His Call, Our Choice
Epiphany 3
January 22, 2023
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Often when we are trying to comfort or encourage someone we will say something like, “God’s got this.” That is true, of course. God has this. He has you. He has me. God is sovereign over everything there is, Amen! We draw that from the great arc of scripture, from the creation in genesis to the consummation of all things in the eternal Kingdom of God. God’s will ultimately wins out.
While we are to hold that hope and promise, as we move through time, our experience, our challenges, our tragedies and sorrows are very real. We live in a world that is filled with injustice, chaos, cruelty, hate, disobedience – which is to say drenched in sin. Don't think that everything that happens is therefore God’s will.
And that is the witness of scripture. Yes, God created everything and said it was good. That was at the end of the fifth day, still on page 1, maybe page 2 depending on your Bible. On the sixth day he created man and woman. Turn one more page and we are in trouble.
From there on scripture is an account of how humanity defies God’s will. So much, most, of what went on and goes on in the world is manifestly not his will – be it sin, disease, suffering. All of this happens despite his repeated call and efforts. It is into this struggle that God sent his prophets to proclaim his judgment. That judgment addresses events of the time and points to the broader struggle of reconciling humanity with God’s will.
When you hear people say, “Everything happens for a reason,” - that’s the reason. It’s not that God is orchestrating every incident and moment of everything, everywhere all the time. He wants real relationship with us and has given us free will. That means people can and will repeatedly choose against God’s will. We see that all the time, every day. The gospel is about redemption, not assuring us it’s all ok. It’s not.
Case in point: Remember that their land was and is a narrow bridge of green and fertile land, with water, between Europe, Asia and Africa, with hundreds of miles of forbidding desert to its east. The road from Damascus to Egypt was known as “way of the sea” because it passed by the Sea of Galilee.
This passage from Isaiah points to a troubled time when the northern kingdom of Israel had fallen into idolatry and was at odds with the southern kingdom of Judah.
Two successive Syrian kings attacked the northern kingdom and controlled a large swath of Israel, including the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali which are to the east and northeast side of the Sea of Galilee respectively. Thus they put a choke-hold on the “way of the sea.” God broke that choke-hold by means of an alliance between the southern kingdom of Judah and the Assyrian empire, causing Judah to celebrate.
And, importantly as we look at today’s gospel, the Jews remember the critical role that place, that region, held for their hope and faith. God had broken the rod of oppression there before and he would again.
This is where the geography speaks to their deeply held memory of God’s intervention against the evil in the world. Jesus is coming from Nazareth, a small, unremarkable town of around 500 people in the hills of Zebulun. He has come out of those hills to Galilee, which is in Naphtali on the NW shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is “Galilee of the nations,” or Galilee of the gentiles,” because it has and always has had a lot of non-Jews in the area and they all benefitted before, so there is a hint that they will all, Jew and Gentiles, be blessed again.
The moment has arrived. John the Baptist has been arrested. His time is over. Now Jesus begins his ministry proclaiming, like John, a baptism of repentance and also that “the Kingdom of God is at hand.” This bright light is coming into a darkness that is manifestly not God’s will. When Jesus comes, the darkness his light shines through isn’t merely political or economic or even religious.
Jesus has come to break the rod of oppression that sin and death has inflicted on all people.
The world is and has been in rebellion against God’s will almost from the beginning. The consequences include violence, poverty, disease, and untold suffering. Humanity does not love him as we ought and humanity does not love each other as we ought. Yes, there are also natural disasters and accidents that happen to people, but the biggest problem is our persistent defiance of God’s will. How much better off would we be after a hurricane or an earthquake or a wildfire if we were actually loving each other as God intends?
But we don’t. We need redemption. The Kingdom of God broke out into the world in and through Jesus. At first it was in a very particular point geographically and in time. We see how it spreads, by Jesus teaching and healing people, and especially in his purposeful passing of that light to his disciples so that he could carry it farther and wider than he could on his own.
Which brings us to young master Easton Arnold. He is already a bright light of God’s grace. His family and their friends and this church have been blessed by his presence from the moment he arrived. His steady gaze brings great joy! One can’t help but look upon him and love him, and in loving him want the very best for him. And we do have choices.
He has a great family. His mom and dad love him and will care for him. He’s not going to miss any meals. He’s going to have a roof over his head, heating and air conditioning, clothes to wear; and he will be loved. His needs will be met. He has a big brother and big sister who love him and will play with him. He will go to school, play sports, maybe learn a musical instrument, maybe raise a pig. All of these things and more will hopefully prepare him for a life where he will be ok and probably of some benefit to his own family and community someday.
But we also know the world is drenched in sin. Like all of us, he will ever be at risk of suffering the accidents of this life. So much is beyond our control. He will also be at risk of feeling the sting of his own sin and/or others’ sin. People may tease him, bully him, betray him.
The very best thing we can do for him is to bind him to the Lord who created him, who loves him absolutely and who holds true life for him forever, to extend to him the very same call, the very same light that was passed to Peter, Andrew, James and John. I hope that as he grows up, Easton will be one of those people that can truly say, like his grandmother does, that he has always had Christ in his life. Or if he gets off track, that he will have the sweet experience of coming back to Jesus.
And that as he endures the challenges and tragedies this life always includes, he will always know whose he is, that although the world is full of evil and sin, so much that ignores and defies God’s will, that God has him now and forever. And that he will share this good news with his family and friends.
AMEN