Sunday January 22 Epiphany 3
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Psalm 63
I delight in the certainty of God’s protection and victory over evil. The violence in verses 9 and 10 can be understood as an expression of our intense desire that all evil will come to an end.
Psalm 98
The people, the nations, and the whole of creation delight in God’s victory and rejoice when God comes to put all creation right. This psalm is used at Easter, and is often used on Sundays, mini-anniversaries of Easter. There is some lovely imagery of the sea deliberately making a noise with its waves and rivers doing the same by clapping their hands.
Isaiah 47: 1-15 What’s Isaiah about?
The Babylonians, who had enslaved the Israelites and deported them to Babylon, are about to be conquered by Cyrus. Isaiah interprets this as God controlling history and punishing the Babylonians for having treated God’s people cruelly. No matter how great is the enormous power of such a country, God can change everything and bring their power to nought.
Notice the careful construction of these stanzas: the first two about wealthy Babylon’s shame of being stripped bare, the second two about the loss of husband and children which leads to destitution for a woman in the ancient world, and the third two about the powerlessness of experts in predicting the future through astronomy and research. Note the double repetition of the phrase “You said…I am…” which is to claim equality with the God of Israel whose name is “I am”—Babylon may claim to control history but is a complete failure at that. Isaiah is ringing the changes on his theme of God’s power being able to turn super-powers to nothing in order to bring justice and dignity to the oppressed.
John 5: 2-18 What’s John about?
We continue to read from John’s gospel on Sundays.
Jesus heals someone who is too weak to take advantage of healing by entering a magic pool. Even though it is the Sabbath, Jesus heals, and tells the healed man to celebrate his health by carrying his mat, both of which are a breaking of the Sabbath. The healed man betrays Jesus to the religious authorities and their opposition to him grows. Perhaps the early Christians were so filled with joy at God’s victory in the resurrection that everything else—even the weekly celebrations of God’s completion of creation on the Sabbath—seemed secondary.
When we are conscious of God’s victory over all evil, new priorities and new decisive actions emerge for us. However, there will be opposition from those in power who make money from the poor, and even some who have been superficially healed, to whose advantage it is that nothing change.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
by grace alone you call us
and accept us in your service.
Strengthen us by your Spirit,
and make us worthy of your call;
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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