It can seem at times so hard to find any hope in the world, any glimmer of a different future, perhaps especially today, of a time when war and troubles are over, when sorrow has ended.
One thing the Old Testament show us is that Twas Ever Thus. Humanity has always done a good job of causing trouble for one another – mistreating, making enemies, creating disaster – generally trying to prove who is bigger, stronger and making the life of the weak and vulnerable even more precarious.
Into this God spoke. Into this God continues to speak. The Advent message of hope is as needed today as it was when the prophets first spoke it. God promises that this will end.
Why hasn’t he yet? Perhaps we haven’t given him chance, allowed him to. God is trying to stop wars and we keep starting them. We are still intent on proving who is better, more right – and we fail to live with one another, with tensions and different opinions. We struggle to do it over even small things, so no wonder we can’t do it over international conflict. And when weapons get involved, there will only be one end – more hurt, more destruction, more suffering for those who didn’t start anything.
Yet still God continues to stand with us, weep with and for us, and promise an end – just as soon as we let him. Sorrow will end. We will be safely home.
God will lead us home and we will be safely blessed – that is our Advent hope.
What am I doing to work with him?
O Lord,
I know you weep over humanity,
you are distraught
at the things we do to one another.
You promise to bring us home
to a place of safety
and joy,
but we carry on the fighting,
discrimination,
injustice
and wonder why you aren’t doing something.
Forgive me Lord
for the part I play
in keeping anger and oppression going.
Today
and tomorrow
may I work with you
to bring an end
that we may be able
to come home to you.
The theme of the first week in Advent is The Day of the Lord. We look forward to the coming of that day.
14 Everyone in Jerusalem and Judah, celebrate and shout with all your heart! 15 Zion, your punishment is over. The Lord has forced your enemies to turn and retreat. Your Lord is King of Israel and stands at your side; you don’t have to worry about any more troubles.
16 Jerusalem, the time is coming, when it will be said to you: “Don’t be discouraged or grow weak from fear! 17 The Lord your God wins victory after victory and is always with you. He celebrates and sings because of you, and he will refresh your life with his love.”
The Lord’s Promise to His People
18 The Lord has promised: Your sorrow has ended, and you can celebrate. 19 I will punish those who mistreat you. I will bring together the lame and the outcasts, then they will be praised, instead of despised, in every country on earth. 20 I will lead you home, and with your own eyes you will see me bless you with all you once owned. Then you will be famous everywhere on this earth. I, the Lord, have spoken!
Do we want to make
peace or war?
Bring hope
or destruction?
Build for the future
or destroy all that’s past?
Shall I be a grower
or a killer?
A cultivator
or a destroyer?
A settler of disputes
or a creator of them?
Do I want my community to flourish
or to take everything away?
To feed
or to poison?
What tools will I use
in my life?
What is God
asking of me?
Which of my tools,
that I use as weapons.
does he want me to put down,
to turn into
something more useful,
to use for a good purpose
not bad.
Where is he asking me to make love
not war?
Where is he asking me
in my life
to turn Killing Fields
to Growing Fields?
Will I lay down arms
and pick up tools?
That we may live in peace
The Sunday before 11th November in the UK is Remembrance Sunday. The true value of our remembering is how it changes our future actions.
What am I going to do to make the world a better place – starting with my corner of it? How will I live in peace?
4 In the future, the mountain with the Lord’s temple will be the highest of all. It will reach above the hills, and every nation will rush to it. 2 People of many nations will come and say, “Let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord God of Jacob and worship in his temple.”
The Lord will teach us his Law from Jerusalem, and we will obey him. 3 He will settle arguments between distant and powerful nations. They will pound their swords and their spears into rakes and shovels; they will never again make war or attack one another. 4 Everyone will find rest beneath their own fig trees or grape vines, and they will live in peace. This is a solemn promise of the Lord All-Powerful.
5 Others may follow their gods, but we will always follow the Lord our God.
The Lord Will Lead His People Home
6 The Lord said: At that time I will gather my people— the lame and the outcasts, and all into whose lives I have brought sorrow. 7 Then the lame and the outcasts will belong to my people and become a strong nation. I, the Lord, will rule them from Mount Zion forever. 8 Mount Zion in Jerusalem, guardian of my people, you will rule again.
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