Advent I: Looking Back and Looking Forward

A reading from the Book of Isaiah:

O LORD, you are my God; 

I will exalt you, I will praise your name; 

for you have done wonderful things, 

plans formed of old, faithful and sure. 

For you have made the city a heap, 

the fortified city a ruin; 

the palace of aliens is a city no more, 

it will never be rebuilt. 

Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; 

cities of ruthless nations will fear you. 

For you have been a refuge to the poor, 

a refuge to the needy in their distress, 

a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat. 

When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm, 

the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, 

you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; 

the song of the ruthless was stilled. 

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples 

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, 

of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear. 

And he will destroy on this mountain 

the shroud that is cast over all peoples, 

the sheet that is spread over all nations; 

he will swallow up death for ever. 

Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, 

and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, 

for the LORD has spoken. 

It will be said on that day, 

Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. 

This is the LORD for whom we have waited; 

let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. 

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The prophet Isaiah looks back and looks forward.  He looks back to when his people have been delivered from their enemies; when God has been a refuge and a shelter from ruthless and powerful foes.  He looks forward to a banquet, which is not just for Israel, but for all peoples; where death is destroyed and where God himself will wipe away every tear.  

In Advent we look back and we look forward.  We look back to the coming of God among us, as one of us; as the child sheltered among the poor, who will suffer at the hands of the ruthless and powerful, and defeat death by undergoing it.  We look forward to the fulfilling of his Kingdom, which he often described as a banquet, and which the Book of Revelation also imagines as a glorious wedding feast.  

We look back, and we look forward. We remember what was revealed among us in the life of Jesus, supremely and corporately in Baptism and in the Eucharist (Holy Communion), and this lifts our eyes to give us a hint and a foretaste of what is to come. We look back in thanksgiving, and we look forward in hope.