Come Down

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people. (Isaiah 64:1-9)   Woof.  What a prayer.  A powerful prayer, made for just this moment, I think.  Both our moment in Advent, but also in the church in the Western world at this moment.  We prayed this prayer in worship about a week and a half ago.  And I think today, rather than me saying much about it, it's appropriate simply to invite you to go back and pray this prayer as your very own prayer and let that be the time of devotion for today.  So, reflect on this prayer today—where are these words your own?  And then pray it.  Let it name your advent longings, and let it be the words of your confession, finishing perhaps with that Revelation prayer: "Come, Lord Jesus, come."