A Reflection for V Epiphany All Saints’ Episcopal Church,
Southern Shores, N.C.
February 4, 2018 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector
Going To a Lonely Place
The question I asked you to
consider during meditation before the service is "How do you get your
strength to go on?” I think this is one question that the lessons are
addressing. The first lesson is from the School of the Prophet Isaiah, the one
who we suggest might be Second Isaiah writing in the 6th century BC
in the spirit of the 8th century Prophet Isaiah. 2nd Isaiah
is singing a song to the exiles in Babylon after the Persian Emperor Cyrus has
given the exiles permission to return to Judah. They have been in exile for
several generations, and many of them are not all that sure they want to go
back. It is going to be a rough road back, and the place was a mess when they
left after the Babylonians had destroyed the walls of the city and the Temple.
They are making a
lot of excuses and whining about the difficulties ahead, and in response,
Isaiah writes to remind them that it is not their strength they have to rely on
but the strength of the One who is greater than they. He sings: “Have you not
known? Have you not heard?”, suggesting that the LORD already has a day job of
running the universe and can do this in his spare time if they will agree to do
their part. He points out that he knows
that they don’t have enough strength by themselves. The lyrics continue:
He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is
unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even
youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those
who wait for the Lord shall renew their
strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be
weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Listen to that phrase: “They shall
mount up with wings like eagles”. That
tells them that they need not be trapped in Babylon any more as a result of
relying on God’s strength for the strength they need. The end of the exile is
not because of their own power; they did not win their victory by the force of
arms. Look at Psalm 147 for today, probably written in the same time frame as 2nd
Isaiah. In the Prayer Book translation,
verse 11 reads, “He is not impressed by the might of a horse; he has no
pleasure in the strength of a man.” Poet Robert Alter’s translation suggests
that this verse is a transitional verse from nature of the young ravens to the
horse, but the horse represents the horses of the cavalry they would have used
in the battle they did not need to win their homeland back. Altar’s next line is
“Not by a man’s thighs is HE pleased”, by which Alter explains, “the line moves
on to the power of the warrior concentrated concretely in the muscles of his
thighs (with perhaps as well with a metronymic glance at his sexual power).”
The next line is “The LORD is pleased by those who fear (meaning “in awe of”) HIM,
those who long for HIS kindness.” A Wilson translation would be something like:
“Hey Studley; you are going to need help to get through this!”
Paul, when he writes to the
Corinthians, reminds them, “To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the
weak.” Paul’s work was not by his own power but by continually opening himself
up to the power of the Spirit.
This is the place where Jesus finds
himself in the Gospel lesson from Mark. He has entered into a ministry of
healing by being kind to Peter’s mother-in-law and finds himself overwhelmed by
the number of people rushing in for help. He realizes that he is in over his
head and makes a dash out the back door to return to the strengthening silence
of God’s presence that he finds when he is able to get off by himself to be
still and long for God’s kindness. Jesus goes to the Lonely Place to be honest
with himself about his need to be connected to God.
As I keep mentioning, I don’t think
Mark was at all interested in doing a fact-packed biography of Jesus, but instead
setting up an outline of how Mark’s Community was to follow Jesus in
ministering to this broken world. It is a human temptation to want to be seen as
the all-sufficient hero of our own story. We want to swagger while flexing our
muscles and endurance in our adventure of derring-do. I think of the old Andy
Griffith Show where Andy played the folksy and kindly Andy Taylor, Sheriff of a
small Southern town, and most of us would like to have that part of the one who
could do it all by himself - raise a son all by himself, being the one
competent figure who holds it all together. In my dreams I would like that part,
but all too often I find myself cast as the Don Knotts Barney Fife character,
who talks big and tries to do it all by himself and becomes overwhelmed because
he needs a power greater than himself. Life is a comedy in so many ways, and we
need to go to a lonely place often to be with God so it does not turn into a
tragedy.
We are about to come up to Lent in
ten days where we like to cast ourselves as the hero in our faith journey. What
I will urge you to do is to become weak and rely on the power of One who offers
kindness to us each day.
Going
To a Lonely Place
“How are you able to do all this?”
they asked
him while smiling a bit longer than
necessary,
while he had visions of fleeing to
a high aerie
looking for an opening to get out
of there fast.
He had come to end of his own great
strength
starting to entering in to doing
things by rote
by giving lip service followed by a
right quote
wondering if they'd tell a
difference at length.
He shook off the grasping hands
holding him
as he made way to escape door to
quiet place
where he could enter into silence
of God face
to face not having say words or
sing a hymn.
“Let divine breath rush over me,”
he sighed
letting a Holy Strength wash in as
new tide.
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