For the LORD Watches Over the Way of The Just

For the LORD Watches Over the Way of The Just 

Friday of the Second Week of Advent

If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea. Isaiah 48:18 

Wisdom is vindicated by her works. Matthew 11:19

Piety 

God, you set the table before us and led us into the room. Then you leave the choice up to us. Send your messengers to teach us how to choose justice, mercy, and right. Amen.

Study 

Dare to decide between good and evil.

When we look around, a lot of the opposing forces are not that opposite. The sports pages ask us if we are a Red “Sawks” fan or a “Yankee” lover? Restaurants force us to choose between Coke and Pepsi? What do you drive: GM or Toyota? But these are not moral choices. One choice is not evil, nor the other good. These are mere preferences. Even the blue state or red state is not a moral choice. 

Here, during Advent – on the day that is right smack dab in the middle of the season of preparation – the first of all, the Psalms lays out the choice we have. Either/or. Psalm 1 poses the distinction between good and evil, the just and the wicked if we choose the path of goodness; Isaiah and Matthew promise vindication and rewards.

The choice, the decision is just the first step on the journey. The second step is to live the choice. We can’t just give “lip service” or talk the talk. We have to do what the choice leads us to do. Choose justice, and you have to live your life justly. To do anything less is not to choose righteousness. 

Every day when you wake up, you have a decision to make. Today, will I move closer to God, or will I move further away? Every day of Advent, we move closer to the day that Christ is born to the world.

There is nothing ambiguous about the choice. Lead us not into temptation. 

The prayer does not say, “Lead us close to temptation but not too close.” It does not say, “Pull us back from the brink of self-destruction.” Let us, instead, see the apple and then decide if we can resist its seduction to taste.

“In the end, failure to decide prevents one from doing good. It keeps us from doing that great thing to which each of us is bound by virtue of the eternal.” (Sören Kierkegaard) 

The proof of choice is in the living. By the time we get to the end of the Book of Psalms, Psalm 150 celebrates the choice: “Let everything that has breath give praise to the LORD! Hallelujah!”

Action 

Here are some ideas for Advent from the Franciscans (http://www.franciscansforjustice.org/2015/11/08/advent-resources-for-simple-living/).  

Consider these two thoughts:

1) Slow down. Changes require prayer, reflection, and time. Make time for what’s most important. 

2) Think about the answer to this thought, “My way to change is....”

Post your response on the blog comment page.