Have you ever felt like that, like God took the party somewhere else and you were left to keep working, past your capacity, past your quitting point? Like you were waiting for a sense of holiness to return to your labor, to your vocation, but with no idea when or how that might happen?
Although we may desire a relationship with God that comes with the promise that nothing will change, that is not the God we worship. We worship the God who creates something out of nothing. We follow the God of the tent and the tabernacle, a God who is at work in history, always moving from the center to the margin. We are members of a nation that began when God called Abraham to leave his home and set out for lands he’d never seen. We are descended from those who were liberated from the captivity of comfort and learned to be free by wandering in the wilderness. We are a part of the generation that has returned from exile to rebuild the church. We are the ones Christ called to leave our nets and follow. We are members of the body that finds new life on the other side of every death. We are God’s own people (Eph. 1:14).
Texts: Deuteronomy 18:15-20 + Psalm 111 + 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 + Mark 1:21-28 Paul writes “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1) and Jesus enters the synagogue where he teaches “as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Mark 1:22) Read side-by-side, these two passages give me a bit of pause … Continue reading Sermon: Sunday, February 1, 2015: Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
By Proclamation 