Saturday January 9 Epiphany
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Psalm 121
Confidence that God will watch over us to protect us from natural calamities and everyday situations.
Psalm 122
Joy at entering Jerusalem to worship in the temple. Prayers for Jerusalem.
Psalm 123
We keep our eyes trained on God’s direction to us, like servants alert to their owner’s slightest hand signal. We are oppressed by the wealthy and we anticipate God’s signal at any moment that God will act.
Isaiah 63:1-5
A set of violent images expressing God’s absolute determination that injustice and oppression will be eliminated from the earth and that God’s power is sufficient to protect the people.
John 5: 1-15
Jesus heals a paralyzed man on the Sabbath—the day that allowed everyone to be completely free from all obligations and thus humanity could weekly re-experience the joy of the fully completed creation. Following today’s excerpt, Jesus claims that God never stops working for the healing of the world, even on sabbaths, and thus God breaks the ten commandments! Jesus is asking for a revolution in the meaning of religious faith—it’s about celebrating God’s triumph over illness. No wonder opposition to Jesus arises from the religious leaders.
Notice that Jesus has not done any work in this healing, he doesn’t carry the man to the water as the man hopes. Instead, Jesus explicitly instructs the man to carry his mat, thus celebrating God’s total victory over his paralysis. Jesus is insisting that not just he, but the whole of humanity, is to participate in God’s victory. Like the formerly paralyzed man, we may also be subject to criticism for rejoicing in God’s victory regardless of social expectations.
This week’s collect:
Eternal God,
who by a star
led wise ones to the worship of your Son.
Guide by your light the nations of the earth,
that the whole world may know your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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