RonBlog

Sunday 5th February 2012 Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Sentence
Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles.
Isaiah 40:31
Collect
Saving God, Whose Son, Jesus Christ, healed the sick and brought them wholeness of body and mind; inspire us, His disciples, so that we may constantly proclaim His gospel by our words and by the dedication and integrity of our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Isaiah 40: 21- 31

Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He Who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those 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.

Psalm 147: 1 – 11

O praise the Lord, for it is a good thing to sing praises to our God: and to praise Him is joyful and right
The Lord is rebuilding Jerusalem: He is gathering tougher the scattered outcasts of Israel
He heals the broken in spirit: and binds up their wounds
He counts the number of the stars: and calls them all by name
Great is our Lord and great is His power: there is no measuring His understanding
The Lord restores the humble: but He brings down the wicked to the dust
O sing to the Lord a song of thanksgiving: sing praises to our God upon the harp
He covers the heaven with a cloud and prepares rain for the earth: and makes the grass to sprout upon the mountains
He gives the cattle their food: and feeds the young ravens that call to Him
He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse: nor does He delight in anyone’s legs
But the Lord’s delight is in them that fear Him: who wait in hope for His mercy.

Epistle 1 Corinthians 9: 16 – 23

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.
Though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.



GOSPEL Mark 1: 29 – 39

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." He answered, "Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

© New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved

NOTES ON THE READINGS
Old Testament
How I long to take people on a study tour of (Second) Isaiah to enter into the enormous and broad vision that this prophet has of JHWH. When I first discovered this book, it took me on so steep a learning curve that it has stayed with me ever since –and that is something like 55 years.
Stop and realize, first and foremost, that this prophet was writing from harsh and total exile in Babylon. Hundreds of miles away from home; nation, city and Temple destroyed – and to all intents and purposes God was dead, Kaput. Zilch. Zero. Ask indigenous people how it feels when all the old and reliable certainties are undermined and gone. That is how the exiles felt, an attitude underlined by (then) popular ‘theology,’ that taught that if a god’s temple has been destroyed, then it is obvious that that particular god was powerless – therefore non-existent. So how in the name of all that is wonderful did Isaiah go so strikingly against then current trends? Was he off with the fairies, or did he really have something to offer?
One can make an assumption that Isaiah’s contribution to the rationale behind the Exile experience first of all required a far wider, broader perception of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob than seemed in circulation.. It would appear that the prophet gained an understanding of where JHWH was taking His people by looking back to see from where God had so far brought Israel. It was a long-term vision with which Isaiah was able to point to a rather more sure and settled future, and in fact to understand the Faith far more clearly and precisely. It is part of the genius of (Second) Isaiah that he was able to point his people to a far more certain future because he could also point them to a far more significant vision of God.

All too readily, people of all ages and stages present themselves with an image of God that they can manage; a sort of comfort blanket but it will last only as long as the issues they face can be explained by that ‘blanket.’ Anything beyond that leads to loss of faith. Whilst that assumption is that they lose faith in God; the reality is that they have lost faith in their blanket. And that has to be a good thing, do you see?
The prophet’s answer was to dilate Israel’s picture of JHWH, not only in terms of His capacity to cope, but in illustrating Who God is by what surrounds them. If the cosmos is huge, the God is huger. In fact if you were to imagine looking at humans from God’s perspective, so to speak, then you begin to see humans in proper size. Grasshoppers!
And it is not only from a cosmos perspective: Isaiah takes people on a history lesson, pointing out how short and shallow are tyrants’ turns as boss of the chook house. One of the failings we humans have is to look only from where we sit, from what affects us, from what is immediate. A moment’s look at the wider picture offers a far more significant approach to all manner of things. In other words, Isaiah takes quite a swipe at poor, snivelling Israel and suggests a burst of maturity. It really is a kick in the pants for Israel, well-deserved and well-aimed. Self pity is a very destructive element in human thought; get real is what the prophet points to.

Psalm
This psalm is quite obviously post-exilic, written quite some time after the words of the Old Testament lesson, and it looks as if the psalmist is standing on the shoulders of the prophet, so to speak, and offering the same ‘get on with it’ message. I long remember almost exploding, as a little choir boy, on singing this psalm way back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and echoing those words about the Lord not taking delight in any man’s legs. It is a lovely touch of humour.

Epistle
The Apostle must have been a delightful mixture of human and saint. He would have been most difficult to live with, as we have seen earlier. But he also had a mind as sharp as steel. Like many prophets before him, he was painfully aware of the drive within to preach the Gospel; and he was just as painfully aware of the fact that what he preached and taught needed to be relevant, needed to be clearly tangible to his listeners and readers, and needed to fit them, individually if necessary, for all we humans are so wonderfully different. ‘All things to all men’ – the AV reading of this passage – is a process that all Christians need to embrace, for any short-cut that tries to ‘technique’ people into faith is as useless as it is foolish. Meet people where they are; not where you would like them to be.

GOSPEL
Who would or could take on the role of being Jesus? Such a demanding situation for anyone to be in, and yet He took it all in His stride; but He also needed some space and time for Himself. It is a fascinating picture of Peter and his mother-in-law, a picture avoided by part of the Christian Church which requires celibacy from its clergy! Actually that pressure came, not from the Christian Faith, but from a rather sad diversion of around that time, the Gnostics.

But as from the outset, Jesus was concerned by people whose life-experiences had reduced their humanity, reduced their capacity to reach the personhood they were designed to express. And that is quite a significant part of what the Gospel points us to constantly. And never forget it. Salvation is not just ‘getting to heaven.’ Salvation (Greek soteria) has to do with completeness of person, room to move, freedom from imposed power-structures. Health!

NOTES FOR A SERMON

If ever you feel concern that a preacher is asking you to stretch beyond where you are now, please do see that this should be a constant experience for Christians. While the Almighty does not change, it is imperative that each Christian’s perception needs to be on a learning curve, right up to the end of one’s life.
I well remember the experience when, as a theological student I was confronted with the stunning vision of God vouchsafed to Isaiah. What struck me most of all was not so much the enormous picture of the Creator, but that God was using the vicissitudes of history to get a significant if severe message across to His people. God at work in history was a complete new possibility to me, who thought he had known a fair bit about Scripture. And the point is that this aspect of God-at-work did not end with Isaiah or even with John’s Revelation. Once I can see where and how God works in Isaiah’s time, I can begin to see how He works in my own period. What is most stunning to me is that, in spite of Israel’s constant rebellion and failure, God remained true to His covenant, and ‘hung in there.’ Not a bad lesson for moderns to catch sight of, either.
The simple exercise of working your way through Isaiah 40 onwards, to Chapter 66 if you dare, is well worth the effort. It helps to be aware of the severe hardship for Israel at that time, slaves under house arrest in a strange and alien land. There was no chance of raising an army to break and return home, and there was no chance of building a Temple in Babylon nor of carrying on the old forms of worship. It was not just a matter of losing their Book of Common Prayer – it was a matter of giving up entirely, or of finding new and relevant methods of worship and of retaining culture and faith. Powerless, futureless, hopeless.
But not from where Isaiah sat! We have long been used to the lack of statesmen in our country; fortunately Israel had three people of Isaiah status – there was also Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And nothing but encouraging words and actions sprang from those gems, and most of it had to do with getting a clearer picture of Yahweh. Not just their tribal god; not just one of the great gods of the time. But the only one there is, and Who was there in the pooh with them.
It would be worthwhile taking long hard looks at Isaiah’s word pictures of the same God you worship; being compared to the gods and goddesses of the Babylonians, in huge mockery actually. As Babylon itself was threatened by an upstart king from the north east, Cyrus by name, Isaiah mocked the living daylights out of those idols. Here was Yahweh carrying Israel, and all the Babylonians could do was to load their idols onto donkeys to cart them off to some sort of safety. ‘Bow down to wood and stone? What sort of idiocy is that?
History proved the prophet correct; not because of some sort of star-gazing, but because Isaiah caught sight of what God was doing and how and why! Here was no cottonwool protection for Israel, but a going through the fires of purification, so that the precious metal of the nation would be produced. No pain, no gain! It is true in Football; it is true in real life.