He came anyway
"Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down..." (Isaiah 64:1)
December 5, 2024
Dear friends,
I've been writing about a couple of things, well, actually... dabbling with a couple of ideas. But I was impressed with a portion of Jen Michel's Substack post which my wife read to me yesterday. It was a good message about how we've turned Advent into a “season of preparation” or “of waiting", when the truth is, most of us weren't waiting on God at all. In fact, he himself took the initiative to show up. Here is a section from her post...
The season of Advent is first of all, not about us. Not about our preparation. Not about our waiting and watching. Because isn’t this really the point of the Old Testament prophets, that God’s people have grown estranged from him and dull to the extent of their estrangement? Isn’t the point that they no longer wait patiently and watch hopefully, that they no longer scan the sky and hope for the coming of God? Isn’t the point that idolatry is the water that rushes in when God is taken for missing? This is one theme Isaiah strikes, in the 63rd chapter. “O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?” (v. 17). Isaiah is asking for God to “look down from heaven and see,” (63:15). He is summoning the zeal and might of God, which no longer seem readily available to the people of God. “The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me,” he figuratively laments (v. 15).
"Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down..." (Isaiah 64:1). This is the Advent cry of the prophets, if not the people.
I’ve done so much thinking, in the last years, about the gift of human agency. It’s the reason I’m so compelled by the practice of a rule of life, which invites us to participate in and cooperate with the action of God. It reminds me that God has dignified humanity with the real responsibility—and real freedom—to choose and to act. But I would be wrong to ever convey that human agency is the first and primary mover in the salvation story. No, this is the grace of the Christian calendar, that it begins with the recognition that we did not look for God, did not watch for God, did not wait for God —- and he came anyway.
I can’t help but remember that this is exactly as it happened to me, at the age of 16… I was not looking for God in any meaningful way, and still, the circumstances of my life were providentially arranged for the July day in 1990 when I stood beside a lake and heard, somewhere deep within me, the summons of the living Christ. I was not looking, was not watching, was not waiting —- and he came anyway, making an offer of abundant life that I could not refuse. His “inner parts” stirred and his “compassion” was not held back from me though there was nothing to commend me to his notice. That this is my story is a humbling reminder that I was dead in my sins, deaf to his voice, and the only solution was a rescue operation.
God was forced to act because I could not.
And isn’t this just where we all begin, in the Christian life? Our backs turned —- and God comes to us, sings his love over us, bids us to come and follow though it means a death to former ways, even a former self. It means that I can still hope for God to come and to act when I am not praying as I should, not hoping as I must, not rehearsing the truth I know but cannot now recall.
Advent announces that God acts, when we don’t.
-- By Jen Pollock Michel, "Advent" from A Habit Called Faith. (On Substack)
IN OTHER READING.
-- Kevin DeYoung's Top Ten Books of 2024. A good list with a couple of surprises!
-- "Bonhoeffer Is Not Your Cipher" (First Things) When historical figures are reconfigured into our own image.
-- "The better course is for the Court to recognize reality. Sex differences are real. Children suffering gender dysphoria are differently situated from those who are not, and it is not irrational at an unconstitutional level to tailor safeguards on their treatment accordingly." Read "The Supreme Court Should Rule That Reality Exists."
(National Review)
-- "Nearly everyone, from politicians to plumbers, want to believe that what they do matters. But with the possible exceptions of politicians and actors, journalists probably have the highest estimation of their own importance." (Jonah Goldberg)
FINAL QUOTE.
"...this is the grace of the Christian calendar, that it begins with the recognition that we did not look for God, did not watch for God, did not wait for God —- and he came anyway." (Jen Pollock Michel)
That's it for this week!
Sandy
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.