December 10: An Invitation to Reason Things Out
♫ Music:
WEEK TWO INTRODUCTION
December 10–16
TITLE: THE DIVINE INVITATIONS OF ADVENT
As we have clearly seen in last week’s passages, Isaiah prophesied at a time of great national turbulence and unrest. Although many of the children of Israel appeared outwardly righteous, many were hypocritically living in blatant sin, pretending to be accountable to the Law of Moses. In blind rebellion, they had forsaken the commandments laid down by God (Isaiah 1:9-10). God’s indictments and warnings of swift judgment against their corruption is a driving theme running throughout the book. For example, the tribes of Judah are told of an impending Assyrian invasion where they will become like “a trampled downed vineyard” (Isaiah 5:1-7). Yet, even in the midst of one bleak scenario after another, God’s great mercy and promises to Israel shine through with offers of restoration, healing and forgiveness. In his fathomless love, Yahweh extends an open-ended offer to make things right.
We routinely get invitations. We receive invitations to parties, graduations, weddings, etc. For various reasons we accept some invitations while rejecting others. Throughout Scripture God issues inclusive invitations. These can be joyfully accepted or completely ignored. All of God’s invitations are wonderful, trustworthy, and nourishing to the soul. They demonstrate the marvelous grace of God, who makes them freely available without cost (Isaiah 55:1-3). During the next seven days we will explore God’s invitations to reason things out, to “come to the waters,” to trust, to prepare, to give to those in need, to answer God’s call and finally, to wait.
Responding to God’s biddings results in changed lives. Arguably the most powerful invitation in Isaiah, “Come to the waters” (Isaiah 55), is an invitation very similar to the call Christ gives in Matthew 11: 28-29, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Almighty God, whose challenge, “Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you—The sure mercies of David” (Isaiah 55:3), miraculously extends to us today. As we ponder Isaiah’s divine invitations, it is with the realization that the great Creator is tirelessly calling his people to repentance and the fullness of the abundant life he provides.
Day 8 - Sunday, December 10
Title: AN INVITATION TO REASON THINGS OUT
Scripture: Isaiah 1:18–20 (NKJV)
“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Poetry & Poet:
“A Prayer for the Self”
by John Berryman
Who am I worthless that You spent such pains
and take such pains again?
I do not understand; but I believe.
Jonquils respond with wit to the teasing breeze.
Induct me down my secrets. Stiffen this heart
to stand their horrifying cries, O cushion
the first the second shocks, will to a halt
in mid-air there demons who would be at me.
May fade before, sweet morning on sweet morning,
I wake my dreams, my fan-mail go astray,
and do me little goods I have not thought of,
ingenious & beneficial Father.
Ease in their passing my beloved friends,
all others too I have cared for in a travelling life,
anyone anywhere indeed. Lift up
sober toward truth a scared self-estimate.
GOD’S ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
I find such beauty in reading the poetry of our Scripture passage, or listening to it in our music by Ken Medema, but what does it mean for me? Even when I was young, I remember singing this in a praise chorus and wondering, “How can I, a simple human, be expected to reason with God, the Sovereign Creator of the universe?” However, further study reveals such a life-giving promise. The words translated “to reason” are legal terminology, as if debating in a court setting. But the incredible hope comes from this being at the bar of mercy and the throne of grace. God “reasons” with us from his covenant promises and proclamations of the forgiveness of sins.
The illustration of our forgiveness continues with the metonymic expressions that contrasts our status before God using the symbolism of colors, scarlet and white, as well as experiential images of snow and wool. “scarlet” carried the meaning of “double-dyed” and the permanence of sin. It required the crushing of an insect to produce the color. In later years, Jewish rabbis would tie a scarlet thread around the horns of the scapegoat carrying the sins of Israel into the wilderness. It was also the color of Christ’s robe when bearing our sins on the cross (Matthew 27:28). Scarlet is a picture of a selfish, covetous and violent life which always destroys.
In contrast, God’s gift of grace and forgiveness drastically changes us into the blinding color of light upon snow. Our “whiteness” is restored as if it were virgin wool. It is a perfect picture of God’s grace, compassion and love.
The people of Israel had known God as a demanding judge. He presents himself here as a loving, merciful Forgiver. While verse 20 gives another contrast—between those intentionally choosing to live God’s way versus the starkly different consequences when they choose selfishness and violence, God remains committed to his people and true to his promises.
Rothko’s 1957 painting, “White over Red” is a perfect illustration of our Scripture passage (although it cannot be fully experienced on our screens). I have known such powerful experiences as I encountered his art in person. As a Color Field artist, his layers of paint create rectangular images that seem to hover over the canvas, inviting contemplation. The depth of the red, as we consider our brokenness and sin, is transformed by God’s promise of redemption and beauty in the emerging field of white.
Rothko, of Russian Jewish heritage, sought truth and peace much of his life. He looked for the light, but in 1970, gave in to despair and committed suicide. My heart breaks for this man who produced such powerful works of art.
In a similar way, our poet’s life demonstrates the life-long search for healing and peace. Having witnessed his father’s suicide when age twelve, he was haunted throughout his life and fell into alcoholism and depression. He sought to know the truth of the existence of God, and yet could never satisfy this longing. He began, at age twenty-three, to write, “Eleven Addresses to the Lord,” and continued until his death by suicide at age fifty-eight. Our poem, “A Prayer for the Self” is the eighth stanza in this collection. Here we see the conflict of faith and doubt as he writes, “I do not understand, but I believe.”
We, too, have the opportunity to believe and walk in God’s light. We do not need to fully understand all the complexities of an Infinite God, but we can rest in his promises. We can live in the confidence of God’s forgiveness and grace. This Advent, rejoice in “though my sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Praise God for the coming of Immanuel, God with us.
Prayer
Lord Jesus,
Master of both light and darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparation for Christmas.
We who have too much to do and seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day,
We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.
We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your Kingdom.
We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.
We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.
To you we say, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
Amen
–––(Henri Nouwen; www.dynamiccatholic.com)
Dr. Dianne Collard, M.A. D. Miss.
Alumna of Cook School of Intercultural Studies
Biola University
Founder of ArtsCharlotte in North Carolina
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Untitled (White over Red)
Mark Rothko
1957
Oil on canvas
This relatively simple composition was painted by Mark Rothko in 1957, by which time his career had been fully established and his reputation was starting to rise within the New York art scene. The artist paints a mass of white paint over a red region just below. Many have called his blocks of color lozenges, and typically he would not allow them to quite reach the corners of the canvas. He moved towards a much darker palette in the 1960s.
https://www.markrothko.org/white-over-red/
About the Artist:
Mark Rothko (b. 1903–1970) was an American artist of Latvian-Jewish descent. He entered Yale University, leaving two years later. Like his peers, he found his direction and his place in New York. It was there, in 1925, that he began to study at Parsons School of Design under painter Arshile Gorky, who powerfully influenced him and many other abstract expressionists. Gorky and Rothko shared an interest in European surrealism, as evidenced by the biomorphic forms populating their paintings from the early 1940s. For Rothko, these forms would ultimately give way to the floating zones of color over colored grounds for which he would become known. Rothko first developed this compositional strategy in 1947. Described as “Color Field Painting” by critic Clement Greenberg in 1955—a term that stuck—it is a style characterized by significant open space and an expressive use of color. Rothko was one of its pioneers. “His colored rectangles seemed to dematerialize into pure light,” wrote MoMA’s former chief curator of painting and sculpture William S. Rubin. Rothko spent the rest of his career exploring the limitless possibilities of layering variously sized and colored rectangles onto fields of color. By 1968, Rothko’s health was in decline from years of severe anxiety and his related drinking and smoking habits. After surviving an aneurysm, he continued to smoke and drink despite his doctor’s orders, but he did scale back the size of his canvases and switch from oils to acrylic paints to reduce the strain that his painting process placed on his body. In 1970, at sixty-six years old, the chronically depressed artist committed suicide, leaving behind a body of work that brought him both critical and commercial success during his lifetime.
—Credited to Karen Kedmey, independent art historian and writer, in 2017.
https://www.moma.org/artists/5047
About the Music:
“Come Let Us Reason” from the album Yesterday’s a Sign
Lyrics:
Come let us reason together,
That’s what God says.
Come let us reason together,
Says the Lord.
Come let us reason together,
That’s what God says.
Come let us reason together,
Says the Lord.
Tho’ your sins be Iike scarlet,
They shall be white a snow.
Though be red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.
Come let us reason together,
That’s what God says.
Come let us reason together,
Says the Lord.
Tho’ your sins be like scarlet,
They shall be white a snow.
Though be red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.
Come let us reason together,
That’s what God says.
Come let us reason together,
Says the Lord.
About the Composer/Performer:
Ken Medema (b. 1943) is a composer and singer-songwriter who has been performing since 1973 in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Medema originally began performing as a music therapist. Some of his best-known songs have been birthed through the use of live improvisation during his performances. His lyrics generally provide social commentary on themes such as justice, hunger, poverty, homelessness, and Christian charity. In 1985 Ken founded his own independent recording company, through which he has released most of his twenty-six albums.
http://kenmedema.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Medema
About the Poetry and Poet:
John Berryman (1914–1972) was an American scholar and professor as well as a poet. Berryman is best-known for The Dream Songs (1969), an intensely personal sequence of three hundred eighty-five poems, for which he received both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. Through these poems he invented a style and form able to accommodate a vast range of material while expressing his turbulent emotions. Berryman suffered a great loss at twelve when his father shot himself outside the boy’s window. This event haunted him throughout his life and recurred as a subject in his poetry. Berryman graduated from Columbia University in 1936, then went to study at Cambridge University for two years on a scholarship. He published his first important book of poetry, The Dispossessed, in 1948. In 1955, after teaching stints at Harvard and Princeton, Berryman took a position at the University of Minnesota, where he remained until his death. The frankness of Berryman’s work influenced his friend Robert Lowell and other confessional poets like Anne Sexton. The poet’s lifelong struggles with alcoholism and depression ended in 1972, when he jumped off a Minneapolis bridge in the dead of winter.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-berryman
About the Devotion Author:
Dr. Dianne Collard
Alumna of Cook School of Intercultural Studies
Biola University
Founder of ArtsCharlotte in North Carolina
Dianne B. Collard received her M.A. and D.Miss from Biola’s School of Intercultural Studies. She and her husband have been missionaries for thirty-seven years, primarily in Europe. She currently serves as the Europe Ministries Director of A.C.T. International. Living in Charlotte, North Carolina, she ministers to local artists when she is not in Europe. She is the author of I Choose to Forgive: a Personal Journey with God. She is blessed with three children, five granddaughters and, now, a beautiful great-granddaughter.