5th Sunday after Epiphany
February 8, 2015
Isaiah 40:21-31; Mark 1:29-39
A couple years ago the lectionary text was the
one where Naaman, the commander, has leprosy and he goes to Elisha to be healed. Well, the Sunday I preached on that, I had my
first case of poison ivy. Apparently
there are times at which I will go to great lengths to identify with the
Scripture lesson, and today is again one of those times. I had planned this great, energizing sermon
about how God will renew the strength for those who are weary, as Isaiah says,
“those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” However, I’ve got to tell you, this morning,
I am tired. I have slept most of the
past two days. The day I had set aside
for sermon writing: I slept. I do not
have energy, I am not among those who have been given fresh strength. Instead, I am among those who are tired and
weary and this is not going to be a long sermon.
You may be wondering about the title. Well, it comes from a Super Bowl
commercial. I’ll confess, I’m one of
those who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. When a company pays $4.5 million for a 30
second ad, you know it’s going to be their best stuff. Some of the best commercials are aired for
the first time during the Super Bowl. Last
Sunday, one of my favorite commercials was also deemed the best Super Bowl
commercial for this year.[1] It appealed across the board to men and
women, young and old, just about everyone found it funny. And it was unusual because car ads don’t
usually do that well. You may remember
the ad that begins in the Italian villa with the man about to pop a little blue
pill, but he misses his mouth and it flies out the window, where it bounces
around on rooftops, laundry, a church
bell, and lamp post, skims a pond and some flowers, until it lands in the open
gas tank of a car.[2] The way the news media described it was that
the car was then “energized.” I think
Fiat’s $9 million investment in this 60-second ad was money well spent. It had me laughing out loud at the end of
it!
And perhaps this wasn’t the best connection to make, but
I connected it with our Isaiah reading this morning. First, we have God who never gets tired or
weary. Then it’s acknowledged that even
youth will become tired and weary and stumble.
But, then we have the last verse of our Isaiah passage, and it’s a great
one – “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will fly
up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be tired; they will walk and not
be weary.”
I think we as a church have been tired and weary, or
maybe even we still are tired and
weary. The good news is that if, in our
fatigue, we are also hoping in the Lord,
or other translations say waiting for
the Lord or trusting in the Lord, if
we are hoping and waiting and trusting
in the Lord, then we shall regain our
strength. If we’re tired and weary to
the point of exhaustion and giving up, then it’s over and we may as well go
home. But if we still have hope, if we still trust that God isn’t done with
us yet, if we wait for the Lord, then we will become re-energized. We will gain new strength. We will be healed and empowered to
serve. That is, after all, what happened
to Simon Peter’s mother-in-law in our Gospel story this morning. After Jesus healed her, she served Jesus and
the disciples out of gratitude for her healing.
She waited and trusted and hoped, and she was given new strength. Just like the Fiat. Only God is better than any old little blue
pill. If we are waiting and trusting and
hoping in the Lord, then he will not let us down. He will renew our strength and we will fly up
on wings like eagles, we will run and not be tired, we will walk and not be
weary, we will talk and not grow hoarse.
Thanks be to God!
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