{"id":1444,"date":"2021-12-09T13:59:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T13:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1444"},"modified":"2021-12-09T13:59:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T13:59:56","slug":"thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1444","title":{"rendered":"Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Advent, Week One<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah 26:1-6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s text from Isaiah is a song of hope where Jerusalem is imagined as a strong and fortified city, defended by God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s the upright nation and the faithful one who will walk through the gates and be assured of God\u2019s presence. It\u2019s those \u2018whose mind is steadfast\u2019 and those who \u2018keep the peace\u2019 who now walk through the gates. \u2018Upright\u2019 and \u2018faithful\u2019 are short-hands for living in relationship with God, for following the Law in word and deed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past two years we\u2019ve had to learn the hard lessons of what it means to \u2018stay safe\u2019. We\u2019ve had to face the hard fact that it means different things to different people. We\u2019ve learnt that my safety and the safety of others are intricately connected. Perhaps you have longed for walls, ramparts and gates?\u00a0 Can you look back and see how you have been \u2018upright\u2019 and \u2018faithful\u2019. Can you bring to mind the times when your mind was \u2018steadfast\u2019 and you were able \u2018to keep the peace\u2019?
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there phrases of Scripture which you can hold on to in this season of Advent?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Advent, Week One Isaiah 26:1-6 Today\u2019s text from Isaiah is a song of hope where Jerusalem is imagined as a strong and fortified city, defended by God. That day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:We have a strong city;to guard us he has setwall and rampart about us.Open the gates!Let the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Thursday”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monastic","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1446,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444\/revisions\/1446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}