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Institute for Homiletics

A Collaboration of The Catholic Foundation and the University of Dallas

First Sunday of Advent

God of Promise

In Thornton Wilder’s play The Skin of our Teeth, Mrs. Antrobus tells her husband, George, that she didn’t marry him because he was perfect, that she didn’t even marry him because she loved him; she married him because he gave her a promise. And she gave one to him. And over the years, as their children were growing up, that mutual promise protected all of them, moving them into the future together.

A promise can open up into an unexpected future, marked by new life. God’s promises spoken in today’s first reading offered hope to a people who had little reason to hope. The hope of a restored Jerusalem, of a descendent of David who would do what is right and just—such promises began to be fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

With Jesus a new age began that promised to bring the old order of chaos and destruction to an end. With his birth a new power entered the world, making it possible to live in love, and allowing men and women to “increase and abound in love for each other and for all,” as Paul writes to the Thessalonians. Total fulfillment of God’s promises remains in the future.

But beginnings offer hope. A new church year calls on us to live as a people of hope in what God can do in our own day. Advent invites us to renew our relationship with the promises of God made visible in the person of Jesus Christ.

Consider/Discuss

  • Do you think of God as a promise keeper?
  • Do you see Jesus as beginning the fulfillment of God’s promises?
  • What hopes do you have for this new year of grace?

Responding to the Word

Lord, awaken us to your love and grant us your salvation, so we might bring new life to our world by what we say and do. Bless this new year of grace, and may our call to holiness alert the world to your transforming power.

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Scriptural Study for First Sunday of Advent

Jeremiah’s words announce a future wherein God’s promise of restoration will be fulfilled. A shoot, a sign of new life springing from previous life, will be raised up for the Davidic house. Jerusalem, the city whose name means “foundation of peace,” is here called “The Lord our justice.” Thus, the foundation of this peace is justice, and the basis of the justice is the quality of commitment to the Lord. This oracle opens with an announcement that God will deliver the people to safety, and it concludes with the people rooting their salvation in the righteousness of God.

Paul expresses his desire for the spiritual growth of the Thessalonians. His exhortation contains a tone of urgency, encouraging the believers to continue to live righteous lives. He does not ask that their love increase, but that their capacity for growth be expanded so that they can fill it with love. This love should be both communal (for one another) and universal (for all). It breaks all ethnocentric bounds and, like the love that Paul himself possesses, it resembles the inclusive love of God. Paul implies that the coming time of fulfillment should be an incentive to righteous living.

Jesus speaks of cosmic disturbances and the distress on earth that these disturbances will cause. His cosmic turmoil calls to mind the primordial chaos out of which God brought order (see Genesis 1:1–10), and the destruction at the time of Noah out of which God brought order anew (see Genesis 7:12; 9:9–11). In the case described in this passage, the disturbances are probably less predictions of actual historical events than they are metaphorical images portraying the end of one age and the birth of another. For those who faithfully await the revelation of God, this will not be a time of punishment, but of fulfillment. Since the exact time of the revelation is unknown, the fundamental exhortation is: Beware! Take heed! Be alert! Don’t be caught by surprise!

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