Thursday January 19 Epiphany 2
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Psalm 37 Part 1
It’s tempting to want to be as successful as evil people, but seeking God’s justice will fulfill us, and God will defeat evil completely.
Isaiah 45: 5-17 What’s Isaiah about?
God is speaking to Cyrus, “I arm you”—even though Cyrus has never heard of God. God decides Cyrus will return the people to their home in Jerusalem, as surely as a potter makes a clay pot. A pot never criticizes the potter who is shaping its clay, and so Cyrus never resists God. God is like a potter, or a father, or a woman in labour—they create and give birth and nobody asks if it is really happening. God’s control of the super-powers is that complete.
Isaiah continues with his claim that God was not only active in the past, at the Red Sea, but is even more powerful now. God will even place the super-powers of the time under the leadership of Israel.
History also seems out of control in our time. If we really thought God is in control of history now, what images would we use to re-interpret what is going on?
Mark 4: 21-34 What’s Mark about?
Jesus continues with more images of hope: a lamp that lights the room—no matter how dark the room, even the smallest light is not extinguished by darkness. Just as a small light is not extinguished by darkness, so neither can we extinguish the consequences of actions, good or bad—both are utterly reliable. Jesus tells a short version of the sower and the seeds—but this time the emphasis is on the earth’s ability to bring life without reference to us. Even the tiniest seed—mustard—grows into incomparably larger than its beginnings.
In our personal lives, as well as in international politics, we need that kind of hope and confidence. Jesus is inviting us to allow the little seeds of hope and confidence in us and our world to grow.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
is the light of the world.
May your people,
illumined by your word and sacraments,
shine with the radiance of his glory,
that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed
to the ends of the earth;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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