Pew Sheet, Sunday, 9th February 2025

Last week we looked at the events which occurred in the Jerusalem temple when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus as the ‘first fruits’ of their marital union, and where Mary also offered the required sacrifices for her purification after childbirth according to the dictates of Leviticus (12:2-5) exactly forty days after his birth. They did nothing wrong in presenting Jesus as their own child of course, for who on earth would have believed Jesus’ true fathership, even if they had told anyone; and it is clear that Joseph adopted Jesus completely as his own child from the moment of his birth, bringing him up just as he would a natural son, and teaching him his trade, which was hugely significant in that time and age. The people of Nazareth knew Jesus as Yeshua bar Yosef (literally ‘Jesus son of Joseph’) in Aramaic (Luke 3:23-38; Matthew 1:1-16 and John 6:42) and regarded Jesus as nothing less than that.

In Hebrew tradition and Roman Law, adoption was a hugely significant act, in which the adopted child literally became the ‘flesh and blood’ of the one adopting them, no matter their real parentage. Notable examples include Octavian Augustus, the first Roman emperor, who was adopted by Julius Caesar and declared his legal heir in the will published after Julius Caesar’s murder in 44 BC; and the later adoption of Tiberius, the son of a minor Roman politician by the emperor Augustus when he married Tiberius’ mother, Livia Drusilla, after her divorce from Tiberius’ father, succeeding his adoptive father as emperor in the year 221 AD. The ubiquitous Roman penchant for adoption was not lost on Paul (a Roman citizen himself) who used the imagery of adoption frequently when articulating the relationship between God the Father and all believers (Ephesians 1:5; Romans 8:14-17) arguing that they were co-heirs with Christ of all God’s promises as adopted children, which is the good news referred to in the first line of our epistle reading today.

But back to purification! This week’s Old Testament passage contains the account of another purification which took place in the original Jerusalem temple in ‘the year that King Uzziah (also known as King Azariah) died’ which happened in 740 or 739 BCE. Uzziah, a hitherto godly man, fell from grace when he forced his way past the priests to offer incense at the altar in the temple though he was not a Levite, and proclaimed himself both a priest and a king against the Law, because he had grown proud and arrogant in later life.

The result of this act of hubris was that Uzziah died reviled and alone as a leper, isolated in a small house in the palace compound, though he should have been executed for violating the sanctuary where only the descendants of Levi could serve as priests (Numbers 18:7). The memory of that once great and beloved king’s demise must have been fresh in Isaiah’s mind as the temple shook and the smoke and dust billowed around him (probably due to an earthquake which archaeological evidence suggests occurred many times around King Uzziah’s lifetime, and which are also recorded in Josephus’ history Antiquities IX 10:4.)

At this point, Isaiah sees God, ‘high and lifted up in the temple’, and the knowledge of what had happened to King Uzziah must have added to Isaiah’s abject terror as he beheld a vision which he knew no man should see and live. But God himself offered the remedy for Isaiah’s terrified state, and sends the seraph to cleanse his mouth and lips with a hot coal taken from the very altar at which Uzziah had presumed to minister just a few years before. The lesson of course, is that God had no need of another priest (of which there were many), but wanted someone who would faithfully speak his words to a weak and sinful generation so that they would turn back to him and be healed from their sins.

The different fates of Uzziah and Isaiah, one a presumptuous king who yearned to follow in the footsteps of the historical priest-king Melchizedek who blessed Abraham and received tribute from him in return; and the reluctant Isaiah, who would become one of Israel’s greatest prophets by pointing forwards towards the ‘priest-king’ to come, Jesus himself (Hebrews 7:13-17), in whom all can find their purification, and in whom no sin could be found, so that the very gates of Hades could hold him no longer than the three days needed to preach to each of the souls trapped there, before tearing them down, and leading each of them - Uzziah no doubt included - to his Father in a victory procession which any Roman emperor (adopted or not!) would have been proud of (1 Peter 3:19).

Collect

Lord of the hosts of heaven, our salvation and our strength,
without you we are lost. Guard us from all that harms of hurts,
and raise us when we fall; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Isaiah 6:1-10

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:

“Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.” Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.’

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

Luke 5:1-11

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their
nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him
to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Post Communion Prayer

Go before us Lord, in all we do with your most gracious favour.
Guide us with your continual help, so that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy name.
And finally, by your mercy, receive everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This Week’s Events

Monday (Scholastica, sister of St Benedict, Abbess of Plombariola, c543)

Bell Ringing, 7.30pm in St Laurence. Contact Jan on 07835 461361.

Tuesday

Zoom In Morning Prayer, 9am. Meeting ID: 748 9970 4493 password: Trinity or contact Sue on [email protected]

Evening House Group, contact Jo on 07803 942 687 for more information.

Wednesday

Morning Coffee, 10.00-11.45am in the St Laurence Room.

Midday Communion, 12.00 noon in St Laurence Church.

Thursday

Daytime House Group, contact Jo on 07803 942 687 for more details.

Friday (Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs, 869 and 885)

Junior Choir at 6.30 pm followed by full Choir Practice at 7.30pm. Contact Derry on [email protected] if you would like to join in this term.