Advent

Dec 05 2024

Scripture Study for

Scholars date the composition of Baruch several centuries after the end of the Babylonian Exile. Much of the language in this passage, however, sounds like the end of the book of Isaiah, which was composed shortly after the Exile, when hopes for the immediate restoration of Jerusalem were still high. Baruch reveals that centuries later Israel still hoped in God’s promises. A key idea in this passage is God’s “glory,” which is mentioned several times. The word refers to God’s honor and reputation, but also God’s power and authority, manifested primarily in God’s intervention in human affairs. Baruch assures Jerusalem that she will in fact display God’s glory, that her renewal in justice and peace will be accomplished for and by the glory of God.

Paul begins his Letter to the Philippians by giving thanks that they have responded to the call to live and proclaim the gospel. This gospel as well as their response to it has been “the good work” of God, which will continue until the “day of Christ Jesus.” This term, taken from the Old Testament concept of the “day of the Lord,” refers to the culmination of God’s definitive intervention in the world, which will take place when Christ returns. Paul does not know when this will be, but in the meantime, the Philippians enjoy the benefits of Christ’s “righteousness,” which bears the fruit of purity and blamelessness. Thus, the transformation and the continued fidelity of the Philippians redound to the praise and glory of God.

Luke begins his Gospel by situating the arrival of the Messiah firmly within human history. The definitive intervention of God in human affairs is not something that disrupts history, even as it changes its course, but flows out of the history of Israel and, indeed, of the whole world. The passage from Isaiah, now seen to refer to John the Baptist, stems from the end of the exilic period and tells of the intervention of God to heal Israel’s past and to give Israel a future. Now God is about to do the same in Jesus, who will heal the past of the entire world and give it also a future.

Dec 05 2024

Counting on the Calendar—or on God?

“The days are coming,” says the Lord. I flip through my calendar to look at this upcoming new church year. Events are already penciled in—birthdays, speaking engagements, dental cleanings . . .
those days are coming . . .

I remember my calendar in March 2020. Those days were penciled black with busyness. The schedule looked exhausting. How could I possible get it all done? Then, one by one, each of those “busy-
nesses” was erased by the COVID-19 pandemic. What was scheduled to come—it did not come. All was cancelled. By the middle of August, I could not recall whether it was Tuesday or Saturday. Time became a blur. I had no idea what was coming.

It is now the end of November of 2021. What is coming? There may have been a time when we felt sure that our calendar was under our control—what was scheduled to be, that would be. Now, well . . . maybe that surety has been shaken? What will this next year hold? Will nations be “in dismay,” as Jesus says? Will people be “in fright” because of what befalls them? What is coming? We do not know.

Thank God for Advent! Advent is all about “what is coming.” As we move into this season, we reach back to see that the Lord has been steadfast, always with the people in their trials. Wrapped in that security, in that beloved-ness, we walk into the unknown. We have no other guarantees. Advent also means to hope for the future. No matter what comes, we will not be abandoned.

Jesus is coming. Jesus has come. Jesus is here. He tells us to look to him, to “stand erect and raise your heads.” That is hope. No matter what happens, God will be with us. No matter what.

Consider/Discuss

How has the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic affected your sense of control of the future? What is happening in the world today that shakes you? In your own personal history, how have you seen that God has been with you?
Looking back at salvation history, the everlasting, holy, and eternally wonderful God has promised to you and me to be our future. Our future is not something. Our future is Someone. In the strength of the Holy Spirit, how can we be vigilant in remembering the steadfastness of God and secure in faith no matter what lies ahead?

Living and Praying with the Word

Come, Lord Jesus! You know our fears. You know our feebleness. To be human is to know not what the future holds. We look into the unknown. We do not know what will happen. But you are our hope. Strengthen our weak knees. Help us to stand erect and raise our heads. Give us the inner assurance of faith that you are the Rock that will hold. Come, Holy Spirit, and stir up our hope. In you. Only in you. Come, O Prince of Peace, come and be born in our hearts!

Dec 05 2024

Scripture Study for

Jeremiah’s oracle of salvation stems from the period right before the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon, which the prophet understands to be the just judgment of God for repeated violations of the covenant relationship. In particular, the prophet has accused the Davidic kings of failing in their task of ensuring justice among God’s people (22:1–9). The oracle assures the people, however, that the period of judgment is temporary. In time, God will not only restore Israel, but will also raise up a just Davidic king who will himself “do what is right” and ensure justice in the land, so much so that Judah and Jerusalem will even be called (symbolically), “The Lord our justice.”

Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians was written to strengthen a persecuted and maligned community. Written from an apocalyptic perspective, the letter assumes that the world is presently in a middle period between the first and the second comings of Christ. During this time, it is easy to grow disheartened and to lose one’s way. Paul has just affirmed the faith of the Thessalonians despite these challenges and prays not only that God strengthen this faith, but also increase the preeminent sign of faith, which is love. This love is not a “feeling,” but a stance that pleases God, an expression of “blameless holiness,” which manifests itself in care for “one another and for all.” Such a stance can be particularly difficult in the face of both the delayed return of Christ and the experience of persecution.

Jesus’ warning of the coming judgment and redemption reflects Jewish apocalyptic expectations in the first century. By this time, prophetic pronouncements of God’s restoration of Israel had come to be seen as pointing toward a turning point, even an end, of history. The “signs,” which involve the dissolution of the stable cosmic order, foretell the coming of the Son of Man, a figure derived from the vision of Daniel 7:13, who represented the divine Messiah. The arrival of the Son of Man initiates the period of judgment for the wicked, but redemption for the just. Only those who have persevered in righteousness despite the long wait for that redemption will experience it when they find themselves standing before God’s appointed judge.

Dec 03 2024

Scripture Study for

Isaiah wrote of a time when the monarchy had been conquered and there seemed to be no hope for a future king. Yet out of this “stump” a new ruler would emerge. The image of his “peaceable kingdom” recalls the primal paradise of Eden (see Genesis 2), where the animals did not follow their predatory instincts, and natural enemies lived in harmony with each other. In this new reign, all creation will be either transformed or recreated. This vision is not a return to the past, but one of future peace and fulfillment.

Paul bases his teaching of universal salvation for all on God’s original promise that Abram and his descendants would be a source of blessing for others (see Genesis 12:2; 22:18). Paul argues that it was in fulfillment of this promise that the Gentiles have been brought into the family of God through the love of Christ. In his prayer for the community, he asks for three different expressions of unity: “to think in harmony,” to be in “one accord,” and to glorify God in “one voice” (Romans 15:5–6). This unity in no way obliterates the differences between Jew and Gentile; it is a unity in diversity.

John’s baptism was neither the kind that proselytes to Judaism underwent, nor the repeated ritual cleansing that the Essene community of Qumran practiced. It was a devotional rite with eschatological significance, administered to Jews, accompanied by their acknowledgment of sinfulness and a resolve to live an ethical life. John admits his subordinate role when compared with Jesus. He, John, is the voice that announces the coming of another. The winnowing of which he speaks refers to the separation of those who respond to John’s call to repentance from those who do not. John does not act as judge; the one who is to come will do the judging. In other words, the time of the Messiah will be a time of both redemption and judgment.

Dec 03 2024

Scripture Study for

The first reading contains a vision of universal peace and an invitation to participate in that peace through faithfulness to God’s word. The image of the reign of God found in the reading from Isaiah is of a city, not known for its political prominence or military might, but revered as the dwelling place of God. This is a vision of the future reign of God, of an eschatological age of complete faithfulness to God and the peace and harmony among people that will flow from it.

Paul, too, speaks about the reign of God, but from a different perspective. He tells the Roman Christians that they are living in a decisive moment, the kairós, the period of transition from the age of sin to the long-awaited age of fulfillment. Paul employs several images to characterize this division of time. He says that this age is like slumber, or night and darkness, while the age to come is like wakefulness, or day and light. He urges the Christians to wake from sleep and to live in faithful

ness. The apparent incongruity between these two ages exemplifies the paradox that we sometimes hear, “already but not yet.” It is a way of acknowledging that the age of fulfillment, the reign of God, has already dawned, but it has not yet been brought to completion in our lives.

Jesus also speaks about this transition from one age to the next. The question he addresses is not whether this time will come, but when it will come. Like a good teacher, he uses examples to make his point. The people at the time of Noah were oblivious to the danger that faced them and so they were not ready. The same was true in the analogies he uses of the men and women, and the parable of the householder, all of whom blindly go about their daily lives. The moral of the story? Be prepared!