Behold Our God

Homily for Wednesday of the First Week in Advent

The text from the prophet Isaiah for today speaks of a God who destroys death, wipes away the guilt of the people, and saves the people who have deliberately turned away and embraced false gods. To some this would seem an absurd notion, to our human understanding that God – the Lord of lords, would still be faithful to us after all we have done - why would God come to us, again and again, with commitment, help, assistance, and always with love. Yet God is faithful to the covenant, has given us the law, has assisted us with the prophets, judges, and kings, and sent us his only begotten son.

We encounter this love as God in human flesh in today’s Gospel text, surrounded not by pomp and royalty, but by the lame, the blind, the deformed, and the mute. Jesus heals and feels the burden of pity for all he sees, and then he feeds them.

Jesus takes what he has and multiplies it in a miracle of love, and the abundance overflows to include baskets of leftover fragments. It was a table of plenty set for anyone else who might come – who needed to come.

Here we are today. We have come to that table. We have heard the prophetic pronouncement and we have experienced the healing power of God. We no longer have the voice of the prophets. We have our own voices. Forged in the fire of the Holy Spirit and the water of baptism, our voices are strong and they have the weight of truth behind them. This day, and every day, we proclaim to the world: “Behold our God… This is the Lord… Let us rejoice and be glad that God has saved us.”