Advent

Dec 13 2024

Scripture Study for

Zephaniah’s oracle of salvation directs the people to “Shout! . . . Sing! . . . Be glad and exult!” The reason for this rejoicing is their deliverance from enemies. The misfortune they endured may have been punishment for their sins, but God has removed that judgment and now dwells in their midst as King of Israel and as a mighty savior. “On that day” is an allusion to the day of the Lord, a time in the future when the justice of God will be executed throughout the world. This passage describes the tenderness God has for this restored people and the joy that their restoration evokes in God.

The joy that Paul advocates is not merely the happiness that comes from enjoyment of life. It is joy in the Lord, joy that is grounded in faith in Jesus Christ. Paul calls the believers to live lives of kindness, of gentle forbearance, of willingness to forego retaliation. Such genuine Christian behavior should be visible to all. “The Lord is near” is an end-of-time watchword, acclaiming the future coming of the Lord to set all things right. If the people have lived righteously, the Lord will come to them as a compassionate savior rather than as a severe judge. Finally, the fruit of such righteousness is peace.

The Gospel reading recounts instructions given by John the Baptist to those who came out to see and hear him and to be baptized. In response to their question “What should we do?” he challenges them to carry out their daily responsibilities with concern for others, honesty, and integrity. The people were looking for the Christ, the “anointed one.” Lest they mistake him for this Christ, John contrasts himself with the one who is to come, insisting that he is not worthy to undo the sandals of that long-awaited one. John’s baptism with water was a ritual of repentance and cleansing. The Christ’s baptism of the Spirit will purge and transform our very souls.

Dec 13 2024

Dressing Up

Getting “dressed up” does not seem to happen so much these days. No matter where you go, garb tends to be casual—funerals and weddings excepted (usually!). Jeans have replaced the suit, T-shirts and crew necks stand in for the traditional shirt and tie, and sneakers sub for dress shoes. Gone are most occasions when getting dressed up was de rigueur.

Today’s readings are as much a “dress-up” call as a wake-up call. Baruch calls on Jerusalem to dress up, replacing her robe of mourning and misery and putting on the splendor of glory: the cloak of justice and the headgear of glory. Her children are returning from exile, “borne aloft in glory on royal thrones.” God will see to arranging the rest of creation: mountains made low, gorges filled in, fragrant trees filling the air with their scent.

And John the Baptist is calling on the children of Israel to dress up their inner selves by undergoing a baptism of repentance, receiving God’s forgiveness of their sins, and thereby providing God a highway into their hearts, a straight path with no obstacles impeding God’s entry in glory. Then, God will dress them with salvation and fullness of life.

Paul’s words bring it home. Advent is a time to prepare for the great feast of God’s incarnate love. God, made visible in Jesus Christ, at work in us since the day we were baptized in Christ, continues to come today, bringing God’s work one step closer to completion.

Consider/Discuss

How will you “dress up” for the coming feast? What needs to be taken off? What needs to be put on?
What are you doing this Advent that invites the Lord to come in splendor? What needs to be filled in? What needs to be straightened?

Responding to the Word

God who comes, help us hear your call to prepare for you to come into our lives. May this holy season set our hearts afire with the desire to put on the garments of truth and loving kindness so your light and love may come more fully into our world.

Dec 13 2024

Scripture Study for

Jerusalem is portrayed as a grieving mother. Her sorrow is for her children carried off and scattered both east and west. Since this meant the loss of any future, Jerusalem faced extinction. This is why she is clothed in the traditional garments of mourning. The prophet directs the city to “Take off your robe of mourning and misery!” Transformed by the glory of God, Jerusalem is told to stand on the heights and witness a reversal of fortune: the captives will return rejoicing; led away on foot, they will be carried back on royal thrones. The splendor that God bestows upon Jerusalem will be revealed to all the earth.

The affection that Paul has for the Philippians flows from his appreciation of their faithfulness to the righteousness that God is accomplishing in them. Although Paul brought the good news of the gospel to these people, he acknowledges that it was really God who made it take root in their hearts, and it is God who will oversee its maturation until it is brought to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. Paul prays that their mutual love will increase, and that they will be pure and blameless for the coming day of Christ.

John the Baptist is a most fascinating figure. He comes from a priestly family (see Luke 1:5), yet he is found in the desert, a place that calls to mind the wandering of the people in the wilderness as they moved out of Egyptian bondage. His activity occurred in the region of the Jordan, the gateway to the Promised Land, the very river crossed by the people as they entered the land. Thus crossing became a symbol of their entrance into a new life. All of this somehow marks John as an agent of momentous transformation. Just as both the Exodus and the return from exile involved a desert crossing, so the end-times renewal proclaimed by John begins in the desert.

Dec 05 2024

More Than Mere Optimism

When I was in my twenties, I had an “Elizabeth.” I was very pregnant with my first child. She had nine. Sitting at her kitchen table, we talked about God. We talked about faith. We talked about children. When I’d come to visit her, joy visibly leapt into her smile. As my belly swelled and the baby rolled around, I’d rest my elbow on her huge kitchen table and absorb her wisdom.

What Carol (my Elizabeth’s name) taught me was that God believes in babies. Even when we are tempted to lose hope in the future, God keeps sending new little people into this world. It is God’s mark of trust in the human race—even when we keep mucking it up, the good Lord says, “Let’s try again. Maybe they’ll get it right this time.” When she would say that, it would make me laugh. It gave me hope.

In Luke’s Gospel, two women also come together. The younger runs to the older. Yet it is Elizabeth who swells with elation as her baby jumps within her. We still pray her joyful exclamation to Mary: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Elizabeth is filled with expectation.

Hope isn’t just a psychological manufacturing of inner optimism. Hope is a human being. The writing from Hebrews says “a body you prepared for me.” That body was not very big when unborn John the Baptist leapt for joy. God believes in us enough to become one of us. Hope comes in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

In a few days, we will celebrate the coming of that tiny person— the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. We may have mucked it up in the past, but this Christmas, God offers another chance: “Let’s try again. Maybe they’ll get it right this time.”

Consider/Discuss

God believes in people. God works through the many “Elizabeths” in this world, both male and female—people who recognize and follow the Lord and thus embody goodness and kindness and love. Has there been an Elizabeth for you? How did he or she help you to grow in faith?
Some in the field of psychology suggest that religion is simply a way of coping with life’s difficulties, that those who believe in Jesus are . . . well . . . just a little backward and simple; religion is no longer necessary in our scientific age. But what if there is no Other to turn to, no God who holds us up, no redemption from darkness? Where is hope? In these final days of Advent, ponder this: Is the idea of God just wishful thinking or is God the reality who holds up your life? As you behold the baby in the manger this Christmas, ask the Holy Spirit to swell within you with a renewed dose of the gifts of faith, hope, and love.

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord God, Creator of the world, the psalmist says thank you to God, who “knit me in my mother’s womb” and says thank you “because I am wonderfully made.” Thank you for creating me. Help me to start anew this week of Christmas, to recognize that you believe in me. In times of temptation, help me to hold doggedly fast to you. In times of despair, help me to cling to you alone as my hope. Thank you for coming into this world in such a small and obscure way in the womb of a young girl, who was willing to shelter and grow you for nine months. Thank you for her Elizabeth. Thank you for our “Elizabeths” who give us hope by embodying you. Thank you, thank you most of all for daring to take a chance on us.

Dec 05 2024

Scripture Study for

The prophet Micah, along with Isaiah and other prophets, expected that one day God would raise up a righteous ruler in the line of David. (Before the end of the monarchy, a long line of “bad kings” gave rise to this hope. Later, this hope remained alive after the destruction of the monarchy.) David’s ancestral home was the insignificant and tiny Bethlehem, which was part of the clan of Ephrathah (Ruth 1:2; 1 Samuel 17:12). Davidic rulers were representatives of God and thus the ideal ruler would be a righteous and caring shepherd of God’s people, protecting them against foreign and domestic enemies that threatened their well-being and peace. As such, the Davidic ruler is the agent of God’s own care for the people in times of weal or woe.

In his exploration of what God has accomplished in Christ, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews draws extensively on the Jewish scriptures to make the case that Jesus has been sent to fulfill God’s will completely and perfectly. Here the author draws on the Greek version of Psalm 40 to argue that Jesus came into the world (with a body) to do away with inadequate sacrifices and replace them with the sacrifice of his own body, thus accomplishing perfectly God’s will: behold, I come to do your will. This will is not specifically that Jesus should sacrifice himself, but that through his sacrifice all people would be “consecrated” to God in him.

An overarching theme throughout all of scripture is the divine desire that human beings learn to be able to trust in God, specifically that God has their welfare in mind and desires what is good for them, all of them as individuals and as a single people. This trust also entails believing God’s promises of future blessedness for all of creation. Such trust, or faith, is difficult for humans to “achieve,” which is why God and then Jesus emphasize it so much. It is not surprising, then, that Elizabeth rejoices that Mary believed—trusted—that what God had announced to her would come to pass. It is Mary’s trusting faith that prepares her to give birth to God’s Messiah.