A Word is a Bud

Devotional Refletion, Friday, January 9, 2026

The Week of the Second Sunday After Christmas

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key verses for reflection from today’s Isaiah reading:

5Truly, you are a God who hides himself,

   O God of Israel, the Saviour.

. . . . .

17But Israel is saved by the LORD

   with everlasting salvation;

you shall not be put to shame or confounded

   to all eternity.

. . . . .

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

19I did not speak in secret,

   in a land of darkness;

I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,

   ‘Seek me in chaos.’

I the LORD speak the truth,

   I declare what is right.

You will find the full text of today’s Isaiah reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings:

AM Psalm 121, 122, 123; PM Psalm 131, 132

Isa. 45:14-19; Col. 1:24-2:7; John 8:12-19

(Today we celebrate the Feast of Julia Chester Emery.  See below.)

David’s Reflections

Martin Heidegger once wrote:  "It may be that any other salvation than that which comes from where the danger is, is still within the unholy." *  The prophet’s listeners existed where the danger was.  They were conquered people who had been taken from their homeland in Israel to Babylon.  Yet, the hope of being restored to their homeland lived in the prophet’s words.  The prophet felt the incongruity of their existence—God did not intend such chaotic distress when he created the heavens and the earth and when he  brought the people of Israel into being through the leadership of Abraham and Moses.

Yet, that God of order and power seemed distant;  the prophet felt that that God was hiding from them.  Can you feel the tension in that statement? The God who hides has spurred a prophet to talk about him.  Even in hiddenness, God speaks.  The hidden God somehow seems half-hidden.

“I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in chaos.’”  (v. 19).  Actually, God seeks the offspring of Jacob in their chaos.  That chaos had sprung on the Israelites like a trap they had set and forgotten.  Inadvertently, they had sprung it.  The trap of international political intrigue and military adventurism had sprung and caught them.  The consequences of their own reckless policies had arrived with an irreversible inevitability.

The chaos of my own life runs counter to God’s intent for me.  The God who made me desires for me a more ordered and whole life.  In the place of danger, chaos, and risk, can order arise?  Can a calm eye exist in the center of the storm?  According to Isaiah and Heidegger, true salvation comes from the place of danger.  My being in the place of danger invites God's saving love and makes space for it to operate.

Gaston Bachelard observed, "A word is a bud attempting to become a twig."+  The word of hope in the midst of danger might feel like a tiny bud on a browning bush, but if it is a whisper from God, it will become a twig and then a branch and then a tree. Hope will sprout in our spirits, spurred by God’s Spirit. Then we will know that salvation may well come from the place of danger.

* Poetry, Language, Thought, trans. Albert Hofstadter (New York:  Harper, 1971), p. 118.

+ The Poetics of Reverie:  Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos, trans. Daniel Russell (Boston:  Beacon, 1971), p. 17]

Collect of the Second Sunday after Christmas Day

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 214)

Collect of The Epiphany January 6

God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 214)

Today we celebrate the Feast of Julia Chester Emery, upholder of missions (died 9 January 1922).  For a biographical note, readings, and prayers see the web link http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Julia_Chester_Emery.htm

Collect of the Feast of Julia Chester Emery

O Almighty God, who have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your servant Julia, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at last we may with her attain to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Of the Incarnation

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 252)

In the Order of Worship for Evening

Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen.  (BCP, 113)

A Collect for Fridays

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 56)

A Collect for Mission

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)

Daily Office Old Testament Reading, Isaiah 45:14-19

14Thus says the LORD:

The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia,*

   and the Sabeans, tall of stature,

shall come over to you and be yours,

   they shall follow you;

   they shall come over in chains and bow down to you.

They will make supplication to you, saying,

   ‘God is with you alone, and there is no other;

   there is no god besides him.’

15Truly, you are a God who hides himself,

   O God of Israel, the Saviour.

16All of them are put to shame and confounded,

   the makers of idols go in confusion together.

17But Israel is saved by the LORD

   with everlasting salvation;

you shall not be put to shame or confounded

   to all eternity.

18 For thus says the LORD,

who created the heavens

   (he is God!),

who formed the earth and made it

   (he established it;

he did not create it a chaos,

   he formed it to be inhabited!):

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

19I did not speak in secret,

   in a land of darkness;

I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,

   ‘Seek me in chaos.’

I the LORD speak the truth,

   I declare what is right.

Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer