Proper 18 Year B 9/8/2024
Isaiah 35:4-7a; Psalm 146; James 2:1-17; Mark 7:24-37
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Way back when I was in grade school, I remember being taught this little proverb to help (apparently) understand weather patterns:
March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.
I thought it sounded neat and I have always remembered it.
However, as I became an adult and being a native Floridian I began to realize that whoever created this proverb wasn’t describing what happens in the month of March in Florida.
The proverb does not seem to work here.
If you have lived in Florida long enough you have probably noticed that the end of March through May is a dry season.
Usually this becomes obvious with one’s lawn (i.e. water it all the time)
However, when June comes, and the temperature rises above 94 degrees the rain starts to come usually in the late afternoon.
Lately, they have been coming all evening too.
We move from a season of little rain to usually a season of great rain.
I was reminded of this in our first reading this morning from the prophet Isaiah, the great messianic prophet of the Old Testament.
The prophet declared:
Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness,
streams flow in the desert.
Hot sands will become a cool oasis,
thirsty ground a splashing fountain.
For Isaiah, he lived in the Middle East, where desert and parched landscapes are very familiar, but also where times of fertile rains are a reality.
He uses this imagery to describe the promises of God to a people who are fearful and worried.
He says:
God has this. Do not fear. God is coming and will save you.
This parched land will bloom once again.
These physical ailments will be resolved.
Confidence will replace fear…
Hope replaces despair…
Energy replacing fatigue.
God is coming.[1]
What Isaiah is doing here is encouraging the redeemed…
He is calling the people of God to look forward to the redemption of God… where all things will be made new.
The ultimate fulfillment of this promise of refreshing and renewal is yet to be.
It is the Christian hope…
Forever with Christ Jesus…
The new heavens and the new earth (Revelation 21.1).
When all things are made right again.
And although the future Kingdom in Christ Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment…
there are interim fulfillments of Isaiah’s prophetic vision.
We find fulfillment in Jesus Christ who takes up some of the motifs in his ministry.
Remember Isaiah said in our reading:
…the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
In Jesus’ day, some of John the Baptist’s disciples came to Jesus to find out if he was the Messiah.
And Jesus replied to them:
Go back and report to John what you hear and see:
The blind receive sight,
the lame walk,
those who have leprosy are cleansed,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised,
and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
(Matthew 11.4-5)
Jesus saw himself in line with the prophecy of Isaiah.
And it is only through him that this time of refreshing and renewing can come.
For it is only through Jesus Christ…
Who is the way, the truth, and the life… (John 14)
In the Lord’s own words:
He is the gate that we must pass through… (John 10)
For it is only in Christ that we can receive the forgiveness of our sins.
In his death and resurrection, he has made the way to eternal life.
By faith through his grace, we can be saved from sin and death.
As Christians we become born of the Spirit…
And in Christ, we become redeemed by the blood of the lamb.
In fact, this is what we celebrate in the sacrament of Holy Communion.
Our Book of Common Prayer says this about what the Eucharist is about:
…of thy tender mercy,
didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption;
Who made there, by his one oblation of himself once offered,
a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction,
for the sins of the whole world;
and did institute, and in his holy Gospel command us to continue,
a perpetual memory of that his precious death and sacrifice,
until his coming again.
(BCP, 334)
I love the way our liturgy gets to the point of the Gospel.
It says it so succinctly and beautifully.
Just listen and consider these lines:
Jesus Christ suffered death upon the cross for our redemption.
A sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the world.
And it is in this sacrifice of our Lord that we find hope…
Hope for the Isaiah vision to come to reality.
And this hope…
This grace of our Lord…
This renewing shows up even in our lives in the here and now.
Even in our own lives we find times of refreshing and renewing.
Scholar John Goldingay writes:
In our own experience,
when we see God replacing desolation by fruitfulness,
fear by hope,
silence by shouting,
or desert by pool,
and when we see believing communities finding their way back to God and back to the place of God’s purpose for them,
we see this vision finding another interim fulfillment.[2]
We see the imagery of Isaiah fulfilled when a nonbeliever comes to faith in Christ Jesus.
We see the parched ground of one’s life become refreshed by the waters of baptism in Christ.
We see those who struggle with depression and anxiety made whole.
When we see those who have been abused or abandoned receive love once again.
When we see those who have cried out in the dark night of the soul to become fulfilled once more.
Our Lord…
Our God…
Jesus Christ is making a way where there seems to be no way.
Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ is on the move in our life…
He holds history in his hands…
And he is leading his people to the promised land.
Yes, we live in a time where there is political turmoil, violent acts, and moral degradation.
Yes, we live in a time where there is international conflict and economic difficulties.
And that’s just the stuff out there…
We also have our own personal problems…
Family, health, finances, anxiety, depression, emotions, unforgiveness…
We may be going through a tough stretch…
We may be going through enormous pain…
But as David said in Psalm 30:
…weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.
Take courage church…
Listen to what the Lord is saying…
He is bringing times of refreshing…
I recently listened to the words of a song on Christian radio by a group called For King + Country with guest Rebecca St. James.
They sing this song that goes right with this message from Isaiah.
The lyrics say:
Grant me serenity to accept things
The things I cannot change
Grant me the courage, Lord, to change what I can
Wisdom to know the difference
In my weakness You can shine
In Your strength I can fly
And You make everything, everything beautiful
You make everything, everything new
You make everything, everything beautiful
In its time, in Your time
It’s beautiful
So let us take in this message of Isaiah…
Let us proclaim this good news in the world…
A world that needs the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As Isaiah said:
Tell fearful souls,
“Courage! Take heart!
God is here, right here,
on his way to put things right
And redress all wrongs.
He’s on his way! He’ll save you!”
Blind eyes will be opened,
deaf ears unstopped,
Lame men and women will leap like deer,
the voiceless break into song.
Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness,
streams flow in the desert.
Hot sands will become a cool oasis,
thirsty ground a splashing fountain.[3]
Our hope is in our Lord Jesus Christ…
Who never fails.
Amen.
[1] John Goldingay, Isaiah, NIBC (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2001), p. 197.
[2] Ibid., p. 199.
[3] The Message