Methodist Bishop

Isaiah 40.21-31, 1 Corinthians 9.16-23, Mark 1.29-38 Have you ever been outside on a clear, cloudless night, somewhere in the countryside, far away from the glare of streetlights, and looked up at the stars and been filled with awe and wonder? In the town or the city we see only a fraction of the night sky, but far from the bright lights of the town we can suddenly see countless stars stretching deep into the mists of time, the faintest of them billions of light years away from the Earth. And when we see the stars in all their true glory we are carried back to the exhortation of the Prophet, who said: 'Lift up your eyes on high and see!' The Prophet is breaking new ground in this passage. At the time of his prophecy, most people regarded Israel's God as just the greatest among a multitude of different and competing gods and spirits, but the Prophet considers Israel's God to be the only god, existing outside the boundaries of time and space, sitting, 'above the circ