Epiphany
January 20, 2020
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 9:1-4
But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation,
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
For the yoke of their burden,
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
There are days when I feel like one walking in darkness. There is so much anger and hatred in our world. Evil likes to divide. Evil wins when we turn on each other. There are those who benefit, financially or politically or both, from our getting caught up in their influence. Truth is no longer a value, no longer dependably true. I have always liked Amos’* writing of living lives in alignment with God’s straight line like the plumb line builders use to assure that one brick is carefully in line with another. Today we use a tool called a level to help us hang pictures straight. As a people we seem to have lost our moral grounding. Evil and darkness are of course not new. Amos wrote in the 8th century BC.
Isaiah writes in the scripture above that God provides a great light for us enabling us to see the better way. We have the choice of not only accessing the light but shining it on all parts of our lives to help us see the way to walking the level way that give us endurance to overcome the lesser gods’ evil constantly dances before us.
Prayer: Lord, shine your light on our paths and guide our minds eyes to see what is level and what is not. Amen.
*Amos 7:7-15
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved. Since the Civil War all the wars in the USA were somewhere else, perhaps we were shaken more by the 9/11 bombings.