God’s Intrusion

It’s the Dark of the Year–but it”s getting lighter. This Third Week of the Season of Light calls us back to the spread of the Good News. Having peered into the manger, we’re instructed to go into the world by another way, affirming that the Kingdom of God has indeed drawn near, and letting our light shine. Many of us are very discouraged by the way things are going on the national and international scene, and people of non-Aryan stock and background are threatened with persecution. (If this is “Great Again”, I don’t know what he’s smoking.) But God is still in charge, even though we may walk through the Valley of Death…

We begin with a well-known prophecy of ISAIAH, 9:1-4: The people of Israel have been threatened by the Assyrians, and things look pretty grim. But Isaiah speaks of God’s continued light: the “yoke of their burden” has been broken. Isaiah has seen the hope of an intruding God, who calls the People to walk bravely down this new path, not cringing at the shadows. This will lead the Believer into all the world, even if the path is often stony.

Paul’s “first” letter to the CORINTHIANS is full of exhortations to not be divided into parties (Cephas vs. Apollos, or Red States vs. Blue States), but to put on the fullness of Christ, the power of salvation from those things which tarnish the world. (1:10-18) Even those whose worship and service is unlike ours are our brothers and sisters.

MATTHEW 4:12-23 tells about the call of Jesus to four wannabe disciples, James & John, Simon Peter & Andrew, who left what they were doing (fishing) to follow the Christ. (It doesn’t say anything about their father/boss Zebedee, who was left knee-deep in fish…) This story is not about ESCAPE to a better place, but about how God continues to break into the world. Then “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”

Richard F. Ward reminds us that “Oppression…does not have the last word. Those who live in the land of the ‘deep darkness’ of political, social, or religious oppression in any age are not living outside the sight of God; they will see God’s light, and upon them it will shine.” (FEASTING on the WORD, A 1:271) “Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing; It finds an echo in my soul–how can I keep from singing?”

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

You’re invited to join us every Tuesday to be confronted by the scriptures scheduled to be read on the upcoming weekend by the Revised Common Lectionary; at horacebrownking.com