Lent 5
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing....
-- Isaiah 43:18-19a
It is the radical freedom of God that makes the journey of faith such an ambiguous thing. You have to learn to trust the one who made the promise rather than your understanding of the promise. The faith of Israel that carried them through their turbulent history always centered on their memory of the miracle of the escape from Egypt. Who could have guessed that a ragtag bunch of slaves could escape the control of the most powerful army of the time? Now they were in exile and all the trappings of power and identity had been stripped from them. But they remembered. "Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick...." It was the memory that God could not be contained by the logic of the world that kept hope alive. It was against all logical calculations that Israel could ever emerge from Egypt.
Later the same incredible set of events released them from exile. Not all of Israel believed that God would accomplish such a miracle but the memory was preserved in the traditions and rituals. We live in a world in which power seems to determine the future. Wars seem endless. Our own complicity in the economy that devours the resources of the world and perpetuates violence through our sale of military might makes hope for peace seem a hopeless dream. Yet we continue to speak of a Prince of Peace who embodies a God who says, "I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" The freedom of God makes it impossible to predict the shape in which this new hope will be manifest. The task of the Christian is to maintain hope in the future by remembering how God has fulfilled his promises in the past. As we near the end of Lent when the impossible will become a reality, what signs of hope do you see?
-- Isaiah 43:18-19a
It is the radical freedom of God that makes the journey of faith such an ambiguous thing. You have to learn to trust the one who made the promise rather than your understanding of the promise. The faith of Israel that carried them through their turbulent history always centered on their memory of the miracle of the escape from Egypt. Who could have guessed that a ragtag bunch of slaves could escape the control of the most powerful army of the time? Now they were in exile and all the trappings of power and identity had been stripped from them. But they remembered. "Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick...." It was the memory that God could not be contained by the logic of the world that kept hope alive. It was against all logical calculations that Israel could ever emerge from Egypt.
Later the same incredible set of events released them from exile. Not all of Israel believed that God would accomplish such a miracle but the memory was preserved in the traditions and rituals. We live in a world in which power seems to determine the future. Wars seem endless. Our own complicity in the economy that devours the resources of the world and perpetuates violence through our sale of military might makes hope for peace seem a hopeless dream. Yet we continue to speak of a Prince of Peace who embodies a God who says, "I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" The freedom of God makes it impossible to predict the shape in which this new hope will be manifest. The task of the Christian is to maintain hope in the future by remembering how God has fulfilled his promises in the past. As we near the end of Lent when the impossible will become a reality, what signs of hope do you see?
