IWell, Happy New Year and Happy Epiphany. The Twelve Days of Christmas are once again past,
and I’d bet that more than a few of us are left a bit reeling by the intensity of it all. Does anyone else
here find this time of year to be kind of challenging?
So much is packed into the Christmas season that it seems like a long time ago that we decorated
the tree. We lived through a whirlwind of Christmas carols, cookies, concerts, parties, shopping,
travel, time with family and friends, and hopefully, worship. I sense some frenetic symbolism in
“Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a leaping,” and so on. The season is a
lot like that. And that’s just inside our heads! And this past week taking down the Christmas tree
and the lights had that kind of melancholy feel of a colorful carousel slowing reluctantly to a stop.
At this time of year I often get this uneasy sense that somehow I should have done more for others
or even lived more fully into the season. It’s like a lot of great stuff happened, but somehow there
was something else I should have grasped which was just beyond my reach. Maybe I need post-
holiday therapy or something.
In any case, if you’re anything at all like me, perhaps this is a time when it might be helpful to bring
this all back home to a place where we can receive some divine comfort. I think today’s scripture
readings provide exactly that. But let’s start from where we left off. If there’s just one thing I hope
we came away with at Christmas, it’s the reality that the birth of Jesus is the first chapter in the book
that represents the turning point of human history.
We saw that the angels who appeared to the shepherds near Bethlehem called Jesus Savior, Christ,
and Lord. And we saw that this represents the “opening out” of God’s blessing from its root in the
Jewish people to the family tree of all of humanity. The Savior and Messiah of Israel is now the
Savior and Messiah of all of us. In fact the word “Epiphany” means “a showing forth.” In the early
church the Epiphany feast tied together Jesus’ showing forth of his identity to the first Gentile
converts, the Magi, and his baptism, when he was anointed by the Holy Spirit to begin his active
ministry as Savior and Messiah of all.
In past years we’ve talked about how Jesus’ baptism shows his humility in relating fully with the
people he was sent to save, and how it gives us a glimpse into the mystery of the Holy Trinity, as
here the Father speaks a blessing upon His Son, and sends the Holy Spirit to anoint him for his
coming work. And we talked about the fact that this same Holy Spirit is imparted to each of us by the
Father and the Son.
But I felt led this year to have a good, close look at the Isaiah passage, because I think it really
succeeds in bringing home the reason behind it all, which is, simply, God’s love for us. I need to
begin by going back to this whole reality that God first chose to reveal himself to the Jewish people,
that is, Israel, and made a great covenant with them. As you know, a covenant is an agreement.
The terms of the agreement were that God would bestow life, protection and favor on the Jewish
people with the expectation that they would love and obey him. This long relationship between God
and His people was fraught with many ups and downs. The story of how God came to send Jesus as
the ultimate solution to the global problem of human sin is a pretty involved one. In my Bible it takes
hundreds of pages to tell.
But the bottom line is that our spiritual ancestors vastly underestimated the scope of God’s plan,
and since He sent Jesus, everyone in the world is now invited to the New Covenant, which promises
eternal life, spiritual protection and undreamt of favor, all for the price of faith. In other words—and
this is a very important thing to understand—God’s promises to Israel are now not only replicated,
but far exceeded in the New Covenant, which includes all who believe in the One whose birth we
celebrated a couple weeks ago.
Now, we tend, especially since the Enlightenment, to have a somewhat ambiguous view of God. We
speculate about Him, theorize about Him, doubt His existence, or try to enter into some kind of
interaction with Him as One we can’t even begin to imagine, so that He’s always at least an arm’s
distance away. And we may be confused by the many ideas about God we’re exposed to in this age
of information.
As I said, Isaiah was originally written to a Jewish readership. But I’d like you to indulge me for a
couple of minutes as I urge you to receive these words as God’s promises and sentiments to his
people of the New Covenant. I’m going to change a few words to reflect this.
Listen closely to what God says to us through his prophet Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord, he who
created you, [O believer], he who formed you, [O one of faith]: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.” I want to make something very clear here. When the
Lord says, “You are mine,” he’s not talking about some kind of oppressive, master-slave
arrangement. It’s not about God merely claiming His property. That’s not ever what He had in mind
when he brought his human creation into being. Rather, Jesus shows us the heart of God. Wanting
no secrets to separate them, Jesus says to his disciples, “I do not call you servants any longer,
because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because
I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” Through the disciples the
same truths have come to us. He who created us, He who formed us has called us by name and we
are his—his servants, and even his friends.
Over the post-Christmas break we went to Canyon de Chelly so Michele could do a little research for
some stories she’s writing which, God willing, will soon will be published. In fact Karen S____ went
with us and offered some grim humor at the signs we saw at several overlooks which said something
to the effect: “Please take charge of children and pets as there is a sheer, 700 foot drop.” Of
course we all had to trot over and confirm this, and yes, the sign was accurate. As a parent of two
teenaged boys I went through a few internal, unthinkable rescue scenarios as my stomach tightened
and mild vertigo set in. I think we were all glad to step away from the precipice.
But the kind of relationship God has with us is much like a parent whose child has wandered too
close to the precipice. Eternal separation from God is not a pleasant thing to contemplate. And
humans are notorious risk-takers. So, speaking personally, it gives me immense comfort to know
that the one who exploded this universe into being and scattered its stars and galaxies across an
unimaginable expanse, loves us so much that he can say, “I formed you, I have redeemed you, I call
you by name, you are mine.”
And it’s this same God who really enacted the unthinkable rescue. As we collectively wandered too
close to the precipice He sacrificed himself in the person of Jesus to save us. Jesus says, “No one
has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
And not only has he saved our lives and given us eternal life, but he’s promised to walk with us, not
only in the next life, but in this one. I love Eugene Peterson’s rendering of verses two through four
of Isaiah 43. The Lord says: “When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in
rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a
dead end—because I am God, your personal God, the holy one of Israel, your Savior. I paid a huge
price for you: all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in! That’s how much I love you! I’d sell off
the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you. So don’t be afraid: I’m with you!”
So when God speaks so clearly through his prophet, and even more clearly through His Son, why
are we so content to leave him so abstract? Have you ever thought about that? Often we’re
tempted to think of God, if anything, as a great, dispassionate super-computer or “the Force,” a la
Star Wars. But here we have language reflecting the intense love of a parent for a child. Now, any
good parent will not promise a bump-free ride through life. And God the Father doesn’t, either. He
doesn’t say, “I’ll never let you pass through rough waters or get too close to the flame”, but He does
say, “the waters won’t overwhelm you, and when you do pass through the fire, I’ll not let you be
burned.” Why? Because “I am your God, and I love you.”
God wants to be close to you. As shocking as this may sound, He also even wants to have an
emotional relationship with you. He wants you to pay attention to all the good and loving work he’s
doing around you. He wants you to love Him with all you heart, soul, and strength. He wants to be
close to you.
And this brings us full circle back to the New Testament readings for today. For Jesus is the only
one in history who’s able to welcome us directly into the love-feast which has existed from before
time between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the three persons of the one God. John the Baptist says,
“I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the
thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire.” The Holy Spirit with
which He baptizes us is nothing less than the holy flame of God’s personal love, in His wholeness,
sent to take residence in our hearts. God is so intent upon us never having to be separated from
Him again that He sends his very self to live within us.
But here’s the thing: God is too much of a gentleman to overpower us with his will. As people
created in his image he respects the free will that he placed within us. And that means that the
relationship is a two-way street. Do we doubt his goodness, or even his presence? We learned in
the Experiencing God course that God speaks to us through the Bible, through prayer, through
circumstances, and through the church, that is, the body of Christ.
And the big question this morning is this: How can the Holy Spirit speak his truth to us through the
words of Scripture if we don’t read the scriptures? How can He prompt us toward a course of action
if we’re constantly drowning out the whisper of His still, small voice with noise and activity? How can
we cultivate our relationship with the God who now dwells within us if we don’t make time to converse
with him, that is, to pray? And how can we do the will of the One who knows what’s best for us if we
don’t pay attention to how he’s already working around us, and then step out and invest some trust
in his good will for his children, who he loves so much? Relationship is a two-way street.
My prayer for all of us is to take the Lord off of “call waiting.” OK? For us to answer the door on
which he’s knocking. He desires so much to be the loving and life-giving center of our lives. And he
wants to remove all obstacles to a close, eternal relationship. So much so that St. Paul assures us in
his letter to the Romans, “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” He also says that
nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
So in this season of the showing forth of God’s love through Jesus Christ, I encourage us all to take
heart and to take his hand, as the Lord says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called
you by name, you are mine.” Amen.
and I’d bet that more than a few of us are left a bit reeling by the intensity of it all. Does anyone else
here find this time of year to be kind of challenging?
So much is packed into the Christmas season that it seems like a long time ago that we decorated
the tree. We lived through a whirlwind of Christmas carols, cookies, concerts, parties, shopping,
travel, time with family and friends, and hopefully, worship. I sense some frenetic symbolism in
“Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a leaping,” and so on. The season is a
lot like that. And that’s just inside our heads! And this past week taking down the Christmas tree
and the lights had that kind of melancholy feel of a colorful carousel slowing reluctantly to a stop.
At this time of year I often get this uneasy sense that somehow I should have done more for others
or even lived more fully into the season. It’s like a lot of great stuff happened, but somehow there
was something else I should have grasped which was just beyond my reach. Maybe I need post-
holiday therapy or something.
In any case, if you’re anything at all like me, perhaps this is a time when it might be helpful to bring
this all back home to a place where we can receive some divine comfort. I think today’s scripture
readings provide exactly that. But let’s start from where we left off. If there’s just one thing I hope
we came away with at Christmas, it’s the reality that the birth of Jesus is the first chapter in the book
that represents the turning point of human history.
We saw that the angels who appeared to the shepherds near Bethlehem called Jesus Savior, Christ,
and Lord. And we saw that this represents the “opening out” of God’s blessing from its root in the
Jewish people to the family tree of all of humanity. The Savior and Messiah of Israel is now the
Savior and Messiah of all of us. In fact the word “Epiphany” means “a showing forth.” In the early
church the Epiphany feast tied together Jesus’ showing forth of his identity to the first Gentile
converts, the Magi, and his baptism, when he was anointed by the Holy Spirit to begin his active
ministry as Savior and Messiah of all.
In past years we’ve talked about how Jesus’ baptism shows his humility in relating fully with the
people he was sent to save, and how it gives us a glimpse into the mystery of the Holy Trinity, as
here the Father speaks a blessing upon His Son, and sends the Holy Spirit to anoint him for his
coming work. And we talked about the fact that this same Holy Spirit is imparted to each of us by the
Father and the Son.
But I felt led this year to have a good, close look at the Isaiah passage, because I think it really
succeeds in bringing home the reason behind it all, which is, simply, God’s love for us. I need to
begin by going back to this whole reality that God first chose to reveal himself to the Jewish people,
that is, Israel, and made a great covenant with them. As you know, a covenant is an agreement.
The terms of the agreement were that God would bestow life, protection and favor on the Jewish
people with the expectation that they would love and obey him. This long relationship between God
and His people was fraught with many ups and downs. The story of how God came to send Jesus as
the ultimate solution to the global problem of human sin is a pretty involved one. In my Bible it takes
hundreds of pages to tell.
But the bottom line is that our spiritual ancestors vastly underestimated the scope of God’s plan,
and since He sent Jesus, everyone in the world is now invited to the New Covenant, which promises
eternal life, spiritual protection and undreamt of favor, all for the price of faith. In other words—and
this is a very important thing to understand—God’s promises to Israel are now not only replicated,
but far exceeded in the New Covenant, which includes all who believe in the One whose birth we
celebrated a couple weeks ago.
Now, we tend, especially since the Enlightenment, to have a somewhat ambiguous view of God. We
speculate about Him, theorize about Him, doubt His existence, or try to enter into some kind of
interaction with Him as One we can’t even begin to imagine, so that He’s always at least an arm’s
distance away. And we may be confused by the many ideas about God we’re exposed to in this age
of information.
As I said, Isaiah was originally written to a Jewish readership. But I’d like you to indulge me for a
couple of minutes as I urge you to receive these words as God’s promises and sentiments to his
people of the New Covenant. I’m going to change a few words to reflect this.
Listen closely to what God says to us through his prophet Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord, he who
created you, [O believer], he who formed you, [O one of faith]: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.” I want to make something very clear here. When the
Lord says, “You are mine,” he’s not talking about some kind of oppressive, master-slave
arrangement. It’s not about God merely claiming His property. That’s not ever what He had in mind
when he brought his human creation into being. Rather, Jesus shows us the heart of God. Wanting
no secrets to separate them, Jesus says to his disciples, “I do not call you servants any longer,
because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because
I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” Through the disciples the
same truths have come to us. He who created us, He who formed us has called us by name and we
are his—his servants, and even his friends.
Over the post-Christmas break we went to Canyon de Chelly so Michele could do a little research for
some stories she’s writing which, God willing, will soon will be published. In fact Karen S____ went
with us and offered some grim humor at the signs we saw at several overlooks which said something
to the effect: “Please take charge of children and pets as there is a sheer, 700 foot drop.” Of
course we all had to trot over and confirm this, and yes, the sign was accurate. As a parent of two
teenaged boys I went through a few internal, unthinkable rescue scenarios as my stomach tightened
and mild vertigo set in. I think we were all glad to step away from the precipice.
But the kind of relationship God has with us is much like a parent whose child has wandered too
close to the precipice. Eternal separation from God is not a pleasant thing to contemplate. And
humans are notorious risk-takers. So, speaking personally, it gives me immense comfort to know
that the one who exploded this universe into being and scattered its stars and galaxies across an
unimaginable expanse, loves us so much that he can say, “I formed you, I have redeemed you, I call
you by name, you are mine.”
And it’s this same God who really enacted the unthinkable rescue. As we collectively wandered too
close to the precipice He sacrificed himself in the person of Jesus to save us. Jesus says, “No one
has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
And not only has he saved our lives and given us eternal life, but he’s promised to walk with us, not
only in the next life, but in this one. I love Eugene Peterson’s rendering of verses two through four
of Isaiah 43. The Lord says: “When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in
rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a
dead end—because I am God, your personal God, the holy one of Israel, your Savior. I paid a huge
price for you: all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in! That’s how much I love you! I’d sell off
the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you. So don’t be afraid: I’m with you!”
So when God speaks so clearly through his prophet, and even more clearly through His Son, why
are we so content to leave him so abstract? Have you ever thought about that? Often we’re
tempted to think of God, if anything, as a great, dispassionate super-computer or “the Force,” a la
Star Wars. But here we have language reflecting the intense love of a parent for a child. Now, any
good parent will not promise a bump-free ride through life. And God the Father doesn’t, either. He
doesn’t say, “I’ll never let you pass through rough waters or get too close to the flame”, but He does
say, “the waters won’t overwhelm you, and when you do pass through the fire, I’ll not let you be
burned.” Why? Because “I am your God, and I love you.”
God wants to be close to you. As shocking as this may sound, He also even wants to have an
emotional relationship with you. He wants you to pay attention to all the good and loving work he’s
doing around you. He wants you to love Him with all you heart, soul, and strength. He wants to be
close to you.
And this brings us full circle back to the New Testament readings for today. For Jesus is the only
one in history who’s able to welcome us directly into the love-feast which has existed from before
time between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the three persons of the one God. John the Baptist says,
“I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the
thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire.” The Holy Spirit with
which He baptizes us is nothing less than the holy flame of God’s personal love, in His wholeness,
sent to take residence in our hearts. God is so intent upon us never having to be separated from
Him again that He sends his very self to live within us.
But here’s the thing: God is too much of a gentleman to overpower us with his will. As people
created in his image he respects the free will that he placed within us. And that means that the
relationship is a two-way street. Do we doubt his goodness, or even his presence? We learned in
the Experiencing God course that God speaks to us through the Bible, through prayer, through
circumstances, and through the church, that is, the body of Christ.
And the big question this morning is this: How can the Holy Spirit speak his truth to us through the
words of Scripture if we don’t read the scriptures? How can He prompt us toward a course of action
if we’re constantly drowning out the whisper of His still, small voice with noise and activity? How can
we cultivate our relationship with the God who now dwells within us if we don’t make time to converse
with him, that is, to pray? And how can we do the will of the One who knows what’s best for us if we
don’t pay attention to how he’s already working around us, and then step out and invest some trust
in his good will for his children, who he loves so much? Relationship is a two-way street.
My prayer for all of us is to take the Lord off of “call waiting.” OK? For us to answer the door on
which he’s knocking. He desires so much to be the loving and life-giving center of our lives. And he
wants to remove all obstacles to a close, eternal relationship. So much so that St. Paul assures us in
his letter to the Romans, “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” He also says that
nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
So in this season of the showing forth of God’s love through Jesus Christ, I encourage us all to take
heart and to take his hand, as the Lord says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called
you by name, you are mine.” Amen.
I Have Called You by Name
Isaiah 43:1-7
Isaiah 43:1-7
January 10, 2010
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton
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