“Thus says the LORD, who created you, who formed you: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, and you are mine.’”

Isaiah wrote this, and so much of what we call prophesy, during the time of exile, when Jerusalem had been destroyed, and the promises made to Abraham and Moses seemed to have been revoked. All the talk of covenant, of promise, of the land flowing with milk and honey, of being made into a great nation – all of that seemed to be over, to be forgotten. What is great about Isaiah, what he represents in the history of Israel and the history of the human relationship with God, is the realization in the midst of this situation that God is something more than what had been previously though, even by the people of Israel . The God of reward and punishment which seems to be the idea of God prevalent in the earlier portions of the Hebrew Scripture is suddenly superseded. God is not just a judge, or a stern patriarchal figure any more; God is a guardian, a protector, a faithful lover:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

When we love someone, we call them “ours.” We speak to them and about them in the language of ownership; but hopefully, that is not literally what we mean. We only “possess” those we love in that their importance to us and their intimacy with us makes them seem to be part of us; in another way, to love someone is to allow them to be who they are, to be other than us. This is what Isaiah means here:

“Thus says the LORD, who created you, who formed you: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, and you are mine. Because you are precious in my sight an honored, and I love you.’”

The great insight of Isaiah was that Israel was not chosen by God simply to fulfill some obligation to sacrifice and obey; Israel was chosen because God loved Israel. The promises of God are not dependent on obeying a set of rules; they rely on love and on maintaining a relationship. And the promises are not about exchange, as in, “Do this and I will give you that”, but in a promise to be present, to support and uphold:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you...

Isaiah does more: he recognizes that this is representative of God’s nature, and as such, it means that these promises are for all. We are known, we have been formed, and we are called by name. God knows us, as we are, in all our specifics. Each of us is called and known.

Jesus did not really present a radical departure from the Jewish tradition. He was, in fact a continuation. All of these ideas, which we see as coming out clearly in Christianity, were already present in Isaiah, hundreds of years before.

Isaiah, with this insight into how God is, gains a sense of how things will be.

John the Baptist is the same. I do not think that John knows exactly what is coming or who the messiah is...he just knows that something great and important is about to happen. An then, practically unnoticed, Jesus shows up among the crowds waiting to be baptized. And whatever expectations John has built up: “chaff” and “unquenchable fire” and the like, – at the moment that Jesus is baptized the voice from heaven says”

You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.

Jesus is also called, also known by name. And he is baptized and begins his ministry in a specific place and time. It does not seem amazing to us that God would know and love Jesus in a particular way; but the point is that in this case, as in so many ways, Jesus is the connection and the model for us. Jesus both reveals who God is, and what the true nature of our relationship with God is like. And what is revealed in this case is that knowledge and love through and with our particularity. It is another part of what is revealed to us through the Incarnation: God is with us, in a particular time and place. God loves us, and knows us, and calls us by name.

That is, of course, the way love works, as we experience it. We may love humanity, but we can only really know love through loving specific people. And that is the way that God loves us, and the world.

Love, as I said before, that is specific and real, is also something that is given freely. To love someone as they are is to know that they are not under your control. They will make their own decisions. We may want what is best for another, but in the end, to truly love them is to accept that they will do what they will do. Jesus is called to ministry, but there are many ways in which he might carry this out. Salvation is not mechanistic.

Our call is much the same. We are not guaranteed that everything will always turn out well. Only we can know that God loves us and is with us.

“Thus says the LORD, who created you, who formed you: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, and you are mine.’”