5th Sunday After
Epiphany
Isaiah
40: / Mark
The Promise is Sure
True or false: If
everyone would just pray, things would all work out for the best. If things
aren’t working out as they ought to, then you’re just not praying hard
enough. True or false? Or both?
So many bad things
have been happening around here lately … several car accidents in which people
have been seriously injured and one young man was even killed … a teacher at
the high school died of cancer … several of our own members are dealing with
serious illnesses…:
And then there are
all the disasters of the past year: Tsunami, Katrina, Rita, fires, floods, mud
slides, earthquakes, war … more than one person has asked me lately if I think
the end of the world is coming.
How are we supposed
to pray about all these things? What’s
the use? Do our prayers make any
difference?
The Israelites must
have felt something like that. They had been conquered by the Babylonians and
exiled and were lamenting their plight. They felt like God had abandoned them. Today’s
reading from the prophet Isaiah says,
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and
complain, O
The answer God
gives, through the prophet, is, basically, “Don’t you know your God? Your God
is the one who created the heavens and the earth – who put the stars in place and
establishes kings and rulers. Your God has not forgotten you and never gets
tired. But his understanding no one can fathom. Those who wait upon the Lord
will renew their strength. “ In other
words, “Trust me.”
The psalmist says,
“The Lord has pleasure in those who fear him – in those who await his gracious
favor.”
I once saw a little
sign that said, “Praise the Lord … anyway.”
That’s what it seems like God is saying here.
“You may not
understand what’s happening. You can’t
trust the events and the world around you. But you can ABSOLUTELY trust me. And, I really like it when you do.”
God had a plan all
along. The Bible tells us in Galatians
4:4-5, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so
that we might receive adoption as children.”
God kept His
promise and sent us a Savior. In Jesus, the
This is the story
that is beginning to unfold in the first Chapter of the gospel of Mark, which
we have been reading the last several weeks. It is the Sabbath Day and Jesus
had been teaching in the synagogue and had cast out a demon. Then he went to
Peter and Andrew’s house and healed Peter’s mother-in-law.
At sundown, we’re
told, the whole town came to the door of Peter’s house. The Sabbath had just
ended and everyone wanted to come for healing, or to see the miraculous healings
take place. Jesus was making things
right. Who know how long this went on or if Jesus got any sleep that night?
But he went out
early in the morning before it was even light to be alone and pray. He wasn’t alone for long, though. The disciples came and found him and said,
“Everyone is searching for you.”
“Everyone is searching
for you.” Everyone is always searching
for God. They thought they had found him
in Jesus – and they had. They had gotten
a taste of God’s presence and power to make things right – to heal and make
whole – and they wanted MORE.
But Jesus said,
“Sorry, not today – not here, anyway. Let’s go to the next town so I may
proclaim the message there also. For
THAT is what I came to do.”
The healing that
Jesus did in any one place and time wasn’t an END in itself – it wasn’t what he
came to do – it was just a sign or an affirmation of what he REALLY came to do
– which was to proclaim the message that God’s Kingdom had broken through to
earth – to proclaim the message that God’s promises are being fulfilled.
And not only to
PROCLAIM that message in words, but also to FULFILL it in ACTION, by dying on
the cross and rising again. And who would have thought, watching Jesus die,
that things were unfolding according to plan.
Just because things
are not going the way we THINK they should go, doesn’t mean God is absent or
God is not in control. God’s purpose and
God’s will is to make things right, but in a way that surpasses our
understanding – in a way that is ultimate and forever – beyond the here and
now.
Our job is to trust
that promise and, by prayer and repentance, to align ourselves with God’s will,
and, by faith, to participate in God’s mission.
One of the hardest
things for me to understand in my journey of faith was why it seemed that God
did not answer my prayer to heal my first husband of alcoholism and save our
marriage. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure that out – what I did
wrong. The questions all resurfaced when
As I thought about
this message in light of the place where God seemed most absent to me, I thought,
“What if I could believe that God was there ALL THE TIME and God DID answer my
prayers. What if I just couldn’t SEE the purpose.”
What I DO know is
that
And what I DO know
is that my daughter Dani called me the other day and said, “I have really been
praying for God to show me what to do with my life and it came to me that I
want to help people who are struggling with alcoholism. I applied for a job at a treatment center. I’m
thinking: I couldn’t help my dad, but maybe I can help someone else.”
Signs of healing
abound. But, just as the healings and
exorcisms Jesus did that day at Peter’s house were only signs of God’s ultimate
plan, so are the signs of God’s presence that you or I can see around us today.
We don’t know what
is going to happen next. We are not to cling to the healings and wonders
themselves, but rather to the HEALER. We
are to cling to the SOURCE of the healing with all our hearts and wills and
trust.
Paul wrote in
second Corinthians: “For the Son of God,
Jesus Christ, who was preached among you was not "Yes" and
"No," but in him it has always been "Yes." For no matter
how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ.
True or false: If
everyone would just pray, things would all work out for the best. If things
aren’t working out as they ought to, then you’re just not praying hard
enough. Mostly false.
God has ALREADY
worked everything out for the best eternally. But everything that
happens on earth is NOT God’s will. Sin,
death and evil surround us. But they will not win the day. Ultimately, God will make all things
right.
In the meantime,
God is at work here on earth and for that, God needs us – our hands and feet
and voices – our hearts and, yes, our prayers.
Prayer opens the
door for God’s presence and power. Action makes God’s presence real for others.
Faith and trust open the door to our understanding of God’s purposes and gives
us peace.
So, let us take
comfort and courage in God’s promises.
Let us be confident as we wait upon the Lord. And, like Jesus, let us
proclaim in words and actions that God’s Kingdom is at hand. God has saved us through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thanks be
to God! Amen.