December 15, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“In that day you will say: ‘O LORD, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.’

With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation, and on that day you will say: ‘Give praise to the LORD; proclaim His name! Make His works known among the peoples; declare that His name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for He has done glorious things. Let this be known in all the earth. Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 12)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD during the Third Sunday of Advent 2024:

Within the liturgical year of the Church, the third Sunday is represented by the term and concept of “joy.” The Church seems to come alive when the instruments of worship begin to lead the people in “Joy to the World.” I have experienced that hymn under the leadership of pipe organs in several sanctuaries over the years and the sound fills the entire space. I had the opportunity to lie on the center aisle in the center of the sanctuary of a church which had over fifty ranks of pipes. When I was asked by the organ meister what I wanted to here, my first response was “Joy to the World.” I have heard other complicated and thrilling pieces played at University Christian Church in Fort Worth, Texas, especially during Ministers’ Week. They were thrilling, awe-inspiring and humbling. But in this instance for an audience of one, I desired “Joy to the World” because of its antiphonal presentation. He was most willing to oblige to my “Christmas in July” request. He literally pulled out all the stops. I was moved, shaken and virtually lifted off the floor as the pipes produced clear and resonant notes blending into that tremendous song of praise. It brings tears of joy to my eyes even now as I remember it.

Isaiah, chapter 12, is a kind of “Joy to the World” anthem for Israel. As ones of God is Jesus Christ, we sing “Joy to the World” as with the angels who appeared to the shepherds keeping watch by night. It is as if the angels could no longer hold back their anticipation of the moment when God in Heaven as their Immanuel would become God on earth as our Immanuel. How long had they waited for this moment? We do not hear within the creation story of Genesis when the angels were created. Amid all speculations, the options are limited. 1) We have not been told except that Job (38.4-7) declared they were there before the foundations of the earth were founded which could be on Day 3. 2) Passages from Colossians, Nehemiah and the Psalms declare that angels were a part of creation perhaps created by Christ Himself who is preeminent in all things and thus they were created on or before Day 1. In this they would have served as “eyewitnesses” to the glory of what God was doing. I am not sure it is critical that we know when the angels were created but that they were. Knowing that, the angels were created with a purpose. One of those infamous angels was Lucifer whose name means “The Shining One.” Some attribute from a worldly perspective that Venus was a symbol of his presence as a “morning star.” We also see it as a “bright, evening star.” Strange that Venus is the name of the Roman goddess of Love (in Greek, she would be called Aphrodite.) Such love was not attributed to the “agape” love which is God but the earthly love which includes lust. The Roman symbol is a circle with a cross attached to the lower arc. (Perhaps I will reflect on that more another day as the Aphrodite symbol is a dove. Either symbol proves problematic from a Christian theological perspective as it stands in contradistinction to how these symbols speak to those of the Jewish and Christian faith.) At this moment, if I were asked, I would offer that the angels were created on the fourth day. In Genesis 1.16-19 we read, “God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. There was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.” As the greater light to govern the day of earth is the “sun” and the lesser light to govern the night is the “moon,” which reflects the light of the sun lend themselves to an understanding of Christ and the Holy Spirit. They are representatives of God’s attention and presence. So, too, would the stars be similar in their representation showing us the expansive presence of God’s sovereignty. So, how long had they been waiting for the reconciling of God and Humanity through Christ and the Holy Spirit? If we follow the creation story and consider the fourth day creation, we simply would say “a long time.” However, the creation of the stars exists between life drawn from the earth (the third day) and life drawn from the water (the fifth day). Are we able to consider life drawn from the water to be a precursor to baptism? The sign used in the early Church of Rome for Christ and Christ followers is that of the fish because Jesus first called fishermen to be His disciples. The story of the great catch along with His call to them to be “fishers of men” lends itself to a baptismal motif. In Greek, the scientific name for fish is icthus. It became an acrostic for “Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior.” In Greek it is “Iesu Christos Theos Uios Soter.” We can go further on this with Aquarius (January) being the water-bearer and Pisces (February) being the fish. As the stars move in retrograde motion we see fish being carried or sustained by water. Of concern, then would be the next symbol which is Capricorn (late december/early January) being a sea-goat. This certainly proves problematic as we would consider the visions of the Beast in the Book of Revelation. Of course, where did this sequence start but with Aries (March) which is the ram. The ram and the lamb are as one. You do not have to believe in astrology to see the imagery which those who do attempt to capture by “reading the stars.” How has God revealed His nature and purpose if not with the everpresent witness of the stars of Heaven looking down and all around the whole of creation? So, the angels have been waiting since perhaps the raising of life out of the water as the land was separated from the seas. They were in place to witness the creation of humanity to care for the earth as they were placed in the heavens to shine with the glory of God and to help govern by day and by night. Yet, while they marvelled at what God had done already before them and what He was doing in those next moments, perhaps they already knew that the whole of creation would not be complete until the Son of Man and God would rule over Heaven and earth as one.

We see the anticipation of this in Isaiah 12, as we can in “Joy to the World, the Lord is Come.” It is a precursor to “that Day” which was testified to in Zechariah when the Messiah would make His appearance to redeem, reconcile and restore. In Revelation we hear “on that Day.” We are being collected together in a present future call to praise. As in Advent, we are preparing for what is about to happen in that infamous “already but not yet” frame of living and thinking. We who believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, know what has happened, is happening and what is yet to come. He is our true Bright and Morning Star. He is the light which shines in the darkness which the darkness (of death and doubt) cannot consume nor overcome. He is the King, Lord, Savior and Defender of the righteous of God who will put all things under His feet. There is so much to rejoice about for what God has done. There is so much more to rejoice about for what God is doing. There is so much more to rejoice about beyond that for what God is about to do. Mighty ones of God, let us not be captured with a joy that is about a satisifying pleasure of what we have as if we still look and live in the past. Nor should we be reveling in a joy of where we are now as if our works and ways have accomplished much in the matters of faith, hope and love or in anything else. We should be collected together with the angels in heavens as they would be greater lights reflecting the glory of God from within as we would be lesser lights but no less reflective of the glory of God around us. And what is the purpose of our collective? Is it not to keep our eyes on the future knowing that what God has promised is happening and is about to happen? The things we truly desire which make for authentic life and living are ahead of us. Our best days are ahead of us. Regardless of how good, or bad, we may see these days they will be overshadowed and overcome by the glorious appearance of Christ on “that Day” and in “that day,” every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He alone is Lord! Let Heaven and earth declare His glory!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.