Epiphany 8 / Ordinary Time 8 / Proper 3
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
... 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....
-- Isaiah 55:11
Consider how much effort pastors exert in examining the scriptures and trying to proclaim them in a way that is in accord with the accepted wisdom of the world. Now consider what the prophet Isaiah was saying. In the face of any normal assumption of a realistic view of the world, Isaiah was making an incredible claim. Isaiah lived in a time when the people of God had been defeated by a super power. All the symbols of their existence as a nation had been destroyed from the walls of the palace of their king to the temple of their God. The leading citizens had been carried off and relocated in foreign lands. All practical wisdom would suggest that there was no way that this nation could ever be reconstituted.
Isaiah claimed that the evil that appeared to have defeated the purpose of God through the destruction of God's people was not more powerful than God. We live and practice the faith as if it may fail. We give sin and evil so much credit that we assume that evil may win. Isaiah never suggested that God wanted the people to be defeated and go into exile. Rather he claimed that even in the midst of the people's disobedience, which resulted in their defeat, God would not be defeated. For Isaiah to believe that God was more powerful than the evil that had defeated God's people, he had to believe that God could work even through this experience of exile that appeared by any human standards to be a total defeat.
If we hold to the same faith today, then don't we have to ask what God is doing when the church appears to fail to grow or to have any significant influence on society? Don't we have to ask what God's word is doing when there is a major scandal in the church? If God's word does not fail, then doesn't this change how we evaluate all that is happening in our world? If Isaiah was right that we shall "go out in joy and be led back in peace," then is our attitude of despair and cynicism a reflection of our lack of understanding of what God is doing? Is this similar to what Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid" (John 14:27)?
-- Isaiah 55:11
Consider how much effort pastors exert in examining the scriptures and trying to proclaim them in a way that is in accord with the accepted wisdom of the world. Now consider what the prophet Isaiah was saying. In the face of any normal assumption of a realistic view of the world, Isaiah was making an incredible claim. Isaiah lived in a time when the people of God had been defeated by a super power. All the symbols of their existence as a nation had been destroyed from the walls of the palace of their king to the temple of their God. The leading citizens had been carried off and relocated in foreign lands. All practical wisdom would suggest that there was no way that this nation could ever be reconstituted.
Isaiah claimed that the evil that appeared to have defeated the purpose of God through the destruction of God's people was not more powerful than God. We live and practice the faith as if it may fail. We give sin and evil so much credit that we assume that evil may win. Isaiah never suggested that God wanted the people to be defeated and go into exile. Rather he claimed that even in the midst of the people's disobedience, which resulted in their defeat, God would not be defeated. For Isaiah to believe that God was more powerful than the evil that had defeated God's people, he had to believe that God could work even through this experience of exile that appeared by any human standards to be a total defeat.
If we hold to the same faith today, then don't we have to ask what God is doing when the church appears to fail to grow or to have any significant influence on society? Don't we have to ask what God's word is doing when there is a major scandal in the church? If God's word does not fail, then doesn't this change how we evaluate all that is happening in our world? If Isaiah was right that we shall "go out in joy and be led back in peace," then is our attitude of despair and cynicism a reflection of our lack of understanding of what God is doing? Is this similar to what Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid" (John 14:27)?
