Wednesday December 11 Advent 2
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Psalm 38
I have caused my own downfall, people take advantage of me, and even friends have abandoned me. I remain silent because there is nothing left to do but to hope in God. Help me, God!
Isaiah 6: 1-13 What’s Isaiah about?
Isaiah has a mystical experience of the awe of God. In the temple, filled with the smoke of holy sacrifice, the monumental doors move on their own, and Isaiah is terrified because he is a member of a people who have so insulted the justice of God, and here is God appearing to him in power and glory beyond comprehension.
God cleans Isaiah from his contamination and sends him to proclaim how the people have insulted the God of justice. No matter how determined the people are to refuse to listen, Isaiah is to proclaim the truth of what they have done.
The consequences of their evil will be enormous, but God does not abandon them—within the destruction there remains a charred stump which will be a seed for a fulfilled future.
Early Christians, who were of course all Jews, interpreted this stump or seed as a prediction of Jesus.
This analysis of the consequences of greed is very relevant in our day. In the face of looming destruction in our world Isaiah challenges us to find signs of that seed—Christ’s resurrection—amidst the various forms of collapse threatening us. Are we searching for how we might find the seeds of God’s future amidst the destruction of our day?
John 7: 53—8: 11 What’s John about?
Religious leaders dare Jesus to forgive a woman who is clearly guilty of flagrant infidelity. With enormous courage, Jesus refuses to join in the condemnation of the woman, and instead challenges the men to confront their own responsibility for her shame. Alone with the woman (a very suggestive situation in that day) Jesus sends her back into life.
We are to practice deep acceptance of those who have violated their commitments and at the same time we are to acknowledge our own role in collaborating with others not to live full lives.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
who sent your servant John the Baptist
to prepare your people to welcome the Messiah,
inspire us, the ministers and stewards of your truth,
to turn our disobedient hearts to you,
that when the Christ shall come again to be our judge,
we may stand with confidence before his glory;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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