Is Your Wick Wet?
Al Hocutt
March 25, 2007
Everyone likes getting
new things. We all know people who buy a new car each year when the new
models come out. Or we know the person that has to have the newest,
latest, gadget that comes out to make our lives better. And if the words
“new & improved” are placed together to describe an object, then we just
have to have it. The news media even gets into the act. A report last week
stated the if we don’t own a Hi-Def TV in the near future we will be
unable to watch unless we buy a new set or a converter box. Lets admit it
we all like new things.
The prophet Isaiah tells us that
a new thing is about to happen-it’s about to spring forth-can we not
perceive it? The people of Israel were a people of exile. The people are
reminded of the exodus, a glorious event in the history of
God’s people. God
led them and provided for them all that they needed to survive. For forty
years the people of God labored in the desert
to be free of the bondage of Egypt. The trek began with the wonder of the
Red Sea being rolled back and the people of God
walked through on dry land. But the prince of Egypt and his army were
destroyed by the same waters. Isaiah uses the imagery of a wick to
demonstration that we can not rely upon the past to bring us salvation. A
wick that is diluted with water can not be lit.
Isaiah speaks about a new
salvation, not forgetting the past, but affirming the present power of
God that was evident in the past. The people
of God only need to use the past as a
framework to see the new picture that God has
painted for us. A new thing is about to happen, are we ready or are our
wicks wet?
Jesus
uses Martha and Mary again to show how this new thing that Isaiah spoke
about is going to work. Jesus and the
disciples are in Bethany a few days before the Passover in the home of
Lazarus. They were eating dinner. Martha assumed her position in the
cultural event-staying in the kitchen serving the meal. Lazarus is there
whom Jesus had raised from the dead, eating
dinner with Jesus. Mary was there, the sister
of Martha and Lazarus. And what was trouble maker Mary doing? She was
there with costly perfume anointing Jesus’
feet and wiping them with her hair. Who else was there-Judas the betrayer
and thief? Jesus corrects Judas and speaks
about his death.
Why is it important for John to
give us this information? Jesus is the new
thing that Isaiah was speaking about. A new day had dawned in the history
of the world. The people of God had been
ruled by the law and they fell away. Jesus
embodied the full grace of God extended to
the world. Along with grace came forgiveness and the blessedness of
salvation. Salvation shaped and molded through the people of
God and the interactions of
God in the history of the world.
God’s history is woven through our spirits
but we can not sit back and say this is all I need. The past and its
history are important to us but we should never rely upon the past to save
us.
Who could have imagined that
God would come to earth in the form of a
human, to live among us, and to take our sins upon him that we might have
eternal life? It goes beyond our comprehensions that the one true
God would take the form of a servant and die
for us. It was God’s plan from the beginning.
Jesus was there when the world was formed.
Jesus was there in the midst of the flood.
Jesus was there in the belly of the fish.
Jesus walked with Ruth as she went where
God sent her. Jesus
was there with Moses and gave Aaron the strength to hold up Moses’ arms at
the Red Sea. Jesus was there when David cried
out in anguish for the sin that he had committed. Jesus
is here today sitting among us offering us a new thing-a new life of
salvation, do we perceive it?
The first day of spring has
sprung forth with flowers and trees in full bloom. The days are warm and
filled with energy. We become restless because we don’t like sitting
inside a building when the world around us is new again. We are here this
morning hearing about a new thing that God is
doing. Are we ready to receive it? Will we rely upon the past and say “We
have never done it that way before”, or will we allow
God to use the past to form our future? It
has been said of our Bishop that he desires to hear what we are doing for
the future and not just reliving the past. When asked to come to a church
to celebrate a two hundred year home coming, the Bishop wants to know what
the church plans for the next two hundred years.
We can become mired in the
history and the past but that does not serve God.
We serve God when we look toward tomorrow and
how we can reach those who have never heard the history of
God’s love and what is in store for them in
the future. When pastors ask people in their congregation to share their
faith story we receive a resounding NO! We say it is too personal and only
between God and me. When we are unable or
unwilling to share our faith story-our history with
God, then we are unable to know what our future brings. Just think
if we only wanted to live in the past we would not have cell phones,
computers, electricity, cars, planes or trains. We would have never
ventured to the moon or developed new innovative medical technology.
Penicillin would still be the wonder drug and life expectancy would be
about 60 years old.
Isaiah said “do not remember the
former things God is about to do a new
thing.” Salvation is offered to us through the Son of
God, do we perceive it?
God will give drink to his chosen people whom he has formed so we
might declare praise. Is our wick wet or are we ready to receive the fire
of salvation and burn brightly for Christ?
In the name of the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
Amen
