The Sobering Reality of Drinking from the Wrong Cup

Preparing for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost: Two Days before Sunday (Year A)

Scripture (semicontinuous)

Psalter: Psalm 17:1-7, 15

Old Testament: Isaiah 41:8-10

Epistle: Romans 9:6-13

Scripture (complementary)

Psalter: Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21

Old Testament: Isaiah 51:17-23

Epistle: Romans 9:6-13

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Prayer

Through dreams and visions, O God, you broaden the horizon and hope of your people, that they may discover the meaning of your covenant, even in the midst of trial and exile. Increase the number of those who believe in your word so that all people may joyfully respond to your call and share in your promises. Amen. (Revised Common Lectionary)

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Reflection

Rouse yourself, rouse yourself!

    Stand up, O Jerusalem,

you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord

    the cup of his wrath,

who have drunk to the dregs

    the cup of staggering.

There is no one to guide her

    among all the children she has borne;

there is no one to take her by the hand

    among all the children she has brought up.

These two things have befallen you

    —who will grieve with you?—

devastation and destruction, famine and sword.

    Who will comfort you?

Your children have fainted;

    they lie at the head of every street

    like an antelope in a net;

they are full of the wrath of the Lord,

    the rebuke of your God.

Therefore hear this, you who are wounded,

    who are drunk but not with wine:

Thus says your Sovereign, the Lord,

    your God who pleads the cause of his people:

See, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;

you shall drink no more

    from the cup of my wrath.

And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,

    who have said to you,

    “Bow down, that we may walk on you,”

and you have made your back like the ground

    and like the street for them to walk on (Isaiah 51:17-23).

Alcoholics know what it is like to have to be ready for the next day after a drinking binge. Going to work and having to perform one’s duties in the midst of a hangover is not a pleasant thing. Usually they want to present themselves well in public in the hope that others won’t know they had a night of excess. Acting sober while sobering up is not easy.

That’s the image we receive in Isaiah 51. Israel has been drinking from the wrong cup—the cup of covenant disobedience, idol worship, and the pursuit of their own way. This cup of wrath is not something that was administered directly by God. God’s people drank from it freely and suffered from its contents.

Now God calls his people who have been imbibing from the cup of disobedience to arise and stand straight and be delivered, even while they still feel the effects of their sin. God wants to give to them what God has wanted to offer the entire time—his blessings and faithfulness to the people. Until now, it has been impossible for God to offer the hospitality of his blessings because Israel wanted something different.

Now God’s people are being called to sober up and to drink from the right cup—the cup of covenant faithfulness, the cup of obedience, and the cup of the worship of the one true God. God is calling his people to a recovery that will result in a new way of life. God has called them to live in the light of divine blessings.

Israel’s days of drunken idolatry are now over, but it is up to them to admit their wayward ways and return to the God who gives them life.

PRAYER: Move us to praise your gracious will, for in Christ Jesus you have saved us from the deeds of death and opened for us the hidden ways of your love. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Revised Common Lectionary)

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