Maybe I'm just on a strange gramm
ar kick right now, or in a stretch of being particularly attentive to words, but reading through our passages for this week--particularly Isaiah and Luke--made me think, again, about the power of verbs and how they are used in different ways. This time, it was not verb tenses that struck me so much as they did last week, but rather who is called upon to carry out the various actions named by these prophetic songs.Consider the verbs invoked by Isaiah. In this vision, actions are attributed to three different subjects. If we were to sort them out, we would find that this passage tells us that
The servant(s) of God will...
- bring good news
- bind up (or heal/mend)
- proclaim
- comfort
- provide
- give
- greatly rejoice!
God will...
- love justice
- hate thievery and crime
- faithfully give
- make a covenant
- bless
- cause righteousness and praise to spring up
And all the people (in response to these actions of the servant(s) and God) will...
- be called
- build up
- raise up
- repair
- acknowledge God's blessing
How might the wholeness God desires for creation come to pass if we all, as faithfully as we knew how, chose to do our part--to bring vision of a world embraced by joy to life? To what action are you being called in this season of waiting, preparation, and transformation--and what action do you most long for from our God, and from our world?
1 comment:
I love the "grammar kick." It can open up some productive questions as to intent. Thanks, Abby!
"How might the wholeness God desires for creation come to pass if we all, as faithfully as we knew how, chose to do our part--to bring vision of a world embraced by joy to life? To what action are you being called in this season of waiting, preparation, and transformation--and what action do you most long for from our God, and from our world?"
Indeed. I think you hit the nail on the head with the question/charge above AND in your sermon. Your observations around the good news (citing the Greek and Hebrew, no less, which I won't attempt to spell) were so...well...good! Such meaningful words (as opposed to what we are surrounded by generally, by choice or not) should help cause change in perceptions. This is something we bear, yes, and it is also something we sing (!), and too often it is sung and poorly brought without much loving care and thought.
And that's the part I struggle with...When we are bringing and proclaiming, how do we discern how to best bring the message without getting in the way? Yes, we will bring our own lens (as we're meant to, I think), but to balance that with trust and discernment leaves me nervous. The passage from Isaiah says that we are " to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God." I read that to be bringing both good news and some judgement...which leads to many folks doing so (badly/erroneously) through their own lens - and I don't want to join their ranks!
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