Greetings,
The daily lectionary for Advent seemed to be particularly appropriate for comment today.
Devotions: First Week of Advent: Thursday
Is. 26:1-6 Jerusalem, a new city, is built by God as a home for the lowly and for those who trust in God.
Mt. 7:21, 24-27 Only those who do the will of God will be saved; they will build their house on rock and it will not be swept away.
The readings for today set up a double movement. In Isaiah God builds the city, setting up its walls and ramparts to protect us; in the Gospel we build the house solidly, setting it on a rock. While Isaiah summons into the new city those who “trust in the Lord forever.” Matthew repeats those sentences of Jesus which reserve salvation “only [to] the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” The Old Testament in this instance appears as the messenger of faith, and the New Testament stresses action!
There is a line in the passage from Isaiah which brings these divergent views back into harmony: “...for in the LORD GOD you have an everlasting rock.”
The first movement is insistence upon faith and trust in the Lord, which is a continuous motif throughout the prophecy of Isaiah. The classic statement occurs in 7:9b:
Unless your faith is firm
you shall not be firm!
[If you do not stand firm in faith,
you shall not stand at all. (NRSV)]
[If you will not take your stand on me
you will not stand firm. (NJB)]
Isaiah speaks from a time of crisis when Ahaz, King of Jerusalem, had no alternative but to trust in God. He was unable to muster an army and repel an invasion from the norther kingdom of Israel. It was impossible to appeal to Assyria for help because that meant becoming a vassal of this foreign power, losing national independence and gaining nothing in the long run. We, too, are faced with crises, at least critical moments of our lives, when to do anything would mean doing something immoral. We can see no good option or moral alternative. Isaiah warns and encourages us: “Be watchful and be tranquil; do not fear and do not let your courage fail” (7:4). Isaiah later repeats these words in a meditative way:
By waiting and by calm you shall be saved,
in quiet and in trust your strength lies. (30:15)
The theme of faith is repeated in today’s reading:
Trust in the LORD forever,
for in the LORD GOD you have an everlasting rock. (26:4)
The Lord will surround us who have faith as he does the holy city with “walls and ramparts.” And the Lord himself is that city. He is the rock which sustains us. He is the Holy One, enshrined within us. There is a clash of images here! It means that the Lord is behind and before us, around about us and within us, supporting us from beneath, glorifying us from above.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the Lord (Ps. 18:1-2).
And yet there are other moments in our life when we will be rightly condemned by God and our neighbors if we remain silent and motionless.
For everything there is a season,...
a time to be born, and a time to die;...
a time to keep silence and a time to speak (Ec. 3:1a, 2a, 7b)
The second movement in our readings is about those moments. There is a time for action, when it simply is not enough to cry out, “Lord, Lord!” “Only the one,” Jesus says, “who does the will of my Father in heaven” “will enter the kingdom of God.” To do nothing is like building a house on sandy ground. Once the rainy season sets in, the water will lash at the foundation and the house will collapse.
Jesus says we should be “like the wise person who built his house on rock.” Isaiah explains that “the Lord is an eternal rock.” We must act but always through the strength and direction of the Lord, resting ourselves thoroughly upon Jesus. Only when each of our actions is directed by a conscious turning to the Lord for guidance, only when a sense of the Lord’s presence accompanies us in all that we do, only then will there be an integral wholeness about life. Everything will fit together firmly. No single action will be out of harmony with the others nor disrupt the peace of our lives.
Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace—
in peace because they trust in you. (26:3)
Whether we be silent or speak, remain motionless or act, we must be firmly rooted in the Lord. We must rest upon the rock of the Lord.
Yours & His,
DED
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