So sings the Psalmist as he praises God, and tells of God’s greatness. “There is none who can be compared with you,” He says. We, who know and believe surely agree, and respond, asking; “Do not withhold your compassion from me;”

In Isaiah God offers a response when he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob... I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” 

Our response to that charge should always be, “Behold, I come to do your will, O God.”

Paul answered this by traveling to Rome, Greece, Macedonia and other places around the Mediterranean Sea, to plant Christian colonies and minister to the spiritual needs of the people he met; He told them of Jesus, the Christ, and his sacrifice; and he Baptized them, and formed communities where the message of God’s Son, and his effort for all people could be shared and preserved for the entire Gentile world.  

But the beginning of this, ‘spreading of the word’, the knowledge of God favoring His own Son as He was baptized by John in the Jordan River, started with Andrew, who had witnessed the Dove descending on Jesus. Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother, and he found his brother, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah.” And he brought Simon to Jesus, who greeted him, knowing his name. Andrew is cited as the first to bring another to know Jesus.  

The event was the revelation of Andrew being carried to Simon Peter. From there, as those two came to know Jesus more completely, they carried the message to others they met, and the message of the coming of the Messiah spread throughout the land, and into other lands, and finally to us. 

It even works that way today, because there are times when we need a new revelation, a new Epiphany; something that wakes our soul to realize that Jesus has been a part of us all along, and we are shaken into knowing that it is we who have departed. That is when the caring of others reminds us that we are loved by the God who gave us his Son; and by the Son who comes to be our brother; always with us, always a part of us.

It also works today when we take time to love some one who needs to be reminded that the Spirit of Christ that dwells within us, also dwells within him. As we offer that love, we can say, Behold, I come to do your will, O God.   AMEN

The Rev. George O. Martin is an Ordained Deacon at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 17th and Adams, Great Bend. Send email to georgeom@hbcomm.net.