Devotions for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany
Monday of Epiphany 3 – Prayer of the Week
Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look on our infirmities and stretch forth the hand of Your majesty to heal and defend us; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever
Gina had been abusing drugs since she was 13. She had been through rehab centers 11 times. The world had pretty much given up on Gina. She had pretty much given up on herself. She really thought she was going to die from this. But one day she walked into an emergency room and admitted that she needed help. She had been living on the street for 4 years in London. She met a social worker that day who challenged her. She said she would fight for Gina, but Gina also needed to fight for Gina.
Gina and the social worker did. Today, Gina is in college and getting a degree. How exactly did God stretch out the hand of His majesty to heal her? It was not a lightning bolt from above. She credits the love her family and that social worker. It took a twelfth time in rehabilitation and a new cadre of friends. Gina thanks God today for them all.
God looks on all our infirmities and he answers this prayer with his healing. It will not come through what looks like a miracle, at least not while it is happening. Perhaps, like Gina, you will look back one day and see the fingerprints of God all over your past. But while you are living it, you will likely only see the mundane and everyday faces of people just like you, family, neighbors, and perhaps even a few who are less than friendly. Know that through them God is healing and defending you.
Tuesday of Epiphany 3 – Isaiah 9:1-4
1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
Zebulon and Naphtali are not names you run into much anymore. Zebulon Pike was an early explorer of the American west. There is a mountain named after him Colorado: Pike’s Peak. In the Bible, Zebulon and Naphtali were minor characters. They were lesser-known sons of Israel who fathered small tribes of their own, but tribes which occupied the extreme northern border of Israel. We do not hear very much about them. They have few famous sons. No David or Samuel or Jeremiah or even a Malachi or Micah from their midst. To our ears, they are little more than place names on a map.
By the time of Isaiah, they had been lost the enemies of Israel, distant places which were strange and held by enemies. Yet, God has not forgotten them. He has a way of remembering what we have forgotten. Zebulon and Naphtali had been allotted a portion of land in the days of Joshua near the sea of Galilee. In the days after the exile, when the remnant of Judah returned to the promised land, some of them took up residence in these long-deserted places. That is where Mary and Joseph lived along with their son Jesus.
Our Lord’s ministry, in fulfillment of this prophecy of Isaiah many years before His birth, started here. This is the place where the lame walked, the blind saw, and the lepers were cleansed. The bonds of satanic possession were broken, and a light dawned upon this whole world. God has multiplied the nation. That’s you, probably, since the majority of Christians today are gentiles. Isaiah even saw you and wove you into this story.
The light of Christ shines every time a man or woman comes to believe. It shines when sins are forgiven and a child is given a cup of cold water in his name. Jesus continues to shine in congregations, schools, hospitals, homeless shelters, and nursing homes. How is God increasing your joy today? How is He shining through to increase another person’s joy? Isaiah saw that too. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
Wednesday of Epiphany 3 – Psalm 27:1-9
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.
5 For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.
6 And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
9 Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
Irma was an every-Sunday sort of Christian. She had her favorite spot in the Bible study room and regularly sat right in front of the pulpit in Church, about half-way back in the large church where my father preached. She had a delightful and self-deprecating sense of humor. But she was relentless in her quest to know Jesus and listen to Him.
You would not think of her as a heroic figure. She was rather ridiculous at times, dying her hair red long into her retirement. But if you knew her and had listened to her stories of life, you might realize that she had faced her own version of “adversaries and foes.” Her long life had not been one of ease or of apparent victories. She knew loss, pain, and defeat. Yet, the Lord kept His promise to her. He heard her when she cried out, was gracious to her, and He answered her prayers. He did not hide His face from her or cast her off. He was and is the God of her salvation.
Irma is long since numbered among those who rest in Jesus. She is a treasured memory to me. I still laugh to remember her reaction to Solomon’s great harem in the book of Kings when we came to that story in Bible study. She is far more than a memory to our Lord Jesus. She remains His daughter and friend, the object of his redeeming love. She sought His face, and He did not hide that face from her then or now.
Thursday of Epiphany 3 – I Corinthians 1:10-18
10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
In the spring of 1518, Martin Luther was summoned to the gathering of the Augustinian order of which he was a member. This was just a few months after the nailing of the 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. He had become something of a celebrity as a result of those theses. His brother monks wanted to know just what he was saying, so they made him the plenary speaker at their conference in Heidelberg. It was a big stage for a relatively young man.
Luther said almost nothing about indulgences in his lengthy presentation. Rather, he spoke about the theology of the cross. He said that there were two sorts of theologians, theologians of the cross and theologians of glory. But he did not mean God’s glory, he meant worldly glory. With Paul today, Luther asserted that the only real power to save was found in the cross, a folly to those who are perishing, but the power of God for all who are being saved.
Luther’s lengthy presentation would go on to say that the Christian who adheres the theology of the cross should expect to look like a failure. Jesus surely looked like a failure on that day when he died on Calvary’s bitter hill. And He has urged us to take up a cross and follow Him. Paul admitted that he did not have words of great eloquence like the orators of his day. Today we would say that his presentation was not as polished as Madison Avenue’s advertisements or Hollywood’s productions. He simply was a man who had run into Jesus one day on the road, and he was going to tell you about that day and that Jesus.
My guess is that you can name none of the famous orators of Paul’s life. In their day, they would have each been counted as successful and glorious. Paul, on the other hand, would have looked like a failure. He was hounded from town to town. His movement was frequently dealing with problems (look at the first part of this reading!) Finally, he was arrested and executed as a criminal. He was not rich. He commanded no army. Yet, his message continues to change people and lives around the world, including yours. The message of the cross is not emptied of its power.
Friday of Epiphany 3 – Matthew 4:12-25
12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
I am still ashamed to say it, but we mocked this man when we were at the seminary. His questions in class were so simplistic. His Greek was not very good. His grasp of the complexities of life was rudimentary at best. We wondered what would happen to him when he left the seminary and hit the “real world” of parish service. Several years later I ran across one of his parishioners and then a little while later a colleague in ministry. They could not stop singing the praises of this pastor. He was a fisher of men. His parish thrived and grew under his care. He loved people and was constantly out among them, speaking of God’s love and forgiveness.
Jesus walked along the shores of Galilee and calls the most unlikely of men to be his disciples. If I would have selected someone to be my emissary, I might have selected someone who was well educated, schooled in the finer points of rhetoric and philosophy of the age, trained by rabbis and theologians. But I would have been wrong. Jesus saw into the hearts of these men and called them for reasons which are largely opaque to me and you.
This same miracle-working Jesus is in the calling business today. Perhaps he is calling you to some work in his kingdom. Do not imagine that your apparent weaknesses are a hindrance to Him. It is quite likely that the disciples whom he called that day were barely literate. We have a beautifully written letter from Peter, but at the end of that letter he admits that he leaned on his friend, Silvanus, in its composition (I Peter 5:12). The Lord gave Peter the friend who crafted the letter and put Peter’s inspired words into beautiful form. He brings His gifts to you too. Listen to His call.
But perhaps you need to reconsider the man or woman through whom God is serving you. They can often be a little rough around the edges or perhaps not quite what you expected. But God sees differently than you and I see. Pray and listen. It is true that scripture warns us against a naïve trust in those who claim to speak for the Lord. Wolves have been known to dress in sheep’s clothing. Yet, also keep in mind that Christ calls some strange and unlikely people to His service.