The One The World Needs

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel…and come and save us.
Psalm 80:1, 2

An Advent psalm to be sure, Psalm 80: Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel…and come and save us. Advent begins this coming Sunday and with it the Church begins her new year which begins in the dark of this world. She begins where she is always to be found: in prayerful expectation for the Lord to come. His desired coming is not only because she–we as Christians–long for our God that we might be with him in a deeper and more real way, just as an infant is with its parents in a deeper and lives more fully in this world once it is born. We not only long for this, we also long for the ending of all wars; for the ending of all homelessness; for the ending of Death in all its manifestations–the death of Death;–for the ending of Satan and all his hordes. But if God be not the one who will do this–and far more than we can ask or imagine–then who?

If history will teach us one thing–and if we will have ears to listen to that lesson–it is that humanity, and all creation, cannot and will not accomplish this. One response to this is certainly to deny the reality of any real difficulties, to view them as merely bumps along the road of progress. Yet, how is such a view loving? How is such a view just? Another response might be that we should place all our hopes on humanity and the human spirit. But that is precisely the problem: the human spirit. The way forward, for the Church and for the World, is that God must come to us, to our world (once again) to save us. But why, some might ask, should all turn to Christ and the Christian God? Why not other religions? It is only the Church–Christians–who proclaim to goodness of God’s Gospel which he proclaims in his Holy Scriptures: he has come before; he has taken on our flesh in the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus; he has washed us that we might be clean. And all who will turn to him he will make clean. It is only the Church who proclaims what God has promised: he will come again and will make all things new. These are not the ideas of humans of the first century world; they are the truths of the eternal God. Extravagant truths to be sure. Grace, for certain.

So as we enter into this Advent season, may we renew our hope, not in our own efforts, Resolutions, or the human spirit. May we renew our hope in God, the Great Shepherd of his sheep, that he will come; that he will save.

Grace & Peace,

– Matthew+