{"id":1456,"date":"2021-12-09T14:10:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T14:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1456"},"modified":"2021-12-09T14:10:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T14:10:16","slug":"monday-advent-week-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1456","title":{"rendered":"Monday, Advent, Week Two"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Let-the-wilderness-and-the-dry-lands-exult-let-the-wasteland-rejoice-and-bloom-let-it-bring-forth-flowers-like-the-jonquil-let-it-rejoice-and-sing-for-joy..jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Let-the-wilderness-and-the-dry-lands-exult-let-the-wasteland-rejoice-and-bloom-let-it-bring-forth-flowers-like-the-jonquil-let-it-rejoice-and-sing-for-joy.-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1457\" srcset=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Let-the-wilderness-and-the-dry-lands-exult-let-the-wasteland-rejoice-and-bloom-let-it-bring-forth-flowers-like-the-jonquil-let-it-rejoice-and-sing-for-joy.-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Let-the-wilderness-and-the-dry-lands-exult-let-the-wasteland-rejoice-and-bloom-let-it-bring-forth-flowers-like-the-jonquil-let-it-rejoice-and-sing-for-joy.-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Let-the-wilderness-and-the-dry-lands-exult-let-the-wasteland-rejoice-and-bloom-let-it-bring-forth-flowers-like-the-jonquil-let-it-rejoice-and-sing-for-joy.-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Let-the-wilderness-and-the-dry-lands-exult-let-the-wasteland-rejoice-and-bloom-let-it-bring-forth-flowers-like-the-jonquil-let-it-rejoice-and-sing-for-joy.-1536x864.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Let-the-wilderness-and-the-dry-lands-exult-let-the-wasteland-rejoice-and-bloom-let-it-bring-forth-flowers-like-the-jonquil-let-it-rejoice-and-sing-for-joy.-1568x882.jpg 1568w, http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Let-the-wilderness-and-the-dry-lands-exult-let-the-wasteland-rejoice-and-bloom-let-it-bring-forth-flowers-like-the-jonquil-let-it-rejoice-and-sing-for-joy..jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Isaiah 35:1-10<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today Isaiah offers us another poetic vision of all that God promises for the people of Judah: everybody and everything will be restored in a land governed by God. Judah has experienced a period of barrenness and dryness in her relationship with God. All of this God will turn into fertile land where everything can flourish. It is a very exuberant text. The glory of God is seen in a land where everything is restored and blossoms. What was once arid will now become fertile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s getting harder and harder to hold onto a vision proclaimed in these terms. Daily we hear of natural disasters and see the scenes of heart-breaking devastation. By all accounts we\u2019ve been too slow to read the signs and to understand that each individual choice can have a global effect. In a sermon preached here at Turvey, Br John made the point that the forest fires in Greece were the result of a cycle of grasping and only a cycle of giving can put out the fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though Isaiah\u2019s vision paints a picture of paradise, in previous chapters he hasn\u2019t been slow to point out Judah\u2019s serious shortcomings: \u2018Wow to those who add house to house and join field to field until everywhere belongs to them and they are the sole inhabitants of the land.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Isaiah too knew the cycle of grasping. He warns Judah of God\u2019s impending judgement.&nbsp; The people have a choice; they can acknowledge their failings and seek forgiveness, or ignore them and rep the consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final stanza of our reading paints a beautiful picture of joy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018They will come to Zion shouting for joy,<br>everlasting joy on their faces:<br>joy and gladness will go with them and sorrow and lament be ended.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of this is possible because God is coming to save his people. God\u2019s promise to come and save is a strong today as it was for Isaiah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During Advent we can invite God into the most arid places of our lives. In trust and hope we can wait for those places to blossom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Isaiah 35:1-10 Today Isaiah offers us another poetic vision of all that God promises for the people of Judah: everybody and everything will be restored in a land governed by God. Judah has experienced a period of barrenness and dryness in her relationship with God. All of this God will turn into fertile land where &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1456\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Monday, Advent, Week Two&#8221;<\/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-1456","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\/1456","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=1456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1458,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions\/1458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}