Building the New Jerusalem

Friday, February 2, 2007 -- Week of 4 Epiphany; Year One
The Feast of The Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas)

"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
EITHER the readings for Friday, 4 Epiphany (p. 946)
Psalms 69:1-23 (24-30) 31-38 (morning) // 73 (evening)
Isaiah 56:1-8
Galatians 5:16-24
Mark 9:2-13

OR the readings for The Presentation (p. 997)
Morning Prayer: Psalms 42, 43; I Samuel 2:1-10; John 8:31-36
Evening Prayer: Psalms 48, 87; Haggai 2:1-9; I John 3:1-8

(I used the readings for Friday, 4 Epiphany)

We have just finished the wonderful collection of Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55) speaking confident hope to an exiled people for their return to Jerusalem. Today we move several decades later. The exiled people have been restored to Jerusalem. But all is not well.

This section, which is sometimes called Third Isaiah, begins by picking up the vision of the call to rebuild Jerusalem from the earlier prophecy. That call had been an open invitation to all. But now traditional rules about who belonged and who did not belong were being used to exclude some from the community and from the Temple. Third Isaiah decries these exclusions as mockery of God's invitation.

Whose exclusion is the prophet concerned about? "Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say, 'The Lord will surely separate me from his people'; and do not let the eunuch say, 'I am just a dry tree.'" The prophet is angry because foreigners and eunuchs are being treated as outcasts.

Third Isaiah promises the eunuchs an everlasting name "in my house and within my walls." The scripture promises that God will accept the labors and sacrifices of the foreigners. "These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer."

Then the Isaiah offers the vision. It is a treasured vision for all times. "For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." ALL peoples.

My thoughts go immediately to the conflicts of our contemporary church and our community. The parallel of "eunuchs" and "foreigners" with homosexual persons and undocumented immigrants seem obvious to me. These are the people who are being treated as outcasts in our generation. The words of Third Isaiah ring a clarion call of inclusion. "These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; ... for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."

I was doubly moved when our second reading from Galatians included Paul's wonderful account of the fruit of the Spirit: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things." That word has been for me a proof-text for the inclusion of faithful homosexual Christians in the full life of the Church. Just as Second Isaiah saw the full humanness and faithfulness of the eunuchs and foreigners in the rebuilt Jerusalem and called for their inclusion in the community and Temple, so I see the fruit of the Spirit in gay people and illegal immigrants who suffer rejection and discrimination as outcasts in our generation.

The word of Scripture seems clear. God's house is a house of prayer for all peoples.

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

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

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worship weekly
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