Leaving Babylon

I read this morning that voters in this country still are seeking change. The change they sought in 2008 has not been satisfied. In fact, we're more depressed than we were then. And we were very depressed as a country then.

Change is a difficult thing to pin down, of course, because it is unknown. People want change, but they want change they can name, change that comes without a price. They want change they can foresee. They want no risks. They want no jeopardy, unknown or not.

In Isaiah's time, the Israelites desperately wanted change. they had been held captive. They wanted to go home. They wanted to leave Babylon. They wanted out. Though they didn't know what might lay ahead, they felt it had to be better than captivity.

They were depressed as they lay captive. In the Psalms, someone wrote, "
2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,

3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

God heard them, and God promised change.

Through the prophet, God told the people, "You will leave Babylon with joy; you will be led out of the city in peace. The mountains and hills will burst into singing and the trees will shout for joy."

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Even the trees will shout for joy. Makes you think of Jesus saying even the rocks will cry out.

Promises of change. Sort of like the change we were promised. But did we think there would be bailouts and health care promises and such? Did we think government would not become just a best friend but a big brother?

Fact is that change of heart and change of mind can be and should be necessary. Clearly we are a country that is peaking and once that happens, downhill is the only direction left to us. Unless we change. Dear God let us change.

The Bible says of God's people: "When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to a land far away or near; 37 and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity and say, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong and acted wickedly'; 38 and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken, and pray toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and toward the temple I have built for your Name; 39 then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their pleas, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you."

If they will change...
If they will repent...
If they will go a different way...

That's what change is and what we must do. We have to change, not back to Republican from Democrat so that two years from now we can change back to Democrat from Republican and on and on.

No, we must change at a fundamental level. We must begin to care more for others than we do ourselves. We must begin to change who we really are. We have millions who are hungry and we have food enough to feed the world. We have millions who are poor and we have resources that would change their lives without ever borrowing from our children's children or from a foreign goverment.

All it takes is change; pure change. Change of heart and mind.

The Lord says, "come, everyone who is thirsty -- here is water! Come, you that have no money but grain and eat...Listen to me and do what I say, and you will enjoy the best food of all."

What we have as Christians is the best food of all. It is time we share it, not so that we can be right, but so that our neighborhoods can be safe, our cities can be renewed, our state's can begin to afford their own budgets and our nation can get back on target.

"You will leave Babylon with joy," God said.

Oh that we could leave our current Babylon with joy. Oh, that we could pack a spiritual bag, like the 72 who were sent out by Jesus, and travel lightly into the souls of all those who refuse, flat our refuse, to come to Jesus.

Oh, that we could change.