Sermon Seeds: Make Glorious the Way

Sunday, January 25, 2026
Third Sunday after Epiphany | Year A
(Liturgical Color: Green)

Lectionary Citations
Isaiah 9:1-4 • Psalm 27:1, 4-9 • 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 • Matthew 4:12-23
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?z=e&d=15&y=17134

Focus Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-4
Focus Theme: Make Glorious the Way
Series: Descending From Heaven (Click here for the series overview.)

Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay

Gloom reflects a condition of total or partial absence of light. A gloomy day may include rain showers or a thunderstorm or it could just indicate a sky covered by clouds and obscuring the sun. A gloomy day in isolation may not impact the environment substantially, but a string of days without direct sunlight can impact the landscape significantly. It can also impact the mood, or emotional status, of the inhabitants of the area lacking sunshine. Gloom has often been used to describe that mood even when it is not directly correlated with measurable sunlight. Gloom serves as a metaphor for depression and other emotional responses that dampen happiness and counter cheer.

Glory moves in the opposite lane. Glory transcends circumstances in a positive way. It reflects and connotes radiance and glowing conditions even when clouds and storms block the sun’s witness in the sky. In the biblical witness, glory and doom may serve as antonyms, yet the text from Isaiah suggests that they may also serve as companions and exist in tension in the same place at the same time.

The prophetic witness of the biblical testimony juxtaposes gloom and glory, often using the imagery of light and darkness as metaphors. It is worth noting that language is built on metaphor. They give words meaning, context, and connection particular to the people communicating ideas, behaviors, and attitudes. At the same time, metaphors are limited and limiting when users of language fail to recognize the metaphorical usage as particular, strip the original word of its full definition and understanding, and weaponize words so as to destroy rather than to build. In this way, the use of darkness as a metaphor for calamity, willful misunderstanding, disobedience, or evil has relevance as it depicts the physical experience of gloom as the absence of light. At the same time, it becomes deeply harmful in a society that has culturally, historically, and politically used that metaphor to justify harm done to those with dark skin. (It is worth noting that the biblical witness also affirms darkness. The first creation narrative found in Genesis 1 and the depiction of beauty in Song of Songs provide significant examples.)

The use of gloom in Isaiah 9 proves to be more specific and indicative of the contrast in the changing condition:

Chapter 9 is linked by the idea of darkness and gloom that occurs at the end of chapter 8. Here in chapter 9 gloom occurs again, but with the insistence that those who knew anguish and who were brought to contempt will be rescued. Implicitly, therefore, they must be people who waited for the LORD in the same way as Isaiah promised he would in chapter 8. So a future is offered beyond the immediate disasters, at least for those who will wait and trust. This future features the end of warfare, at any rate for Judah. The ‘day of Midian’ is a reference to Judges 6—7 where a tiny army led by Gideon defeated a much larger Midianite force, apparently by the miraculous intervention of the LORD. Why appeal should be made to this story above others can only be a speculation, but strong possibilities of affinities may lie in the situation of apostate Israel under pressure (Judg. 6.10), the choosing of a leader by divine message (Judg. 6.12–14), the LORD’S promise (‘I will be with you’, Judg. 6.16) and Gideon’s destruction of a Baal idol (Judg. 6.25–27). Hezekiah as reforming king also destroyed objects of worship of gods other than the LORD (2 Kings 18.4).
Jenni Williams

Christians often read Isaiah 9 in isolation from the texts that begin this section. A fuller reading that includes chapters seven and eight clearly demonstrates that the prophetic promise is not intended to be distant. They were not expecting to wait centuries for its fulfillment. While Christians attests to Jesus as the child to be born named in the text, the original audience and subsequent generations of Hebrew point to King Hezekiah as the one described by these words.

Kingship often passes generationally as an inheritance given from father to son in patriarchal societies and cultures. The chronicles of the kings of Judah and Israel as well as the genealogies of the Bible bear that reality out. The birth of the son of a king would be greeted as a tentative coronation and the actual coronation would include a celebration akin to a rebirth of the kingdom, particularly when new leadership was needed or desired.

King Hezekiah has historically been identified as a good king, concerned with his people, serious about his commitment, and faithful to his God. In the lineage of kings from the northern and southern kingdoms, his tenure and leadership served as an aberration, which makes him so remarkable. He will later be succeeded by another good king, his descendant Josiah. Both kings reigned well while limited by the circumstances of their times and the challenges imposed upon their kingdoms. Both succeeded and preceded kings who did not reflect their wisdom, judgement, integrity, or faith.

In their primary role, prophets speak truth to power. Truth reflects not only factual information; it reveals the Holy One’s perspective and expectations. Kings held the power of civic and religious leadership during the era depicted through the Prophetic Writings. As the kings ruled, the people followed…except when they did not. Throughout these texts, and particularly Isaiah, there were significant numbers of people who held fast to faith, hope, and integrity despite the leading of kings who lacked any of them. The message of the prophet holds a special indictment against those who crush the brokenhearted and a special promise of restoration for those who keep the faith.

In the Old Testament, faith is more a matter of trust than belief. Walter Brueggemann expresses it well when he writes that faith “is not a matter of intellectual content or cognitive belief. It is rather a matter of quite practical reliance upon the assurance of God in a context of risk where one’s own resources are not adequate” (Brueggemann, Isaiah 1–39, 67). Faith is leaning on God for support in the face of difficult decisions that life thrusts upon us. It is trusting God to be the reliable Giver of our security and our future. Faith makes one vulnerable from the world’s point of view because it risks one’s self completely, trusting the intangible promises of God, not the material support of the world. Faith, therefore, is not a theoretical exercise in thought as much as it is a vital encounter in life.
Gary W. Light

Revisiting the Hebrew Scriptures in conversation, rather than contrast, with Jesus reminds us that both point to liberation, reconciliation, and restoration in the present, not a distant realization whether centuries later in this life or requiring transition to the next. The Holy One’s will must be satisfied on earth as much as in heaven for the promise of Christ to be fulfilled.

This is the call on those who follow the One who incarnated that fulfillment and brought heaven to earth. Their birth was simple and humiliating, yet shepherds and wise people greeted them like a royal with praise, adoration, loyalty, and gifts. Their life was simple and mostly obscured from history, yet when they emerged on the public scene, individuals left everything to follow them and crowds flocked to their message, ministry, and miracles. Their passion was not simple nor warranted, yet they remained in solidarity with the oppressed until the end. Gloom and glory companioned with each other throughout their journey. Despite all the challenges and valleys they encountered, their glory could not be suppressed.

Glory shines in gloom, and gloom cannot put it out. That was true at the time of Isaiah and the time of Jesus. Let us make it true today. Make glorious the way.

Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.

“The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face”
By James Weldon Johnson
The glory of the day was in her face,
The beauty of the night was in her eyes.
And over all her loveliness, the grace
Of Morning blushing in the early skies.

And in her voice, the calling of the dove;
Like music of a sweet, melodious part.
And in her smile, the breaking light of love;
And all the gentle virtues in her heart.

And now the glorious day, the beauteous night,
The birds that signal to their mates at dawn,
To my dull ears, to my tear-blinded sight
Are one with all the dead, since she is gone.

For Further Reflection
“In a very real sense not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do his work, to bear his glory. If we are qualified, we tend to think that we have done the job ourselves. If we are forced to accept our evident lack of qualification, then there’s no danger that we will confuse God’s work with our own, or God’s glory with our own.” ― Madeleine L’Engle
“Whether you are man or woman, rich or poor, dependent or free, happy or unhappy; whether you bore in your elevation the splendour of the crown or in humble obscurity only the toil and heat of the day; whether your name will be remembered for as long as the world lasts, and so will have been remembered as long as it lasted, or you are without a name and run namelessly with the numberless multitude; whether the glory that surrounded you surpassed all human description, or the severest and most ignominious human judgment was passed on you — eternity asks you and every one of these millions of millions, just one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not, whether so in despair that you did not know that you were in despair, or in such a way that you bore this sickness concealed deep inside you as your gnawing secret, under your heart like the fruit of a sinful love, or in such a way that, a terror to others, you raged in despair. If then, if you have lived in despair, then whatever else you won or lost, for you everything is lost, eternity does not acknowledge you, it never knew you, or, still more dreadful, it knows you as you are known, it manacles you to yourself in despair!” ― Søren Kierkegaard
“Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.” ― Bruce Lee

Works Cited
Franke, Chris A. “Isaiah 40-66” Gale A. Yee, Ed. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.
Williams, Jenni. The Kingdom of our God: A Theological Commentary on Isaiah. London: SCM Press, 2019.

Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
During the Season After Epiphany, highlight and give thanks for the glimmers of joy and hope in your community.

Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/epiphany-3a-january-25/

The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.

A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.