Year A

Dec 13 2024

Our Thirsty God

There are a number of thirsty people in our readings today: the Israelites out in the desert, grumbling about the lack of water and wondering why they ever left Egypt; the woman of Samaria, who has gone to the well to draw water for herself and her companion at home; and Jesus, traveling through Samaritan territory with his disciples.

The thirst of the Israelites was physical. Once again disheartened, they were grumbling that Moses had taken them out in the desert to die. It must have gotten serious because we are told that Moses himself feared for his life. God’s response is dramatic: “Take your staff, go over to that rock and strike it.” And the water flowed.

The nameless woman is shown to be thirsty on several levels. Physically, yes, but her thirst is on far deeper levels—for companionship (five husbands and now living with yet another person!) and for communion with God. Jesus promises her that people will worship God in Spirit and in truth. Indeed, the Father seeks such people.

Is it possible the one most thirsty is God? The Father thirsts for all of us to draw closer, to live fully the life that only God can give, that life celebrated on Easter, made possible by the dying and rising of Jesus. Those to be baptized enter into divine life at baptism, but all believers continue to be satisfied by the life-giving water that is Jesus.

Consider/Discuss

What are you thirsting for?
Do you approach God as one who can satisfy your deepest thirst?

Responding to the Word

Risen Lord, you came to bring us life-giving water. Such water poured over us at our baptism. We pray for those who will soon enter into this water and become sons and daughters of the Father, co-heirs with you. Strengthen them, enlighten them, guide them, encourage them, in these final days of preparation.

Dec 13 2024

Scripture Study for

The miracle of water from the rock is God’s response to the people’s rebellion in the wilderness. Moses’ authority is under direct attack. Nonetheless, just as God delivered the people from the bondage of Egypt through the leadership of Moses, so now, again through the actions of Moses, God provides for their needs. Moses is instructed to employ the staff he used to perform the signs and wonders that surrounded the liberation from Egypt. When he strikes the rock, life-giving water flows forth. This is but another example of God’s boundless and compassionate love for sinners.

The justification of the Romans is based on the righteousness that originates in God, a righteousness that gives and sustains life, security, and well-being. According to Paul, we have no right to this relationship with God. It has been given to us, won for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. We did not deserve it. We were sinners, alienated from God, when Christ died for us and gained access for us to the grace that places us in right relationship with God. The prodigious quantity of God’s graciousness is beyond our comprehension. It is poured out like water, life-giving, enriching, and overflowing.

The living water metaphor about which Jesus and the Samaritan woman con verse has a long and rich history in the religious tradition of Israel, where it is seen as a principle of spiritual life. Jesus’ unexplained knowledge of the woman’s marital situation prompts her to call him a prophet and to launch into another discussion about the proper place to worship God. Here too Jesus moves the conversation away from what is merely perceptible to the level of deep spiritual meaning, from a discussion of the place of worship to one that characterizes the manner of worship. The word of salvation comes to the Samaritan village through a woman, it takes root in the hearts of these despised and marginalized people, and it grows into a great harvest.

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!

Dec 03 2024

Scripture Study for

The reading from Isaiah focuses on future, universal recognition of the sovereignty of the God of Israel. God’s mountain refers to the site of the temple, yet the image evokes more than location. Not only God’s dwelling place, but also as the place from which the divine King exercises dominion through law-giving and judgment, the mountain represents God’s sovereign rule. In time, the kingship of God will extend beyond Israel as other nations receive both instructions previously reserved for Israel and the benefit of God’s just judgment. Enlightened by God’s instruction and obedient to God’s judgment of conflicts, the nations will have no need to resort to war.

Having exhorted the Roman Christians not to conform themselves to the present age, but to allow their minds to be transformed (Romans 12:2), Paul has insisted they must love one another, for “love is the fulfillment of the law” (13:10). Paul now places his plea within the context of God’s plan: moral transformation is both necessary and urgent, for the dawn of salvation has begun. To remain in former ways is to be caught “asleep” as the sun rises. Transformation comes about by putting on the “armor of light,” Christ himself (“put on the Lord Jesus Christ”), who protects against the seductions of the flesh, physical or social. Thus, it is Christ who brings about in the believer this saving transformation.

Jesus’ speech picks up this same idea of not being caught off guard when he returns. Just as the flood brought with it a sudden change from life as usual to judgment, so it will be when the Son of Man comes back. Now is the time to make whatever changes need to be made in one’s life. As in the Pauline passage, there is a union of eschatology and ethics—one must live in a way that is fitting for the reign of God. There will come a time when it will be “too late,” when the time of preparation will have passed.