OT Lesson for Trinity Sunday

Isaiah 40:21-end (NRSV)

²¹Have you not known? Have you not heard?
   Has it not been told you from the beginning?
   Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
²²It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
   and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
   and spreads them like a tent to live in;
²³who brings princes to naught,
   and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

²⁴Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
   scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and they wither,
   and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

²⁵To whom then will you compare me,
   or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
²⁶Lift up your eyes on high and see:
   Who created these?
He who brings out their host and numbers them,
   calling them all by name;
because he is great in strength,
   mighty in power,
   not one is missing.

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob,
   and speak, O Israel,
‘My way is hidden from the Lord,
   and my right is disregarded by my God’?
²⁸Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹He gives power to the faint,
   and strengthens the powerless.
³⁰Even youths will faint and be weary,
   and the young will fall exhausted;
³¹but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
   they shall walk and not faint.

Brother Mark,

Doesn’t this passage bring back wonderful memories – once again - of us at St Alpheges in Pietermaritzburg – and the book Let’s Sing Scripture. Part of the secret of the Methodist revival in the 18^th century and the charismatic renewal of the 1970s was to put to good music, good theology! We used to sing verse 31 with great gusto and enjoy the reminder that as we wait upon the Lord, we renew our strength “… they shall mount up with wings like eagles … …”

Of course the people of Judah needed reminding of the blessings that were theirs. Their sin had landed them in trouble and they had been defeated and taken off into exile in Babylon. They, like us, often forget God’s love in times of difficulty. And so the Prophet begins his hymn: “Have you not known … heard …” because the people were behaving as though they had forgotten the love and blessing of their God.

Of great significance is verse 27b: ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’? This gives expression to the people’s feelings of rejection by God and the idea that they have been forgotten by God. Who are they that God cares for them? Barrie Webb writes that they thought the following: “Isn’t the truth rather that we are too small to be of more than passing interest to Him, and that if He really cared about us, surely he has long since ceased t do so?” (page 165)

We often fall into the same trap: “Who are we that God is mindful of us?” Nothing could be further from the truth. And so the prophet returns to his “… have you not heard …” mantra again to remind them that the creator and sustainer of all that is, does in fact care more deeply than they (and we) can ever imagine. He never tires of loving us and his ways are unsearchable. Webb continues: “… the fact is that no one and nothing is too small to be important to him or worthy of his attention and care.”

Our minds are too small to be able to comprehend both the power and the love of God, yet, as G Ernest Wright explains: “… all that exists is in complete dependence upon him …” So, how can one possibly believe that such a God would ever disregard anyone who turns to him. Here is the hub. We need to turn to God to receive his blessing in our lives. We return therefore to the idea of repentance. It was the people’s turning away from God that had landed them in exile in Babylon – it was not God’s doing. Despite the outcry of the early Isaiah giving them warning after warning, coupled with Jeremiah and others, the people thought that they knew better. And they reaped what they had sown. So, it does not make sense in human terms, for God still to want them back to bless them, but he did and does. But we need to change direction and return to God if this blessing is to be a reality in our lives

It is a simple but wonderful truth – God never tires of forgiving all those who turn to Him. And what is more, his forgiveness is complete. The Psalmist writes of our sins being removed from us as far as the East is from the West. God’s ‘… understanding is unsearchable …’

I am reminded of the Catholic nun who believed she met with our Lord when she prayed. The matter was reported to her Bishop who, quite rightly, decided to check it all out. He instructed her to ask “Jesus” what his (the Bishop’s) sins were that he confessed at his last confession. In Catholic tradition, with the sanctity of the confessional, only Jesus and the Priest who had heard the confession would know! A short while later the Bishop was summoned to the convent because the mystic nun had received a reply. He was nervous, thinking that he was summoned personally so as to save him embarrassment. When he arrived he asked the Nun: “Sister, what did Jesus say were the sins that I confessed at my last confession?” To which the nun replied: “Jesus told me that he has forgotten!”

“As far as the East is from the West …” (Psalm 103.12)

But we struggle to live as those forgiven – or at least I do. I am sure that when I sometimes confess, Jesus replies: “David, I do not know what you are talking about!”

We get to live by faith with all the joy and peace when we wait upon the Lord. Jesus needed to get away to pray and be with His Father and so do we. When we wait upon the Lord, we renew our strength. What a lovely image. And it keeps getting better: “… they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

When we used to sing this as undergraduates it used to end with important words: “Teach me Lord, teach me Lord, to wait.”

Wait upon the Lord, Brother and be blessed.

Gospel for Pentecost Sunday

John 20:19-23 (NRSV)

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

Today (with the aid of Barclay and Ryle) I reflect on verses 19-23.

To the modern reader, these opening verses present some difficulty. John takes care to include the detail that the doors were closed and securely locked and Jesus was still able to enter. Ryle comments:

“Like all the events which followed our Lord’s resurrection, there is much in the facts before us which is mysterious, and requires reverent handling.”

To try to explain them – according to Ryle – leads to ‘… unprofitable speculation. … We shall find it safer and wiser to confine our attention to points which are plain and instructive …’

The disciples returned to the upper room where they had shared the Last Supper with Jesus. Now, however, they were terrified because they knew that the Jewish authorities were on the warpath to eliminate even the memory of Jesus. Would it be the rest of them next? Barclay writes:

“So, they were meeting in terror, listening fearfully for every step on the stair and for every knock at the door, lest the emissaries of the Sanhedrin should come to arrest them too.”

Into their midst Jesus suddenly appeared and greeted them with the words: “Peace be with you …”

These would have been loaded with meaning for the disciples gathered here. Ryle comments:

“He spoke, we may be sure, with special reference to the events of the last few days, and with special reference to their future ministry. ‘Peace’ and not blame, - ‘peace’ and not fault-finding, - ‘peace’ and not rebuke, - was the first word which this little company heard from their Master’s lips, after He left the tomb.’

This is entirely in keeping with our Lord’s ministry. ‘Peace on earth’ was the song sung at Jesus’ birth, and peace and rest for the human soul was the essence of what Jesus had taught over the past three years of the disciples’ experience. Ryle suggests that it is ‘peace’ that Jesus intended to be the key-note to the Christian ministry and Jesus wanted this to be central to the Christian message of the Gospel.

The Apostle Paul reminds us that what Jesus came to earth to give is peace between humankind and God as he wrote in the opening verses of chapter 5 of his letter to the Romans:

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

This is indeed the essence of the Gospel. We, like the disciples who met in the Upper Room on this occasion, so often get things terribly wrong and we find ourselves fearful and full of guilt as a result. Just as Jesus entered into their presence in a miraculous way on this occasion, so he miraculously comes to meet us where we are and gives us the same message. “It’s okay, I forgive you, peace be with you…”

It is interesting to note how Jesus provided this gathering with excellent evidence that it was in fact he who had risen from the dead: he showed them his hands and his side. He invited them to see with their own eyes that he had a real, material body and that he was no ghost or spirit. Ryle comments:

“… great … was the principle which He established for the use of His Church in every age until He returns. That principle is; that our Master requires us to believe nothing that is contrary to our senses. Things above our reason we must expect to find in a religion that comes from God, but not things contrary to reason.”

And then Jesus commissioned them: “As the father sent me, so I send you …” And he equipped them for the task as he breathes on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit …”

The Church is now the presence of Jesus in the world – as Paul explains in Ephesians 1:23 and 1 Corinthians 12:12) - we are ‘… the Body of Christ …’ It is our task to take the message of peace to all people. The Church is the mouth of God to speak and reveal God’s message to the peoples of the world. But we need to remain united with Christ for without this we have no power, no support, and no strength. We need to nurture our relationship with God through the study of the Word and the faithful offering of the Sacraments. It is this relationship that matters and here it requires obedience and perfect love. Barclay writes:

“The Church must never be out to propagate her message; she must be out to propagate the message of Christ. She must never be out to follow man-made policies; she must be out to follow the will of Christ.”

To fulfil our commission we must always rely on the witness and testimony of the Holy Spirit which is that which makes us – transforms us – into the image of Christ, both as individuals and as a gathering of the Church.

John reminds us that at creation what gave humankind the image of God was God breathing into them (Genesis 2:7) Ezekiel (37:9) saw the  same thing in the valley of the dead, dry bones until God breathes life into them. The coming of the Holy Spirit is like the wakening of life from the dead and when it fills the Church she is recreated and equipped for her task. Without it, the Church simply does her own work and dies.

We have the lovely message of peace and with it comes the essential message of forgiveness. Only God can forgive sins, but we are given the power and authority to act as God’s agents and thus able to say to those who are truly penitent: “Your sins are forgiven!” Barclay concludes: “This sentence lays down the duty of the Church to convey forgiveness to the penitent in heart and to warn the impenitent that they are forfeiting the mercy of God.”