by

Bible Readings for Friday February 4th, 2011 – The 5th Week of Epiphany *Click on each bible passage to expand the text. Psalm 112:1-9 [10] 1. Praise the LORD! Happy are those who fear the LORD, who greatly delight in his commandments.

2. Their descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.

3. Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever.

4. They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and righteous.

5. It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice.

6. For the righteous will never be moved; they will be remembered forever.

7. They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the LORD.

8. Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.

9. They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor; their righteousness endures forever; their horn is exalted in honor.

10. The wicked see it and are angry; they gnash their teeth and melt away; the desire of the wicked comes to nothing. Isaiah 29:1-12 1. Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the festivals run their round.

2. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and Jerusalem shall be to me like an Ariel.

3. And like David I will encamp against you; I will besiege you with towers and raise siegeworks against you.

4. Then deep from the earth you shall speak, from low in the dust your words shall come; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

5. But the multitude of your foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of tyrants like flying chaff. And in an instant, suddenly,

6. you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

7. And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.

8. Just as when a hungry person dreams of eating and wakes up still hungry, or a thirsty person dreams of drinking and wakes up faint, still thirsty, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.

9. Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor, blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not from wine; stagger, but not from strong drink!

10. For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep; he has closed your eyes, you prophets, and covered your heads, you seers.

11. The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read, with the command, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot, for it is sealed.”

12. And if it is given to those who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot read.” James 3:13-18 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.

14. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth.

15. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.

16. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.

17. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.

18. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and righteous. – Psalm 112:4

For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep; he has closed your eyes, you prophets, and covered your heads, you seers. – Isaiah 29:10

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. – James 3:17

Poor Ariel, God’s beloved yet frustrating lover (please read the Isaiah passage). Besieged on all sides by nations that want what she has, voracious for her blood, famished for her spoils of war, they want to see Ariel fall.

But to the nations, the hope of victory is like the thirsting man who dreams of refreshing water to awake and find nothing but dust. While their expectations are high, they will never find their fulfillment.

We can see many parallels between 21st century America and Isaiah’s Ariel (Jerusalem). At war for a nearly a decade, beset with detractors on all sides, and our people lamenting the growing hardships in our land. We sound eerily like this noble city of old.

But you see, Isaiah is trying to reveal a horrible truth: Ariel brought so much of this upon herself. There have been so many warning signs that our choices are endangering us. We are still asleep to the truth today. Blindly stumbling through life in a stupor, unaware of the consequences of our actions.

We are a impatient and gluttonous people. We satiate every desire. We eat, drink, screw, and use each other with abandon, without a second of hesitation of the consequences.

We spend more than we have, both individually and as a nation. Consuming, destroying, and leaving refuse strewn wastelands of debt, marriages, families, and dreams in our wake.

We live selfishly, both to our neighbors and other countries and faiths. We ignore the cries of the dying multitudes in Dafur, and fret about our luxury car payments while our neighbors lose homes.

We have become fat on our excess. We load every room with a new flat screen as we decry “lower standards of living” while elsewhere entire generations of families live in walls of rusted sheet-metal and blankets.

Some of us are beginning to wake up, some are beginning to raise their voices “from low in the dust… like the voice of a ghost...”, but it’s not enough.

The puppeteers of Wall Street and Washington incessantly and soothingly whisper, “Go back to sleep… go back to sleep…” as politicians spend America into an early grave and Wall Street earns the biggest pay days in history while children go without food or heat.

THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BLIND, TO BE GIVEN THE TRUTH AND YET WE CANNOT READ IT.

Isaiah 29 11. The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read, with the command, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot, for it is sealed.” 12. And if it is given to those who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot read.”

And yet we are still God’s beloved Ariel, for now. We can still become God’s Christian Kingdom to the world. Instead of spoils of war and excess, we can still live according to faith. According to love. According to peace. Without hypocrisy, without greed, without hubris.

We can still do this. We don’t need to wait. We can’t wait. It’s almost too late for beloved Ariel. As it was before, beloved Jerusalem finally fell to her attackers, both without and within, so shall it be with America.

But the harvest still awaits us, its potential ripe upon the vine.