A Song of the Wilderness
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
It shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weary hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to the anxious, "Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God, coming with judgment to save you."
Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened,
and the ears of the deaf be unstopped.
Then shall the lame leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert;
The burning sand shall become a pool
and the thirsty ground, springs of water.
The ransomed of God shall return with singing,
with everlasting joy upon their heads.
Joy and gladness shall be theirs,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
(Isaiah 35:1-7, 10)
Collect: Second Sunday of Advent
Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Image from Wikipedia.
That was very clever, Gand'mère, putting two prophetic items together. The ridiculous and the sublime, and all that; and the pair is instructive to those of us not raised at all in a prophetic tradition.
ReplyDeleteOf course I know well enough about the eyes of the blind being opened; and one hears a fine recitative about the tongue of the dumb singing.
And I've chuckled wryly with Alan Watts about the sheer terror of another prophecy of Isaiah:
"Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill made low;
the crooked straight,
and the rough places plain" --
They're doing it in California every day!
But, or so, I never appreciated what a moving piece this entire passage of prophecy is. Thank for it, a fitting gift at Advent.
I find that the readings from Isaiah in the Lectionary for the Advent season are often quite moving. I love them, although they should strike terror into my heart. Part of my appreciation is aesthetic, for the poetry and the imagery are so lovely.
ReplyDeleteBut it's not simply an appreciation for the beauty of the passages because I also experience the presence of God (or what I believe to be the presence of God) as I read them. Something powerful stirs inside me.
Thank you for your comment. My Advent posts don't receive much in the way of commentary, but I hope a few people read them and profit from them.
PS: Porlock, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God".
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