"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light...the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."
Monday: Isaiah 43.19 “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
This week we are going to learn to think like Isaiah, to have an Isaianic mind-set. Isaianic: Adjective. (1) To see things differently because God has announced Good News. (2) To look into the darkness and see the first finger-lines of dawn. (3) To hear God’s call to the Church to strengthen feeble hands and strengthen knees that give way. (4) To have strength renewed by waiting trustfully for God to act.
Tuesday: Isaiah 9.2 “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
Isaiah understood not just the cost of living crisis, but the kind of crises that made folk wonder if life was worth living. Darkness can mean various things: fear of the future, anxiety about being able to cope, despair of where help will come from. Isaiah knew, and told the people, that hope is in God, and God has plans. Advent is about those plans, God saying yet again, “Let there be light.”
Wednesday: Isaiah 9.6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Now that’s Isaianic thinking! God is on the move. You’ve heard of hostile take-over bids? This is a saving take-over bid. The governance will rest on God. By the birth of Jesus will come the light of life, the power of God, the Eternal entering time, the one who will rule in peace. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord. Looking at the mess the world is in, an Isaianic mind-set sees the coming of God.
Thursday: Isaiah 55.1-2 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.”
How do you buy if you have no money? Isaiah is talking about the things money can’t buy. God’s love is free; forgiveness is free, but only because on the cross God has paid forward for our sins. These are Communion texts about bread and wine, which remind our Christian hearts of what truly satisfies as the richest of fare – our Lord Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.
Friday: Isaiah 40.28-29 “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”
When you’ve had enough. Those times when the broken world and the endless crises and the suffering of so much of humanity, makes you want to switch off and have a holiday from reality. Listen to Isaiah’s questions - Do you not know? Have you not heard? Now read his reply, about God, not you, or me. And ask strength for your weary heart, and power for your weakness. This too is Isaianic thinking – when the going gets tough, God is tougher still!
Saturday: Isaiah 40. 30-31 “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
This is Isaiah’s promise that comes after the questions. God doesn’t get weary and decide to walk away. We can’t know all of God’s wise purposes, but God’s wise love and merciful power give us hope. And hope gives us resilience, new energy, a deeper, surer trust. We will soar like eagles carried on thermal columns of faith; we’ll run like elite athletes in the power of the Holy Spirit; we will walk and not faint. This is Isaiah the life-coach teaching us the Isaianic mind-set.
Sunday: Isaiah 7.14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call him Immanuel. (God with us).”
Every Advent is a time for replenishment. Peace and justice, hope and faith, love and joy – we need refilled. Too often we have to live with the opposite vocabulary of war and injustice, despair and cynicism, hate and tears. So every Advent, God calls us to celebrate the coming of the Christ-child, and the Immanuel promise, God with us. Wherever you are in life right now, God’s there; wherever we are in life tomorrow and into the future, God with us. That’s the Isaianic mind-set.
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