The Personality of a Personal God
Commentary
These three scriptures tell us much about how personal God is, and how personal we are to treat each other. One size does not fit all. As the people are being restored as a nation, Isaiah reminds them God is personally involved with creation, numbering and naming the stars, and tirelessly goes about the business of being God.
If God the creator numbers and names the stars, Jesus the Son of God pursues a ministry that is directed towards people as individuals — Peter’s mother-in-law, those who plead for their loved ones’ healing, those possessed by demons, and since he did not come to save just a few, those in other villages all around.
God’s Spirit may be leading Paul to focus on the needs of individuals based on their backgrounds. Paul does not slap a “one size fits all” gospel on the table, but emphasizes how important it is to tailor his approach to ministry towards each individual according to their background. City folks don’t get a country gospel and country folks don’t get a city gospel.
Isaiah 40:21-31
Now that the people of God are coming back from exile, Isaiah portrays a tireless God who handcrafted the universe, is aware of each star’s identity, and ours as well, and rejuvenates us for the great work ahead.
This passage, like Psalm 104, paints the picture of an artistic hands-on God. In this sense it complements the majesty of Genesis 1. One senses delight in this universe. Note that God is not impressed by royalty. This is in stark contrast to other ancient faiths, where it was assumed, as with the Egyptian Pharaohs and Roman Emperors, that these monarchs were descended from gods and would be welcomed as important personages in the afterlife. God’s concern is for those who are tired, those who are weary, who have given up hope. God’s attention is on us nobodies! “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God?’” (40:27) On the contrary, God hasn’t lost sight of us. God is focused on us!
While I enjoy the closing verses of this passage, all that business about mounting up with wings like eagles, running and not growing weary, I have to ask: What does it mean to share in being tireless, especially when we get very weary. Is there something wrong with us if, in the normal course of events, we’re simply not able to do what we used to do? A person is not a failure if age or ailments have made it difficult or impossible to do all we wish to do for God’s kingdom. What gives us hope here is that the condition of waiting, of not seeing our fondest desires fulfilled at this moment, draws us closer to God, who may be still waiting on us as a people to recognize who leads us!
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
It is just possible that some might say that by becoming all things to all people Paul is saying that he has no core values, but nothing could be further from the truth. Paul is a Jew from Tarsus who studied under Gamaliel who studied under Hillel, whose understanding of Pharasaic hermeneutics and rhetoric is matchless. He’s a citizen of Rome with a great deal of knowledge about gentile literature, culture, and athletics. He is comfortable in Philippi, a town with no synagogue, and in Jerusalem, the center of Temple worship. He is at home in Athens, the center of philosophy, and Rome, the fount of law. He can quote the Hebrew scriptures pretty much by heart, and is comfortable arguing without those scriptures when he is speaking to those who do not recognize them as sacred texts. What he is doing is personalizing his message because everyone has a different filter. They all look at the world from a different viewpoint. The Christian faith, Paul asserts, does not have a predominant culture that alters the faith. Rather the Christian faith is at home in all cultures and transforms all cultures. Therefore in Philippi, a Roman city whose residents have never seen the city they are citizens of, he speaks of being citizens of heaven, another place they haven’t seen — yet. The Galatians are Celts for whom stories told orally become reality. To them Paul asserts that they have seen Christ crucified, even though they weren’t there, because they bought into the story. In Athens he speaks about their statue to an unnamed god. In Jerusalem he pays the fee to release four poor young men from their Nazarite vows.
Our faith is personal as our God is personal! Paul describes himself as a slave to all, a shocking statement that would have been considered at the least in bad taste. This service is what we see in Jesus, who is obedient even as a slave all the way to the cross.
Mark 1:29-39
Having proclaimed that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and the time is up – that is, the time of waiting for the Messiah is over — Jesus proceeds to reach the world by reaching out to individuals. Peter’s mother-in-law, the demon possessed, the sick and the suffering. Then rather than set up shop in one town, as a teacher might have done, requiring that disciples come to him, Jesus continues to go out to the people, from village to village, touching individuals, changing lives, calling disciples, bringing God’s kingdom to life among ordinary folks with crushing problems.
In the Isaiah passage we learned about a God who handcrafts the universe yet knows each star — and all of us — by name. Jesus ignores humanmade boundaries, touches lives, and crosses boundaries. In healing Peter’s mother-in-law Jesus broke three boundaries — he touched a sick and therefore unclean person who was also a woman to whom he was not related, and he did it on the Sabbath. People matter.
We’ve just been through what feels like an unprecedented pandemic — but it is precedented. It’s happened before. Disease is nothing new. Jesus acted. It was up to us to act as well, and as we reflect on our performance, whether we were in the front lines, or attempting to isolate, whether we wore a mask or refused to hoard toilet paper, we need to ask ourselves what we did, and if it was for real people.
If God the creator numbers and names the stars, Jesus the Son of God pursues a ministry that is directed towards people as individuals — Peter’s mother-in-law, those who plead for their loved ones’ healing, those possessed by demons, and since he did not come to save just a few, those in other villages all around.
God’s Spirit may be leading Paul to focus on the needs of individuals based on their backgrounds. Paul does not slap a “one size fits all” gospel on the table, but emphasizes how important it is to tailor his approach to ministry towards each individual according to their background. City folks don’t get a country gospel and country folks don’t get a city gospel.
Isaiah 40:21-31
Now that the people of God are coming back from exile, Isaiah portrays a tireless God who handcrafted the universe, is aware of each star’s identity, and ours as well, and rejuvenates us for the great work ahead.
This passage, like Psalm 104, paints the picture of an artistic hands-on God. In this sense it complements the majesty of Genesis 1. One senses delight in this universe. Note that God is not impressed by royalty. This is in stark contrast to other ancient faiths, where it was assumed, as with the Egyptian Pharaohs and Roman Emperors, that these monarchs were descended from gods and would be welcomed as important personages in the afterlife. God’s concern is for those who are tired, those who are weary, who have given up hope. God’s attention is on us nobodies! “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God?’” (40:27) On the contrary, God hasn’t lost sight of us. God is focused on us!
While I enjoy the closing verses of this passage, all that business about mounting up with wings like eagles, running and not growing weary, I have to ask: What does it mean to share in being tireless, especially when we get very weary. Is there something wrong with us if, in the normal course of events, we’re simply not able to do what we used to do? A person is not a failure if age or ailments have made it difficult or impossible to do all we wish to do for God’s kingdom. What gives us hope here is that the condition of waiting, of not seeing our fondest desires fulfilled at this moment, draws us closer to God, who may be still waiting on us as a people to recognize who leads us!
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
It is just possible that some might say that by becoming all things to all people Paul is saying that he has no core values, but nothing could be further from the truth. Paul is a Jew from Tarsus who studied under Gamaliel who studied under Hillel, whose understanding of Pharasaic hermeneutics and rhetoric is matchless. He’s a citizen of Rome with a great deal of knowledge about gentile literature, culture, and athletics. He is comfortable in Philippi, a town with no synagogue, and in Jerusalem, the center of Temple worship. He is at home in Athens, the center of philosophy, and Rome, the fount of law. He can quote the Hebrew scriptures pretty much by heart, and is comfortable arguing without those scriptures when he is speaking to those who do not recognize them as sacred texts. What he is doing is personalizing his message because everyone has a different filter. They all look at the world from a different viewpoint. The Christian faith, Paul asserts, does not have a predominant culture that alters the faith. Rather the Christian faith is at home in all cultures and transforms all cultures. Therefore in Philippi, a Roman city whose residents have never seen the city they are citizens of, he speaks of being citizens of heaven, another place they haven’t seen — yet. The Galatians are Celts for whom stories told orally become reality. To them Paul asserts that they have seen Christ crucified, even though they weren’t there, because they bought into the story. In Athens he speaks about their statue to an unnamed god. In Jerusalem he pays the fee to release four poor young men from their Nazarite vows.
Our faith is personal as our God is personal! Paul describes himself as a slave to all, a shocking statement that would have been considered at the least in bad taste. This service is what we see in Jesus, who is obedient even as a slave all the way to the cross.
Mark 1:29-39
Having proclaimed that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and the time is up – that is, the time of waiting for the Messiah is over — Jesus proceeds to reach the world by reaching out to individuals. Peter’s mother-in-law, the demon possessed, the sick and the suffering. Then rather than set up shop in one town, as a teacher might have done, requiring that disciples come to him, Jesus continues to go out to the people, from village to village, touching individuals, changing lives, calling disciples, bringing God’s kingdom to life among ordinary folks with crushing problems.
In the Isaiah passage we learned about a God who handcrafts the universe yet knows each star — and all of us — by name. Jesus ignores humanmade boundaries, touches lives, and crosses boundaries. In healing Peter’s mother-in-law Jesus broke three boundaries — he touched a sick and therefore unclean person who was also a woman to whom he was not related, and he did it on the Sabbath. People matter.
We’ve just been through what feels like an unprecedented pandemic — but it is precedented. It’s happened before. Disease is nothing new. Jesus acted. It was up to us to act as well, and as we reflect on our performance, whether we were in the front lines, or attempting to isolate, whether we wore a mask or refused to hoard toilet paper, we need to ask ourselves what we did, and if it was for real people.
