Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany: February 5, 2006.

Isaiah 40:21-31

Psalm 147:1-11, 20c

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Mark 1:29-39

First Reading

Chapters 40-55 in the book of Isaiah date from roughly two hundred years after the actual lifespan of the prophet Isaiah himself. The long exile of the Hebrew people in Babylon is coming to an end, and chapter 40 heralds a message of consolation and hope: "Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God." The period of banishment is almost over, and God's deliverance is not far off now.

These verses in today's reading are part of a larger text that might properly be understood to begin with verse 12, with a series of rhetorical questions designed to emphasize God's identity as the creator of the universe. We see in this text similarities to the Lord's speech out of the whirlwind to Job, which also proclaims God's sovereignty over creation. So, for example, we can compare Isa 40:12 with Job 38:4-6, both of which describe God as the architect of the universe, measuring the heaven and earth and establishing their boundaries. Further, we can look at Isa 40:26 and Job 38:31-33, as both of these texts describe God as the ruler of the stars, the one who names them and sets them in their courses. Both texts even use the image of eagles mounting up: compare Isa 40:31 with Job 39:27-28.

These parallels suggest a similar message for the audience of second Isaiah and for the contemporary reader as well: the God we worship is the Lord of heaven and earth, the One who rules the stars and the seas and gives life and strength to the animals, including humankind. Therefore, as the people of the Lord, we must not doubt God's work in our lives, even when it is unfathomable to us. We must not despair or lose heart in God's providence but trust that the Lord is with us and will deliver us. With faith in the Lord, we will persevere, no matter how great the trials we face, and God will restore us and bear us up. In the meantime, we must have courage and "wait for the Lord," confident that God will act and liberate us just as God liberated God's people from Babylon.

Pastoral Reflection

"In the morning while it was still very dark, [Jesus] got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed." So often, when we think about Jesus' public ministry, we conjure up an image of almost frenetic activity, and with good reason: Jesus crammed an awful lot of pastoring into three short years! Someone always seemed to be calling his name, someone always seemed to be at his door, someone always seemed to be at his heels, and they all wanted something. They wanted him to teach them, to touch them, to heal them, to feed them, to forgive them. And, almost without exception, Jesus obliged. He seemed to be always on the go, always on the way, always "on"--and even when he tried to get away, the crowd always seemed to find him and make demands. Even in today's text, he cannot sneak away for a minute without someone hunting him down.

Perhaps this sounds familiar to you. Sometimes it feels to us like the weight of the whole world is resting on our backs, and we cannot escape the demands of friends, families, coworkers, spouses, and children, all of whom seem to be right in front of us every time we turn around. In this text we are reminded that there is one activity that cannot wait, one practice that cannot be shoved to the bottom of the to-do list, and that is prayer. Jesus, no matter how busy he was, no matter how many demands were placed upon him, always made time to talk with God, even when he had to get up before sunrise to do it.

Over and over again in the stories we read about Jesus' ministry, we see that he made time to pray to God by himself, even if it was just for a few minutes, before he came back to the crowds, back to his disciples, to continue his work in the world. Jesus models for us the activity that nourished him and supported all his other acts of ministry, and in doing so he invites us to do the same. It is easy to get caught up in the pressures of life that bear down upon us from all sides, and so we do not give our own prayer life the attention it requires, thinking that our time with God can wait: wait until we have done just this one more thing, made this one more phone call, read this last report, watched this last news update.

The reality is that our time with God is the most important thing we do in any given day. Taking time for prayer does not take away from our other activities; it actually helps us do everything else better--that is, with more joy, with more patience and care, and with more compassion. God is the fount of living water we must return to again and again to get our nourishment and strength, and we cannot long survive without this water. If Jesus needed to make the time to pray, surely we need to make the time; and if Jesus found the time, surely we can, too. KJL