{"id":593,"date":"2020-02-09T20:02:14","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T20:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=593"},"modified":"2020-02-09T20:02:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T20:02:20","slug":"fifth-sunday-after-epiphany-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2020\/02\/09\/fifth-sunday-after-epiphany-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifth Sunday after Epiphany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Isaiah 58:1-12<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prophets,\nand there have been a lot of them throughout the history of God\u2019s people, these\nmen and women have often spoken with a threatening tone, offering God\u2019s word of\nwarning to disobedient nations. Isaiah, while he often spoke of the wonders of\nthe day of the coming of the Messiah, he did not as a prophet shy away from\nexpressing God\u2019s warnings in harsh terms. Jesus also, while thought of mostly\nbecause of his loving and forgiving message, and known as the provider of\nhealings and feedings, at times spoke as a prophet and he was not afraid to\nproclaim God\u2019s word of warning and the need to obey the Law, even knowing that\nGod will forgive the sins of the people through his sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking\nof Isaiah words, as found in today\u2019s reading, I can\u2019t help but to think of the impeachment\nhearings that just took place in Congress, the expansive lying and the petty\nbehavior of our leaders, along with the avoidance of justice and then there is also\nour election process, the debates with all the political rhetoric including all\nkinds of deception and half-truths which we heard also in the State of the\nUnion Address and the responses of the audience. We as the church and as\nindividuals pray for our Nation, as we should, but about our nation, it seems\nthat we can plug in the words of Isaiah with only a few minor changes, \u201cYet day\nafter day (we) seek (the Lord) and delight to know (the Lord\u2019s ways), as if\n(we) were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the\nordinance of (our) God; we ask of \u201cthe Lord\u201d righteous judgments\u201d. Righteous\njudgments! We say that we want righteous judgments; we say that we want the\ntruth; but, do we? Can we handle true justice? We may not like it; we say, as a\npeople of the United States that we want righteousness and justice and the\ntruth, but we accept from the leaders of our government, as though it were the\ntruth, political rhetoric, outright lies and unjust practices. We forgive or to\nbe more accurate, we ignore the lies (those that we can identify) that are\nspoken by our leaders and we ignore and accept the unrealistic and grand\nstatements of our politicians as simply a part of the political process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m\na realist, I understand that we do not live in a Christian nation, even our\nfounders made this clear, but living in a nation such as ours that accepts\nreligious freedom, you would think, you would hope that it would embrace, at\nleast for the most part, honesty and truth and justice. It might not be as our\nChristian faith might want it; the truth is it would be unrealistic for us to\nexpect our government to fully agree with our Christian understanding of\nrighteousness, justice, forgiveness and love, but it could be better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m\nnot Isaiah, I\u2019m not called to prophecy to our nation; if God were calling me today\nto be a prophet of the Lord and speak to this our nation, I would be forced to\nspeak with bold words of condemnation and a warning of God\u2019s well-deserved\njudgment (punishment). In all honesty, I pray that a voice of power and renown\nwill so prophecy, but I\u2019m not that voice; I\u2019ve not been called to speak to our\nnation as a prophet, but rather to speak to you. And to speak to you is a very different\nthing; you are not the ones who are currently leading our country in such flawed\nand unjust ways. But you (we) are a part of the process; to you, I have been\ncalled to encourage you to seek the highest of standards from our government\nleaders, to look beyond the political rhetoric, for the truth, to seek leaders\nwho will try to be righteous and just, leaders who will share justice with the\nweakest of the weak as well as the richest of the rich. And hopefully, to seek\nin our country to \u201cloose the bonds of injustice\u201d and to free the oppressed (as\nspoken by Isaiah).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\nhands are not clean in all of this; the wrong that takes place is not all the\nfault of our elected and appointed government officials; the truth is the best\nof governments cannot care for all of the people. We as individuals, as\nChristians have our own responsibilities; we are called upon to share our bread\nwith the hungry (we do this as we support PACS), to care for the homeless (we\nmake meals for St. Mary\u2019s Shelter and support the Good Samaritan Shelter), and to\nclothe those who are insufficiently dressed (we just gathered some blankets and\nclothing for the homeless in Kensington). Our responsibility as Christians is\nto set the example for our political leaders, our neighbors and the world;\nChristianity grew to be as influential as it is, because of the example\nChristians have set and also because of the message of love (the love of Jesus)\nthat we share with our neighbors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\nmore thing, we do not, do all of this, because it is the righteous thing to do and\nwe do not do this to put ourselves in good stead with the Lord as though we can\nearn God\u2019s love; it is certainly good to be righteous, but we do all of this\nbecause Jesus, who died for the forgiveness of our sins, already loves us,\nwants each of us to love God and love and care for each other and so by such\nlove, follow the Law of God. Even Isaiah who surely expected the punishment of\nthe Lord, because of the evil that Israel was doing as a nation and as\nindividuals of the nation, understood that acting according to the will of God\nwas its own reward, for you see, by following God\u2019s will, Isaiah understood\nthat he would see the love of God in his life and the lives of others; in\nIsaiah\u2019s words, \u201cyou shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water,\nwhose waters never fail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\nin this place, there are springs of living water flowing in you and throughout\nthis wonderful congregation, (and this has nothing to do with being in Chester\nSprings) some of these springs engulf us with this living water, sharing with\nus the Spirit\u2019s wisdom and the Lord\u2019s love. Sadly many of us, cap off these wonderful\nsprings of living water, that could easily, if we let them, run out from us to\nothers, offering Jesus\u2019 love and forgiveness and the wisdom of the Lord, maybe\neven truths that our world and nation do not seem to want to hear; we cap off\nthese springs of living water, because we are afraid of how others may receive\nits truths and love and us. and so, we do not let these living waters flow\nfreely out into the world. Uncap your springs of living water, let these\nstreams of water guide you into making wise and loving choices in your\ncommunities, at your work places and at your polling places; let the words of\nthe Spirit\u2019s wisdom and the expression of the Lord\u2019s love that flow from these\nsprings be made known to our neighbors but also to our sitting leaders, and to the\nrunning candidates and to all those who are and who want to be in authority.\nPray for our leaders; pray that they will serve all people well; pray for your\nfriends and those you disagree with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 58:1-12 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Prophets, and there have been a lot of them throughout the history of God\u2019s people, these men and women have often spoken with a threatening tone, offering God\u2019s word of warning to disobedient nations. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}