Open eyes, open hands
by Tim Castle-Schmidt
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If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness (Isaiah 58:10a).
Read Isaiah 58:7–12
Isaiah gives us a very earthy picture of faith: share your food, shelter the wanderer, clothe the naked, stop pointing fingers, quit the malicious talk, spend yourself for the hungry. It is hard to spiritualise your way out of this reading. God is interested in bodies, bread, homes, wounds, streets and communities.
That can sound exhausting if we hear it as a ladder to climb toward God. Do enough good. Care enough. Give enough. Then maybe your light will break forth. But the gospel tells us something better. God does not send us into mercy so we can manufacture righteousness. He gives righteousness in Christ, and then sends us into the neighbourhood with open eyes and open hands.
Isaiah says God’s people will be called ‘Repairer of Broken Walls’ and ‘Restorer of Streets with Dwellings’. What a lovely vocation. Not saviours of the world. Not heroes of our own story. Repairers. Restorers. People who notice what sin, neglect, fear and selfishness have broken, and who step in with practical love because God has first stepped in for us.
And notice the tone of God’s promise: ‘You will call, and the Lord will answer.’ This is not cold duty. It is life with the God who says, ‘Here am I.’ He is already near. He is already merciful. He has already acted in Christ for the hungry soul and the oppressed conscience.
Vindicated by Christ, God’s people are freed and formed to love. Freed from trying to impress God. Formed to see the person in need. Sent to do ordinary, costly, beautiful works of mercy. That is not a burden laid on the anxious. It is fruit growing from grace.
Merciful God, open our eyes to the needs around us. Make us repairers and restorers who serve freely because you have first served us in Christ. Amen.
By his own admission, Tim Castle-Schmidt is a broken man. Broken in body, mind and spirit, he says he is learning that God is at work in and through human brokenness. He says that while God has not ‘fixed’ him, God continues to work through his brokenness to connect with the world. Tim is the pastor of Nunawading–Waverley Lutheran Church in Melbourne. After spending many years as a teacher in Lutheran schools, he finally listened to God’s call to the pastoral ministry. Tim is passionate about social justice and engaging the church with contemporary society. Tim shares his life with Fiona, Miranda, and a Jack Russell called Otto.
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