Rev. Tatiana Cantarella
08.02.2009

Psalm 147:1–11; Isaiah 40:21–31; 1 Corinthians 9:16–23; Mark 1:29–39


A certain effect produced upon the mind by reading what is commonly called a novel - works contain many good sentiments and introduce characters that are virtuous, noble, patient under suffering, and triumphing over misfortune. The great truths are upheld and enforced; and our affections excited and interested in what is good and true. But it is all fiction; it does not exist out of a book which contains the beginning and end of it. We have nothing to do; we read, are affected, softened or roused, and that is all; we cool again,—nothing comes of it. What’s the effect of it? God has made us feel in order that we may go on to act in consequence of feeling; if we allow our feelings to be excited without acting upon them, we do mischief to the moral system within us, just as we might spoil a watch, or other piece of mechanism, by playing with the wheels of it. We weaken its springs, and they cease to act truly. After destroying the connection between feeling and acting, how shall we get ourselves to act when circumstances make it our duty to do so? We have felt how great it is to bear pain, and submit to indignities, rather than wound our conscience. Now, suppose we actually come into trial, and let us say, our feelings become roused, as often before, at the thought of boldly resisting temptations to cowardice, shall we therefore do our duty, acting properly? Rather, we are likely to talk loudly, and then run from the danger. Why? Because we have again and again felt aright, and thought aright, without accustoming ourselves to act aright, and, though there was an original connection in our minds between feeling and acting, there is none now; the wires within us, as they may be called, are loosened and powerless. The Bible is not a fiction but our actionless emotions are often the way we treat the things of God as well. Today’s Scriptures taken as a whole tries to combat such a dichotomy between feeling and action, amazement and involvement.  

Isaiah paints a beautiful picture of God’s greatness and power as he addresses the Israelite exiles in Babylon. The main message of the second part of Isaiah is the good news to the people about the end of their exile and about their immanent freedom. It’s not some wishy-washy promise, though, Isaiah bases it on his firm trust in the power and mercy of God who promises to redeem the people and who alone is worthy to be called God.  But the people are still in exile, still suffering, still in pain and they think that God just doesn’t care about them and the poetic words of the prophet are aimed at refuting their blaming God for his unfaithfulness to Israel and to give them hope in the midst of their fears.

The people consumed by their problems are bombarded by Isaiah with rhetorical questions, the answers to which are obvious. “Have you not known? Have you not heard?” It’s strange that you do not see the obvious, says Isaiah: God is not passive, He acts – He sits over the circle of the earth, he stretched the skies like a canopy, he makes the rulers nothing. The Lord is God who acts powerfully and majestically. He rules the heavens and influences political processes; He easily overthrows the princes who rule against His laws. Kings ascent the thrones but when God rejects them they are powerless. None of them can stand before God’s deposing breath.

“Who will You compare Me to? Who is my equal?” The answer is obvious - no one! When you raise your eyes to the sky full of stars – they are the creating of His hands and are obedient to Him. Babylon where Israel was for a long time worshiped stars as divine beings and until now some people follows the stars and believe that they have power to rule human lives.  But are they equal to God, says Isaiah? God created them and they obediently come into their own place each night. And although they are uncountable, God knows the name of each one of them, He named them! Israel is so mistaken thinking that they cause is forgotten by Him, since not even one inanimate star is forgotten by Him. Spreading before the exiles this beautiful picture of creation whose artist and sustainer is God Himself, Isaiah scolds Israel: “why do you say that your ways are hidden from the Lord and Your struggle is forgotten by Him?” Yes, God is great and above all creation but He is also the God who is close to His own to redeem them. Don’t you know, goes on Isaiah that the same Lord who created everything, who never tires and whose ways are above human understanding is the Lord who gives strength to the weak.  If you have not heard about such renewal in God, then you are the only ones who have not heard, exclaims Isaiah!
Yes, Israel is really exhausted by her wondering, tired of being in exile. But the good news is that the God who is eternal and is everywhere, God who does not tire, comes down to serve the tired creation.  God who is never exhausted comes to give life to the exhausted creation. There is no other God like that! The whole creation and these exiles are truly tired, weak, imperfect and powerless. But God is none of that and that is why He is what they need. And that is why their only hope is to be as close to the One who can do for them what they cannot do for themselves.  And for that they need to “wait” upon Him. That is to trust in Him, to remain before Him allowing Him to take control of their lives to give them free future.  Those who wait upon God will see their lives transformed for the Creator just like in the first days of creation continues to give life where there is no life.

Our Psalm today echoes this amazing proclamation of God’s cosmic majesty which causes us to be amazed and to praise and glorify God to shout Alleluia! Psalm calls believers to praise God because it’s what is proper to do. Why? Because the Lord is the one who builds Jerusalem up, knows the number of stars, covers heavens with clouds and gives rain to the earth and food to living creatures. This alone is worthy of praise and amazed but that’s not all. Praise God, sing to Him, says the Psalm, do it because this immense God, who is the Lord of all creation is not far away. He is close to the broken hearted; He heals the suffering of the weak. Halleluiah! God’s power meets human weakness, proclaims the Psalm. Only God has true power and strength. But this power that put stars in the sky and gives rain to the earth is fully committed to justice and mercy. The power that stands behind cosmic creation showed its face – it’s the face of love. Halleluiah!

When we come to God and realize his greatness and power and how He acts on behalf of His creation, how to supports us when we are weak, how He does in us what we cannot do for ourselves, we have all the reasons for amazement. And we cannot hold back the praise and gratitude and amazement! Isn’t it true? Halleluiah! God is worthy of praise!

But here is the problem. If we stop with amazement, we’ll miss what God’s power and strength mean for us.  The amazement and praise of God as sincere and inspired they may be is not a sufficient response to God. A person that is only amazed with God’s greatness and His willingness to help humans views God only as the means to reaching some goal: improving their life situation, solve problems, getting a better job, higher salary, or some inner peace, etc. The biblical story of God and His majesty calls to something greater, to a radical reorientation of all spheres of our life. The last verse of the Psalm says that God is pleased with two reactions: trust and fear of the Lord (that is uncompromising obedience to His will). Scriptures call us to hear God’s Word in the way that our thinking be open for change, so that we would believe and trust in Him not selfishly but in a sense of committing to him in order to live as He pleases – otherwise we’ll simply continue to be amazed with His greatness!

Friends, the truth is this: amazement is for the outsiders; involvement in the things, purposes of God is for the insiders. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says: “I preach the Good News because I am compelled to do that”, that is “my life is motivated by one principle only – by what God desires me to be so that He can do what He wants through me”. We respect Paul but what he says we hesitate to apply to ourselves for it often disturbs the comfort of life as we arranged it for ourselves.  We are often satisfied with being amazed by God, His acts and with praising Him for helping us and giving us things.  And then comes Paul and spoils it all. While his message is full of grace of God, he never allows us to treat Good News as something that one can either accept or set aside.  Paul does not let us to treat God as someone who can be used for personal gratification, amazement and for solving our problems, or like another good cause that we will agree to support from time to time with our praises! Paul challenges us: The Gospel should change the way our lives are going and can stand only at the center of our lives.  When the Good News enters our life it compels it to change and after the amazement of what God has done for me, comes the compulsion to share this Good News about Him with other people.

We don’t really like the idea of compulsion. People often say, “I don’t owe anything to anyone”. And we carry that into our Christian lives.  But if we desire to hear the Word of God properly, we need to see that the Good News cannot be just received for oneself and enjoyed, it’s given to be shared and lived out – it’s a responsibility.  The story of the amazing God in all His majesty, the God who cares for His creation and desires to give strength to the weak is the story that needs to be passed on. Paul realized that and embraced his responsibility, he knew that to submit to the freedom of the Gospel is to make oneself a slave in service to those who are still to hear about God and to let their needs to influence his behavior.

This is a paradox but it’s the essence of God’s Kingdom – freedom in Christ compels us to enslave ourselves freely to God that is giving up our rights for the sake of sharing and living out the Good News for all people. Paul hoped that his personal example will become a communal way of life for Corinthian church, that their loud praises and “super-spiritual” prayers will be accompanied by a life where the strong will be willing to carry the burdens of the weak, those in the know will be tolerant to more ignorant, those experienced in spiritual matters will be patient to those who just encountered Christianity and its high moral demands. Paul hoped that the amazement by God’s greatness will bring them down to their knees and to the humble “Lord, take us and use us, so that we wouldn’t just be the onlookers from the outside in but would participate in Your Kingdom!”

This seems to be the problem that Jesus faced in the Gospel passage today. Jesus always avoided making his ministry spectacular. He did not want his actions to cause mass amazement. That’s why Mark so often underlines that Jesus prohibited His disciples and those He healed to spread the word about what He did.  In our story today we saw that as the result of many healings and casting of demons, Jesus becomes very popular in Galilee. His disciples are thrilled – it’s the high point of His glory! But how does Jesus react to this fame? How can he continue to serve all those people and not become tempted by this fame? First of all, Jesus tries to silence those who want to advertise his works and His name. He also withdraws from the crowds of people to pray to His Father. But his disciples do not understand why Jesus interrupts such a popular tour. They seek Him, find Him, interrupt Him with what they think is a great news – a great crowd is waiting for You! They are certain the amazement of people is what Jesus needs; amazement will bring them all to follow Him. But Jesus to their surprise will not go back to Galilee, to the applause of those amazed by Him. He goes to other places for He came not to amaze but to preach God’s Kingdom to all people and His death will be part of that proclamation.  

Faith in Christ is complete only in those who will go with Him to Calvary and the empty tomb. For Jesus the confession of faith of only one person willing to take their cross and follow Him is worth more than the compliments of thousands shoving and pushing in Galilee! Jesus desires that those who hear Him would move from amazement to involvement in His Kingdom. In the beginning of Mark’s story – Simon’s mother in law having been healed, got up and began serving Him, she became an example of the response God desires from us. Having receive healing she didn’t just get up to shout in amazement how great and wonderful He is and how He helped her – she caught the essence of faith – when one receives God’s grace there is only one right step – giving oneself to God, enslaving oneself freely to Christ for the salvation of many!

Friends, sitting around and enjoying the fact we know God is not what Christ died for.  Yes, His majesty causes us to praise Him in amazement. But His love must compel us to share this knowledge with others, to live like Paul, relinquishing our rights for the sake of leading many to Christ and to His grace. There is so much verbal praise and amazement in churches which stops right there.  There is so much emotional singing and stretching of hands to the Lord that will not be stretched to the world in sharing God’s love. So many nice words and Halleluiahs that change nothing in our hearts, so many of those who will forever remain outsiders looking in. We praised God today in amazement and it was great but we can remain outsiders for God’s Kingdom. Are any of us today desire to become the insiders of the Kingdom who are involved in God’s will and work and will honor Him not only with words!

Amazement is for outsiders, involvement in the things of God is for insiders!

Amen.