Rector’s Reflections
Wednesday 4th December 2024
Keeping Advent with the Prophet Isaiah
In yesterday’s reflections, I shared some thoughts from Isaiah on the subject of fear. Fear is a normal human emotion, and Isaiah encourages us to face our fears, placing our confidence in God’s love and in His good purposes for our lives and our world.
But Isaiah would add a further thought. Sometimes, the reason we are afraid is because we see or sense that change is coming. We get used to things staying as they are, and so the prospect of change is often unsettling. But what if change were something we should embrace rather than fear? What if the changes in our life and our world might actually be signs of God at work? What if the change we fear were actually a change for the better?
Isaiah loved the traditions of the past, but he also loved to write about the new things that were happening at the time he was writing, and the new things that God would bring about at some time in the future, when God deemed that the time was right. Here are some characteristic passages:
“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! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth! Let the sea roar and all that fill it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.” (Chapter 42, verses 8 to 10 and 9).
“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Chapter 43, verses 18 and 19)
“You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forward I make you hear of new things, hidden things that you have not known” (chapter 48 verse 6)
“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth ; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress (Chapter 65, verses 17 to 19)
Many of these references are picked up in the New Testament, especially in the letters of St Paul and in the Book of Revelation. For many early Christians, the promise we read in Isaiah of “a new thing” or a “new creation” has its most complete fulfilment in the coming of Jesus. In Jesus, there is a New Creation. Jesus is the New Adam, and in Jesus there is a new beginning for human beings and indeed for the whole of Creation. In Jesus, God has given the whole of Creation the opportunity to make a fresh start: our sins are forgiven, and we pass from a world dominated by the darkness of death to a world lit up by the promise of Eternal Life.
This belief is given a poetic expression in the opening verses of the penultimate chapter of the Book of Revelation:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first haven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals, He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have pass away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” (Chapter 21, verses 1 to 5).
Advent is a good time for us to reflect on how God is “making all things new” – in our own lives, in the life of our communities, and in the life of the Church. Where might we be seeing God at work?