Commentary on Lectionary for January 23, 2011

Epiphany 3A

Isaiah 9:1-4; Psalm 27:1, 4-9; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23

I still vividly remember, some months after our family had moved to another city, that our 8-year old son said balefully one day: “I want to go home!” His friends, his school, his comfort level were in a different place. The Psalmist reminded me of him when he, too, cried pitifully: “One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life…and contemplate his Temple” (Psalm 27:4.

I suppose it wasn’t the place so much as the people. We get so attached. Jesus had such magnetism that he only had to say “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men,” and Andrew and Peter left their nets. In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks of people who were attached to him, or to Apollos or to Cephas or even to Christ.

Isaiah envisioned a time when Zebulon and Naphtali would be taken back from the grasp of Tiglath-Pileser who had conquered these lands, and the people could feel once again they were home and the North and South—the land of the twelve tribes of Jacob--could be one nation again. For Isaiah, the new King Hezekiah might have been the one to bring this about. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus went down from the high country of Nazareth to the lands of Zebulon and Naphtali, to Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee which is north of Nazareth. And Matthew in hindsight knows that in doing so he fulfilled the dream of Isaiah that these two territories would “see a great light.”

The light was there, in the message: “the kingdom of heaven has come near.” The hard part was to understand that this was NOT the kingdom everyone had in mind, that as our life’s days gallop toward their end, we can never go home again, but we can BE at home; we can contemplate his Temple—because we have learned it is not a brick and mortar edifice.

We always make a big thing out of the first apostles leaving everything and following Jesus. But we forget what they gained—that fellowship, that friendship, that sense of purpose and of meaning for their lives. I keep remembering that touching passage in Matthew 17, after Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James and John, Peter said: “Lord it is good for us to be here,” and wanted to make three tents so they could stay for a long time. Home at last!

Some say that in Jewish tradition, Zebulon had a “symbiotic relationship” with Issachar, perhaps providing for them financially so they could study the Torah. They certainly had tribal allegiance; they fought side by side on the battlefield, and in that vivid passage from Judges 4, Deborah had Barak call an army together to pursue Sisera, they were willing to give their lives.

As we look at our own roles, we see how tribal we still are; pillars of our community, citizens of our country, strong advocates for our parties, willing to work hard and even die for our families, staunch members of our professional associations and unions, willing to go to bat for fellow employees, serving our church in its numerous initiatives to care for the needy. We may be feminists, club members, card-carrying associates, hobbyists, belongers to internet groups and fierce Face book friends.

But, again, the hard part is to hear Paul in 1 Corinthians cautioning against division because of these tribal belongings and affiliations. Think wider and bigger, he seems to be saying. [In Christ],”there can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one” (Galatians3:28). Our attachment is to the God of Jesus Christ. Our home is in Him.