Saturday January 25 Epiphany 2
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Psalm 30
Because of its references to being in the grave, followed by joy, this psalm is often used on Saturdays, the weekly mini-anniversary of Jesus’ being in the grave.
“God’s wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye”—it’s not that God is losing God’s temper, but that God made the world so that actions have predictable consequences—anything else would produce chaos. It’s inevitable that evil selfish actions on our part have consequences but the psalm proclaims that God’s goodness acts to overcome the evils that we have caused. Christians interpret Jesus’ dying and rising as the process by which God accomplishes fulfilment and joy for us despite our evil.
Psalm 32
When I acknowledged my sin, I received immense joy. When we acknowledge our participation in oppressive policies, we know God will overcome those, and we can also be in joy instead of living in denial or guilt. Then we will have the energy to act against those oppressions.
Isaiah 46: 1-13 What’s Isaiah about?
Isaiah uses an extraordinary set of images: the powerless idols of Babylon whose technology so impressed the Israelites weigh down the weary animals that have to carry them, and the true God acts like an animal carrying the weary Israelites from their birth to old age. This God laughs at the idols—only this God can change the future and see what will happen, and direct King Cyrus like a falconer controls a falcon to rescue the people. It was a stroke of genius to re-interpret history in this way.
Mark 5: 1-20 What’s Mark about?
Jesus calms another kind of storm—this time inside someone who has been overcome with evil. Notice that the demons are called “Legion”—it is no coincidence that that is the name of the military force oppressing the country—the Roman empire is being experienced as a herd of demons driving the people crazy. Notice that the Jews who are raising pigs— which are disgusting in Judaism—want Jesus to leave so they can continue with their disgusting business—many Jews were cooperating with Roman oppression. Today our society’s priorities are often driven by the gods of profit regardless of how damaging the outcomes are.
Like Jesus, we also may be asked to leave if we challenge our society’s selfish priorities, but the good news is that God’s justice will prevail regardless as it did with this man who Jesus made same. Trust in that enables us to be active disciples.
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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