Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Isaiah 40:31

"but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." (Isa 40:31 ESV)

Allow me to repeat the verse with a different translation and focus on the section I will talk about; but they who wait for Yahweh shall renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles."

This is a warning. What you are about to hear is a fowl sermon. In fact, this is going to be a very fowl sermon. I dare say, this is going to be the fowlest sermon you’ve ever heard.

Let me clarify.

The fowl I’m talking about isn’t spelled F - O – U – L. That kind of foul is reserved for baseballs that don’t stay inside the chalk line on a diamond, words that are less becoming, and football cheap shots that referees call by throwing a yellow flag.

No, the fowl I’m talking about is spelled F – O – W – L as in, you guessed it, birds. People in the Near East often used birds to make a point. In Exodus 19 Yahweh tells Moses: "You have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself." Outside of the Old Testament, and during Isaiah’s time, the Assyrian King Sennacherib says he shut up Hezekiah "in the midst of Jerusalem, like a bird in a cage." So, today birds will also be used to make a point or two.

In our text, Isaiah is speaking specifically to those who know of the steadfast love of the eagle of the exodus when he delivered their ancestors from bondage in Egypt. The prophet is also speaking to those who would know the bird-cage of captivity; not bound in the eight century by Sennacherib and Assyria.

These exiles cry out in Isaiah 40:27, "My way is hidden from Yahweh, and my right is disregarded by my God." That’s why Isaiah boldly and beautifully announces that Yahweh is the Holy One, transcendent over all nations, governments, and rulers. Then he dares to write in Isaiah 40:28 "Yahweh is the everlasting God."

The exiles need this God, desperately, because they had been dirty birds, No, I’m not talking about the Atlanta Falcons. The Israelites had hovered like vultures, drawn to what is dead. Isaiah 31:1, "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots."

God’s people had lived like peacocks, strutting their stuff. Isaiah 3:16, "The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles."

The elect nation had lived like chickens, grubbing for worms and satisfied with the low life. Isaiah 5:20, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness."

Israel had plenty to crow about. In Isaiah 30:10-11 they speak out against the prophet, "Speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions… stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel."

You and I can be dirty birds as well. We make unholy alliances with those who love false things and pseudo-saviors, being fatally attracted to what are decadent and dead. Like peacocks we love to show off our prestige, we say "look at my unique and exalted position." Regularly, we grub around in the dirt, ignoring the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

We also talk about crowing, why, we complain about him, her, and them; we just love to grouse about all these people. This fowl living sends us straight into exile; right here, right now, alienated from others, cut off from each other, and far away from the Father.

What does Yahweh do with people who are spiritually blind and deaf, locked in the bird cage of captivity? He appoints his Suffering Servant to be "a light for the nations so that salvation may come to the earth." But… this light and salvation comes at a high price; a very high price. The Suffering Servant "gives his back to those beating him and his cheeks to those who pull out his beard." "He doesn’t hide His face from deep disgrace and spit." In fact, "his appearance is disfigured beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of men." He was led like a Lamb to the slaughter which, by Roman design, took human beings and turned them into screaming, bloody meat. Jesus, the Suffering Servant became the sacrificial lamb for those locked in the bird-cage of captivity.

Yet, miraculously, marvelously, wondrously, and eternally … Jesus is alive! After his resurrection he tells the disciples, "Wait in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." And ten days later the waiting was over. Luke describes the coming of the Holy Spirit like the sound of a strong wind delivering all the gifts won through Christ’s death and resurrection. And the world was never the same.

Isaiah 40:31 also calls us to wait, "But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will soar on the wings like eagles." Eagles take to flight when they position themselves high on a rock and wait for the wind. You see, the power is in the wind, the wind beneath their wings.

Jesus once told Nicodemus, "The wind blows wherever it pleases." And it pleases the wind to blow in the Gospel and in Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper. That is where Jesus is forgiving our sins; there the wind blows so you and I soar on wings like eagles.

And the result? Dare I say, a fowl sermon, a fowl day, and a fowl life; but remember, this fowl is spelled F – O – W – L. Yet we are not any ol’ fowl. Eagles have the most powerful eyesight of any bird. Yahweh tells Job; "The eagle seeks out his food, his eyes detect it from afar." From high in the sky the eagle can see a rabbit from two miles away. The Hebrew writer speaks of ol’ eagle eye Moses: "He persevered because he saw him who is invisible."

Eagles are the most committed of all birds. Moses says in Deuteronomy that the eagle hovers over its young. In fact, the eagle will never forsake her children, doing whatever it takes to teach them to fly. That is why Isaiah maintains what they will do, "we run and not grow weary; we will walk and not be faint." Eagles never, ever, ever quit.

Eagles also stay fresh, alive, and energized. Psalm 103 says in part: "So that your youth is renewed like the eagles." Every day the eagle preens itself, breathing upon his feathers because overnight they become matted and stuck to each other. Every day the eagle secretes a liquid from his mouth that waterproofs his wings so he can fly through storms. How do you like that? Steam cleaned and waterproofed! Eagle Paul puts it this way: "Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day." No wonder the proverb writer declares, "three things are too amazing for me: four things that I do not understand: (the first of the four is…) the way of an eagle in the sky." Amazing isn’t it? We are no longer vultures, peacocks, chickens, or crows. "If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation: the old has gone the new has come." All this is not by might and not by power, but by Yahweh’s Spirit that is blowing even now, loving and freeing and lifting us out of our exile, all in the name of Jesus.

Amen