That's a peppy and uplifting way to begin a Sunday. Isaiah's prophecy is directly from the Lord's
mouth if I may engage in a bit of anthropomorphism. The word here is first person singular, the
Lord is telling what it will be like on the day of judgment against us. Is anyone listening? Is there still fear of the Lord? The word is that humanity will be rare on the
earth, most will perish in this judgment.
It will be a horrible scene, the sun, moon and stars will not give
light, darkness will prevail over the earth.
Few will live through this judgment on sin and sinfulness. Do we hear and understand the Lord's anger
against sin or do we believe that we have a magic card that allows us to do as
we please so long as we say, "Jesus is Lord"?
John's words here show that the man knew the limitations of
his role. He was the forerunner, the one who was preparing a people for another
who was greater and once he recognized that one had come, he was prepared to
step back from the limelight. Those words
should be our own creed, "He must increase, I must decrease." If we believe, as John did, that Jesus indeed
is Lord, then we must be prepared to allow Him to increase in us, be more
visible through us. The words,
"Jesus is Lord" are, by themselves, not enough, they are meant to be
spoken humbly and the truth of that confession is meant to weave its way deeply
into our consciousness, to transform our lives to become like His through the
power of the Holy Spirit. Those whose
lives are shaped by that confession are those who will pass through the day of
judgment to eternal life.
The writer of Hebrews says that we, unlike the Israelites,
have not come to a manifestation of God's power and judgment but to Jesus, the
manifestation of God's love for us. They
were unable to approach the mountain in Exodus 19, they knew it and if they
didn't, He told them not to approach. Jesus
drew and draws people to Himself. We call
these two things the transcendence and immanence of God, Rudolf Otto called
this reality the tremens et fascinans and the experience of it the
numinous. God should excite fear in us through
His power and His holiness and yet there is something that fascinates us, draws
us to Him and in the experience of that drawing in we find Him to be wholly
other but also that we are in communion with Him although He remains wholly
other. The writer here expresses that
reality and warns that we are never to lose sight of the fearsomeness of God,
He is always to be approached with awe and fear, restraining us from sin. Our liturgy takes that seriously by demanding
confession in order to take communion.
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