Mark's Blog

Reading:  Isaiah 64:1-4

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.

One of the most memorable prayer scenes in more recent movies is the prayer to Baby Jesus in Talladega Nights (2006).  In the film, Will Ferrell (Ricky) continues to pray to Little Baby Jesus even when others at the table object. His response is that he likes the Christmas Jesus best, not the grown up Jesus. (If you want to see a cleaned-up version of this scene, you can follow this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7pco3TTV5k.)

Isaiah’s movie version of The Coming would be very different.  Here Jesus comes ripping open the heavens, mountains shaking, waters seething! This is not Bambi popping through the bushes; rather, this is the great  I AM from the burning bush before whom you take off your shoes and hide your eyes—and you don’t set foot on His mountain—and you don’t touch His Mercy Seat—or you might die!

So God Himself came down—we didn’t expect it, of course!  Greek gods came down to sleep with beautiful women or to fight for (sometimes against) their favorite warriors.  Most gods stayed on their mountains or in their temples—as was expected!

But our God came down to do awesome deeds! No one has ever seen any God like You!

We sometimes trivialize the Epiphany by talking about how “God showed up.” We don’t mean to, but it sounds as if God is reacting to our sudden need. Perhaps the phrase is just our own version of “we didn’t expect it!”  God in us! God among us! God with us!

Skies and heavens ripped open, clouds rolling away, yes, The Coming Down cannot/will not be mistaken for anything else but . . . . well, The Coming!  Emmanuel! Maranatha!