The 2nd Sunday after Epiphany in the Year of Luke puts us on familiar ground with the story of the wedding feast at Cana for our gospel reading. The First Reading appointed, Isaiah 62:1-5, also picks up on the wedding image, but in quite a different way. In this text, God is the bridegroom, and God's people are the bride. The last phrase says it all: "And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." It shall be the preacher's task to announce this good news!
(The following questions are meant to compliment any of a number of other sets of questions that are helpful to an exegete. These questions are meant to answer the question, "How is the Word functioning in the text?" a central concern of Law and Gospel preachers. For more on this method and on Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)
1. How does the Word function in the text? As mentioned above, the Word is functioning here as Gospel, bringing the good news that God has once again embraced God's people. This word is a response, of course, to the long silence of God during the exile. Now those who had been called Forsaken, are now called My Delight is in Her.
2. How is the Word not functioning in the text? There is mention of the former state of God's people and their land as Forsaken and Desolate, but in this text there is no word of judgement. Nowhere does the prophet call the people to repentance, or show them their need for a Deliverer.
3. With whom are you identifying in the text? We are those to whom this Word comes. To anyone who has felt forsaken or desolate, this is a good word. The message that God rejoices in us is a powerful word of love and affirmation.
4. What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text? Since the call to obedience always means the Word inviting us to live in a certain way in response to the Gospel, we don't see that present here. We might, however, take a hint from the prophet and be enthusiastic witnesses to what God is doing in the world.
5. What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text? The pair of terms describing God's people before and after are a fine set of couplets: forsaken/my delight is in her and desolate/married (i.e. fertile).
6. Exegetical work: The context for these words are very important. The Lutheran Study Bible offers this background: "These promises [that God would restore the exiles] were realized in 538 BCE when the Persian ruler Cyrus captured Babylon. He allowed exiles to return and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, and to restart their lives. This new life in Jerusalem forms the background of the final part of the book of Isaiah (chapters 56 - 66)." (p. 1092). It is interesting that in Luther's lectures on this text he translates 62:4 as "Your land shall have a lover." He makes much of the fact that the root stem of the word translated 'married' is baal, which means "bridegroom, master, and owner." He also translates 62:5a as "As a young man has a bride, your children will have a master." Luther seems to be centering more on the emotion of God and not on the marriage covenant. (Luther's Works, vol. 17, "Lectures on Isaiah, chapters 40 - 66," p. 346). Claus Westermann, in his excellent commentary, reminds us that God is speaking to a people, not a person here. He says, "In the quite large number of Old Testament passages which use the metaphor of marriage to describe relationship with God, God's partner is always a community and never an individual. This means that the relationship is invariably expressed from the divine point of view,...and never from the human." (The OT library series, Isaiah 40 - 66, p. 376).
7. Consider the insights of the pioneers of the New Homiletic? Charles Rice was insistent that a preacher help the listeners recognize their shared story in a text. Here might be an excellent chance to recognize feelings of both forsakenness and becoming beloved.
Blessings on your proclamation!
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