10:30 am, Sun, Feb 4, 2024 ~ FBCA

(Isaiah 40:21-31; 1 Cor 9:16-23; Mark 1:35-38) J G White

‘Do you ever feel like a mere grasshopper?’ Like a mere bug in the face of Godand the world? As it says here, It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers…

Perhaps you are not likely to think about grasshoppers in midwinter. But, once upon a time, I had grasshoppers in February. I had brought a big plant pot in the house for the winter, with a tender little shrub in it. One winter day I noticed in the windows of that room where the pot was sitting, several tiny, tiny grasshoppers. What on earth were they doing there? Well, of course, their eggs must have been planted in the earth of the plant pot, in late summer, by mother grasshopper, while the pot was outside on the deck. Then, being indoors, in a ‘warmer climate,’ the eggs hatched early - way too early - and the little bugs had no food in our house. The little things were doomed.

I know that is how some people feel: like a mere grasshopper, and a doomed one at that, in the face of whatever God is up and out there. Maybe even forgotten by God. Know anyone like this?

The page of Isaiah the prophet that we call chapter forty has some beautiful, ancient poetry in it. It starts off saying ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’ It ends with the weak and weary waiting for God and rising up as if on the wings of an eagle. In the middle here, the grasshoppers appear - us humans. It is a chapter of hope, hope for a people in trouble, wondering if their disaster would ever end. ‘My way is hidden from the LORD,’ the people said. ‘What’s right for us has been ignored by God.’

Was there hope? Yes, yes there was. God would not forget them forever. The worn down and worn out people would renew their strength - by awaiting God - and rise up with wings like eagles.

Should I tell you the Hebrew bird word here probably is not an eagle, but a vulture? ‘Fraid so. Nesher, in ancient Hebrew, can mean a vulture, whatever kinds of vultures they have in the Middle East.

And He will raise you up on vulture’s wings… Vultures also soar. And they are quite important in the clean-up department on earth. In some places they are vital to taking care of dead animal remains. Author Debbie Blue calls them Death Eaters. Our now-established species in NS, the turkey vulture, is Cathartes aura in Latin, meaning ‘golden purifier.’ A good poetic image for God’s work in our lives. Taking rubbish and death and cleaning it up, making things pure again. Not to mention being able to fly and soar, sometimes without even flapping a wing.

This is all good biblical poetry for those who have felt forgotten by God. And for those whom we, God’s people, forget. Even in an established congregation, so many people disappear and drift into the woodwork. We sometimes don’t quite know how to include them, keep them in fellowship, remember them. ‘Encourage one another,’ the Spirit tells us, using scripture. Indeed. Some of us need to learn new ways to be encouragers of others, of those we choose to forget. We are called upon to be partners in the gospel, as Paul put it.

That piece of 1 Corinthians we read today comes after some details in the letter about how those believers could get along as a mix of people and opinions and different ethical practices. And the Apostle’s work, travelling and training people in the Way of Jesus, was a free mission. Don’t you love that phrase ‘I… make the gospel free of charge’?

The Apostle Paul then gets into his ‘being all things to all people’ bit, another beautiful phrase. He had a definite sense of identity; his work was to connect with people of all sorts, Jews and non Jews, weak and strong, all kinds of folk. He did not want to forget or leave out any particular kind of person, no matter their religious background.

This can look like a greater challenge for us today. But very few of us are called to be a new Apostle Paul. Most of us are called upon to be part of a team that does not leave people out. So we pause and pay attention to who, out there, we might forget. How to remember them now, and be a sign of hope and help to them, is important.

We get to be part of the remembering of God. We do not forget the many people in need in the community. It is great we have a little team of Baptists who help at the Amherst Food Bank. Do not forget that this is part of First Baptist’s ministry - whether we officially report on it at our annual meeting, or have a committee, or not.

Along the way, we are inspired by those who are real shining lights of generous help to all manner of people. I think of John. Let me tell you about him today.

I knew of John for many years; I’d meet him at meetings of the CABF. He retired to Nova Scotia, to the old family homestead of his wife’s parents. I really got to know him when I moved to Digby and became his Pastor. John was a Baptist Minister in various places in Canada. He is an intelligent man. He played chess with some local intellectual folks. John is astute; he and his wife became activists and fought off the development of a huge rock quarry on Digby Neck. He reads deep books. He used to recommend to me that I read up on process theology, which I have yet to understand. Once, he gave me his book of the parables of Soren Keirkegaard; rather deep, philosophical stuff: hard to put into a sermon! I’m sure John’s own sermons were very intelligent.

And yet, John is so personable. He connects with people so naturally, with everyone. One of the dear old men in the Digby Church, a very down-to-earth, retired businessman, was a big fan of John’s sermons. Another ordinary guy, whose career had been as a janitor of various buildings, was a friend of John. He would always have us over around Christmas time for tea and cookies.

In my eyes, Rev. John is a person who became all things to all people, that he might by all means save some. He has shown me how to remember people others would forget or ignore.

I think so many people feel forgotten by God. Like Israel of old, they’d say, ‘My way is hidden from God.’ We know better, thanks to Christ. And we claim this ministry for ourselves, blessing people with the reality that God gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. They shall mount up with wings like vultures; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

PRAYER Today’s praying has a repeated response.