Year C

Dec 05 2024

Reflection-The Urge for Cleanliness

Sometimes a small thing can jolt a memory. I was startled one morning to discover that my COVID-19 bar of soap was gone. That brown-and-tan–striped soap bar had grown paper thin. I rubbed my hands together with it after breakfast and . . . it was gone.

For six weeks, I remember scrubbing my hands raw with that bar of soap. My hands had to be clean. Immaculate. Germ-free. The coronavirus with which I was infected must not pass on to my
husband or to others. My hands had to be clean. Sterile. Spotless. It was urgent. It mattered.

Today, we celebrate that urgency for cleanness. Pure, true, immaculate—these are attributes of the Most Holy One. God is good. That statement sounds clichéd, but it is urgent. It matters: God is good. True. Pure. Holy . . . Good.

Since the earliest days of the church, the Incarnation has been urgent—that this good and holy God should become human? Oooh. With the people of faith throughout the centuries, we bow at that mystery. Who, then, was the young woman chosen to be God’s mother? It was urgent that she be made holy in order to house the Holy. The Mother of God had to be unstained from the beginning, clean
and immaculate. Today we celebrate that. Mary is the new Eve, a startling counterpoint to the sordidness that has infected the human race. She is good. Clean. Pure.

That gives hope for you and me. God’s plan is to open the way of holiness to us as well. The viruses of life can pollute our lives. But the Spirit of God can fill us with the determination to grow toward goodness. We have to be holy. It is urgent. It matters. God is good. The pure of heart will see God. We want to see God. Come, Holy Spirit, Sanctifier, Purifier, scrub us clean!

Consider/Discuss

Sometimes the world feels dirty. Do you ever get tired of hearing lies and
deceptions in the news, the planting of stories designed to sway you and
public opinion? Where is wholesomeness? Where is goodness? Millions
of dollars have gone into research into how to change people’s habits
and minds. It can become manipulation. It can pollute us. Whom can
we believe? In this Advent season, we seek to turn away from dirt, to be
washed clean, to start anew. What is one concrete thing that we can do this
week to make that happen?
When has God’s mercy freed you to see God present in your life?

Living and Praying with the Word

O Jesus, help us! You said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” We want to be pure of heart. We want to see you. As we celebrate this day of purity, help us to think about our habits and our way of life. Transform us so that we can live more simply and more purely. You call us to holiness. You call us to wholesomeness. Cleanse us from the dirt that clings so closely. Turn us away from
sin. We want to follow you, you who are good and holy and pure. Wash us so we that we live in a way that is close to you.

Dec 05 2024

The Urge for Cleanliness

The scriptures tell us that in the beginning God made a “good” world and when humans entered the scene, they were at first well integrated into this harmonious creation. Indeed, Genesis portrays the relationship between God and humans as unusually intimate and personal. It is only when the snake induces the humans to doubt God’s good will toward them that the relationship is ruptured. The effects cascade as the intimacy between humans is damaged (passing the blame) and then the relationship between humans and the earth also becomes disharmonious (it is now difficult to till the soil). This tale suggests that human ignorance gives rise to suspicion and then to division, the cause and the effects of human sin.

The Letter to the Ephesians begins with a blessing of God, which emphasizes that what God has done in Christ is not an accident or “add-on” to a human history gone wrong, but is in fact part of a divine plan “before the foundation of the world.” Humans, despite the sins they will commit, have been loved by God from before all creation and have been destined to be “adopted” as God’s children from the beginning. Even human sin cannot derail the plan “of the one who accomplishes all things” as intended. That God’s desires for all humanity cannot be undone by millennia of sin attests to the glory and power of God.

Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, rendered in our Lectionary as “full of grace” (from the Latin gratia plena), can also be understood as “highly favored one,” and indeed, the angel assures the young woman that she has found favor with God. This should be understood not as an indication that Mary has somehow earned God’s favor, but that she has been “favored by God,” in the sense that she has been given a special role in God’s plan (as was the case also for Israel and Moses, neither of whom could be said to have earned God’s favor; see Exodus 33:16). The passage makes it clear that it is God’s unmerited choice of Mary to fulfill a long-standing plan, “prepared” well before she was born.

Dec 05 2024

Reflection-Hanging on to Joyful Expectation

I remember sitting on the couch next to my grandma. She was ninety-two. I asked her, “Who would you like to see when you get to heaven?” Her eyes behind her glasses brimmed with tears. “I would like to see Bobby,” she said. Bobby was born when my mother was four years old. He died six months later. His death was a deep chasm in my grandma’s life. More than sixty years later, she had not forgotten her baby boy. She still ached to reach across that rift to touch him.

John the Baptist knows about deep valleys. The Judean wilderness is a series of parallel gorges, many more than a thousand feet deep. Some precipices are sheer rock, scary to look down.

In the first reading, Baruch also knows those scary cliffs; he prophesies that God will fill those same valleys. The Jews had sown a trail of tears on their way to exile in Babylon. Baruch reassures the captives that God will level out those rough roads and bring them back home. They’re in a bad place. What is coming? They don’t know. But their hope is in the One who can make that pathway straight. It is God who will do it. Their tears will be in the past. Joy will be their future.

My grandma died when she was ninety-four and a half. I believe that her tears of sorrow have turned into tears of joy. I hope she sees Bobby. Across the rift of death, God has healed her past and has given her a future.

In Advent, what is coming? Jesus, the baby born to be king, is coming. The chasm between heaven and earth has been leveled. That is the source of our hope. We are called to be Advent people. We hang on to joyful expectation, whether we have five or thirty or sixty more years still to come.

Consider/Discuss

As winter deepens into darkness, the radiance of Advent still shines. The flame of the second candle on the Advent wreath flickers to tell us that the Savior is coming, coming, coming: that God’s best is yet to come. For what are you waiting in joyful hope?
Life’s valleys can be steep. Sometimes, we may feel as though we have to cross them all by ourselves. When we hear today’s call to repentance, to make the pathways straight, it can feel heavy, as though we have to get better all by ourselves. Yet both prophets say that it is God who levels the mountains and raises the valleys. Do you walk alone? How can God’s grace lift you and help you through the course of your life?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, we bring you the chasms and the deep valleys in our lives. Sometimes it feels as though we could fall off of one of those scary cliffs. Lift us with your love. Lead us with your glory. Strengthen our courage to be Advent people, to hang on to hope—this year, next year, even if it takes sixty years. Heal our past. Give us confidence for the future. You alone are our Advent strength. O come, O come, Emmanuel!

Dec 05 2024

Hanging on to Joyful Expectation

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

Reflection-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!