On the first week of Advent my true love said to me “Hold still, this is gonna hurt.”
Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
The word rend kept tripping me up in this passage. I’d read and re-read but it was like that word was a pulse I could feel throughout. Actually instead of a pulse it was more like a warning beacon, this flashing yellow light that demands caution. This shouldn’t have surprised me because I believe if Advent is anything, and I do believe it is something indeed, it is prophetic, and so designed to catch us off guard, throw us off whatever balance we may have taken the ordinary days to achieve, possibly offend us, or even frighten us as we wait.
But for us, for me, for our world right now, the word rend is far too sophisticated.
Advent. The waiting. That’s the accepted stanceisn’t it, Lord? Yet what this really is about is the rending. But that word’s far too sophisticated. This is about the tearing – tear that rhymes with fair, although fairness has nothing to do with it. Mary knew of the tearing didn’t she? You tore her flesh when you first slipped into all the world to be taxed then slowly tore her heart to pieces, bit by bit. Yes, she knew. And we know too if we’ve guts enough to admit it because we’ve repeated the sins of our fathers one too many times and if we want the forgiveness you freely offer we know it comes with the catch of the tearing – tear that rhymes with fare, like how much it costs to be thrown on your wheel and spun into something of great price. There’s no doubt we can be saved. But we end up torn –
torn that rhymes with born, as in be born in us today. Advent: hold still,
this is gonna hurt.
I’m joining friends Kelly Hausknecht Chripczuk and Winn Collier in wrestling with the same Advent passage each week this season. Please visit them and their words around Isaiah 64. 1-9 – http://afieldofwildflowers.blogspot.com and http://winncollier.com.
John Blase – these words (to rend) on a morning like this, oh my. Torn and born, thrown and spun into something of great price. May it be so.
I wake this morning feeling thrown and torn – not how I’ve known the beginnings of Advent past – so these “wrestling” words of yours speak hope to me today. Maybe my heart is actually in the right place this year. Thank you.
I’ve lived enough Advent seasons that I always begin a new one more than a little afraid. I think it’s the good kind of afraid, but it still hurts. Grateful for the wisdom in your words.
terrible, beautiful comfort…
“bit by bit,” that rings true right now
I have been skirting the observance of Advent as it is not part of my evangelical liturgy, so I’m reading from the sidelines. Nonetheless I am so very intrigued with the power of the words selected here (and at Kelly’s). Such amazing different perspectives on what it means that God would come down.
The fact that Jesus was born to die has been sitting in my brain the last couple of days, and the fact that he came to make us holy…..
“how much it
costs to be thrown on
your wheel and spun
into something of
great price.”
Thrown and spun…..I guess that’s what life is these days.
So well said, John.
No words. Thank you for yours.
That was what captured me as well, the power of Isaiah’s imagery. I kept trying to write a poem about this passage, but couldn’t find it. The tearing though (NRSV) made me think of Mary as well. And there seems to be something in the way it starts with rending and ends with a statement of unification – as if the prophet/poet is saying, rend what must be rent, but in the end don’t let us be separated from You (we are all your people).
When I was in the final stages of delivering one of my children, the nurse gave a hearty shout, “Let ‘er rip!” without realizing what she was saying – I guess that’s how Advent begins as well.
wonderful musing, John. and with two of my all-time other faves, Kelly and Winn??? Wowza. Thank you all.