Rector’s Reflections
Thursday 28th November 2024
Keeping Advent with the Prophet Isaiah
In yesterday’s reflections, I wrote about the idea that Advent is a time for us to hear God’s call. It is an opportunity to set aside the time and space we need to listen to God. I wonder what God might be wanting to say to us at this time in our lives?
As I write these words, my mind is turning to the figure of John the Baptist, proclaiming God’s word in the desert. At the start of Mark’s gospel, we read as follows : “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”.” John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” (Mark 1, verses 1-5).
There seems to have been no shortage of people willing to come out to hear what John had to say. But how many were really willing to take John’s message on board? How many were prepared to really listen to what God was saying to them through John’s life and teaching?
The same question could be asked of any of God’s prophets. How many of Isaiah’s contemporaries were actually interested in what he had to say? Being a prophet can be a lonely occupation. Prophets are not always appreciated by their contemporaries. John the Baptist ended up by being executed at orders of Herod. There is also a legend that Isaiah himself ended by being sawn asunder in the reign of King Manasseh (687BCE to 643BCE); the legend has been described as “historically worthless”, but it is an interesting testimony to the sort of fate which a prophet might be expected to meet.
Which raises an interesting question. Why are prophets often unpopular? Why might they be considered a threat to the powers that be?
I think the basic reason for this is that prophets call us to shift the focus of our attention, away from the everyday matters that occupy our thoughts and lives, and towards the things of eternity – the things of God. What does God want for our lives? What does God want for our world?
Isaiah has much to say on this topic. At its heart, Isaiah’s message is a message of freedom: God wishes to free us from all that oppresses, from all that prevents us from living life in all its fulness. Isaiah uses many different images to express God’s gift of freedom: he writes about being released from imprisonment and slavery, about being healed from illness and infirmity, about light shining in darkness.
For Isaiah, God’s call to us as individuals and as a community is basically a call to freedom. In Christian terms, it is a call to the freedom which comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ: in Jesus we know that our sins are forgiven, that our future is safe, and that we have the real possibility of living lives of love and holiness through the gift and power of the Holy Spirit. God frees us from all that holds back abundant living.
In words from Isaiah chapter 42:
“Thus says the Lord, who created the heavens and the stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prisons those who sit in darkness.
I am the lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other; nor my praise to idols. See the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them”. (verses 5 to 9)
Advent is a time to remind ourselves that God wishes to declare “new things” in our lives. He has come to bring us freedom. I wonder what this might mean for us in our own lives, in the Church, and in the World?