Proclaiming a troublesome message

“…‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21)

Nehemiah 8:1-10

Psalm 19

1 Corinthians 12:12-30

Luke 4:14-21

 

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Year C: Third Sunday after the Epiphany, 23 January 2022

And Jesus went back to his home town and ‘as was his custom’ (v.16) he went to the local synagogue on the Saturday. He ‘unrolled the scroll’ and ‘found the place where it was written’ in what we recognise as the opening verses of the 61^st chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah to make a bold and challenging proclamation with the very clear implication that this applied to Jesus and that this was happening right now in front of the synagogue congregation as well as the people in the region.

What did Jesus say?  He had four messages to announce:

1. Good news to the poor.
2. Freedom and release for those imprisoned.
3. Recovery of sight to the blind.
4. A year of the Lord’s favour.

We can read into this a very radical challenge to the religious and political status quo both then and now. No wonder his own people and religious brethren pursued him to the brow of the hill to kill him once the full implications of what he was saying sank in.

Who are the poor? How do we help the poor?

When Jesus stood up in that synagogue and proclaimed a year of the Lord’s favour he did not waste words.  He went straight to the core of his purpose and mission drawing on a text that would have been very well known to his own people and the synagogue minders.  For some reason the passage recalling this bold proclamation in the synagogue and which is read on this Sunday in the ‘Year of Luke’ stops short at verse 21:

Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

In a touch of enormous irony, the fulfilment of scripture this very day that Jesus stood up in the synagogue meant that Jesus very nearly met death as the locals rose up and took him to the brow of the hill in Nazareth to throw him to his death. His fine words and popularity (refer to verse 15 ‘praised by everyone’) quickly turned to hatred, persecution and exclusion from Nazareth and the synagogue there.  That, too, was a fulfilment of scripture. A bold proclamation backed by practical witness and living out of a set of values brings its own opposition and death.

And what values do we live out of?
What is our manifesto or proclamation?
Does it appear to be any different to those manifestos – corporate, ideological, nationalist, religious etc. that dominate our world?
Does our proclamation make a difference and how and why and where?
Can we tell stories from our own water wells where others may draw the living water?
Is our religion a religion of just words?  Is our religion a religion merely of the head but not of the head and the heart?
Who knows?
Who cares? 

If Jesus made his proclamation in 50 words – give or take that he spoke not in English but, presumably, in Aramaic in his local town – then what is our 50 word-20 second pitch? And how do our words and gestures carry credible weight in a world where cynicism, broken promises and fatalism prevail?

Put another way, anyone who wants to proclaim a year of the Lord’s favour that is more than just words but that involves fundamental change either in the way people live, or think or expect is landing herself or himself into serious trouble. Jesus’ time had not yet come but his time would come and there would be payback time for quoting Isaiah and applying it to himself in such a way that someone in the authority got seriously upset. Did that stop Jesus? No more than his cousin John the Baptist it did not. What defines Jesus is not how he defines himself in the finest of Greek philosophy or the exactitude of Jewish Law but in what he does and how he does it. Therein lies the power and love of God at work through his Word.

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FURTHER NOTES ON THE GOSPEL OF THE DAY (Luke 4:14-21)

Preliminaries

In characteristically Lucan style this extract contains a simple and bold proclamation with the focus on the good news of liberation for the poor. But, this is not done without referring to Jesus being ‘filled with the power of the Spirit’. The Holy Spirit working powerfully in Jesus then and now is announcing freedom to those imprisoned and oppressed.

v. 14-15 The beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilea

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

According to Luke, Jesus’ public ministry begins in Galilee. It follows a time of preparation and testing in the desert. Significantly, Jesus starts at a local level and ends up in Jerusalem some time later. From Jerusalem a new wave spread out across the world in the following centuries.

v. 16-17 Proclaiming good news of liberation

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written..

This evidence that Jesus could read. And read he did. He may have already decided to read this particular passage from Isaiah. Is it not significant that this passage from the many he could have chosen was used?

v. 18-19 The prophet Isaiah readout

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

This resembles a proclamation rather like what the American or French or Irish revolutionaries might have announced. Here is what we stand for and this is why we have been sent …. so to speak. The quotation cited here by Luke is an edited version of Isaiah 61:1-2. Reference to vengeance in verse 2 is dropped in characteristically Lucan fashion (see for example Luke 7:22)

v.20-21 The Word that is living

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

This forms a dramatic conclusion to Jesus’ intervention at the Synagogue. He makes it clear that this is no formalistic reading from some ancient text. Rather, what is foretold and announced by the Prophet Isaiah is happening right here in Nazareth. Yet, his townspeople will reject him and he will not perform any miracles there because of their lack of faith. What an indictment of Jesus’ home village.

Life is too short to drink bad wine

“…But you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10)

Isaiah 62:1-5

Psalm 36:5-10

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

John 2:1-11

 New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Year C: Second Sunday after the Epiphany, 16 January 2022

 The story we have just read is about a wedding.  It is significant that Jesus chose a wedding feast where he shows his first ‘sign’ to use the term of the gospel writer, John.

As in any wedding party but especially in first century Palestine, weddings were an occasion of much rejoicing. We read about six stone water jars being used for the miracle that Jesus performed. These jars were used for ritual ablutions according to Jewish custom and would have been equivalent to about 600 litres of wine which, if there were 500 non-teetotaling guests, would be equivalent to a bottle and a half of wine or 9 glasses of wine over say a day or two.

Now we must remember that, according to the story in John’s gospel, the wine had already run out after the first or second day.   Clearly, there was a lot of wine being consumed.  One assumes that Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist was not present but busy preaching in the desert or baptising at the Jordan.  One might conclude that this level of alcohol consumption well exceeded present-day government health guidelines on units of alcohol for men or women!

Wine is a very key ingredient of Middle Eastern culture and life as is other consumables such as water, bread and oil. All of these serve as important materials for the ‘signs’ that would mark the life, ministry and Passover of the Christ.

There is no evidence that Jesus showed up at parties with the specific aim of preaching and practicing miracles (however, we might speculate whether hundreds of invitations were issued to Jesus across the land after the Cana event!).  The killer punch of the story was not just the transformation of water into wine but the production of good wine much to the amazement of the stewards.

This particular party was the occasion for a dramatic sign that gave witness to the Glory of God and the presence of the kingdom of God in our midst.  There was something going on here that was much more than about a wedding or wine or even a miracle.  Jesus took a very Jewish and near Eastern custom of celebrating marriage and all that this entails, added some water and made it into wine and left many awe struck (as well as a few inebriated).

The primary message here is not that we should go partying or drinking lots of wine but, rather, that God can powerfully act and transform very ordinary materials, relationships and situations if we let him.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, plays a key role in this story. She alerts Jesus to the impending disaster because the wine was running out and then strongly advises the stewards at the wedding to ‘do whatever he tells you’ (verse 5) after what seems a very abrupt exchange between Jesus and Mary (‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?’). That conversation might suggest that Jesus and Mary were not much given to wine.  Here we can hear a rich and deep message relayed by Mary – the first disciple among equals – that we should follow Jesus and do whatever he tells us.  Mary plays a key role, here, at the outset of Jesus’ public ministry as she does at the foot of the cross where Mary is given as a type of spiritual mother to the beloved disciple, John.

To make wine, especially good wine, we need to simply do what Jesus asks us to do which is to fill up the water jars of our life. God does the rest including the transformations into the best of wines.

There is a truth and power that goes beyond the very good things of parties, wine and marriage.

1.     It is the kingdom of God in our midst now, today, here among us as well as deep within us.

2.     It’s time to wake up and see it (‘and [Jesus] revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him’).

3.     Trust and openness are the key and this is the point of the wedding feast story. The signs are there if we look.

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FURTHER NOTES ON THE GOSPEL OF THE DAY

Preliminaries

The story of the wedding feast of Cana corresponds to the first ‘Sign’ contained in John’s gospel.  At one level this story, unique to John, is in a typical three-part piece:

1. The scene is set (there is a wedding in a place called Cana and Jesus and his mother are there).
2. Certain actions are recounted along with a conversation involving various persons including Jesus and Mary.
3. The evangelist spells out the ‘so what’ of the story.

However, there is a deeper, mystical, level of meaning in the text to be mined and chewed over and over again in meditative prayer, silence and listening. Here the disciple is challenged to find a deeper connection to his or her life and that of others.

In the ancient liturgies of the Church – in the East as well as in the West – the story of the wedding feast of Cana is linked to that of the Baptism of Jesus and the Epiphany. We are still, effectively, in Christmastide.  The thread running through these three episodes is that God has been revealed to all the people near and far, present and in the ages to come and not just the chosen ones here and now. The stories look upwards and outwards to a new Kingdom sealed in the water, blood and spirit of Jesus. The fire of God’s Holy Spirit is already among us.

We may note that the wedding feast plays an important role in the coming of God among his people in the Hebrew scriptures (see for example the passage in today’s first ready Isaiah 62:4-5).

v. 1-2   The scene is set

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 

According to John, the events recounted in the wedding of Cana come after the call of the initial disciples of Jesus. The reference to the ‘third day’ following the call of Philip and Nathanael is suggestive of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. The glory of God would be revealed on the ‘third day’.
The disciples knew Jesus’ family. This familiarity and bond is already strong enough to warrant an invitation to a 1st century Jewish wedding. Who was married? John does not say. It was, possibly, a close family member or neighbour of the village of Nazareth. If Peter was present – which is reasonable to assume from John’s story – then why did this very extraordinary event (the transformation of a huge quantity of water into wine!) not find its way into the one or more of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke)? Curiously, John never mentions Mary by name but refers to the ‘mother of Jesus’ a number of times in his gospel.

v.3   A concern about the guests

When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ 

Moved by concern for a potentially embarrassing situation, Mary alerts Jesus. This was not necessarily a call for a miracle but a communication of concern or observation of fact. However, it could be interpreted as a request for help in a situation of acute need. A shortage of wine beckoned!

v.4-5   A sharp reply and a hint of what is to come

And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ 

Without a cultural understanding this sounds abrupt to a 21st century ear. John uses the conversation to convey an important theological point, viz., the hour of Christ’s passion and glorification has not yet come but this first Sign is full of symbolism and meaning. In the story, there is an indication that Mary understood something of the import of Jesus’ action and response to her comment about the wine. Is there a link between Mary’s saying ‘Do whatever he tells you’ to what Jesus says to John from the cross: ‘Here is your mother’ (John 19:27)? Could it be that in giving Mary to John, he realised that her role was to remind us of God’s will ‘do whatever he tells you’ (John 2:5)? Yet, if John lived with Mary for much of the rest of her life why do we hear so little about her in the fourth Gospel (compared to, for example, Luke)? Mary remains very present but hidden in the gospel of John.

v.6-8  Jesus acts

Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it.

The jars used for purification are empty. Could it symbolise the Old Law which was to be transformed into a New Law?

v.9-10  A sign is discovered

When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 

The steward did not understand what had happened. Still less did he understand the deeper significance of this Sign. The good wine was kept until the last. God acts in God’s time and can transform our lives in ways that we could never imagine or predict. It is never too late to start again or to set out on new paths or uncover new gifts and horizons.

v.11-12   The response of the disciples

Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

John prepares a way for Jesus. The baptism of John is a very different type of baptism. Luke makes this clear. John declares that he baptises with water but the one who comes after him will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with ‘fire’. Fire is often associated with the Holy Spirit. Moreover, fire is a sign of the purifying impact of God who is all powerful. The Spirit burns up and sorts out what is good from what is evil.

Now, as we transition to the new dispensation we sense that the wedding feast of God in the sacrificial lamb signals a transformation. This is the deeper meaning hidden in the story of what happened in Cana. And it can speak to each one even today. We must be born again. Only the Holy Spirit can transform us.

One for sorrow but two for joy

‘…Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people..’ (Luke 2:10)

Isaiah 62:6-12

Psalm 97

Titus 3:4-7

Luke 2:1-20

 New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Year C: Christmas Day, 25 December 2021

Surprised by joy: this is a saying that aptly fits the experience of millions of children this morning. I have clear memories of that both when I was a child and when my own children were of a certain age. A messy, cold living room at 4a.m. in the morning with wrapping, batteries and instruction sheets scattered in all directions even if Santa hadn’t consumed that glass of milk or taken away this carrot for Rudolf!

Surprised by Joy is also the title of a book written by Ulster Irishman, Clive Lewis Staples. He may have taken the expression from a poem by William Wordworth when the poet forgot about the death of his daughter at least for a moment:

Surprised by joy — impatient as the Wind

I turned to share the transport — Oh! with whom

But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,

That spot which no vicissitude can find?

Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind —But how could I forget thee? Through what power,

Even for the least division of an hour,

Have I been so beguiled as to be blind

To my most grievous loss? — That thought's return

Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,

Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,

Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;

That neither present time, nor years unborn

Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.

Ultimately, as we look back on life so far we can say ‘one for sorrow; two for joy’. 

It is up to us to figure out and reframe our experiences according to this ratio. That one would have let oneself be happier is one of the five top regrets of the dying.   The message of Christmas is that tragedy does not define us. Rather, the news is good. This is a different kind of news to the kind enunciated by the Roman Emperor: it is real good news to the poorest and the least privileged of people – shepherds living a precarious life and earning a precarious living.  It is also good news for those temporarily imprisoned by loss, isolation or loneliness.  A saviour has come into our broken and sick world and we do not surrender to despair. Hope is alive and we will be surprised not just by any old sort of joy but ‘a great joy’. Not just charan (joy in ancient Greek) but mega joy – Megalēn joy.

There are many options for Readings from the Old and New Testament for this Christmas Day. Among them is Isaiah 62:6-12: Psalm 97; and  Titus 3:4-7.  

Breath of Heaven hold me together

“… When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb” (Luke 1:41)

Luke 1:39-45 (Year C: The Fourth Sunday of Advent, 23^rd December, 2018)

For a 3 minute video talk see https://youtu.be/8c-rArTNs4c

This is a story about two mothers and two (yet to be born) babies.  It was, in all likelihood, a story of shared anxieties (not recounted here) and shared joys mixed in, no doubt, with much physical discomfort, sickness and worry. Such is life and such is the experience of mothers and pregnant women – an experience that can only be theorised and described by that half of humanity that will never know what it is really like to be pregnant and, or, to be a mother of a child or to be sick or to be insecure …….. In many respects, nature lets some men get off lightly. Tradition has it (but it is only tradition) that the evangelist Luke wrote his gospel with the help of Mary the mother of Jesus. Hence the unique birth narratives in the gospel of Luke and the memories of Jesus in the temple found in the second chapter of Luke. Whoever Luke was and however he (assuming that it was a he) gathered together his version of the good news we get a sense of a feminine perspective in much of Luke – the role of the holy spirit of God, the central point of compassion, justice, balance, relationship and caring as well as the references to the role of Mary in the Jesus story.

When Mary went to her cousin Elizabeth she brought – in her very own body – the Life that would set the world on fire.  Elizabeth seemed to realise that something extraordinary was happening in Mary’s greetings and presence. The child in Elizabeth’s womb literally jumped for joy. This might seem like poetic licence but there is no reason to exclude this happening given what women know and men don’t and what, moreover, modern science confirms about the amazing behaviour of babies in the womb.

Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting. She saw and she heard and she was attentive. Something stirred in her. Life and Joy moved her to declare ‘And why has this happened to me’ (v.43). She was filled with the Holy Spirit just as we are and can be if we see, hear, listen and attend to what is hidden and what is before us. John did not see from where he was. He heard a voice – that of Mary and through this voice he was connected to that Life that was with Mary through the grace of God. One wonders what sorts of stories were told and shared and retold by these two mothers for many years after. ‘A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets’ as Old Rose said in the film ‘Titanic’ (no doubt it will be on offer again this Christmas on TV!). And in the gospel of Luke we are told that ‘Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart’ (Luke 2:19). It is surely the case that she continued to treasure and ponder all these words in her heart for many years before and after her visit to Elizabeth. However, Mary and Elizabeth were not mere mothers behind two great men. Their stories and witness places them as powerful women who challenge doubt, despair and oppression – all recounted after this passage in the rallying cry of the Magnificat.

But there is a sting to this Visitation story. The two unborn babies are destined to suffer and to die: one through beheading for the crime of telling it as it is; the other on a cross for ‘turning the tables’ (literally as in the Temple as well metaphorically).  There was, surely, much heartbreak for both mothers as matters turned out (even if Elizabeth had died by the time her son was executed). Luke quotes Simeon as saying to Mary:

This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too. (Luke 2:33-35)

The joyful encounter between Mary, Elizabeth, Jesus and John ended in tragedy. Or, did it?  That other great feast of the annual Christian calendar is only a little over 3 months away.  In the resurrection we see hope beyond tragedy; life beyond death and renewal beyond decay. Before we get to resurrection there is flight and there is exodus followed by a long journey through barren places. The story of Israel is our story as she wanders around a desert. But, the story of those were not of Israel is also our story because God’s generosity has no limits then or now. Within months of the encounter with Elizabeth, Mary would be fleeing with Joseph and the child Jesus just as thousands are doing this Christmas in various parts of Southern and central Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. And within months of that encounter many children would be massacred in the area around Bethlehem:

‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’ (Matthew 2:18)

A voice is heard today in Ramah and the surrounding countries. It is one of wailing and loud lamentation as Rachel weeps for her children and refuses, in front of our TV screens, to be consoled.  Sky News may not be picking this up very clearly today as we watch from our comfort zones of Northern Europe and America.  But, millions of dispossessed, terrorised and hungry brothers and sisters are coming our way sooner or later. Let’s do practical things to be open and welcoming towards all. We never know but we might be entertaining angels. Joy might stir within us as it did in Elizabeth when her cousin called in to visit her with Life.

And let’s not forget those nearest and dearest to us, also. We need to cherish, support and love all who are alive and kicking!

I like this song by Amy Grant from the early 1990s:

Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)

(you can hear it on youtube here)

I have travelled many moonless nights
Cold and weary with a babe inside
And I wonder what I've done
Holy father you have come
And chosen me now to carry your son

I am waiting in a silent prayer
I am frightened by the load I bear
In a world as cold as stone
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now
Be with me now

Breath of heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of heaven
Breath of heaven
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me your holiness
For you are holy
Breath of heaven

Do you wonder as you watch my face
If a wiser one should have had my place
But I offer all I am
For the mercy of your plan
Help me be strong
Help me be
Help me

Breath of heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of heaven
Breath of heaven
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me your holiness
For you are holy

Breath of heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of heaven
Breath of heaven
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me your holiness
For you are holy
Breath of heaven
Breath of heaven
Breath of heaven

(1,203 words, above)

In addition to this coming Sunday’s Gospel reading which is common to most Christian churches, the other readings from scripture found in the ‘paired’ Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) of the Church of Ireland for this Sunday are: Micah 5:2-5;  Psalm 80:1-8; and  Hebrews 10:5-10.  In the liturgical cycle of the Roman Catholic Church, for this coming Sunday, the choice of readings is the same as above.

Less is more

“…‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” (Luke 3:13)

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Psalm 146:4-10

Philippians 4:4-7

Luke 3:7-18

 New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Year C: Third Sunday of Advent, 12 December 2021

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice

....is taken from Philippians 4:4 which is the opening verse of the second reading for this Sunday.

Joy is a difficult thing to define or measure. It is felt more than seen. It is seen more than heard. It is heard more than measured. No market value can be put on joy.

The secret of joy is in trusting (God) and in giving (to others). The Gospel of Luke provides important guidance.

Let's listen again to the Gospel:

'Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise'. (v.11)

‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you’ (v.13)

If each of us collected ‘no more than the amount prescribed’ for us the world would be a different place indeed. If only…

Where we are today is on the cusp of a momentous change in the conditions of this mother earth where we have been planted. The call to love our neighbour takes a particular urgency because it means loving our children – the next generation. There is more than weather extremes and rising temperatures and flooding at stake here. We simply don’t know for sure how much or how long it will take but we can be sure of one thing – unless action is taken at global and local levels the future planet and the conditions for those living there does not look pretty. To put it another way, we are consuming one and a half earths. This cannot continue. Eventually, something gives. It becomes a choice of ‘de-growth’ or ‘de-carbonise’ or both. Leaders and peoples can continue to duck and dive on what it takes to begin to fix the underlying causes of environmental degradation but, eventually, the reality and the truth will catch up with us all.

We know that the current patterns of globalisation, trade, consumption and energy utilisation are not sustainable. What are we doing about it? 

Preparing a way for all

“…and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6)

Baruch 5:1-9

Benedictus

Philippians 1:3-11

Luke 3:1-6

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

 Year C: Second Sunday of Advent, 5 December 2021

Last week I highlighted, based on the readings of the first Sunday of Advent, three key points:

1. The need to stay calm
2. The need to remain steadfast in love
3. And the need to keep moving towards our ultimate destination.

This Sunday the focus is on preparation and inclusion.

We live in a radically different culture to the one in which the gospel writer, Luke, lived.  However, as with all four evangelists who wrote for the first or even second generation of early Christians and who faced enormous trials in the first century we also face a world that is often indifferent if not openly hostile.  The sacred writings and stories that later became part of the Canon of Scripture drew on the deep traditions and memories of the Jewish people – forsaken, held in captivity, restored and led forward. 

The prophet Baruch writes of a period of captivity and destruction some 6 centuries before Christ. He tells of a great and glorious future for the chosen people (5:5):

Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look towards the east, and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them.

Baruch echoes the prophet Isaiah who foresees a time of liberation and a time when the nations will be gathered and saved.  This links to the arrival of John the Baptist in the desert.  Luke quotes from the prophet Isaiah 40:3-5:

A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

‘All flesh shall see the salvation of God’. This is important because the gospel of Luke was, apparently, written for pagans in Greece (that’s us, so to speak).  All flesh – all races, all genders, born or unborn, left or right, straight or gay, ‘religious’ and ‘non-religious’, high-church and low-church, broad church or narrow church, liberal church or conservative-traditional church, all peoples – are called today ‘to see the salvation of God’. The writers of the Biblical books were hung up on the idea of ‘all’.  All are called to salvation. Inspired by John Wesley, many Christians attach special importance to four cornerstones or four great ‘Alls’ of our belonging to Christ:

1. All people need to be saved.
2. All people can be saved.
3. All people can know they are saved.
4. All people can be saved to the uttermost

Are we up to the challenge? Are we ready? Do we care? We can only start with ourselves.  Even if we feel or think that we are not up to the challenge; are not ready and do not care; there is a power and a love bigger than each one of us that is preparing a way through our hearts to joy and a peace and a freedom in the midst of this personal and social wilderness.

As it says in the Benedictus: ‘By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ (Luke 1:78-79)

That call and promise is extended once again, through Jesus, to us this morning, in the words of Saint Paul:

And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.  (Philippians 1:9-11).

Let this time of waiting and hope which we call Advent mark a new beginning for each one of us!

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Further reading: notes and questions, verse by verse (Luke 3:1-16)

Preliminaries

Whereas, in Mark, the opening proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ and directly quotes Isaiah,  here in Luke there is a long and gradual warm up with the various stories of Jesus’s conception, birth and childhood. Chapter 3 of Luke is a turning point. This is where the prophecy of Isaiah is proclaimed once again and the baton is passed from John the Baptist to Jesus.

v.1-2:  The political context

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 

What a formidable opening to chapter 3 and prelude to the declaration of John the Baptist! Then, as now, the region in which our saviour and Lord was born was deeply troubled and politically torn. It resembled some well known war-torn region ready to be tipped over into all-out violence at any moment as the ruling colonial authorities dealt cruelly with any uprising. At the same time, there was an air of excitement among the oppressed Jewish people that a Messiah would come before long.  As usual, the religious authorities ducked and manoeuvred to curry favour with the imperial overlords while seeking to maintain control over their own flock. Has much changed?

Note that ‘the word of God’ came to John the son of Zechariah just as it comes to us today through others and in us. Where did John receive the word? Verse two tells us: ‘in the wilderness’.

v.3:  The response of John

He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins..

In every age and place many are called up to go out from where they are and to give witness. John did it his way. His message was very much a preview – like in a film trailer – of what was to follow when his cousin would enter the scene.  The key message is the same – all must turn away from their wrong-doing and experience an inner turning around. It is the same as repentance or conversation. And, it is the call each of us needs to hear again today.

v.4-6:   The witness of the Prophets of old

as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:  “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight,and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”’

Prophecy has more or less ceased since the sixth century before the coming of the Baptist. No wonder many confused John the Baptist with the Messiah or though that Jesus was John come back to life (e.g. see Matthew 14:2).

Living in the now

 ‘…stand up and raise your heads.’ (Luke 21:28)

Jeremiah 33:14-16

Psalm 25

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Luke 21:25-36

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

 

Year C: First Sunday of Advent, 28 November 2021.

In a strange way the readings we have just heard seem timely.  We are living in a time of unease.  We are trying to make sense of what has just happened.  We have no idea what the coming weeks hold. Right now, we hold a mix of thoughts, feelings, worries and hopes.  We may cling to anything that gives short-term comfort: a phone call, an upcoming visit, a planned holiday next year, the Toy show on RTE player later today, the family coming home from Christmas, the companionship, the fun as well as the challenges and the hard work that Christmas entails for many. Perhaps, Christmas is not something we necessarily relish in navigating family politics and remembering loss and pain over an empty place at the table.

Whatever our thoughts and feelings right now we do well to acknowledge them honestly. We are where we are and the world is as it is today. The only thing we can change right now is ourselves, our relationships, our responses today, now, here.

I suggest three things that we can do right now:

1. Stay calmly grounded in the here and now
2. Remain steadfast in love because this is the only thing that matters
3. Keep moving forward towards some goal or destination no matter how dim it seems.

Staying calm meanings trusting that God has a plan for this world and our lives in it just as we heard from the Prophet Jeremiah witnessing some 6 centuries before the birth of Christ.

Remaining steadfast means living our lives to the full in the here and now that we may ‘increase and abound in love for one another’ as it says in the epistle for the first Sunday of Advent (1 Thessalonians 3:12). The best way to prepare for death is to live life to the full now and to live it well so that we leave a good memory and example and find our well-being in this thought.

As Chiara Lubich of the Focolare movement once said:

Precisely because we do not know the day nor the hour of His coming, we can concentrate more easily on living one day at a time, on the troubles of today, on what Providence offers to us now.  Some time ago I spontaneously uttered this prayer to God.  “Jesus, make me always speak as if it were the last word I say. Make me always act as if it were the last action I take. Make me always suffer as if it were the last suffering I had to offer you. Make me always pray as if it were the last opportunity I have here on earth to converse with you”.