Where Is Zebulun and Naphtali in My Life?

1/26/2020 I. Intro

100 years before Isaiah spoke the prophesy in today’s First Reading, the therein mentioned Zebulun and Naphtali were brutally ravaged by the Assyrian Empire. Zebulun and Naphtali had become code-word for “worst case scenario” – kind of like 9/11 is a place for Americans. That national symbol of disaster and loss, which Isaiah describes as being a place of distress, darkness and anguish, it is in that place God’s grace breaks in to bring light, joy and rejoicing. Isaiah is not thinking a geographical place, rather speaks of the conviction and knowledge that the greatest light often breaks into the places of greatest darkness.

Nonetheless, Saint Matthew today reinterprets Isaiah’s famous prophesy, rightly noticing that the One Who calls Himself “the way the truth and the LIGHT” literally comes from Nazareth, which sits smack in the middle of ancient Zebulun. Even in Jesus’ day, Nazareth, moreover, was a Podunk town. This is obvious given that when the apostle Bartholomew is told Jesus is from there, he asks, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

II. Reversal

So you have the biggest renewal in the place symbolizing national disaster, and then the Savior coming from some backwater: a Savior Who – as we see in today’s Gospel – recruits a bunch of fishermen as the core team for the most important thing God has ever done.

You may not see it at first, but this most unlikely origin of the greatest work of God is directly related to the most important phrase in today’s Gospel: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Here’s the connection between unlikely origins and the Kingdom: You see, the Kingdom of Heaven is a reversal of the kingdom of this world. The kingdom of this world reveres power, honor, wealth, pleasure, strength, influence, self-sufficiency – and asserts (wrongly – and history shows this) that seeking and consolidating these things can guarantee lasting happiness. Because the Kingdom of Heaven extols values opposite that of the world we are immersed in, entering the Kingdom of Heaven requires repentance – properly understood.

III. What is Repentance?

Repentance, as I have said before, means a change of mind. It means a rejuvenation of imagination or clarifying of vision. It does not deal first with moral conduct – though one hopes that once one sees the world and one’s life as capable of being so much more, one receives hope and motivation to move towards greater integrity and wholeness. 1/26/2020 Repentance means embracing the life-giving love of God and not having to live by the world’s values, which are constricting, elitist and destructive. The Kingdom of heaven belongs to everyone who is willing to be humble, and know their value and their worth not in what they do, or what they possess, but in their identity as beloved daughters and sons of the Lord.

A constant theme up and down the Bible is that God chooses the weak to shame the strong, the most unexpected and God blesses the wasteland of Zebulun and Naphtali—and from that place to raise up our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Abraham and Sarah were 100 and 90 and childless. Moses had a speech impediment and God chose him to be the mouthpiece to Pharaoh and leader of Israel. David was so insignificant in his father’s eyes that he was the only son not invited to the banquet, Samuel (who himself – the great prophet– was the son of Hannah: a barren woman) had to ask Jesse who was missing. Saul of Tarsus was a small-minded the fierce persecutor of the Church, and became Paul who was the greatest evangelist and most broad- minded thinker of his day. And again, who chooses a bunch of fisherman to be the cornerstone of by far the largest work of God?

Here’s the point: God can do a lot with honesty, and a bit of humility, frank admission of need and openness to Him. God cannot do much with our fronts or attitudes of “I can do it myself, I am doing well and don’t need help, thank you very much.”

The the Kingdom of Heaven is the great equalizer – because although the world’s commodities (power, honor, time, wealth, strength, intelligence) are limited and relative, the commodities of the Kingdom of Heaven are unlimited - and freely given to all who desire and properly position themselves to receive these blessings.

Three blocks to proper positioning:

 BLOCK 1: We do not desire God’s help or influence in our lives. Well, every person on this earth desires wholeness and peace – and to make some lasting impact in this world; we can just miss or disbelieve that only Jesus (and growing in holiness) brings it – and, thus, vainly seek peace & meaning elsewhere. So we do desire – on some level – what only God’s grace brings…so we are to ask for the grace to desire the true and lasting peace His help and direction brings.  BLOCK 2: we do not feel worthy of it. That’s where the repentance [change of mind] begins. No one is worthy of it, and yet our Heavenly Father is a good Father who lavishes His love and blessings on all who open themselves to Him. 1/26/2020  BLOCK 3: I desire it, and know in my head it is offered to me, but I feel stuck. Keep pressing in. Do not get discouraged. If you keep seeking, you will find the next oasis in God’s time.

That “being stuck” and not feeling worthy brings me to the final point: again made clear in Jesus’ selection of a bunch of knuckleheads as followers, and Isaiah’s conviction that God brings the most light in the area of most darkness, anguish and distress.

God’s grace works most powerfully in my weakness and your weakness. The Bible is very clear on this, as is the constant testimony of the Saints. The Lord works most powerfully in the weakest or most unlikely places in us.