Companions,
A wondering. A pondering. A mulling.
Yesterday's reading from the Revised Common Daily Lectionary was from Isaiah 9, which includes these words:
The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
and it fell on Israel;
and all the people knew it--
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria--
but in pride and arrogrance of heart they said:
"The bricks have fallen,
but we will build with dressed stones.
The sycamores have been cut down,
but we will put cedars in their place" (Isaiah 9:8-10, NRSV).
As I read that I was struck by some of my own thinking, and even sort of "evangelism" for restoring a Methodist way.
So the congregations have lost any strong commitment to their task of teaching and embodying real theology-- we'll find ways to strengthen congregations for their basic theological tasks. So the class meetings were essentially cut off from Methodists in the 1840s-- we'll go start new ones, maybe not exactly quite like the old ones, but they'll have the same function.
And then the prophet speaks.
"So the Lord raised adversaries against them,
and stirred up their enemies,
the Arameans on the eat and the Philistines on the west,
and they devoured Israel with an open mouth." (Isaiah 9:11-12).
And so I wonder. I ponder. I'm still mulling. Really.
For you who have ears to hear, what do you hear?
Peace in Christ,
Taylor Burton-Edwards
