God is Present

Wednesday, January 11, 2007 -- Week of 1 Epiphany, Year 1 -- William Laud

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 942)
Psalms 119:1-24(morning) // 12, 13, 14 (evening)
Isaiah 41:1-16
Ephesians 2:1-10
Mark 1:29-45

Today Isaiah tells a skeptical, cynical and scattered community of Jews that the holy and mighty God is active and moving within their history. Many of them have been forcibly exiled to Babylon. Those who remain in Jerusalem live under duress. Isaiah sees the military arising of Cyrus, a Persian with no known relationship to Israel or the God of Israel, and Isaiah declares that God has called Cyrus to be his servant to overthrow Israel's oppressors. A new life is just around the corner, he tells them. God is doing this.

The book of Hebrews tells a community that while they were lost and demoralized God acted for their deliverance, sending to them God's own Son, Jesus Christ. Even while they were dead, God made them alive. This is God's grace -- active and effective in the world. Nothing need be done for God's grace to be present, active, and effective. Grace just is. All that we need to is to accept the gift of God's grace, accept the fact that you are accepted. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God --not the result of works, so that no one may boast."

In Mark's Gospel we experience a day with Jesus. He teaches the good news and he heals. He even reaches out to touch the most unclean and isolated, the lepers. He restores them to wholeness and tells them to present themselves to the priest so their healing can be certified and they may be restored to their place in the community.

God is present and working -- in the movements of history, in the acceptance of the lost, in the healing of the broken. God is present and working, here and now.

In his sermon at Larry Benfield's ordination, Scott Walters made this point strongly: "You don’t have to go somewhere else to find the risen Christ. You don’t have to journey to the mystical places of the East or the powerful places of the West. For where two or three of you are gathered in my name, I will be with you. No journey necessary. ...There is no journey necessary toward some other place or some other people whom God has deemed worthy. Christ is present among people left behind in towns where the mill has closed down or the crop price has plummeted. Christ is present among people hanging on for dear life in towns where the houses and the malls and the jobs are growing like kudzu. Christ is present." (Read the full text of his fine sermon at http://www.christchurchlittlerock.org/sermonOrdinationLRB.html)

Last Sunday in my sermon I quoted Anthony Bloom: "You will find stability at the moment when you discover that God is everywhere, that you do not need to seek him elsewhere, that he is here, and if you do not find him here it is useless to go and search for him elsewhere because it is not he that is absent from us, it is we who are absent from him." (full text at http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id189.html)

God is with us. How will we recognize God's presence today? Can we look at the newspaper or listen to the news broadcasts and recognize God's moving in history? Can we accept God's grace given to us right here, right now. Can we experience wholeness? We don't have to go anywhere to find these things. God is with us.

Lowell
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR