Page 1 - Jesus embodies the Creator's love

Enníska – Days Starting to Get Longer
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – February 7, 2021

Jesus embodies the Creator’s love

Mark 1:29–39
Isaiah 40:21–31

It is the One who sits above the circle of the earth,
where its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
who brings princes to nought,
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us to attune our perceptions to God’s perspective. All of us, regardless of
our power or lack of it, are like small grasshoppers in the presence of the Creator of heaven and earth.
Even as we are oppressed by leaders who care more about their comfort, possessions, and power
than they do about the people who share their homelands, we are reminded that the Creator can
bring princes and, in fact, all governments to nought – to non-existence.

Earthly empires or regimes come and go – and the words that God quotes back to the people of Israel
though Isaiah could easily be addressed to us:

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hid from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?

God isn’t angry that we complain – rather, God is sorrowful that we experience injustices at the hands
of others – God is sorrowful that we feel as if our pain is unknown by the Creator.

Biblical narratives make it clear that we humans spend a lot of time ignoring God, or blaming God, or
being afraid of the Being that we think God is.

It is so easy for us to create and maintain false narratives about the Creator – to use the word “absent”
or “hidden” to describe God, when it is we ourselves who are looking away from God, focused in our
personal concerns, or overwhelmed by the evil that surrounds us.

In his book Meeting God in Mark, the former archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, talks about
the Greek word for Gospel. He tells us that Mark has borrowed a literary style from Imperial Rome to
proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven. Williams explains that this Evangelion would
have been used by the emperor to announce happy news throughout the land – an imperial wedding,
perhaps, or the birth of an heir... Williams shows us that Mark the Evangelist is subverting the format
in order to proclaim a regime change – the Gospel tells us that despite the deadly power of