A Journey Completed

Psalm 122

One of the two psalms for this morning tells us of a journey completed. “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem (Psalm 122:1-2). “I was delighted when we began our trip to Jerusalem,” the psalmist is saying. “Now here we are, safely inside its walls.” A trek which began in gladness has come to a joy-filled conclusion.

The Christian faith is also a journey that, like all significant undertakings, has a purpose, a goal, a destination. We believe that someday we also will stand within the holy city under the fulfilled reign of God. Advent celebrates this expectation, it encourages us to plan and to prepare and to await that which we know to be coming, that which God will reveal to us in God’s time. Meanwhile we walk on together, a band of travelers, disciples led by a risen Savior, and as we journey we are filled with gladness for we know where we are headed and that someday we will arrive at the new Jerusalem and be filled with joy.

Prayer: Lord, you have invited us to walk with you. Guide our steps that by grace we may finish the journey and arrive at the destination you have prepared for us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Isaiah 28:9-22

Revelation 20:11-21:8

The readings from Isaiah and Revelation today brought to my mind two cultural icons of sorts. The first is a line from the British comedy troop Monty Python. “And now for something completely different,” one would say, at which point something silly–like a man with a tape recorder up his nose–would appear. The other cultural piece that came to mind was a line from the Beach Boys song “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”.

And wouldn't it be nice to live together

In the kind of world where we belong?

What both Isaiah and Revelation present to us is neither silly nor whimsical. What they point to is a new creation in which God’s people find their true belonging, a world that is “completely different” than anything we have ever known.

“See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation…” Isaiah writes, “And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet…” (Isaiah 28:16-17a). This is the kind of world which God promises, the kind of world in which we are intended to live. It is set on God’s foundation and filled with justice and righteousness, which is far different than the world in which we now live. From Patmos, John shares another promise. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…. Death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21:1, 4). This vision is of something completely different from anything humanity has ever experienced, and yet, by God’s grace, it is the kind of creation in which God longs for us to exist.

These are the sorts of passages that give shape and context to the season of Advent, that help define what we are waiting for, the thing unseen for which we hope. This is the Lord’s doing that will be most marvelous in our eyes. Wouldn’t it be nice to have things become so completely different? Yes it would. And by God’s grace they will.

Prayer: God of hope and promise, help us to live in anticipation of what you are doing, and to celebrate this season with patience and joy. In Jesus’ name. Amen.