Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 12 December 2015

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;

shout, O Israel!

Rejoice and exult with all your heart,

O daughter Jerusalem!

The LORD has taken away the judgments against you,

he has turned away your enemies.

The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;

you shall fear disaster no more.

On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:

Do not fear, O Zion;

do not let your hands grow weak.

The LORD, your God, is in your midst,

a warrior who gives victory;

he will rejoice over you with gladness,

he will renew you in his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing

as on a day of festival.

I will remove disaster from you,

so that you will not bear reproach for it.

I will deal with all your oppressors

at that time.

And I will save the lame

and gather the outcast,

and I will change their shame into praise

and renown in all the earth.

At that time I will bring you home,

at the time when I gather you;

for I will make you renowned and praised

among all the peoples of the earth,

when I restore your fortunes

before your eyes, says the LORD.

Reflection        What will it take for us to believe and live into the promise of the prophets, “Do not fear?” Moses, Muhammad, Amos, Samuel, Deborah, Elijah, Huldah, John the son of Zechariah, Leo Tolstoy, St. Mary Magdalene, Brigid, Agnes, Martin Luther, Perpetua & Felicity, Martin Luther King, Jr, Dietrick Bonhoeffer, Gandhi, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Wilberforce, Lao Tzu, George Orwell, Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry…. the list goes on and on. At the root of their messages is the admonition, “Do not be afraid.” Do not allow fear to subjugate you to wrong thinking and wrong acting. 

But peek into the window of any human’s life from 13 centuries before the common era to today, and what do we see? Natural disasters, disease, human oppression and exclusion. Not much has changed in the category of human suffering in the past 31 centuries. So why do we keep expecting things that we see in the world to change? Why do we expect some singular apocalyptic event to erase disasters, disease and every form of human suffering from the earth? 

What the prophets then and now promise is, “the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more… Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. The LORD, your God, is in your midst…” Whatever the trial or challenge we face, God is with us. That is what we hear in the First Song of Isaiah; “Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid. For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense, and he will be my Savior.” (Is 12. 2-3) And if for some reason we still can’t hear the voice of the prophets speaking into our heart, and we don’t remember Jesus’ promise to the disciples and us, “I am with you always to the end of the age, (Matt 28.20) we can turn to Pau’s letter to the Philippians,  “The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4.5-7)

What if we believed Gandhi’s words, “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate’ but, it is fear?” What if we understood that fear respects no borders, religions, ethnicities, political parties or states? Could we admit how vulnerable we feel in the face of the unspeakable tragedies and suffering in the world? Might we recognize that the people we call enemies are just like us, afraid? What if instead of debating who is to blame for our inevitable suffering we listened to each others fear? What if we admitted we are one in our vulnerability  and inability to escape suffering? What if we changed our minds and our hearts and instead of seeing one another as enemies we saw each other as the sensitive and defenseless creatures that we are? Might we extend our hands in compassion instead of raising our arms in fear?

Sports psychologist Dr. Rob Bell suggests simple, but not easy, steps to aid our journey to live without fear having “confidence and trust in yourself and your team…” and, I would add, faith that our team includes all people and God with us. Click on Dr. Bell’s link above to hear his story. 

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Gospel text for Sunday, 9 December 2012

Luke 3:1-6         In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

'Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall be made straight,

and the rough ways made smooth;

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

Reflection          “....all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Wow! Isaiah’s unequivocal, all inclusive assurance precedes by about two thousand years another prophet’s words, “And all shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well.” Born in England in the middle of the fourteenth century the mystic Dame Julian of Norwich was the first woman to write a book in the English language.   Like Isaiah, Julian turns away from obsession with sickness, corruption and sinfulness and experiences gratitude and joy in God’s unlimited forgiveness and assurance that “...all shall be well.”

What if we really believed the words of Julian and Isaiah? What if we looked at the world and the people of the twenty first century through the eyes of these ancient and medieval prophets who also lived in violent,  corrupt, disease plagued and morally bankrupt times yet did not let their hearts be hardened? Regardless of their circumstance, inside and out, Julian and Isaiah never stopped recognizing God’s compassionate Presence. Might we too encounter God’s limitless compassion and love in the ceaseless suffering of humanity?

When I ask myself, “what keeps me from “seeing” the way Julian and Isaiah see?” the painful truth is this. Judgement. I look at the world around me and I see what is wrong rather than what is well. My heart is hardened and the judgement of my mind says, “We’re going to hell in a handbasket.” And that makes me anxious and so I contract, begin to build walls to keep the world out except my walls bump into your walls and then we have to battle over property rights and human rights, which executes our humanity because we see each other as threats rather than the vulnerable creatures created in the image and likeness of God that we are. On guard rather than in God. 

Oh to see with the eyes of the prophet who looks into the face of corruption and calamity and experiences God’s limitless compassion. In the wilderness of our lives the prophet assures us that everything that is crooked will be made straight, whatever is rough will be made smooth, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” This is how I choose to be, in God rather than on guard. "And all shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well."

Gospel Text for Sunday, December 4, 2011

Mark 1:1-8 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

"See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way;

the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

`Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,'"

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."