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Advent devotions 2008

NOV. 25 - WAITING ON ADVENT
By Jim Brenneman, president

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 64:1-9 (NRSV)
Scroll down for complete Scripture.

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DEVOTIONAL:
"Tear open the heavens and come down!" With these blunt and fierce words, the prophet Isaiah literally begs God to make Advent come to pass, now. God's people had waited for years in exile without sensing God's presence. Isaiah beseeches God to shake up the world, make the mountains quake, and frighten all their enemies (64:1-3). Instead, Isaiah gets silence.

Have you ever felt like Isaiah, or the people of his day, wondering where in heaven or on earth God is? Have you ever tried to pray and felt nothing, saw nothing, sensed nothing, for a long, long, time? Or felt the sad weight of Bob Dylan's song, "Knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door," and no one answers? If so, you’ve entered Advent-time!

We want a loud and noisy Advent with jingle bells. We want God to enter boldly into life's malls in a bright red suit for all to see and hear. Instead, God breaks open heaven’s doors and comes down through the back door of life in hovels, cow-cribs, and swaddled clothes. God comes all the way down to the cross, to the grave. We think we want Almighty God tearing heaven to pieces to display God's power. Instead, we get what we most need, God-with-us, our Savior. The hidden God is made known to us each and every time we open ourselves up to God’s loving forgiveness. Such an Advent is always worth the wait!

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SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 64:1-9 (NRSV)
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
    so that the mountains would quake at your presence --

as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil --

to make your name known to your adversaries,
    so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

From ages past no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who works for those who wait for him.

You meet those who gladly do right,
    those who remember you in your ways.

But you were angry, and we sinned;
    because you hid yourself we transgressed.

We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
Posted at 17:23 #