Thursday in the First Week of Advent
"The Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty...against all the lofty hills, against every high tower, and against every fortified wall...and the haughtiness of humanity shall be humbled, and human pride shall be brought low; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day."
I wonder what was in the back of Isaiah's mind as he penned the words of today's passage (Isaiah 2:12-22)?
As I read the prophet's conviction that the Day would come when the constructs of human arrogance and pride -- the fortified cities, the high towers, the idols of precious metals -- would meet their end in the consuming majesty of God's appearing, I couldn't help but remember a story, which likely would have been a part of Isaiah's lexicon.
Genesis 11 records the story commonly referred to as "The Tower of Babel", in which all humankind, united in language and purpose, becomes so impressed with itself that it undertakes a construction project to "reach to Heaven" (a euphemism for knocking on God's front door!).
Whatever else this story may be about, it is at some level a cautionary tale of the dangers of unchecked hubris and the human propensity for confusing our intelligence and creative capacity with that of the Almighty One. The story ends poorly -- with an unfinshed tower and people scattered across the world with the barrier of languages imposed upon them. The only one who has a key to heaven's front door is the One who created the heavens and the earth!
Isaiah sees a landscape dotted with "high towers" -- the military sort, used for defensive purposes, as well as towers associated with various sorts of worship offered to other gods. He sees a proliferation of "fortified cities" -- testimonies the human need for security and our proclivity toward leaving our own mark on the earth, to build something that will outlast ourselves. He observes how mountaintops have been converted to shrines in honor of various deities from the surrounding cultures -- complete with the "graven images" and the festivals that were associated with those deities.
All of these observations lead Isaiah to a conclusion. A Day is coming! The Almighty One will be exalted! All of the high towers toppled. All of the fortified cities crumbled. All of the mountains brought low. Nothing will be allowed to compete with the true God -- especially human arrogance and ambition. When the "glory of God's majesty" fills the earth, the awesomeness (and awe-full-ness) of that moment will send humans scurrying to cast their false gods into the caves -- consigning these former objects of worship to spaces reserved for moles and bats!
What are the high towers of our culture? What have we constructed as tributes to our ingenuity and abilities? How easily do we place our trust in the false security offered by fortification -- even if that means projecting power (military, economic and political) throughout the world? What are the false gods that we, in our own blindness, have exalted -- idols that are powerless to save us, yet receive our devotion day in and day out?
Isaiah and Advent remind us that human pride (with all of its permutations) will evaporate in the light of God's Day. Isaiah and Advent remind us that our time is enfolded in God's eternity. Isaiah and Advent remind us that the Holy One is on the horizon...coming to meet us.
Amighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the First Sunday of Advent, BCP, p. 211)
"The Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty...against all the lofty hills, against every high tower, and against every fortified wall...and the haughtiness of humanity shall be humbled, and human pride shall be brought low; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day."
I wonder what was in the back of Isaiah's mind as he penned the words of today's passage (Isaiah 2:12-22)?
As I read the prophet's conviction that the Day would come when the constructs of human arrogance and pride -- the fortified cities, the high towers, the idols of precious metals -- would meet their end in the consuming majesty of God's appearing, I couldn't help but remember a story, which likely would have been a part of Isaiah's lexicon.
Genesis 11 records the story commonly referred to as "The Tower of Babel", in which all humankind, united in language and purpose, becomes so impressed with itself that it undertakes a construction project to "reach to Heaven" (a euphemism for knocking on God's front door!).
Whatever else this story may be about, it is at some level a cautionary tale of the dangers of unchecked hubris and the human propensity for confusing our intelligence and creative capacity with that of the Almighty One. The story ends poorly -- with an unfinshed tower and people scattered across the world with the barrier of languages imposed upon them. The only one who has a key to heaven's front door is the One who created the heavens and the earth!
Isaiah sees a landscape dotted with "high towers" -- the military sort, used for defensive purposes, as well as towers associated with various sorts of worship offered to other gods. He sees a proliferation of "fortified cities" -- testimonies the human need for security and our proclivity toward leaving our own mark on the earth, to build something that will outlast ourselves. He observes how mountaintops have been converted to shrines in honor of various deities from the surrounding cultures -- complete with the "graven images" and the festivals that were associated with those deities.
All of these observations lead Isaiah to a conclusion. A Day is coming! The Almighty One will be exalted! All of the high towers toppled. All of the fortified cities crumbled. All of the mountains brought low. Nothing will be allowed to compete with the true God -- especially human arrogance and ambition. When the "glory of God's majesty" fills the earth, the awesomeness (and awe-full-ness) of that moment will send humans scurrying to cast their false gods into the caves -- consigning these former objects of worship to spaces reserved for moles and bats!
What are the high towers of our culture? What have we constructed as tributes to our ingenuity and abilities? How easily do we place our trust in the false security offered by fortification -- even if that means projecting power (military, economic and political) throughout the world? What are the false gods that we, in our own blindness, have exalted -- idols that are powerless to save us, yet receive our devotion day in and day out?
Isaiah and Advent remind us that human pride (with all of its permutations) will evaporate in the light of God's Day. Isaiah and Advent remind us that our time is enfolded in God's eternity. Isaiah and Advent remind us that the Holy One is on the horizon...coming to meet us.
Amighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the First Sunday of Advent, BCP, p. 211)
posted by FrGaryB | 6:51 AM
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