Isaiah 9:1-7 (8:17-22) People who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
This is the Advent passage. This is the passage in song, in memory, that echoes in our ears and hearts and minds. We tell this story with joy, with less than hope and more like celebration, expectation of story that we already know and already love. And it is hard for us to let go of what we already feel about this passage.
But for the people who heard it first, it wasn’t a glorious recounting of what had been. It was a statement about how God would change what had been, about how the experience of the people of God would change. As we end our 2nd liturgical year of COVID, and enter into our 3rd, perhaps we have a different sense of this passage.
As we read it on the last Sunday of the liturgical year, how do we read it as a hopeful statement of the unknown, instead of a recounting of what has already been done? Can we read this passage looking forward, and not looking back, and how does that change things? What do we hear this year, looking forward to what God will do, instead of reflecting on what God has done?
