Epiphany 3A, 22 Jan. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
- Isaiah 9:1-4. For the yoke of their burden…you have broken.
- 1 Corinthians 1:10-18. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. [To me, this is one of the funniest lines in all of scripture.]
- Matthew 4:12-23. He saw [them] … and he called them
O God of darkness and light, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.
We’ve returned to the Gospel of Matthew; and so again, our lesson from Isaiah sounds as if it were teeing up the Gospel lesson. To Christian ears, it may even sound as if Isaiah was anticipating Jesus. But, as I said two Sundays ago, Isaiah wasn’t anticipating Jesus any more than Isaiah was anticipating George Frederic Handel. Isaiah wasn’t anticipating Emmanuel Church either, but here we are again! It’s is exactly the other way around. Probably in Antioch of Syria at least two generations after Jesus’ death, Matthew was living and growing in the teachings and stories of Jesus. Matthew’s audience was living with the political, economic, legal, religious, and cultural consequences of Roman imperialism, just as we are living with the consequences of American imperialism. [1] Retelling those teachings and stories about Jesus in a written Gospel toward the end of the first century of the Common Era, Matthew was thinking, “These stories sound so much like the stories that Isaiah told eight-hundred years ago!” Matthew wanted to make sure that his community heard and understood the connections. I want to make sure that my community hears and understands the connections, too.
Continue reading