Advent Reading for Sunday, Week 2 (December 4, 2022)

 

The Season of Advent prepares us for Christ's coming--both on Christmas Day and when we comes again in glory.  This year, we will spend each week exploring a different way we can prepare ourselves.  The post for each day will include a scripture, a song, a few brief questions to reflect upon, and a prayer. 

 

Week 2 Introduction

This week, our readings focus on "Repentance."  The Hebrew word for "repent" is  תשובה (teshuva).   Teshuva literally means to return or turn back.  It's Greek counterpart μετανοώ (metanoeó) means to "change one's mind or purpose--particularly when that change is as a result of accepting God's will.

To Repent isn't just to promising not to do something again because it gets you in trouble.  True repentance allowing God to change our hearts and minds so that our purposes align with God's purposes.  This change causes us to turn back from the sinful and self-interested paths we were traveling down and return to God.   

 Advent reminds us that being part of the perfect world that Christ is bringing into being requires repentance on our part.  This week's readings help us turn back from our sinful ways and re-orient our lives around God's purposes.  The prophets will call us to find forgiveness and help bring an end to suffering by returning to God.  King David and John the Baptist will help us identify signs of true repentance when we see it and apply that knowledge to our lives.  Finally, Paul will encourage us with a reminder that thanks to Jesus, we can live in keeping with God's will.

Scripture

Isaiah 1:2-20

² Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth,
    for the Lord has spoken:
I reared children and brought them up,
    but they have rebelled against me.
³ The ox knows its owner
    and the donkey its master’s crib,
but Israel does not know;
    my people do not understand.

⁴ Woe, sinful nation,
    people laden with iniquity,
offspring who do evil,
    children who act corruptly,
who have forsaken the Lord,
    who have despised the Holy One of Israel,
   who are utterly estranged!

⁵ Why do you seek further beatings?
    Why do you continue to rebel?
The whole head is injured,
    and the whole heart faint.
⁶ From the sole of the foot to the head,
    there is no soundness in it,
only bruises and sores
    and bleeding wounds;
they have not been drained or bound up
    or softened with oil.

⁷ Your country lies desolate;
    your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
    aliens devour your land;
    it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
⁸ And daughter Zion is left
    like a booth in a vineyard,
like a shelter in a cucumber field,
    like a besieged city.
⁹ If the Lord of hosts
    had not left us a few survivors,
we would have been like Sodom
    and become like Gomorrah.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the Lord,
    you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
    you people of Gomorrah!
¹¹ What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
    says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
    and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls
    or of lambs or of goats.

¹² When you come to appear before me,
    who asked this from your hand?
    Trample my courts no more!
¹³ Bringing offerings is futile;
    incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation—
    I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed festivals
    my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ When you stretch out your hands,
    I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
    I will not listen;
    your hands are full of blood.
¹⁶ Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove your evil deeds
    from before my eyes;
cease to do evil;
¹⁷     learn to do good;
seek justice;
    rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
    plead for the widow.

¹⁸ Come now, let us argue it out,
    says the Lord:
If your sins are like scarlet,
    will they become like snow?
If they are red like crimson,
    will they become like wool?
¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,
    you shall eat the good of the land,
²⁰ but if you refuse and rebel,
    you shall be devoured by the sword,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

  (NRSVUE)

 

Hymn

Questions

Isaiah 1 includes a laundry list of ways the people have fallen away from God’s commands.   

• How does that list compare to the world today?  
• What might Isaiah say about us?

Prayer

Christ, forgive us for the ways that we having fallen short of God's commandments.