Word to the Wise
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - Wednesday in the Third Week of Advent
[Isaiah 45:6c-8, 18, 21c-25 and Luke 7:18b-23]Who announced this from the beginning and foretold it from of old? Was it not I, the Lord, besides whom there is no other God? There is no just and saving God but me. Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God; there is no other.
Isaiah's majestic language continually challenges us during the Advent season. Much of the scriptures for Eucharist in this time come from the part of Isaiah known as the Book of Comfort (Chaps. 40-55). The words are both comforting and challenging. Israel is assured that God wants her to return to the Land God gave her from of old and accept forgiveness for their straying after foreign deities. The challenge is precisely in Isaiah's uncompromising monotheism. God is not just one God among others. God is the ONLY God and all others are the product of the human imagination. As one passage puts it: "They have mouths but they cannot speak; they have ears but they cannot hear."
Isaiah's words challenge us as well. We can be all too set on the God of our designs rather than the God who creates us and sustains us. We can interpret our cultural and political creations as matters which are from God and wind up worshiping these by our actions. The focus in this season is on God's fulfillment of God's promise by becoming human in the form of a newborn child. God cannot be governed by our creations. Isaiah's prophecies and the gospels lead us to one place in this season and that is in front of that Christmas scene in the stable. We cannot have any other God before the one we see there. AMEN