Sunday 22 October 2017
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Isaiah 45:1-7 (NRSV)
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their robes, to open doors before him—and the gates shall not be closed: “I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.”
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Cyrus, the servant of God? That must have stung when the people heard this! Cyrus is a foreign king of a people who for some time have been the enemies of the people of God. Cyrus is likely the last person imagineable to be described as the servant of God. To call him such would be comparable to calling Lenin and Stalin champions of democracy or Hitler the friend of Jews. And yet God uses Cyrus for the good of the people, and makes of an enemy a blessing. Perhaps what we can take from this reading is the amazing truth that God is indeed capable of doing all things, even those that exceed our imagination or comprehending of what our God can do in our midst.
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Fr. Timothy Alleman
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