strength,
and his power establishes his rule.
His wages are with him,
and his reward accompanies him.
He protects his flock like a shepherd;
he gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them in the fold of his garment.
He gently leads those that are nursing.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?
Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure
or weighed the mountains on a balance
and the hills on the scales?
Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
or who gave him counsel?
Who did he consult?
Who gave him understanding
and taught him the paths of justice?
Who taught him knowledge
and showed him the way of understanding?
Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are considered as a speck of dust on the scales;
he lifts up the islands like fine dust.
Lebanon’s cedars are not enough for fuel,
or its animals enough for a burnt offering.
All the nations are as nothing before him;
they are considered by him
as empty nothingness.

With whom will you compare God?
What likeness will you set up for comparison with him?
An idol?—something that a smelter casts
and a metalworker plates with gold
and makes silver chains for?
A poor person contributes wood for a pedestal
that will not rot.
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not fall over.

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you
from the beginning?

Have you not considered
the foundations of the earth?
God is enthroned above the circle of the earth;
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
He reduces princes to nothing
and makes judges of the earth like a wasteland.
They are barely planted, barely sown,
their stem hardly takes root in the ground
when he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.

“To whom will you compare me,
or who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
Look up and see!
Who created these?
He brings out the stars by number;
he calls all of them by name.
Because of his great power and strength,
not one of them is missing.

Jacob, why do you say,
and Israel, why do you assert,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my claim is ignored by my God”?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the whole earth.
He never becomes faint or weary;
there is no limit to his understanding.
He gives strength to the faint
and strengthens the powerless.
Youths may become faint and weary,
and young men stumble and fall,
but those who trust in the Lord
will renew their strength;
they will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not become weary,
they will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 64

If only you would tear the heavens open

and come down,

so that mountains would quake at your presence—

just as fire kindles brushwood,

and fire boils water—

to make your name known to your enemies,

so that nations would tremble at your presence!

When you did awesome works

that we did not expect,

you came down,

and the mountains quaked at your presence.

From ancient times no one has heard,

no one has listened to,

no eye has seen any God except you

who acts on behalf of the one who waits for him.

You welcome the one who joyfully does what is right;

they remember you in your ways.

But we have sinned, and you were angry.

How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?

All of us have become like something unclean,

and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment;

all of us wither like a leaf,

and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

No one calls on your name,

striving to take hold of you.

For you have hidden your face from us

and made us melt because of our iniquity.

Yet Lord, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we all are the work of your hands.

Lord, do not be terribly angry

or remember our iniquity forever.

Please look—all of us are your people!

Your holy cities have become a wilderness;

Zion has become a wilderness,

Jerusalem a desolation.

Our holy and beautiful temple,

where our ancestors praised you,

has been burned down,

and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

Lord, after all this, will you restrain yourself?

Will you keep silent and afflict us severely?

Mine eyes have seen the glory, Battle Hymn of the Republic

-Julia Ward Howe (1861)

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;

he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

he hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;

his truth is marching on.

Refrain:

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

I have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps,

they have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps;

I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; 

his day is marching on. [Refrain] 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

he is sifting out the hearts of all before his judgment seat.

O be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on. [Refrain]

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;

as he died to make us holy, let us die to make all free,

while God is marching on. [Refrain]