Today’s readings are important to me because they are the readings us used on the day of my ordination as a deacon - 1st Sunday in advent- 26 years ago.
In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah sounds like he is blaming God for his people’s sins and guilt (Isaiah 63:16ff), and for letting them wander around for many years, and the way their hearts were hardened.
God’s “kingdom kids” have wandered away from him and his covenant love. Not only did they engage in immoral and unethical activities but more importantly, they had become slack and indifferent to their Father in heaven. Now they are anxious to come back home to their Father, and the Prophet Isaiah is pleading their case for them.
The Jewish people of that ancient culture and religion believed that God was the cause of everything. They didn’t know why some things happened; but they truly believed that God, for reasons known only to Him, was the cause of it all. Based on that belief, the prophets would refer to God as the “potter” and the people as the “clay.” This is why you will hear them appearing to attribute to God all the bad things that are happening to them. However, this is not a “blame game.”
Instead, it reflects a simple but strong belief in the power of the One God of the universe, and leads them to realise their own guilt and involvement in actions or inactions that led to their present consequences.
Are you one of the wandering “kingdom kids” who has gone astray in some way? Our good and gracious God grants us every opportunity to turn back to Him, to come back home to Him. He even gives us plenty of warnings, urging us to be always be on the ready (Mark 13:33-37) for the return of Jesus Christ, the Master. It will be sudden; it will be unexpected. So be prepared, and accept the Father’s invitation to “come home.” One has only to repent, change one’s ways, and be immediately reconciled that way with our heavenly Father.
“Awareness” is a constant theme of Jesus, because the stakes are very high: eternal life. We are not spared from this present time of the trial of evil; therefore, we need to wait and be watchful.
Deacon Brian
In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah sounds like he is blaming God for his people’s sins and guilt (Isaiah 63:16ff), and for letting them wander around for many years, and the way their hearts were hardened.
God’s “kingdom kids” have wandered away from him and his covenant love. Not only did they engage in immoral and unethical activities but more importantly, they had become slack and indifferent to their Father in heaven. Now they are anxious to come back home to their Father, and the Prophet Isaiah is pleading their case for them.
The Jewish people of that ancient culture and religion believed that God was the cause of everything. They didn’t know why some things happened; but they truly believed that God, for reasons known only to Him, was the cause of it all. Based on that belief, the prophets would refer to God as the “potter” and the people as the “clay.” This is why you will hear them appearing to attribute to God all the bad things that are happening to them. However, this is not a “blame game.”
Instead, it reflects a simple but strong belief in the power of the One God of the universe, and leads them to realise their own guilt and involvement in actions or inactions that led to their present consequences.
Are you one of the wandering “kingdom kids” who has gone astray in some way? Our good and gracious God grants us every opportunity to turn back to Him, to come back home to Him. He even gives us plenty of warnings, urging us to be always be on the ready (Mark 13:33-37) for the return of Jesus Christ, the Master. It will be sudden; it will be unexpected. So be prepared, and accept the Father’s invitation to “come home.” One has only to repent, change one’s ways, and be immediately reconciled that way with our heavenly Father.
“Awareness” is a constant theme of Jesus, because the stakes are very high: eternal life. We are not spared from this present time of the trial of evil; therefore, we need to wait and be watchful.
Deacon Brian
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