Have we not known? Have we not heard? Has it not been told to us from the beginning?

Even though we know, we have heard, and we have been told, it is so hard to remember that God is the creator of all that is.

We cling so desperately to our thoughts, our ways, our beliefs, thinking that we are in charge and have authority over all that is.

Yet in the presence of the One Who Made Us, we are little more than grasses blowing in the wind for a short while. God calls us by name and we continue to treat the earth and one another as if we have not been appointed as stewards over the whole of creation.

When it is convenient for us, we believe that God does not know, does not see, does not care about the harm we have done to our planet, to our neighbors, and to ourselves.

Our ways are not hidden from God now or ever. God knows what we have done, sees what we are doing, and, even still, calls us out of ourselves into a way of love.

It is not too late to change our ways. It is not too late to face what we have done and what we have left undone.

Knowing that God’s understanding is unsearchable and God’s love for us never grows faint, we can turn from all that is harmful and embrace the forgiveness and grace offered to us in Christ.

Just as Jesus went to Simon’s mother-in-law and healed her, Christ comes to us, offering
healing and wholeness that we, too, might begin again in a life of service.

We can let go of our demons of selfishness, fear, anxiety, addiction, judgment, ignorance, racism and all the other beliefs and behaviors that cause us to bring harm into this world.

We remember that God gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless.

Through Christ, we will, indeed, run and not grow weary and walk and not grow faint.

Amen.

Photos Pixabay.com. Used with Permission.

RCL – Year B – Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – February 8, 2015
Isaiah 40:21-31
Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39