Is there contemporary truth in the ancient documents Christians call Bible? This blog follows the daily readings of the Episcopal Church to find if they can speak to a world represented by a daily headline.
Daily Headline: Massacre of Children in Connecticut 
ISAIAH 8: 11-15
11 For the Lord spoke thus to me while his hand was strong upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:12Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears, or be in dread.13But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.14He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against; for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over—a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.15And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.
These are strange words. The first bit is clear enough, that the prophet who knows God’s truth will not be carried away by the popular version of events, which, like modern media chatter, is complacent about things that should terrify; and terrified of things that have no substance. So far so good. But what does it mean to say that God will become a trap for his faithless people, a rock that causes them to stumble. It means that God’s truth, proclaimed by his weak and despised prophet represents reality, in this case an Assyrian invasion, which will bring the nation to its knees. God’s word is the hard truth. St. Paul (Romans 9:33) used this image of the gospel of Jesus; and Jesus himself knew that his opponents saw him as an obstacle (stumbling block) to religion. The strange words invented by the prophet Isaiah in dark times were cherished in the Jewish tradition and able to live once more in the ministry of Jesus and the Christian gospel.
In the clamour of competing powers that want to distract us from the truths of our times, we will find God’s truth if we listen carefully for the prophetic voices they are trying to shout down: the voices that plead for the ecosystem of the earth; the voices that call for an end to a culture of violence (pray for the victims of yet another school massacre!); the voices that urge simplicity and discipline in daily living; the voices that speak of God’s love for all his children. Maybe these represent the reality which will bring our careless civilization to its knees. The paid publicists of our dominant culture will scorn such speakers as sentimentalists who have never been at the sharp end of life. They may find that God’s word is the hard truth.
Luke 22:31-34
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial
31 ‘Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded* to sift all of you like wheat,32but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.’33And he said to him, ‘Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!’34Jesus* said, ‘I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until you have denied three times that you know me.’ 
The story of Peter is both a torment and a comfort to most believers. For those who love Jesus as Peter did, the fact that we will betray him through over-confidence and cowardice is a bitter truth, reminding us of what we would like to forget: our real selves. But it us also a rescuing truth which reminds us of Jesus’ confidence that we can turn back and find our new selves waiting for us. I guess there are not many cockcrows which don’t remind me of betraying Jesus; few mornings in which He doesn’t have to ask, as he asked Peter, “Do you love me?”
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