Sunday, November 28, 2021

Advent readings 2021 : Day 1

 


In which the exiles lament the desecration of the Temple in Jerusalem

 

Genesis 1:1-5

When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering over the waters, God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And it was evening and it was morning, first day.

 

Lamentations 2:1, 2, 13

How has the Master beclouded in His wrath the daughter of Zion, has flung from the heavens to the ground the splendor of Israel, nor did He recall His footstool on the day of His wrath. The Master obliterated, had no mercy, all of Jacob’s dwellings, brought to the ground, profaned, a kingdom and its nobles.

How can I bear witness for you, what can I liken to you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? What can I compare to you and console you, O Virgin, Zion’s Daughter? For great as the sea is your breaking. Who can heal you?

 

Genesis opens not with a primeval planet Earth, but a cosmos centered on a devastated Jerusalem and desecrated Temple, whose God has gone with His people into exile.

Where have you known devastation in the past year? Or where have you seen it in the lives of others? From the impact of a deadly pandemic to homes destroyed by fires or floods to the cries of asylum seekers falling on the deaf ears of harden hearts, where do you long for God to speak into the chaos? And dare you see His judgement on us, in the devastation we sit in? Perhaps only then can we hope to see light and goodness.

Where have you been enabled, by, and with, God, to see the light?


Biblical texts: Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary

 

No comments:

Post a Comment