Thomas R. Steagald is pastor of Lafayette Street United Methodist Church in Shelby, North Carolina. He is the author of Shadows, Darkness and Dawn (Upper Room).
The Old Testament and gospel readings for Epiphany
function as point and counterpoint. Isaiah offers a word of great comfort to
those who have been so long in darkness. Impoverished as the hearers have been,
honor and fortune are on their way. It's a message of rejoicing: the light that
has dawned will make all who see it radiant.
When our United Methodist Annual Conference urged pastors to create covenant peer groups as a way to maintain connection, seven of my colleagues and I agreed to meet every other week for a few hours of prayer and conversation, mutual accountability and “resourcing.” It seemed appropriate when one of our meetings was scheduled for the Feast of St.
O Lord, the house of my soul is narrow; enlarge it that thou
mayest enter in. It is ruinous, O repair it! It displeases thy sight; I
confess it, I know. But who shall cleanse it, or to whom shall I cry
but thee? Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord, and spare thy
servant from strange sins. --St.
Years ago I read an article in Interpretation that forever
changed my understanding of this gospel passage. The writer focused on
the alternate reading in verse 41—a reading so alternate that some
Bibles don't even list it in the footnotes. Here's the question: what
did Jesus feel as he healed the leper?
