John the Baptizer’s Call to Relinquish Privilege
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Prayer of the Day: Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son. By his coming nurture our growth as people of repentance and peace; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
“….for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:9.
This passage cannot properly be understood from the English translation that substitutes “Lord” for the divine name YAHWEH. To fully understand what it means to have “knowledge of the Lord,” we need to go all the way back to the third chapter of Exodus where God reveals God’s self to Moses in the burning bush as “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” This is the God of Sarah and Abraham who fled their homeland to escape starvation and were so desperate to get across the border into Egypt that they were willing to trade sexual favors to obtain refuge. This is the God who told Moses, “I will be who I will be” and was the God who took the side of slaves against the wealth, power and status of empire. This God is no mere theological abstraction. This God reveals God’s self consistently as the God who takes the side of the slave and the refugee.
So what would the world look like if everyone were privy to such “knowledge?” Read more
Peter's Outer Cape Portico 