Epiphany 3: Assembling the Team

Isaiah 9:1-4
Psalm 27:1, 4-9
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23

First Lesson: Isaiah 9:1-4

Challenges:

Another week, more Isaiah.  It's pretty obvious that this has been chosen due to the reference to the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, which points to our Gospel lesson and Jesus' ministry in Galilee.  As I have said in other posts, sometimes there are texts that don't seem to have many challenges and this is one of them: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light..." What could be the problem with that?!?!?! It's amazing.

The closest I could come with a challenge is that it can be hard to do such texts true justice in a sermon or Bible Study.  As a preacher you can look at a text like this and worry about your ability to get the true brilliance, meaning, and hope in this passage.  You want the import of what is being said to be relevant, yet not "dumbed down."  How do you do that?

Oh, and what exactly is the "day of Midian?"  People probably won't know...

Opportunities:

Again, this lesson can provide an excellent "assist" to the Gospel lesson.  There was enough corruption and oppression in Isaiah's, Jesus' and our day to make a phrase like "the people who have walked in darkness" make all too much sense. Perhaps you could give a short description of some of the corruption going on throughout the world (a google search should suffice for finding examples).  This could vividly describe the darkness.  It's one thing to talk about darkness in the abstract, it's another to be confronted by it in a flesh-and-blood example.

The Good News: 

There IS a lot of darkness out there: ink-black darkness that can feel very, very overwhelming. BUT, there is a great light. That light is provided by God through Jesus Christ.  The light might not always be pleasant (it can shine on things we are less than excited about), but it will be freeing.  As Rob Bell once said, "God is in the liberation business," and verse 4 bears this out.

 

Psalm: Psalm 27:1, 4-9

Challenges:

It always feels a bit weird when a psalm has been chopped up like this.  It's also too easy to spend all of our time complaining about how the RCL committee chopped it up and not get at what this psalm can say to us.  Complaints might make us all feel better and superior, but it is hardly productive.

One challenge that comes from this Psalm is the attitude toward the speaker's ("psalm-er's"?) enemies.  There's not much reconciliation here: it's very much an 'us versus them' message.  A lot of this is avoided by skipping verses 2-3, but you get a hint of it with verse 6.

This begs the question: what should our approach to our enemies be?  What's a 'biblical' approach?  While there might not be just one biblical approach, we can certainly look at Jesus' approach, and a study of this would certainly be worthwhile.

Opportunities:

Psalm 27:1 is one of those verses that can be very helpful to have memorized.  When a person (or community) has a verse like this in their 'vocabulary' or 'prayer arsenal' if you will, it can be very useful in both moments of joy and celebration as well as moment of deep need and darkness.  Maybe you could have this verse printed on little slips of paper that can be handed out to the congregation while you encourage everyone to carry it with them throughout the week.

The Good News: 

Again, if you are looking for the good news, just look at some of the words in this psalm: light, salvation, stronghold, beauty, shelter, cover, lifted, etc.  God is active and acting.  God is a God of help.

Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 

Challenges:

This is a very practical, timely and helpful passage for ANY time in church history, and our time is certainly not an exception.  BUT, we also see a bit of Paul's personality here.  If there is one thing that Paul has in spades, it's personality (and energy too, but that's a different post).  Some people don't find Paul's personality to be a problem. Others find him to be cantankerous, pushy and annoying.  I'm sure some people could be put off by the way Paul starts by saying that be baptized only Crispus and Gaius...and then adds a few more people after that. (Other people might find this rhetorical approach to be a bit funny, I'd be one of those).

The question is, how do we deal with someone whose personality is not necessarily to our liking, but who is still very definitely in the canon. 

Opportunities:

The opportunities here are endless.  How easy and appropriate would it be for us to add our own denominational leaders or founders into verse 13: "...Was Martin Luther/John Calvin/John Wesley/Billy Graham/whoever crucified for you?"  Another approach would be to talk about church division by starting with a seemingly 'silly' example (the color of the carpet, the position of the piano in the sanctuary, you name it) to get everyone in the mood, and then drive straight home with a truly deep and divisive issue which would be up to you (abortion, church-and-state, sexuality, you name it).  This could be an excellent chance to talk about how we are not united by agreeing 100% of the time, but rather by Christ.

Also, I use the Prepare/Enrich program for my premarital counseling and it points out an important truth for situations with conflict.  Strong, health relationships are not without conflict.  These relationships just know how to face them.  May that be the case for the church!

The Good News: 

I find hope in the fact that this sort of division happened 2,000 years ago and yet the church is still here.  Early Christians faced the same sorts of human problems that we face, just in a different context.  Christ came to save sinners and that's us. Thank God for that.  

Gospel: Matthew 4:12-23

Challenges:

The lectionary skips right over Jesus' temptation in the wilderness (we'll see it on the first Sunday of Lent).  It will be tempting to mention this, deal with this, etc.  It's quite possible that you could do this, but it could also prove to be a distraction. No need to take out your frustrations with the RCL Committee and whoever else on your congregation! 

Much like last week's lesson from John 1, it's as if we have two major emphases here: the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Galilee and then his calling of the first disciples.  The two are related, of course, but it does seem like this is a lot of ground to cover. It is perfectly fine to emphasize one over the other.  Personally, I'm going with the calling of the disciples, but that's me.

Opportunities:

If you are a fan of movies, you might be familiar the "gathering a team" motif in cinema.  You'll see it when a team is gathered together, usually by a key leader, in order to accomplish a specific task.  Many film critics believe that Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai" was the first of such films and that it inspired a myriad of other examples: "The Magnificient Seven," "The Guns of Navaronne," "The Dirty Dozen," "Oceans Eleven" are just a few examples.  See what Roger Ebert has to say about "The Seven Samurai" here.

I can't help but think of this motif when I read about Jesus calling his disciples.  Here we have the ultimate leader assembling a team for what will become the ultimate mission: the salvation of the world.  While the team he assembles has some initial issues (see Christ's ministry on earth, especially Holy Week), they are molded into an amazing force by the gift of the Holy Spirit in John 20/Acts 2 depending on your evangelist.

Drawing attention to this motif can be fun, exciting and inspiring.  After all, in baptism we are brought onto the team and are given a mission.

The Good News:

Again and again, as I read about Jesus' work, I am inspired by the idea that God cares.  God cares enough for us, that God sent God's Son.  And not just in such a way that everything would be easy, but where it would be hard.  N.T. Wright likes to describe the Incarnation as God's Rescue Mission: I think we really see that here.  Help is on the way!