First Sunday of Advent, 2006

"Do not, I beseech you, be troubled about the increase of forces ALREADY in DISSOLUTION. You have mistaken the hour of the night. It is already morning."
--G.K. Chesterton 'Orthodoxy'

Isaiah 1:2-3 (NIV)

2  Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth!
For the LORD has spoken:
"I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.

3  The ox knows his master,
the donkey his owner's manger,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand."


Isaiah 11:1-3 (NIV)

1  A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

2  The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -

3  and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;