Advent
December 6, 2016

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
   and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
   and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. –Isaiah 35:5

Our scripture today (above) speaks of comprehension and understanding. The first part of Isaiah recognizes the opposite as occurring.

And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:
“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.” (Isaiah 6:9)

Jesus quotes this scripture as he explains his use of parables.

The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” (Matthew 13:13)

Sometimes we hear what we want to hear. In our world, there are whole businesses whose purpose is to manipulate words and images using what they discern as advantageous to their success in ways that coincide with what we want to hear. How do we know what we want to hear and how do we know, when what we want to hear is what someone else wants us to hear? Who is in control of our comprehension and understanding? We are warned by an adage, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Do we heed it or are we letting the tail wag the dog?

Jesus’ parables open doors of seeing the world from different perspectives than our norms. Jesus’ life is a model for our testing of truth. What we as Christ-followers are called to do is to live his norms to the extent that all about us experience his loving ways as their norms, not the other way around.

Prayer: Lord, open our eyes that we may see the truth you have for us. Open our ears to hear voices of your truth clearly sounding*. Make our seeing and our hearing conduits of understanding and comprehension. Amen.

*Derived from hymn Open My Eyes by Clara H. Scott see at http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh454.sht

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.