Скачать или смотреть Advent Day 38 - O Antiphons - O King of the Nations

Daily Reflections through Advent

We continue our journey through this final week of advent - thinking about the OT prophecies that a Messiah would come, and then, describing him. The O Antiphons take this prophetic name of Jesus, and focus us on the longing of our heart that matches that name.

Is 28:16
Gen 2:7
Mat 21:42
1 Pet 2:4-5

Thoughts
It certainly feels like there are some themes that overlap in the seven of these O Antiphons. Based on today’s King of the Nations, we’ll explore a little more about Jesus:
being the great cornerstone;
the fact that everything about us has been fashioned by our
creator;
and that there’s an interesting balance that we need - in our awe
and reverence of God, and the fact that he calls us into partnership with him.

Let’s start by thinking about a keystone or cornerstone ...
The Cornerstone comes again and again throughout scripture. If you look in any chapel in the UK, you’ll see lots of arches, and in each one you can see the Cornerstone. It's usually a different kind of stone, placed at the top of the arch, and you can see how it is holding the whole arch in place. Remove the cornerstone, and the whole edifice collapses. In the same way, Jesus is the Cornerstone of our life.

Jesus is the King – the ruler – He’s the person without whom everything else collapses!

It seems to me that we have a choice – to have Jesus as a central figure in our lives, or to choose for him to play a peripheral part, or maybe even no part at all.

When we remove the cornerstone, the whole edifice collapses. So, if we do try to live our lives without Jesus playing a central role, the arch of our lives will collapse – our lives simply don’t work properly if Jesus isn’t at the centre.

I wonder whether there are parts of your life that would benefit as you shift Jesus into their centre?

Let’s turn our attention to the fact that God created us from the dust of the ground. Everything about us is known by God who made us. Psalm 139 talks of God knitting us together in our mother’s womb, and the fact that we are wonderfully made. The reality for most of us though, is that we often wish there was something different about us. “I wish I had a smaller nose ... longer legs ... hair on my head!!” Or maybe, “I wish I wasn’t as anxious as I often feel”, or that “I lose my temper as quickly as I do”. We can tend to spend a lot of our lives wishing we were something else, or like someone else. At some point, it’s healthy and whole for us to accept the way that we are – and this becomes much easier if we accept that our creator actually made us this way, and that He had a purpose in making us exactly the way we are.

Isaiah paints a ludicrous picture, where the clay feels it has the right to speak back to the potter ...
Woe to anyone who rises up against his Maker, or to the pot that is displeased with the potter.
Does the clay say to the one who molds it, “What are you doing?
Your work makes no sense.”

I wonder if we internally complain about how we’ve been made ... or whether we are at ease with the creature God has made us to be?

Finally, let’s consider today’s title in the prophecies about Jesus – that he is the King of the Nations. That sounds very grand ... and maybe a little unapproachable?!

And so, we approach him with awe, and yet also with familiarity. If you were meeting the King or Queen there would be a certain amount of anxiety - “I really hope I do everything OK and don’t embarrass myself!”. We’d maybe do well to bring that kind of awe into our relationship with God too.

Yet we read that Jesus came into our world as a baby – and no-one is in awe of a baby! So there is an aspect to the godhead that has the familiarity of a baby – a little child who may be dependent upon one of us. And this thought is truly incredible – there is a way in which Jesus, though He is the King of the universe, is dependent upon us still. He has chosen to limit himself so that he can't work directly in the world now – He can only work through us and He depends upon us.

And therefore, yes, there is the awe of Jesus’ majesty, and there is also the awe that He entrusts us with His work in the earth. Again, Jesus comes alongside to say “I will walk with you”. This is a yoke, yes, but it is enabling you to carry far more than you would be able to on your own, and with me alongside you – we can do it.

I guess He’s lifting us up to become His children, so it makes sense that as we become like Him, there’s something awe-some in us too!

I wonder if it’s possible to be out of balance here ... As we place too much awe in God ... or as we place too little respect in ourselves?
Or maybe we get the balance just right? :-)

Contemplation
In quiet, Jesus will come to us as King and Cornerstone, helping us to make sense of our existence in the world ...

Prayer
O King of the nations,
and their desire,
the cornerstone making both one:
Come and save the human race, which you fashioned from clay.