Epiphany 2 / OT 2
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
... The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me.
-- Isaiah 49:1
It is clear that the prophet was speaking about the corporate community of faith, even though he used the image of an individual. In verse 3 he said, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified." For Christians, however, who see the life of Israel reembodied in the person of Jesus, we hear the words of the prophet on at least three levels. The prophet's words speak to us about Israel as a community, Jesus as a person, and the church as a community. In all three instances, they remind us that the call of God that sets our path has its origin in the eternity of God. "The Lord called me before I was born." There is a meaning and purpose in our lives that transcends any immediate experience. Even our dark moments have a larger significance. "But I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.' " As Israel has repeatedly had to remind itself, and as Jesus affirmed in his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39), the church would do well to remind itself that it has a purpose that is greater than its individual success and survival. "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant ... I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." Like Israel, the church has frequently displayed a weakness for the temptation to disobedience and fractious fighting among ourselves. By our internal quarreling, we, also, have become "deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers...." but God keeps advancing the divine purpose through us "because of the Lord, who is faithful, the holy one of Israel, who has chosen you."
-- Isaiah 49:1
It is clear that the prophet was speaking about the corporate community of faith, even though he used the image of an individual. In verse 3 he said, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified." For Christians, however, who see the life of Israel reembodied in the person of Jesus, we hear the words of the prophet on at least three levels. The prophet's words speak to us about Israel as a community, Jesus as a person, and the church as a community. In all three instances, they remind us that the call of God that sets our path has its origin in the eternity of God. "The Lord called me before I was born." There is a meaning and purpose in our lives that transcends any immediate experience. Even our dark moments have a larger significance. "But I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.' " As Israel has repeatedly had to remind itself, and as Jesus affirmed in his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39), the church would do well to remind itself that it has a purpose that is greater than its individual success and survival. "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant ... I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." Like Israel, the church has frequently displayed a weakness for the temptation to disobedience and fractious fighting among ourselves. By our internal quarreling, we, also, have become "deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers...." but God keeps advancing the divine purpose through us "because of the Lord, who is faithful, the holy one of Israel, who has chosen you."
