Sept 20, 2026 - Isaiah 55:6-9 - Proper 20

There’s the long established scene in East Asian mythology, one that is so familiar that you see it from time to time even here in the west. In ancient times in China, Japan, and countries like them, there was the idea that immortal mystics would live up on top of certain mountains. A mountaintop, surrounded by clouds, looked very much like a place where heaven and earth came together. Immortals were people who had transcended mortal life, often through esoteric arts or by achieving a perfect harmony between themselves and the world around them. They weren’t quite gods, but they were more than people now.

Sages, mystics, they held many titles and were said to have strange and amazing powers over the world around them, all gained through studying mystic arts or the harmonious ways of the world. That made them a much sought after source of knowledge. Back in the 3rd Century BC, China’s first emperor was obsessed with the idea of immortality and dispatched numerous servants all over China and the eastern world to find some way to achieve it for himself. One of those expeditions was into China’s Kunlun mountains, which were believed to be the home of numerous immortals. If they had found a way to attain immortality, perhaps they could be persuaded to share their knowledge.

The passage from Isaiah today sets a similar scene. God is up on the mountaintop, generally doing his God thing and leaving everyone else alone. Every so often, a particularly motivated individual sees that mountaintop and decides there’s some critical question that needs an answer. No answers are forthcoming from the world around, so perhaps it’s time to seek out a new source. Maybe really big problems need the wisdom of someone whose knowledge extends beyond human limitations, someone with a foot on earth and the other in the heavens. I’m a smart guy, but I can’t seem to figure this out on my own. I know when it’s time to turn to someone who’s smarter than me. This God guy claims to be wise. I’ll see what he has to say and whether he can make sense of my situation.

God is regularly associated with mountains, so it’s not unusual for people to make that association. Mt. Sinai, when the Israelites first see God’s holy presence, his presence that would mean their death if they should come near to him, and then on Mt. Zion, where God places his name on the city, and the temple in particular. God’s holy presence was here. Granted, the temple wasn’t exactly the domain of a mysterious hermit. All of Israel knew precisely where he was. For ancient eastern people, climbing the mountain to meet the immortal sage was part of the process. Only those who were dedicated would undertake the great challenge to climb a high mountain to find the sage. That weeded out many who might interrupt the sage’s important meditation for silly and frivolous questions.

God was not hiding, but that didn’t mean he was easy to get to. There were still a lot of restrictions and limitations that governed who could get in and who couldn’t. Getting to see him face to face was nearly impossible, but you could still get close, close enough to interact with one of his chosen representatives. You could get one to pass along a question for you. You could request visions of the future, like the ancient Greeks requested from the Oracles at Delphi.

Surely, God would see your motivation. Surely he would acknowledge your struggle. Surely he would see how much you’ve sacrificed, how hard you’ve worked, and surely he would see how great your need is. Surely he would give you the answers you seek.

I’ve talked before about treated God as a glorified vending machine. Jesus confronts the crowds who follow him because he gave them free bread. He warns them that God is not here to be a vending machine, just dispensing what you want, when you want it. If that’s what you’re after, you’re missing some things that are far, far more important. In that sense, we think of the various material things that are a part of our lives. We come to God and ask for money. It could be for purely selfish reasons, but it doesn’t have to be. We could need help paying the mortgage. We could need help putting food on the table or getting some clothes for our kids.

In this case, we’re still treating God as a vending machine. This time, it isn’t material goods we’re after. It’s wisdom and insight. It’s the answer to some existential question. It’s the information we need to make sense of the world, our lives, our purpose, our relationships, any of it.

“God, if good things are good and you like good things, why is there so much evil?” “God, why can’t I get the job I want? I’m trying so hard but I just can’t catch a break.” “God, why can’t I seem to get ahead in life? I work and work and work, but the best I can do is break even.” “God, why can’t I keep my marriage from falling apart? I’ve tried everything I can think of, but we just keep drifting away.”

I may not have to climb any mountains to ask God, at least not anymore, but I still have some expectations. I expect him to be wise and knowledgeable. I expect him to want to answer my questions. I expect plain, no nonsense answers.

At least in olden days, when the god or immortal or whatever was up on the mountaintop, I could point to my efforts to get there. That was my payment. I honor and respect the sage by putting in the effort to get to him. I show him he’s worth the trouble. These days, when the temple is no more and God can be approached anywhere and by anyone, no matter how grungy and unwashed, the effort required to ask him a question is almost as low as it could possibly be. You just have to ask it. That’s all. You don’t even have to say it out loud. You could just think it. That bare minimum effort is still enough to think we’re qualified and deserving of God’s attention, to receiving the answers to all of our questions, no matter how frivolous. Not only do we expect answers, but we expect them to be clear and thorough, to completely satisfy our need or our curiosity. Even more, we expect those answers to be positive, to explain the hidden plan behind whatever problems we face and how it will all come out in the wash.

We want God to do all of this and if he doesn’t, the problem doesn’t lie with us. It’s God who is too aloof, too proud, too capricious, too smug to bother with the likes of little people like you. The fact that you went to the trouble to acknowledge him and ask him a question doesn’t seem to get you any credit.

Even if you seek God out and even if he does respond, you may just get more of what he says here. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Well, that’s all very nice. Thank you, God, for being so very helpful in my time of need.

This passage from Isaiah comes in the middle of a longer section of God’s prophetic word to Isaiah, most of which we hear at various points in the lectionary cycle, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” After our section for today, God continues: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

In one sense, it sounds very much like God is a vending machine, dispensing wisdom, bread, and wine freely. We come to God with our expectations and are insulted when he refuses to give us what we seek. But God’s message to Israel through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah does not begin here. It begins back in chapter 54. This is where God says, “For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer.

The Lord is not sitting up on the mountaintop, hanging out and waiting to be sought out by enterprising and dedicated individuals. He is not up there communing with nature or pondering the mysteries of the heavens or really doing anything for his own benefit. He is not up there to test whether people will really have the gumption to seek him out and demonstrate how worthy they are. He is there because his people are an idolatrous people, a people who care little for others and who treat everyone and everything, God included, as something just there for their own pleasure and enjoyment. God is on the mountaintop because he can’t be with his people. If he were to remain with his selfish and idolatrous people, he would simply destroy them and that would be the end of them entirely. His isolation isn’t for his sake, it’s for theirs, and they don’t even realize it.

Before there can be any thought to answering questions about the great mysteries of the universe or just explaining the problems you face in your own life, there is the minor problem of why God is there to begin with. Your meager efforts to earn his favor don’t actually get you anything. He is not impressed with your efforts or much of anything else you might offer. In fact, that’s why he’s up there, because if he were to be closer to you, he would have to destroy you.

It is with that realization that any trek you might make up the mountain to meet God takes on a very different character. You have nothing to offer him. You are utterly incapable of impressing him. You are so far beneath him that even if he were to respond to you, it probably wouldn’t be an answer you would like. God is not sitting there as the wise sage or the mystic hermit. He is there as the mighty king, a unstoppable conqueror at the head of a vast army that is getting ready to charge down the mountain and destroy everything in his path. This is a king who has been stirred to wrath at the selfish and treacherous ways of his people and he is ready to bring justice.

The call to seek the Lord is not a invitation to wander up the mountain and ask questions, it’s a reminder and a warning that the army will soon be on the move and when that time comes, everything in their path will be destroyed. You included. “Seek the Lord,” is an invitation instead to come before the king and ask for mercy. It is a call to acknowledge who you are and what you have done. “Seek the Lord,” is a reminder of who this king is, a just king, but also a merciful king.

The Lord remembers his people. He remembers who they are and what he has done for them in the past. He remembers how everything he has done for them was done out of love. He remember all of the times he took care of them and protected them. He remembers how he redeemed them. He remembers his promise to them, his covenant. He remembers how he told them, “I will be your God and you will be my people.”

For all of your sin and all of your selfish idolatry, breaking the covenant and setting out on your own, God still remembers his covenant with you. Back in chapter 54, God says, “This is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you.” God set a rainbow in the clouds to remind himself of his covenant and promise. A rainbow is God’s beautiful reminder, forged out of water and light. You baptism serves a similar purpose, it serves as a reminder of God’s covenant and promise to you, a reminder forged from water and light, the light of Christ, the one who has redeemed us. God looks down at you and sees the reminder, his promise to be merciful, and he stands by his promise.

“Seek the Lord...” is part of that promise. He has made it possible for you to approach him and to find him, because he has already covered you with his promise. He has already redeemed you. He has already saved you. The Lord wants to forgive you. The Lord wants to wash away all of your sins. The Lord wants you to trust him.

The Lord may answer your questions, or he may not. If you do trust him, then you know he’ll take care of you regardless. You may not understand many things that happen in this life, but you will know his promise and you will know that you have a place in his kingdom. Just as God’s promise made to Noah and all of creation still stands, so does God’s promise to you in your baptism.

Trust in God and in his wisdom. Trust in his mercy. Trust in the promise he made to you. Trust that you have been redeemed and that, because of his great love, he will always rescue you.