First Monday in Advent: "Here is your God"!

Advent Day 2

First Monday in Advent

Monday November 28, 2011

Reading: Isaiah 40:9 (NRSV)

⁹ Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

Theme: “Here is your God.”

Reflection:

Lift up your voice with strength and say “Here is your God.” In our US culture today, with its emphasis on separation of church and state, it is hard to say anything about God, in a public place, with strength. Very few of us have the courage to speak about our faith, or what God means to us, or how God has acted in our lives.

Yet here is the prophet Isaiah commanding the people—meaning us—to go to the top of a mountain and shout to everyone in hearing distance that God is out and about and acting in the world. In Advent, we are watching and waiting for signs of God’s presence among us. “Here is your God”—see what God is doing in your life.

During this season of Advent, as we watch and wait for God’s coming, we ask ourselves questions like: What is God doing in my life? What Good News does God daily bring into my life. How is God challenging is me?

Lift up your voice. Do not fear. Tell others how God has acted in your life. “Here is your God,” who daily makes God’s presence known to you.

Prayer: Challenging God, give me the courage to publically give witness to the good things that you have done for me. Help me to recognize that my God is in the here and now with me.