Preferring Nothing to Christ

VALLEY

Let every VALLEY be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low…

In Chapter 40 Isaiah announces with great urgency Judah’s triumphal return from exile in Babylon. What was once a valley will now be filled in. There will be no need to scale a mountain either as these will be laid low. Nothing is to bar the way of Judah’s joyful return to Jerusalem. On a newly built highway Judah will run like a runner in a race.

Judah has known the peaks and troughs in her relationship with God. She has been to the mountain top and seen God’s glory. She has sat despondent in the valley and doubted God’s presence. She has been brought so low that now it’s God’s initiative alone that will save her.

As we come near to the end of Advent can you look back and see your own valleys?
How has God filled in the valleys for you?

(Isaiah 40:1-11, Tuesday, Week Two)

December 21st

Song of Songs 2:8-14
Luke 1:39-45

O Radiant Dawn,
splendour of eternal light,
sun of justice;
come, shine on those
who dwell in darkness
and the shadow of death.

O Oriens

First light and then first lines along the east
To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
As though behind the sky itself they traced
The shift and shimmer of another river
Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.
Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away upstream…
So every trace of light begins a grace
In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
“Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream
For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking”.

Malcolm Guite

Listen to Malcolm Guite read his sonnet:

O Dayspring! A Fifth Advent reflection

That day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city;
to guard us he has set wall and rampart about us. Open the gates! Let the UPRIGHT nation come in, she, the faithful one whose mind is steadfast, who keeps the peace, because she trusts you.

The people of Judah lived in precarious circumstances with the threat of Assyria looming. Isaiah preaches a message of trust in God alone and warns against alliances with other nations.  Walls, ramparts and gates are the physical signs of God’s protection. The would-be invader or attacker needs a strategy to get through these protections. Judah can feel safe with these things in place.

Isaiah imagines the triumphal entry of Judah into the safe and protected city. It’s the upright nation and the faithful one who will walk through the gates and be assured of God’s presence. It’s those ‘whose mind is steadfast’ and those who ‘keep the peace’ who now walk through the gates. ‘Upright’ and ‘faithful’ are short-hands for living in relationship with God, for following the Law in word and deed.

As the story of our salvation has unfolded this Advent we have met the upright. These are the people who have put their trust in God’s promise and walked in his ways. They were humble enough to know their need of God.

Who are the ‘upright’ in your own life?
What have they taught you?

(Isaiah 25:6-10, Tuesday, Week One)

December 20th

Liturgy of the Word

Isaiah 7:10-14
Luke 1:26-38

O Key of David
O royal power of Israel
controlling at your will
the gate of Heaven:
Come, break down the prison walls
of death for those who dwell in darkness
and lead your captive people into freedom.

O Clavis David

Even in the darkness where I sit
And huddle in the midst of misery
I can remember freedom, but forget
That every lock must answer to a key,
That each dark clasp, sharp and intricate,
Must find a counter-clasp to meet its guard,
Particular, exact and intimate,
The clutch and catch that meshes with its ward.
I cry out for the key I threw away
That turned and over turned with certain touch
And with the lovely lifting of a latch
Opened my darkness to the light of day.
O come again, come quickly, set me free
Cut to the quick to fit, the master key.

Malcolm Guite

Listen to Malcolm Guite read his sonnet:

O Key! A Fourth Advent Reflection and Sonnet

Widen the space of your TENT,
stretch out your hangings freely,
lengthen your ropes, make your pegs firm…

I have always loved this text. The hope and possibility in the image of strengthening and expanding a tent have sustained me in some times of wilderness. In Isaiah Ch 54 these verses are preceded by a lament for Israel as a barren woman. Her fortunes are about to turn, she is going to need more space, she will be blessed with children.

Isaiah now takes up the familiar refrain of Israel’s experience of exile, shame and abandonment and promises a future more blessed than could ever have been imagined. It’s God’s everlasting love and faithfulness (hesed) that makes this possible.

When we hear this text in Advent we too are invited to widen the tent of our lives and to make space for God’s blessing. All of this is made possible through the wideness of God’s love, made flesh in Jesus.

As we come to last few days of Advent, how is God calling you to make space for his blessing?

(Isaiah 54:1-10, Thursday, Week Three)

Judges 13:2-7, 24-25
Luke 1:5-25

O Flower of Jesse’s stem,
you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples;
kings stand silent in your presence;
the nations bow down in worship before you.
Come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid.

O Radix Jesse

All of us sprung from one deep-hidden seed,
Rose from a root invisible to all.
We knew the virtues once of every weed,
But, severed from the roots of ritual,
We surf the surface of a wide-screen world
And find no virtue in the virtual.
We shrivel on the edges of a wood
Whose heart we once inhabited in love,
Now we have need of you, forgotten Root
The stock and stem of every living thing
Whom once we worshiped in the sacred grove,
For now is winter, now is withering
Unless we let you root us deep within,
Under the ground of being, graft us in.

Malcolm Guite

Listen to Malcolm Guite read his sonnet:

A Third Advent Reflection: O Radix

That day, it will be said: See, this is our God
in whom we hoped for SALVATION;
the Lord is the one in whom we hoped.

Just before this verse from Isaiah 25 we have the evocative imagery of the heavenly banquet. With its ‘fine wines’ and ‘foods rich and juicy’, it is an image of abundance and plenty. Israel will be delivered from the aridity of exile with foods that will rehydrate and quench thirst. God promises to provide not only for physical hunger but also to heal grief: The Lord will wipe away the tears from each cheek…

Salvation then for Isaiah is a radical re-ordering of the world where God’s rule will ensure that Israel is provided for in both body and soul. Israel has hoped and longed for this day. Scripture scholar, Walter Brueggemann, describes Isaiah’s vision of the world as ‘an attentive world where Yahweh’s governance is unparalleled.’ I find this a very helpful understanding of salvation.

As Christmas approaches we find ourselves being attentive to all kinds of small things. They might look like a distraction from the Incarnation. Every small act of kindness, every attention to detail can be an expression of our love, however imperfect they may seem.

In these last days of Advent how is God calling you to be attentive?

(Isaiah 25:6-10, Wednesday, Week One)

Jeremiah 23:5-8
Matthew 1:18-24

O Lord of ancient Israel,
who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush,
who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain;
come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.

O Adonai

Unsayable, you chose to speak one tongue,
Unseeable, you gave yourself away,
The Adonai, the Tetragramaton
Grew by a wayside in the light of day.
O you who dared to be a tribal God,
To own a language, people and a place,
Who chose to be exploited and betrayed,
If so you might be met with face to face,
Come to us here, who would not find you there,
Who chose to know the skin and not the pith,
Who heard no more than thunder in the air,
Who marked the mere events and not the myth.
Touch the bare branches of our unbelief
And blaze again like fire in every leaf.

Malcolm Guite

Listen to Malcolm Guite read his sonnet:

O Adonai, my second Advent reflection and sonnet

How has God shown himself to you this Advent?

Which areas of your life do you most need God to set free?

REJOICES

I exult for joy in the Lord,
my soul REJOICES in my God,
for he has clothed me in the garments of salvation,
he has wrapped me in the cloak of integrity,
like a bridegroom wearing his wreath,
like a bride adorned in her jewels.

In the three books which make up the writings ascribed to Isaiah the theme of God’s saving actions sounds loud and clear. There is good news to be heard: the time of suffering is coming to an end, God will send the Holy One and the whole of creation will be restored. If this good news is received by a faithful people they will find themselves comforted and their wounds healed.

That God’s promise is about to be fulfilled is the cause for exuberance and rejoicing. The clothing metaphor speaks to me of the security and protection that God’s promise brings. The festive wedding adornments of wreath and jewels speak of a joy that has a special intensity. This joy is shared with all who gather to celebrate a wedding.

When Mary sings her Magnificat there is a sense in which she gives voice to all the joy that Israel has ever experienced. When her ‘spirit rejoices’ it does so in thankfulness for the ways in which God has acted in covenantal relationship with Israel. This joy fills Mary’s whole being.

Where have you seen God’s promise unfold?
Are there things for which you can rejoice this Advent?

(Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11, Sunday 3 (B)

17th December
O Sapientia

Gen 49:2, 8-10
Mat 1:1-17

O Wisdom, O holy Word of God,
you govern all creation
with your strong yet tender care.
Come and show your people
the way to salvation.

O SAPIENTIA

I cannot think unless I have been thought,
Nor can I speak unless I have been spoken.
I cannot teach except as I am taught,
Or break the bread except as I am broken.
O Mind behind the mind through which I seek,
O Light within the light by which I see,
O Word beneath the words with which I speak,
O founding, unfound Wisdom, finding me,
O sounding Song whose depth is sounding me,
O Memory of time, reminding me,
My Ground of Being, always grounding me,
My Maker’s Bounding Line, defining me,
Come, hidden Wisdom, come with all you bring,
Come to me now, disguised as everything.

Listen to Malcolm Guite read his sonnet:

https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/tag/o-sapientia/