St. Michael and All Angels
We seek to be a light of Christ in the community, where all are welcome to experience God's love and blessings.

February 3, 2024 - The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

I rarely preach on our lectionary texts from the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, primarily because I feel that we can connect somewhat more with the Gospel writers than the prophets of old… but today’s text from Isaiah really speaks to me.

As Jack proclaimed the first reading today, most of us probably heard the words of “On Eagle’s Wings,” written by Michael Joncas, and the haunting refrain of, “And he will raise you up on eagle’s wings” echoed through our minds. But three things came to mind as I read through this scriptural reading: first, we are really amnesiacs; second, God is really in charge, not us; and third, only when we feel weak or helpless are we vulnerable enough to experience the power and grace of our God. So, to me, this text is about us, about God, and about what God does with us when all we seem to be is down.

We are amnesiacs. Notice how selective our memory is. We remember only what we want to. If we are self-critical, we remember only what we’ve done poorly in our lives. If we think we’re perfect, we remember only the good things. And we’re really amnesiacs when it comes to our faith! It’s this problem that causes us to fall apart whenever crisis comes. It’s what happens when we hear “cancer”, or the doctor tells you that they found a spot on your lung. Some of us whine, others worry in solitary silence, others lash out at others with anger. We wonder whether God hasn’t just gone off and left us.

But the real problem is that we’ve forgotten who we are. We don’t know who we are or WHOSE we are. We don’t remember what we believe or why we believe it. This is especially troubling when things are going well… how easily we forget God when everything is on track in our lives! We forget that God loves us and wants the best for us. We forget to praise and thank God for the blessings we receive day in and day out.

What happens when we forget the God who is our friend, our creator, our sustainer, our redeemer? The moment we confront trouble, we collapse with anxiety and stress. I think too many people these days are “stressed out” simply because they lack trust in God.

My friends, the writer of Isaiah is trying to make us remember… God has not forgotten us. Why are we forgetting God? We worry because we don’t trust God. Trust God more, and we’ll cure our worry problems.

In the reading today we are invited to contemplate God in relation to humanity – the magnitude of God’s power and humanity’s unqualified powerlessness. Before God, nations are less than nothing. Only when we grasp God’s power and our powerlessness does a word of hope emerge – “those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength” (Is 40:31).

God’s understanding is “unsearchable,” Isaiah tells us. We will never understand how God works in the world, why suffering continues and evil reigns in so many places. And God’s understanding is not likely to be revealed to us instantaneously here in Western New York during a solar eclipse. Instead, we come to know how God works in the world through years of living with God and God’s people. Years of exploring, seeking, reflecting, and acting with God. Over time, through our practices of faith and spirituality, like hospitality, forgiveness, stewardship, and service, we come to a place of knowing God’s ways, even if we cannot sufficiently put words to them.

Day in and day out, our own crises have caused us to forget our story – the story of God’s attentiveness and dependability, the story of God’s love for each one of creation. And because we have forgotten, we are questioning the power and presence of God. But when we remember and believe, we receive strength and life from our relationship with God. Hope may be hard to sustain, but if we depend on God and wait and trust in our story, we will receive the ability to meet the challenges ahead. And, indeed, our strength shall be renewed, and we shall run and not be weary, walk and not faint, and mount up with wings like eagles (Is 40:31).