First Reading: Isaiah 64:1–9
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze
and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before you!
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
you were angry.
How then can we be saved?
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have given us over to our sins.Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;
do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look on us, we pray,
for we are all your people.
Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! (NIV)
Most of us just want 2021 to be different from 2020. Dare we hope the Advent season can be the precursor to that change? Some of us know by experience that God’s presence is what we need. Chaos and disorder reign until the presence of God shows up. In Genesis, the Spirit’s hovering over the waters was the beginning of order. In the wilderness at Sinai, God’s arrival on the mountain was the beginning of a new order for the people of Israel. In Isaiah 64, the prophet foretold of another time when disorder reigned. God’s people were headed into captivity. And God’s presence was the only hope for a new order.
It’s easy to believe the source of the disorder is the world around us. Like the Egyptians, the world needs to see the personal God, who is powerful and acts on behalf of his people. And we cry, “come down and to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you” (verse 2). We cry, “Lord, show yourself! Shake your enemies to their senses.” This will fix it.
But then we see another source of chaos at work within our own hearts. God has acted on our behalf, and the prophet says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (verse 6). We see that we’ve created chaos because we have forgotten God. “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,” writes hymnist Robert Robinson. When we are honest we realize our actions are our own undoing and a new order can only be found in his presence again.
Why would we want to cry out to God if we are the source of our own mess? How could we hope for, hunger for, long for a new order or a new way of life when we’ve been part of the chaos? We must hope because of who God is and because He’s willing to show up and forgive. And so we can pray the words of Isaiah with hope:
Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;
do not remember our sins forever. . . .
for we are all your people. (verses 8–9)
In the coming of the Christ and in the promise of His return, we have the answer. The new order is here.
Jim Renke – Regional Minister for the Upper Mississippi Region