“Fear not, O worm
Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will help you, says the LORD; your redeemer is the
Holy One of Israel. I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, and
double-edged, to thresh the mountains and crush them, to make the hills like
chaff.” Is. 41:14-15
I love Advent. It
is most certainly my favorite of all the liturgical seasons. It really has
everything you need in a season: calls for repentance, offering up
thanksgiving, reminders of the impending end of things, reminders of the coming
of new things, and all the Isaiah that anyone could ever want. Probably just as
much as I love Advent, I love Isaiah.
Imagine you see
that crazy looking guy on the street corner holding his sign, he is
calmly explaining to people that God has told him the end of their world is
near. Now, imagine the sign he is holding is calling for repentance, not for
your own salvation because you’re screwed, but for a salvation hoped for, and
promised, through God’s Grace. After Jerusalem is conquered and much of the
upper-class is carried off to Babylon, we have Second Isaiah (above) telling
the Jews that God sees them as worms and maggots (sometimes God doesn’t work
with honey). But, he finishes with the image of God using them as a thresh
(harvesting tool) to cut down the mountains and blow away the hills like dust
in the wind. Now, it’s not that God is using soggy worms to beat down these
mighty things, but that God is going to transform His nation into something
great, something worth notice!
As we continue on
in our Advent season, let us remember that we find our world in a state of
flux. Much like Jerusalem, we have set ourselves on a tenuous path to
destruction. We have long walked a path damaging to our environment, and we,
like the Hebrews, are in serious trouble. We need to repent.
In this season of
renewal, what are ways that we can ease the stress that we put on our
environment? Ultimately, we may be witness to the destruction of our way of
life, yet we are not beyond salvation. Like Isaiah’s Jews, our destruction does
not mean that we cannot set up a better world for those who follow.
This Advent
season, how do we allow ourselves to be transformed?
How can we be an
example to encourage others to do the same?
Matthew
Keppel
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