Sunday November 29

Scripture

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.

Isaiah 56

Hymn - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, o come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

Meditation

We begin with a cry of anguish from the prophet. Outraged and sickened by the injustice, violence, oppression and arrogance around him, he calls on God to rip open the very fabric of our world, and establish justice. It is a cry from the heart, and it invites us, in a society that demands rational, technical solutions for all our problems, to begin by articulating the anger, passion, outrage and longing in our own hearts.