Advent 1, Year B, December 3, 2023

Prayer

Through all generations, O God, your faithfulness endures, and your fidelity to the covenant can never fail. Since you are the potter and we are the work of your hands, remember us and strengthen us to the end by your grace; that with a love beyond reproach, we may faithfully keep watch for the glorious coming of our Redeemer, and be found blameless on the day of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Mark 13:24-37

"The Gospel text for the first Sunday in Advent is certainly not anticipated and most likely not welcome."
Commentary, Mark 13:24-37, Karoline Lewis, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"So remember how you answered that question about what you would do if the world were to end tomorrow? Well, guess what? You don't need to wait. You can do those things now!"

"If the World Were to End," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

The lesson for this Sunday describes the coming of the Son of Man. In Mark's Gospel, this is a prophetic vision of the apocalyptic judgment. It is a passage filled with first-century understandings about the end time, and it places Mark firmly in the tradition of apocalyptic writers.

I remember teaching my first adult forum class at my fieldwork site. The class was on the Nicene Creed. When we got to the part about judgment, I was asked by a leader in the congregation if I believed that Christ was going to come back and judge the world. It was a question that caught me off guard as I had never really thought of it in that pronounced fashion. Did I believe this to be true? Will our Lord, Jesus Christ, come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and will his kingdom have no end.?

The man's point was that he didn't believe it, and he didn't think most people believed it. There it was in the middle of my Sunday morning class - a non-believer, confronting all of us in the room with the very words we say every Sunday but don't think about, and he was certain we didn't believe.

Let me tell you first that I have hope. My normal human mind begins to dance this way and that and I think honestly that first (if I am honest),  I don't want a judgment. Second, if I am wrong, then I want for the judgment to have already occurred, and having been found guilty have now had the price of my guilt paid for by Jesus Christ on the Cross. Thirdly, just for safety, I want to believe that Jesus Christ's mission is already complete. (For the theologians among the crowd, we do well to remember the Brunner and Barth debate on this issue as a perfect example of the divide and impasse of the varying views on this topic.) Yes, that is what I hope; that is what my human mind wants to believe. That is indeed what my heart longs for: Jesus to be ultimately and perfectly victorious and to save the whole world.

And, I want to believe in the great capacity of goodness in all human beings to live in that grace and give freely of themselves for the work of the kingdom of God and of his righteousness.

Having said all of that, some interesting things begin to happen in terms of our lives with God and our lives with one another.

Over the years, I have reflected on this passage and others like it. I think something interesting seems to slip away as we deal with it - or don't, as the case may be. Sure, we all want this great salvation to be true. And, being the humans that we are, we then let ourselves off the hook. Yep! That's right. What happens is that we let ourselves off the hook because the mission is successful, there is no urgency to act, and after all, what does it really matter?

In Mark's Gospel, and in point of fact, in all of the Gospels - it matters. It matters a whole lot. Over time the emerging church of the first century had to come to terms with the fact that Jesus did not return as quickly as they thought - but they believed that evangelism, virtuous citizenship, mission, and service to others was essential. We can even see the change in Paul's own letters preserved in our New Testament. Paul wrestled with the time it was taking for the second coming. Even still, Paul inspired and encouraged people because it mattered how people treated one another and what they did or did not do. Even the Gospels written in the latter part of the first and early part of the second centuries have a different tone regarding the urgency - but Matthew's Gospel which is focused on this emerging church of the centuries, offers a vision of a community that is waiting but where it matters.

Over the years, there have been blossoming apocalyptic movements. Some have even birthed churches. Still, others have ended in disaster. Probably all of them have created a general public sense that thinking apocalyptically is silly at its most innocent and dangerous if taken to its natural conclusion.

Dismissal seems to let us off the hook somehow.

Over the years, I have come to understand that I think it really does matter to God how we live our lives on this earth. I think it really does matter how we treat one another. I do think that to the God we believe in, it matters how the poor are cared for, and it matters how we take care of the earth we have some measure of control over. I think it matters to God. Moreover, based upon our current global societal troubles (the economic turbulence of recent years, the great divide between the rich and the poor, the lack of good education, the commoditization of a person's health, leaving millions without care, and the destruction of the housing market wherein others make money off of what is one of the most important human needs - shelter) we should all be concerned.

Regardless of whether you or I will live out our whole lives and pass into the arms of Abraham (God willing) before the end time, or we together only have a few moments left on this earth, we are measured by how we treat and take care of others. This is and continues to be one of the central themes of scripture.

Those who go without have an urgent need today, and our actions matter to them as well.

In the immortal words of Bishop John Hines (IV Texas, and TEC Presiding Bishop) "The Kingdom of Heaven is for all people." Some of those people are still waiting for the Good News and transformed lives, and God is waiting for us to do something about it.

In this season of Advent, I hope you won't excuse Jesus' message in Mark's Gospel. I hope you won't pretend like it doesn't matter or that it isn't urgent. I hope you won't dismiss the judgment. Rather, I hope you will challenge your people to think about: how is their report card with God going? If God came back today, what would he say to them? You might invite them to think about the Advent Conspiracy and how we might change how we do things in our lives, beginning with today and this season.

I hope you will challenge them to see if they have lost a sense of urgent work on the part of God in Christ Jesus and his Gospel. I hope you will inspire them to see that God is hoping in us and that we are being judged by our actions. And, by the way, the people of this world are also judging us by our actions.

I can say today, "I believe." I have come to believe the words I speak, and I pray: Our Lord, Jesus Christ, will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom has no end. Let me work to the end of days on behalf of God and on behalf of his kingdom and his special friends, the poor and those in need. Let me hope eternally for grace enough for me, a sinner of his flock. And, finally, let my work in word and action see no rest; after all, who knows when the master of the house will return?

Some Thoughts on I Corinthians 1:1-9

"It is perhaps not surprising that Paul, as he addresses the church in Corinth, speaks of the gift given, God's grace shared, as "speech and knowledge of every kind" and wealth (i.e., being enriched in Christ Jesus)."

Commentary, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Dirk G. Lange, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Private faith of a personal future is more comforting and marketable, but has little to do with the hope Jesus came to bring and doesn't really spell good news for the poor except in another life."

"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Epiphany 2," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

In this passage, we have a typical Greek greeting and form for a letter. Paul emphasizes his call to ministry and his apostleship and addresses the letter to the community at Corinth. 

He reminds them that they are to be at work in the world, as saints, on behalf of Jesus Christ. He also reminds them that they are unified beyond Corinth with other followers of Christ Jesus. 

He blesses them with grace and peace. And he gives thanks for their ministry on God's behalf. He reminds them, finally, that God has given them the gifts needed for this ministry. They are lacking in anything spiritually to undertake the work of God in Corinth and within their community. 

So what is this all for? Certainly, we know that Paul is writing because there is conflict. Here though, is something more than just a letter about bringing peace out of the division. Paul tells them that they have these gifts and that the purpose of the gifts is this "fellowship of his Son." Fellowship here could also mean companionship of Christ, according to scholar Joseph Fitzmayer (First Corinthians, Anchor Yale Bible, 2008, 134). Paul is referring to the community quality of unity around the Lord's table - koinonia. (Ibid) Paul is, in some way, reminding them that they are, the people of Corinth, united by Christ for the purpose of salvation and the kingdom. (Ibid) 

Fitzmayer points out this is particularly Pauline - the idea that Christ is the unifying agent and Christianity is the living companionship with Christ. It is also, as we will see as we read his letter, a companionship of peace and unity at the table to be brought about by his followers one to another. 

In other words, those who follow Jesus are to be united. This is a very real icon of their unity in Christ. If they are not one in companionship with one another - then this reveals that they are not one in Christ. For Paul, our inability to be together, work collaboratively, work peacefully, and be united is not a revelation about us but a revelation about our individual dependence upon the koinonia created by Jesus Christ on his cross. 

I would go a step forward to say that the way we frame the relationship between God and the world attempts to sever the unity of this koinonia - meaning:

• that companionship and fellowship with God, yes 
• companionship and fellowship with one another, maybe if you agree with me 
• and companionship and fellowship with the world - no

We so separate the world so that we are not accountable for these values and ways of being. We separate our own life within the Christian community so as not to be accountable for the companionship and fellowship of Christ. This particular predicament would have been completely foreign to Paul and his theology.

Paul sees the world as one cosmos - united by God as creator and Christ as the bringer of salvation and reconciliation of the world with God. So there is no disunity - but only unity. God is unified with his creatures and his creation. The whole world is re-united - united - with God. We are to be a goodly and Godly community. Paul imagines a seamless unity between God and the individual, the individual followers of Christ and the other followers of Christ, and the followers of Christ and the people of the world - our neighbors. So it is that we offer a witness of a church community unified by God's reconciling love and at work in the world, building a unified peaceable kingdom for all people. 

As William Loader reminds us - 

"Even 1:8 which focuses on the day of the Lord most likely contains some hint of another problem to be faced: some Corinthians were denying a future resurrection. Their understanding of the future was so much bound up with the notions of eternal souls, it seems, that they saw no need for anything beyond the salvation of individual souls. Who needs embodiedness? Who needs a community? Who needs a day of the Lord, which would establish a kingdom of justice and peace? Isn't it enough to know that my soul will go to heaven? Here in 1:8 and in 1:9 Paul celebrates the future with Christ and the future in community (koinonia).

Some Corinthians had difficulties with such images of the future and any literal interpretation is likely to meet similar hesitations today, not without ground, but Paul's logic is driven by an understanding that salvation has to mean something bigger than the individual. Many Christians still have difficulty making it to this level of understanding. It opens up too many questions about the social and political implications of the gospel. Private faith of a personal future is more comforting and marketable, but has little to do with the hope Jesus came to bring and doesn't really spell good news for the poor except in another life."

God's companionship, fellowship, and koinonia are about a unity of purpose and calling where all our gifts, given by God, are put to use in transforming the world and the lives of those around us.

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 64:1-9

"The people cry out in one voice for God to act on behalf of the people as a whole and on behalf of the individuals who make up that whole."
Commentary, Isaiah 64:1-9, Kristin J. Wendland, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.


"We begin our journey of Advent pointing the finger at ourselves not at God. And yet so often when we believe God is hidden we fault God. We focus on the hidden part of the equation and not our part."
"Has God Hidden?" Beth Scibienski, 2014.


"Their appeal is for God's intervention -- to heal the alienation and to halt the damage of their sins. The people's pain is clear. How God will respond is not."
Commentary, Isaiah 64:1-9, Elna K. Solvang, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.


"The speaker of this text places the community (the speaker included) and us in the same place as Pharaoh."
Isaiah 63-64, The Dark Side of God: Considerations for Preaching and Teaching, Richard Nysse, Texts in Context, Word & World, Luther Seminary, 1997.

Oremus Online NRSV Text 

I wish to speak about the theme in this passage from Isaiah is apocalyptic prayer. The apocalyptic prayer begins with a context of deep brokenness, then moves to a plea/prayer, and ends with hope. This is the passage we have before us. Equally important, they capture the essence of Mark's own understanding of the context in which the Messiah Christ Jesus comes. [See: Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016), 16-17.] This is an overall framework from which many scholars believe Mark himself is working. Therefore, all the more reason for us to read it carefully. In this way, we have a message for us today that transcends both the Babylon Captivity and the Roman occupation of Jesus' own day.

This passage begins with a wider view of the prophet's voice. If we take the whole of the text (pericope, if you will), we want to frame it between 63:15 and 64:9. There is hope in God's faithfulness to generations that have come before us; there is the present moment in which we feel disconnected from God, and there is the prayer that God will open the heavens and come down. 

Let us begin with hope. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reminds us that in Leviticus 26:44-45 it is written: 

Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away… I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.

Reflecting upon this, he writes, 'This is a turning point in the history of the human spirit. It is the birth of hope: not hope as a dream, a wish, a desire, but as the very shape of history itself, “the arc of the moral universe,” as Martin Luther King put it. God is just. He may punish. He may hide His face. But He will not break His word. He will fulfill His promise. He will redeem His children. He will bring them home.' (See - https://rabbisacks.org/the-birth-of-hope-bechukotai-5779/) 

Sacks is helpful in that he suggests that in this time, gods were far away, they were absent, and at times even malevolent. The best thing to do was to avoid them and stay away from them as much as possible - trying not to bring attention to yourself. Here though, is the God of Israel who wishes to be known, to be seen, and to be recognized as faithful beyond generations. In the end, the God of Israel is a God who will bring the people home and out of oppression. 

This is the God that Isaiah is remembering. In the present context of Isaiah, the prophet is giving voice to people who know the faithfulness of God and have hope in God's promised redemption and presence. No matter how bad the present moment is, this God cares and will be faithful and will act. It may feel, as the prophet tells us, that God has hidden God's face. Yet, time and time again suggests the tradition of Israel God will, in the end, not cast the people away but will be their God. This is the God of hope of Israel, this is the God who intervenes in terrible situations, this is the God of the apocalyptic prayer. 

Lastly, the use of the word "tear" is specific and limited to Isaiah 64.1 and Mark's similar use. The Gospel is Mark's answer to Isaiah's hope, context, and cry. It is a similar tear that is described in Mark's baptismal scene. A sign that God has come down to make God's self known to the people. (Hays, 18, and 92.) The Gospel proclamation in this passage for Christians is that it is Christ who comes down as the embodiment of hope, to be present in the catastrophe of life, and to bring healing, wholeness, peace, and justice. 

In this time, of deep concern, fear, and anxiety, we may very well feel as though God has hidden God's face from us. Isaiah and Mark call out to us from the past. They remind us that this has never been so. Humans do, from time to time, get themselves into a terrible mess. But the mess they are in will never have the last word. Regardless of how bad the world and our situation may look, we are people of God as Christians, like the other Abrahamic faiths. We are people who remember the hope that is in us. We remember faith and hope in a God who has for generations shown up and delivered God's people. We remember a God who is for us and wishes to be our God, and will not leave us in the midst of our brokenness. We remember a God who comes over and over again in scripture and finally comes in the person of Christ Jesus. We remember our own baptism and the image that we, too, are baptized into a family of hope who knows the heart's song and the apocalyptic prayer of the faithful.

To paraphrase Rabbi Sacks, the Jewish people have kept hope alive, and hope has kept the Jewish people alive. Might not the same be said for the faithful brothers and sisters of Abraham's family - those who follow the Gospel of Christ? (See Galatians 3; Romans 13, and Hebrews 11) In any time or place, where Christians have looked for hope, we have found it in the inheritance of Isaiah's apocalyptic prayer language and the person of Jesus Christ. Indeed, we, too, have joined our Abrahamic family in keeping hope alive; just as hope has kept the Christian alive as every adversary has been faced. Today the work and message are the same. Let us call out in the language of apocalyptic prayer; let us call upon God to remember God's faithfulness and tear apart the heavens and our hearts so that the Christ of hope may enter in.