The Old Testament passage assigned by the lectionary for the Fifth Sunday of Lent is Isaiah 43.16-21:
Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down; they cannot rise; they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.
From the vault, here is an old sermon on the scripture.
“God is in heaven and you are on earth,” laments the author of the book of Ecclesiastes.
God is in heaven, you are on earth.
Maybe sometime.
But not always.
Blaise Pascal was a 17th century mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. A child prodigy, Pascal developed probability theory and projective geometry as a 16-year-old teenager. In other words, Pascal knew how the world works. He understood cause and effect. He practiced the scientific method. He valued the rational mind.
When Pascal died, a piece of parchment was discovered sewn into his coat.
The piece of paper reads:
“The year of grace, 1654, Monday, 23rd, November, from about half past 10 in the evening until half past midnight.
Fire, fire, fire.
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and scholars. Certainty, certainty, heartfelt joy, peace, God of Jesus Christ, my God and your God, thy God shall be my God, the world forgotten and everything except God. righteous Father, the world had not known thee, but I have known thee. Joy, joy, joy. tears of joy, everlasting joy in return for one day's effort. I will not forget. Amen.”
Pascal carried the memorial with him at all times for the rest of his life.
Fire. Fire. Fire.
The living God had intervened in his life in a mighty way.
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