Year B: Year of Mark

First Sunday in Advent

First Reading: Isaiah 63: 16-17; 64:1, 3-8

The first scripture passage of the liturgical year opens on a note of impassioned pleading with God to come in all His power - all His glory - to let the world know His Presence.. a presence before which even the mountains would melt.

Isaiah is the Advent prophet - not least because he and his disciples (who, in fact, completed the book we call Isaiah) lived at a time of great longing for the coming of the Messiah and the restoration of God’s People.

The people have begun to recognise that their Exile was a consequence of their failure to live with integrity and in the ways of the Lord. Their selfishness had shrivelled them up like fallen leaves - their sin like the autumn wind scattering them.

Now the longing is for a Messiah to come and gather His people and to bring them home.

The words flow with passion - and yearning. The writer faces up to the wrongs that have been committed.

But he also comes to a moment of trust and peace: God is the Father who does not forget His children - God is the potter - we are the clay, we are the work of God’s hands.

The reading follows a pattern often encountered in the Psalms - and one which it is good to pray when times are hard. We are shown that God does not insist on politeness - or that we say all is well when it isn’t. A real relationship with God allows us to express the pain of where we are. We tell God how it feels - and then, as the anger - pain - fear pass, we find that in the space where they were, something else has appeared - the certainty that God loves us and, no matter how it feels, God has not abandoned us to our plight - nor ever will...

What does it mean for me?

 © 2008 Wellspring

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