First Tuesday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
Immanuel - God with Us
by Tabitha Mui
For today’s reading, I would like to encourage you to consider reading Psalm 79 from Eugene Peterson’s translation, The Message.
Psalm 79 (The Message)
God! Barbarians have broken into your home,
violated your holy temple,
left Jerusalem a pile of rubble!
They’ve served up the corpses of your servants
as carrion food for birds of prey,
Threw the bones of your holy people
out to the wild animals to gnaw on.
They dumped out their blood
like buckets of water.
All around Jerusalem, their bodies
were left to rot, unburied.
We’re nothing but a joke to our neighbors,
graffiti scrawled on the city walls.
How long do we have to put up with this, God?
Do you have it in for us for good?
Will your smoldering rage never cool down?
If you’re going to be angry, be angry
with the pagans who care nothing about you,
or your rival kingdoms who ignore you.
They’re the ones who ruined Jacob,
who wrecked and looted the place where he lived.
Don’t blame us for the sins of our parents.
Hurry up and help us; we’re at the end of our rope.
You’re famous for helping; God, give us a break.
Your reputation is on the line.
Pull us out of this mess, forgive us our sins—
do what you’re famous for doing!
Don’t let the heathen get by with their sneers:
“Where’s your God? Is he out to lunch?”
Go public and show the godless world
that they can’t kill your servants and get by with it.
Give groaning prisoners a hearing;
pardon those on death row from their doom—you can do it!
Give our jeering neighbors what they’ve got coming to them;
let their God-taunts boomerang and knock them flat.
Then we, your people, the ones you love and care for,
will thank you over and over and over.
We’ll tell everyone we meet
how wonderful you are, how praiseworthy you are!
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Perhaps after reading today’s lectionary, you were like me: uncertain of how to frame your thoughts and reflections in a way that would encompass compassion, hope, generosity, and love, considering the current political climate.
“How do I read these passages faithfully, while being sensitive to what is happening in the world? How do I make sense of all of this?”
Who are the people who are being attacked? Who are the folks doing the attacking?
Who is innocent?
Is there a guilty party?
Are people retaliating from a place of hurt and trauma?
Is God only contained within the boundaries of their jurisdiction?
If the author is asking God to knock their neighbours out flat, who will they tell about how wonderful God is?
As I journey along further in my walk with God, I find it more and more challenging to wrestle through the meaning and application of Scripture when there are so many lenses and viewpoints to consider.
More importantly, as I approach this Advent season, I am finding myself holding on more tightly to the promise that God has given to us: God with us – Immanuel. When Scripture leaves me with more doubt and confusion than comfort and clarity, I cling to the stories of God manifesting himself to his creation in ways that extend beyond the realm of the written word. When I shared this passage and all my questions with my hybrid church community, they held my struggles with love, and I found comfort in their presence as I waded through the dark with Scripture. Advent reminds me once again that our Triune God chose to come in the flesh to dispel the darkness, and it is when I am in community (in flesh with others) that the beauty of this promise – God with us – can be experienced.
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