Monday, January 6, 2014

Baptism of Our Lord Year A - Isaiah 42:1-9

Isaiah 42:1-9
This is the Word for all who languish in solitary prisons real or imagined, who faint from sorrow and suffering, whose light in life flickers and grows dim. This is also the Word that comes as a light to expose the thoughts and ways and deeds that conspire to blind people to the truth and shroud the world in darkness. This Word is as gentle as a whisper, as soft as a mother’s caress, as persistent as a deep desire and as compelling as a well told tale. It stirs hearts and animates lives to action as it fills imaginations with hopes and dreams of all that is good and right and beautiful and true. But it is a Word that has to be heard to be believed which means we have to be stilled to hear it and humbled to accept it. The trouble is we tend to buy into the lottery ticket life where all that glitters really is gold and our luck is about to change even if the ship we were counting on to come in just sank in the harbor. But what if we were to give up on the world’s way of winning and live more fully into the light of the life that God desires. If the Word does not break our bruised reed we should not be so ready to break bones with sticks and stones. If the Word does not quench our dimly burning wick we should not be so quick to extinguish the flickering faith of others. If the Word does not shout in the streets we might accomplish more by speaking our conviction with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15) If the Word is persistent and does not grow faint then we should not be crushed by disappointment or detours. In the end God will make all things new and the brightest and best dreams will come true so we, like the Word, speak of the new things that will spring forth and declare with confident hope what will be before it is.

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