Reflection: First Sunday of Advent
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Bible passage
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence-
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil-
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity for ever.
Now consider, we are all your people.
Reflection
It is some comfort to know that we are not the first generation to look up to the heavens and sigh, ‘Please, Lord; sort this mess out.’
Isaiah wanted God to tear open the heavens, come down and sort out his enemies. We want God to come down to stop people killing and terrorising one another. We want him to bang heads together so that climate change is taken more seriously. There’s a lot of mess, and we feel powerless to sort it out.
But later in the reading, Isaiah’s tone changes: we have all become like one who is unclean; a filthy cloth; a dead leaf. We are part of the mess, not just its victims.
Advent looks forward to when God will indeed come down and sort everything out, and earth will be wedded to heaven. It is also a penitential season – a time for us to consider the changes we need to make. Advent points us back to when God did tear open the heavens and come down; not in a show of strength, but in the appearance of a helpless infant.
God gets involved in the mess and encourages us to do the same.
Prayer
O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen
