Epiphany 5a: Be the Church

Epiphany 5A

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Isaiah 58:1-9a, (9b-12)
1 Corinthians 2:1-12, (13-16)
Matthew 5:13-20
Psalm 112:1-9, (10)

Enriching Our Worship, an approved liturgical supplement to the Book of Common Prayer, has a wonderful acclamation the reader declares at the end of a reading: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people.

For me, this statement clearly declares the text we read, listen and soak up on a Sunday morning is the living Word of God.  This statement declares that Scripture is an active and relevant communication—God speaking to us right now in this time and place. 

Let’s listen again to the prophet Isaiah and hear God’s word.

“Isn’t this the fast I choose for you to keep: to break the chains of injustice, to get rid of exploitation in the workplace, to free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is
sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
covering the naked when you see them, being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,  and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You will call out for help and I will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you get rid of unfair practices, if you quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
if you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You will use the old rubble of past lives to build anew.  You will rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You will be known as those who can fix anything,
those who can restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
and make the community livable again.[1]

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people.

Beloved, Jesus came to free us from our sins.  Sin, simply put, is misplaced love.  Sin is loving ourselves more than we love our neighbor.  Loving ourselves more than we love God.  We are freed from our sin when we choose to live the life of the sacrificial love of Jesus instead of the self-centered love of the world.  We are freed and saved by living the agape love that is centered on the welfare of our sisters and brothers---centered on the common good of the entirety of God’s people---the agape love that reveals the Kingdom of God.

Yes, it is hard. It is improbable...in fact, impossible without God’s help. And at times we will fail.  No doubt about it.  But if we believe and trust in a God of abundance, then we must trust that God gives us what is needed to do God’s mission.  And let’s not forget that God places us in community---bound to one another—just as the Holy Trinity is bound together—so that we might encourage one another, strengthen one another, equip one another to live this agape love that we—and the entire world—so desperately need.

The living Word speaks to us today---urging us, imploring us, to live our faith. To be Salt and Light.  Actively, intentionally, faithfully.

We will never change the world by going to church.

We will only change the world by being the church.

---

[1] Isaiah 58: 6-12, taken from The Message and the Common English Bible