Good morning friends! :) Happy Sunday. Today begins Epiphany, the season after Jesus birth when the magi come to visit Jesus. The season of epiphany is perfect for those that are skeptics of religion. For those that rely more on what is grounded, rational, experimental. Why? Because the magi were not magicians, they were "wise" men. They were intellectuals. Epiphany is a season to celebrate those moments where we just go "I don't know what happened, how it happened, or why it happened. But it happened. God is good." Scripture is full of those moments. Today's reading is not one of those. It's grim, it's violent, its painful. Yet I believe the voice of God is still loud enough for those searching for it.
Scripture to Read
Audio Bible
Questions to Consider
What does this teach me about God?
What does this teach me about humanity?
Have there been times where I felt the anger at others expressed by Isaiah? What brought me peace?
How does the psalm give life to an otherwise darker day of scripture?
- My Thoughts -
I'm not sure if it's a result of the "darker" tone of today's scripture or if God is just nudging me but I noticed that this section of the psalms consists of the smallest section of psalms, the psalms of thanksgiving. I find it to be so perfect for the message of the messiah, that the light will defeat the darkness. The beginning of the exile is undoubtedly one of the hardest time in the Hebrew people's journey of faith and of life. They begin to feel anger and give into it. They wish terrible things upon people. I get it, we all get it. We've been there. But the darkness doesn't win. At the end of the reading and the end of the day the psalm calling us to praise God is still there. I'm not sure how you are doing mentally right now - with the pandemic and the election and all that jazz, but if you feel like the darkness has won. Reread psalm 112 and smile each time it says praise. The light for the world, and for you has come. So let us praise God!
Prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.