The Fifth Sunday in Lent (C), March 13, 2016 - Isaiah 43:16-21

from wittenbergtrail.org

For my poem on the John 12:1-8 text, please see my poem from March 17, 2013 using archives to the right or at http://lectionarypoems.blogspot.com/2013/03/fifth-sunday-in-lent-march-17-2013-john.html

Then and Now

With Israel in captivity
It must have been quite hard to see
How Yahweh, who had split the sea,
Could once again a savior be.

The poet said, "Forget all that,
The LORD, who for you, went to bat,
Because, in love, once, you begat,
Will now, for you, go to the mat!

"And though, the metaphor be new,
Now, desert rivers will break through;
So you should never misconstrue,
All tried and true, my love for you."

Isaiah thus reminds us how,
Words changed, they still can be endowed
With what is true, if we'd allow
Our God to speak, if then, then now.

Scott L. Barton

Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
who brings out chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished,
quenched like a wick:
Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
The wild animals will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.