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RSSOnly God Anoints
by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
10/16/2005
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped....I surname you, though you do not know me. -- Isaiah 45:1-4b
So Cyrus is the anointed one in Isaiah 45. Jesus is the anointed one in the New Testament, so we know that this title is no small thing: the anointed one is the one chosen by God to restore the glory of Israel. He must be an important and faithful king of Israel, Cyrus, to receive that designation.
But no -- Cyrus is not a king of Israel at all. Nor of Judah. He's a king of Persia. Persia?!? What is God doing, choosing someone who is not even one of us as the instrument of his saving righteousness? We thought we were the chosen people. What's going on?
People of faith have long made this mistake: thinking they are the only ones in whose community God acts. But God isn't having that: God helps where the need for help is greatest, calls forth people to help who will answer the call, and doesn't ask our permission first. We are the ones who have to figure it out -- God already gets it.
The terrible earthquake in Pakistan, Kashmir and a piece of India has killed at least thirty thousand people. Whatever community they belonged to when they were alive -- most were Muslim, many were Hindu, few were Christian -- they are now in a larger one. We're not in charge of the membership roster for that community.
Those who remain behind are a mixed bag, too, and God hasn't asked us to sort them into neat piles, either. Just to treat each of them as a sister or a brother, simply because they are human beings in trouble.
Too many disasters, we think as we read the paper, look at the pictures of more beautiful children with bandaged heads and haunted eyes. I'm not sure I can take any more. I'm weary of it all. We turn the page.
Turn it back. If we think we're weary, let's remember the people still sleeping out on the mountainsides in what's left of Balakot, covering their children with their bodies to try and keep them warm, the rain beating on their own backs. Now that's weary.
ERD has sent five truckloads of food, medical supplies, clothing, tarps for emergency shelter. The trucks have arrived and more are on the way, from us and from people of many other denominations.
These partners aren't us, either. God must have anointed them. God must have anointed all of us, for just such times as these.
