CHURCH SEASONS MEDITATIONS
from Isaiah
LENT - ISAIAH 55: 1-9 *
November 21, 2004
Brian Peterson/Steven Cox
Christ the King
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CHURCH SEASONS MEDITATIONS from Isaiah
LENT - ISAIAH 55: 1-9 *
November 21, 2004 Brian Peterson/Steven Cox |
We use a wreath to remind us of each Sunday in Advent. There are three blue candles that serve as a reminder for us to prepare our hearts as a welcome place for God. There is a rose colored candle to remind us that Joy is an essential part of Advent. In the center of the wreath is the Christ candle that is lit on Christmas Day. The season of Advent is a time of promise. It is a time of anticipating the coming of our Lord. Beginning on the fourth Sunday prior to Christmas, Advent serves for us as a time of preparation. Picture a dove sitting on the manger. It has in its mouth the first strand of hay to place inside this future vessel for the birth of Jesus. The dove is preparing for the promises given from our ancestors, a promise of hope. Not only are we preparing for this promise of the birth of Christ, but the second coming as well. This second coming has Jesus as the risen Christ to rule triumphantly over life in heaven and earth. We hear the cry of John the Baptist saying, "make straight the way of the Lord!" We prepare our hearts, waiting with hope at the tip of our tongue for the fulfillment of this cry. Advent blends together a penitential spirit, very similar to Lent and a joyful theme of getting ready for the Bethlehem event. A penitential spirit... fused with our humble hearts as this promise of hope unfolds on that glorious day of birth.
Steven Cox
The holidays just wouldn’t be the same without the sound of Bing Crosby crooning of “I’ll be home for Christmas”. We think of a warm fire, the tender embrace of loved ones, the joy and laughter of everyone gathered together from near and far. Such a vision taps into the deep desire we all have to be at home, even “if only in our dreams.”
In the fifty-second chapter of Isaiah, the prophet dreams too, dreams of the day when God’s people would return home again. Exiled in Babylon, they struggled to “sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land.” They remembered the glory days, the way things once were and wished that somehow, someway they could get back there again. And I guess it really comes as no surprise. No matter who we are, when we’re far away from familiar surroundings, we all get a little nostalgic. We all wish we could get back home again.
But getting back home is not always easy. Of all people, Isaiah knows that to be true. He shows us that before we can celebrate homecoming, we have to reckon with where we are right now. In the language of medicine, we can’t get well until we recognize the nature of our illness. Until we face up to our own exile, there can be no genuine songs of homecoming. It’s seems odd to think of ourselves as exiles. We pride ourselves on our freedom to live where and how we choose, to move about wherever we want. And yet, we’re only fooling ourselves. We are bound, bound by our fear, of the terrorist’s bomb, of not having enough money or stuff, of those who are different from us, whose language is strange, whose skin is darker, whose view of the world bears no resemblance to our own. We’re bound up in the notion that we are our own masters in control of our own destinies. Of course nothing could be farther from the truth. The ways we view ourselves and the world around us is fundamentally at odds with the way God looks at things. But now God is poised to do something about it. “The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”
And yet, when all is said and done, God’s word of judgment is never the final word. The message of Christmas is good news for exiles everywhere, for those who are bound by fear, for those who can’t remember what it means to sing anymore, for those who’ve lost their way and can’t find their way home again. “Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy, for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion.” Jesus Christ has come into the world to banish our every fear, to set us free. No more let sin and sorrow grow, nor thorns infest the ground; he comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found. Amen
Brian Peterson
Epiphany, also know as Three Kings day of the Hispanic and Latin cultures, is the climax of the Christmas and Advent season. It wraps up the 12 days of Christmas from December 25 to January 5d1. Epiphany means "to show" or "to reveal" as the Wiseman revealed Jesus to the world as Lord and King. The last Sunday after Epiphany is Transfiguration Sunday. Again this theme of revealing becomes even clearer with the transfiguration of our Lord.
The magi that visited the baby Jesus were the first Gentiles to acknowledge that Jesus is indeed Lord and King. This act of worship corresponds with Simeon, blessing this child Jesus as "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" in Luke. Epiphany looks to the mission of the Church to the world through the light form the nativity. This light, shines on the world for all to see.
What then does it mean to be the light in this world? Isn't it our call to show this light? When we show the light to others, something becomes revealed in us. Mission. The mission of the church becomes our focus and we begin to "show" Jesus as Savior to all people. We in turn become enlightened. Just as Jesus manifest himself as God; we too are manifest in this light. Christ, the light of the whole word to see.
Steven Cox
When you throw a party you think carefully about who to invite-friends and family, co-workers and neighbors, those who’ve done something nice for you, for whom you’d like to repay the kindness. On the invitation you might note what’s going to be on the menu and the appropriate attire, casual, semi-formal or black tie.
The opening verses of Isaiah’s fifty fifth chapter reads like an invitation to a party, but one quite unlike any that you or I would ever plan. Ho everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Apparently the list isn’t limited to those of social standing, or who can come appropriately dressed. The only requirement is hunger and thirst. Now what kind of party is this?
And I suspect that “hungry” and “thirsty” aren’t words we would immediately use to describe ourselves. Not that our stomachs don’t start to growl come lunchtime or that we get a little parched working out in the hot sun, but we know that food is as close as the refrigerator or the cupboard, that water is as near as the tap at the kitchen sink.
And yet, even though our bellies are full and our bodies fully hydrated, Isaiah points us to the deep hunger and thirst that afflicts us all. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? The season of Lent affords us the opportunity to examine the ways in which we spend our lives. And what we discover is that more often than not, our ways, our priorities, our economies are completely at odds with what God wants for us and for our world. But as one who grieves for us like a loving Father, God calls us to return again, that He may have mercy on us.
The gift that God gives to us is free. The cost has already been borne on a cross by his son Jesus Christ. The promise of forgiveness and life is for us today. Today, a table is prepared for sinners like us. To you and me the Lord says, “come, no matter what you look like on the outside, no matter what you look like on the inside, come for now your life is in me.” Amen.
Brian Peterson
The season of Easter is a theme deeply rooted in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In the ancient church the celebration of the Resurrection was called the Passover. The Easter vigil, or sunrise service, was once a focal point in the church for baptisms emphasizing the continuity of the church's witness and mission. This service returns the light from Good Friday, and symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus from the grave and the light of hope and salvation God brought into the world. This is the triumph of the light of God's grace and salvation over the darkness of sin and death.
Even before theologians explained the death of Jesus in terms of various atonement theories, the early church saw his resurrection as the central witness to a new act of God in history and the victory of God in vindicating Jesus as the Messiah. The promise had been fulfilled, and our sins had been taken away after one night and three days. Through this resurrection, Jesus is transformed from servant hood to Ruler and Lord.
The color white is used during this season and symbolizes the hope of the resurrection as well as the purity and newness that comes from victory over sin and death. Of course we see Easter egg hunts and cute bunnies, but this season is indeed a time of re birth. The land around us is changing, animals are emerging from hibernation, and our savior is exalted through a humble death.Steven Cox
You have to wonder, if Isaiah knew what was going to happen to him that day would he have just stayed in bed and pulled the sheets over his head? A vision of the Lord sitting on a throne, tended by six winged seraphs in a rocking house full of smoke. It’s understandable if he feels a little overwhelmed, not up to the task that’s being laid upon him. “Woe is me! For I am lost, a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips!”
On the day and during the season that bears the name Pentecost, we as the church ponder the Spirit’s work in us the church, the calling, not just of a few, not of those who seem particularly adept, but the calling of a people of unclean lips, a people who don’t have all the answers or who know just exactly how everything is going to work out. The Spirit awakens faith, “makes us believe” in the words of the catechism, and in so doing calls, gathers, enlightens and makes us holy, allows us to join Isaiah in declaring, “Here I am, send me.”
But the prophet’s work won’t be easy. Where the Lord sends him nobody in his or her right mind would want to go. “Go and say to this people, ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend, keep looking but do not understand. Make the mind of this people dull, stop their ears, shut their eyes so that they may not look with their eyes, listen with their ears and comprehend with their minds and turn and be healed.”
In baptism you and I are called, called “to bear God’s creative and redeeming word into all the world” work that to be sure isn’t always easy. It means living by example, in letting our lives speak of God’s love as we serve one another and our neighbor, but the Spirit also leads us to speak, to proclaim the glory of God, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.” The message isn’t always well received, even by us. We presume God’s blessings upon our pet causes and projects that our possessions, our name, even life itself is a divine right and by God nobody can ever call that into question. But those who presume to be close couldn’t be farther away, from the one who is our Truth, who calls us back again and again and again.
By the gift of faith God’s “yes” for us becomes our “yes” to him. By faith alone are we led to take up our cross and follow Christ our King. We know not what lies on the road ahead. We do know that He has already been there, blazing a trail for us as together we march, march upward to Zion, the beautiful City of God. Amen.
Brian Peterson
See also Church Seasons Meditations 2003
Return to Welcome The Ascension Sanctuary