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Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

The lessons for the fifth Sunday of Epiphany in the revised common lectionary consisted of a reading from Isaiah 40, 1 Corinthians 9, and Mark 1. Each played a role in edifying the good news for the people of God assembled at St. Mark’s Church, Frankford today.

Let’s begin today with the lesson from 1 Corinthians 9, where the Apostle Paul, shares for all time a principle of homiletics: as preachers, we must preach to the assembled body in the language that they understand. This concept is foundational in the Anglican Communion where we have learned that preaching in any tongue other than the vernacular is not the way to reach the people. That said, neither Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese possess the vocabulary of spirituality, and in that case learning another language which posses an appropriate vocabulary is imperative: the Roman church has had success teaching and working with Latin. The Apostle leads us to understand that local, relatable illustrations is the way to go.

As we move back in time, we find the prophet Isaiah preaching to the Hebrew people in Babylon. There on the banks of Chebar River, having watched God depart Jerusalem as is recorded in Ezekiel chapter 10, and the Israelites have now experienced generations removed from the centrality of the temple in Jewish life. There along the Chebar, God is reminding us that God is the same God as God ever was. We should therefore rejoice in and with all creation.

If we move forward in time to the third lesson, we have Jesus along the literal of the Sea of Galilee. There Jesus is doing what Jesus does best: be with the people, listen to their challenges, healing them, and then sending them into other communities to share the good news of their healing by God. What then my friends is God calling us to do? I say, claim the healing that God has offered us from the beginning of creation and accept that we have been sent by God to all the nations and then go! We are not called to a sedentary faith of introspection, but a faith of action.

Peace and blessings,

Jon +          

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