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Isaiah 64:1-9

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.

By: The Rev. Craig Stephans

As we enter the Advent season, we are confronted with two apparently contradictory seasons: the liturgical season of the church and the holiday consumerist season of the culture. At this beginning, we must set our hearts and minds firmly on seeking the Lord. The readings and movement of the church during this prelude to Christmas will lead us to the door of the kingdom of heaven and to the Savior who, even now, beckons us to “keep awake.” Isaiah cries out for the heavens to be torn open so that God would come down. The heavens have opened, and God has come down in the form of Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus later refers to himself as “the door” through whom we are saved and by whom we enter into green pastures of eternal life. Jesus is the door of the kingdom of heaven, and he is open to all who come by grace through faith and say “Yes” to him. Through Isaiah, God reminds us that none of us are worthy of God’s salvation, “We have all become like one who is unclean.”

There is no such thing among people as “from the least to the greatest.” We are all the least. Yet, Isaiah also affirms to God, “O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand…We are all your people.” All people are the handiwork of God; can we consider them anything less than this? When we reach out to help the pregnant mother considering abortion or face the persecuting accusations of abortion advocates, we are seeing a work of God’s hand-the clay that the potter has fashioned in his own image. We honor our Father by loving all of his children. As we recognize that even our “righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth,” it becomes apparent that there is hope for each and every person-including the most offensive and seemingly most lost. We have a mandate in Isaiah’s text to emphasize God’s handiwork in every single person. Each and every baby conceived in the womb and older person sustained in their older age bears witness to God’s handiwork. We, his faithful servants, must “be on watch” serving him by taking every