Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Light and Salvation


January 22, 2022 – 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany – Year A

Isaiah 9:1-4, Psalm 27, Matthew 4:12-23

 

 

I think it was last month 
that I did my little plug for the series about the life of Jesus 

called THE CHOSEN

 

Much of the first season is a lead up to this scene…

This scene we just heard by sea of galilee

…when Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James, and John 

Saying those simple words: “Follow me”
This particular episode was so deeply moving 

That I couldn’t get the picture of it out of my head

 

So rather than steal the creative genius of the show’s writers and producers
I began to wonder why…what made it so moving for me

 

We know that the disciples weren’t perfect

In the Sundays to come

The Gospel of Matthew will unfold

And we’ll be reminded of all those ways they weren’t perfect

…Doubts, egos, power grabs, abandonment…and finally, even denial

But in this moment

This moment by the sea

There was…dare I say…a little magic…or better yet GRACE

 

I think it was Paul Tillich* who said,

Referring to this episode…to Jesus’ calling of these first disciples

He said that

“the call from without 

corresponded 

to the longing from within”

Jesus’ call “Follow Me” 

met the deepest longing in the hearts of Simon, Andrew, James and John
And this longing was not only theirs…

it belonged to the whole people of Israel

 

“Could it be?
Could he be the Messiah?

We have been hearing the rumors…

We have been waiting and waiting under this occupation

In this state of expectation
Passover after Passover

…sooooo soo long

Dare we believe?”

 

Jesus…his call from without

Met this deep deep longing of a people

embodied in Simon, Andrew, James and John

 

 

This “Magic Moment”

Made me think:

What is the exact opposite of what happened on the shores of the sea of Galilee all those years ago?

How could it be described?

 

A phrase came to me…I’m sure you will recognize it:

“You can’t ever get enough of what you truly don’t need”

It’s a famished craving

For money, power, sex, prestige, knowledge…
There isn’t enough 

There will never…ever be enough

No meeting…no moment of grace

 

WHY? What is that deepest longing


Today…I am going to name it Communion

Communion with the love of God

Communion with the love of neighbor

The word “communion” gives weight to the necessity…to the context 

…the condition of relationship

There is no LONELY 

… no LONELY in Communion

 

Did you notice in the reading from Isaiah and the Gospel

Three different times we heard about places

Specific places

 “Zebulon and Naphtali”

 

Just mentioning these names to a Jewish crowd in the 1st century

Would have conjured the darkness of OCCUPATION

Zebulon and Naphtali…brutally occupied by the Assyrians in the 6th century BC

And in Jesus’ time by the Romans

 

Being OCCUPIED

Occupied times

Were dark, dangerous…and despairing

Being occupied destroys peoples’ links to their practices of faith 

and their cultural resources…it is death-dealing

 

And this is where Jesus decides to make his home

         …To begin his public ministry

“…in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali”

 

The Lord is my Light and my Salvation we heard in Psalm 27
Is there a better place for the Light to shine than in a “Zebulan and Naphtali” place?

 

Jesus is coming from the desert

From the temptations 

And what were those temptations?

The devil tempts Jesus with OCCUPATIONS 
“C’Mon Jesus…be OCCUPIED or better PRE-OCCUPIED 
by power and earthly desires”
 

All those things that you can never get enough of

 

Jesus is coming from the desert
He has withstood the Devil’s attempts to occupy him


John the Baptist is imprisoned

Jesus picks up John’s mantle

His time has come

He repeats John’s theme of METANOIA/repent

The Greek word is much deeper and broader than repent

Change your way of thinking, see differently, let down your defenses

 

I ask myself
What and where and when and how

Have I been OCCUPIED
…stuck in my own land of “Zebulun and Naphtali”???

 

And WHO was there with a light?

Who reached out?

 

And when have I noticed another…

A stranger or someone I love who was stuck in that place?

…occupied and in need of liberation

 

And when those times yield a meeting

A meeting where
“a call from without 

corresponded 

to a longing from within”

 

But there is always trouble
It’s just so easy for COMMUNION to be derailed

And when it is derailed

We can be sure that there is OCCUPATION or PRE-OCCUPATION
at the root of it


Perhaps it is an occupation/a darkness
that we have become too familiar with

Too comfortable with

So that we prefer it…we prefer the safety of what we know

Rather than risk something new…a Metanoia

 

So
what to do???
What is OUR call then?

Where does our help come from?

 

I just don’t think we can do any better than to KEEP RETURNING to Psalm 27
Because the psalmist’s angst is our own

 

Her voice is shaky

Dare she believe of what she sings?

 

“The Lord is my light and my salvation

Of whom shall I be afraid

Of Whom shall I be afraid”

 

I believe…
We believe

We believe that just singing…praying it
Makes it so

We believe that Words matter…

That Prayers…Are powerful

That They create what they signify

 

The Lord…

Who the psalmist names: light and salvation

The Lord is LIGHT and SALVATION

This is our faith

Communion is real

It overcomes every kind of occupation

 

So we sing

So we pray

So we believe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



* I couldn’t find the exact quote…suffice it to say that it isn’t mine;)

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