INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

Year B - FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

With this first Sunday of Advent we begin a new liturgical year and a new cycle of lessons, Year B, in the Revised Common Lectionary. On the four Sundays preceding Christmas we read of Israel's expectation of a Messiah who would save God's people and of the Christian Church's expectation that Jesus Christ, who is that promised Messiah, will come again to establish God's reign of justice, love and peace on earth. The shorter summary may be printed in congregational service bulletins with attribution to Rev. John Shearman, Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

ISAIAH 64:1‑9. Israel's need for redemption is set forth in this stark prayer written during the nation's captivity in Babylon in the 6th century BC. This beautiful poetry by an unknown prophet and some from his followers form much of Isaiah 40‑66.

As in all Hebrew prophecy, Israel's hope lies in its eternal relationship with God proclaimed in two metaphors in verse 8: "You are our Father" and "we are the clay, you are our potter."

PSALM 80:1‑7, 17‑19. Another plea for the restoration of Israel's relationship with God is offered in this psalm. Once again, the ancient covenant between God and Israel gives hope to God’s people.

1 CORINTHIANS 1:3‑9. The first Christians believed, as Paul declares, that a new redemptive relationship with God was initiated by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Yet it would be revealed in all its fullness and complete fellowship with God and Jesus Christ realized only when Christ returned as he had promised. In the meantime, richly blessed by their faith, Christians are to wait with patient endurance for that glorious day.

MARK 13:24‑37. This passage sets forth what the day of Christ's coming will be like and how Christians should prepare for it. Supposedly spoken by Jesus, the words more likely summarized the early church's teaching. Uncertainty as to the timing of the so‑called Second Coming is the key thought.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS

ISAIAH 64:1‑9. The exquisite poetry of Isaiah 40-66 is unsurpassed even by many of the Psalms. This particular passage is one of six strophes of a longer prayer included in 63:7- 64:12. It has the content of an intercessory prayer for the nation with many historical references such as the Exodus (63:11-13), the apostasy of Israel despite worship in the temple (63:17-19), the devastation of Judah, and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (64:10-11). It also has the form of a lament, similar to Psalms 35, 74, 77 and 79, and the Book of Lamentations. One may conclude that it could have been used on some occasion when the nation’s history was being remembered during the Babylonian exile. Because it makes no reference to Cyrus as the liberator of the exiles and lacks the hopefulness of Second Isaiah, it may be presumed to date from the early or middle period of the sojourn in Babylon. Indeed, it may have been authored by one who had a priestly rather than a prophetic background.

This specific part of the lament declares Israel's need for redemption through a new theophany greater than at Sinai and other similar theophanies of the past (vss.1-3). For that faint hope, however, Israel must wait patiently while living faithfully in the meantime (vss.4-5). This leads to a confession of sin vividly described in vs. 6 as the polluting of a garment and a withering leaf blown before the wind symbolizing alienation and judgment (vs. 7).

As in all Hebrew prophecy, Israel's hope lay in its eternal relationship with God. The last two verses (vss. 8-9) actually form the opening couplets of the last strophe recalling the all too fresh images of the Babylonian invasion while imploring God’s help in restoring the historic covenant relationship. Two strong metaphors in vs. 8 proclaim this eternal hope: "You are our Father" and "we are the clay, you are our potter." These metaphors express the two great traditions of Israel’s faith: their election by God and the redemptive initiatives of God in Israel’s history.

How fitting that this passage should be in the lectionary when people the world over face a crippling economic recession throughout the coming year. Yet at the same time, all look with hope to one nation and its recently elected president from a new generation for a special kind of leadership.

The metaphor of Yahweh as “Shepherd of Israel” (vs. 1) is by no means unusual in the OT. It came directly from the pastoral life which characterized so much of the earliest history of the Jewish. By the time of the divided monarchy, (10^th to 6^th centuries BCE) many Israelites had moved to a town or urban way life, for mutual protection and for commercial opportunities. Their system of sacrificial worship, however, still depended on pastoral and agricultural products. References to Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh in vss. 1-2 suggest that the psalm came from the Northern Kingdom prior to the 8^th century BCE where rural occupations still dominated due to the fertility of the plains of Sharon, Esdraelon and Jezreel.

There were numerous occasions in the history of the Northern Kingdom when dire circumstances warranted a lament as plaintive as this. An invasion may have been threatened or was already in progress. In the LXX, the title has a reference to “the Assyrian,” which may well refer to the invasion of Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 BCE) when the Northern Kingdom was reduced to a vassal state. The reference to Israel as an unprotected vine from which passers-by pick the fruit would appear to express such a situation. (Vss. 8-13 are not included in this reading.)

The repeated refrain of vss. 3, 7 and 19 indicates that the psalm had been written for liturgical use. This refrain would have been recited by the congregation gathered in a temple sanctuary, possibly at Samaria, the capital city built by Omri (885-873 BCE). That city flourished under Ahab (873-851 BCE) and again under Jereboam II (786-746 BCE) when Amos and Hosea condemned its religious and social ills that ultimately weakened the kingdom and left it exposed to the Assyrian invasion and the predations of its neighbors.

Thus the psalm reflects the prophetic tradition of Yahweh’s initiatives in the history of Israel. This faith had its roots in the theological concept of election (vs. 17) and the Exodus sealed by the covenant of Sinai and fulfilled by the settlement the Promised Land of Canaan (vss. 8). Even now in the 21^st century CE, this faith still influences the events of the modern state of Israel and the whole Middle East. Anyone concerned about the recurrent crises and fragile peace in that part of the world must take into consideration how fervently this psalm still expresses the deep convictions of many Jewish people in Israel and abroad.

For Christians, the message of the psalm has much to say to us as well. The millennium did not bring the Second Coming of Christ as some expected. Such a facile interpretation is mocked by what has happened through the first decade of this new century. This psalm does remind us that God is very much involved in the events of these stressful times just as the ancient Israelites saw the hand of God in the disasters which befell them and pleaded for God to help them in their distress. Perceiving God’s initiatives in history, then and now, gives shape to the theme on which we meditate during the Advent season.

1 CORINTHIANS 1:3‑9. The first Christians believed, as Paul declares, that a new redemptive relationship with God had been initiated by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Yet it would be revealed in all its fullness and complete fellowship with God and Jesus Christ. This would be realized only when Christ returned as he had promised. In the meantime, enriched and strengthened by their faith, Christians must wait with patient endurance for that glorious day.

Paul believed, as many sincere Christians still do, that they were living in the end times before the imminent return of Christ (vs. 7). Yet because of the gracious action of God in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, the Corinthians were even then actually living in fellowship with Christ (vss. 4 & 9b). This new life in Christ was dependent, not so much on their faith, but on God’s faithfulness (vs. 9a). At the same time, in this prayer of thanksgiving with which he typically began his letters, Paul raised several issues with the Corinthians which he developed more fully later in the letter.

First was the question of spiritual gifts and how these were to be used. Apparently, in keeping with the excellence of Greek rhetoric, the Corinthians had taken some measure of pride in their speech and knowledge. Even as he offered his thanksgiving prayer, Paul reminded them that these gifts came from Christ: “in every way you have been enriched in him” (vs. 5). He went on to say that these gifts had been given not for their possession, but for their empowerment, to strengthen them in their witness as Christians while they waited for the day of Christ’s second coming.

Paul used a particularly significant Greek word (bebaioo = Eng. establish, confirm) for this special emphasis. He used it or cognate words in several other instances as well. (Rom. 15:8; 2 Cor. 1:21; Phil. 1:7; Col. 2:7) It was a legal term used in business to establish or confirm that certain facts were true. In other words, the witness of the Corinthian Christians would confirm for their community that the gospel of God’s grace in Christ was true. The New English Bible translates vss. 5-6 in a way that confirms Paul’s meaning: “You possess full knowledge and you can give full expression to it, because in you the evidence of the truth of Christ has found confirmation.”

Then Paul made an assertion which must have pleased the Corinthians very much. He told them that they lacked no spiritual gift. In chs. 12-13, he would return to the problem this had created for them. Now, however, he assured them that God would sustain and strengthen them the very end. But there was something else that may have given them pause. It was not the gifts they had been so graciously given which were important; it was their guilt. In no way did they deserve what they had been given. Yet the greatest thing of all was that in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, they were now regarded a guiltless.

In Jewish thought, especially in the OT prophets, the Day of the Lord when the Messiah came had a special meaning. It would be a day of judgment. The apostolic church took over this idea and gave it a new interpretation. It would indeed be a day of judgment, but one which those who are in Christ can meet unafraid because they will be judged not on their own merits but on the merits of Christ himself. Just to drive the point home, Paul had used the name of Jesus Christ no less than nine times since the beginning of this letter. In so doing he reiterated again and again what God had already accomplished in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The Corinthians and all who had been called in the fellowship of God’s Son could await the day of judgment “blameless” (vs. 8) because of him. And much as we shy away from our undeserving status, we can still do so today.

MARK 13:24‑37. Modern church members unschooled in liturgical disciplines frequently wonder why we begin preparing for the Christmas season with our focus on eschatology and the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time. We need to be reminded repeatedly that on the four Sundays of Advent preceding Christmas we read not only of Israel's expectation of a Messiah who would save God's people, but of the Christian Church's expectation that Jesus Christ, who is that promised Messiah, will come again to establish God's reign of justice, love and peace on earth.

At the beginning a new year in the liturgical calendar, we also begin a new series of gospel readings from Mark. This passage is taken from what scholars have called “the Little Apocalypse.” It purports to be the teachings of Jesus in response to a question from the first four disciples, Peter, James, John and Andrew. Those who hold a literal view of scripture or a particularly high Christology would affirm this interpretation, based on their belief in the omniscience of Christ. Those who consider Jesus to have been fully human during his earthly life and ministry, and therefore not omniscient, would search for a different interpretation.

This passage sets forth what the day of Christ's Second Coming will be like and how Christians should prepare for it. More than likely, these words summarize the early church's teaching, not that of Jesus himself. That is not to say, however, that there are no elements of Jesus’ own teaching couched in this passage. It draws heavily on the traditional Jewish apocalyptic tradition of the Day of the Lord, especially the OT book of Daniel and the several apocryphal books of Maccabees and Esdras. Another less likely possibility is that the“desolating sacrilege setup where it ought not to be” (vs. 14) referred to a threat by the emperor Caligula to place his own image in the temple in 40/41 CE. The teaching about the Second Coming in this passage may have been occasioned by the Jewish revolt against Rome in 69-70 CE and the destruction of the temple by Titus, the Roman general.

This whole passage reinterprets the Jewish apocalyptic and eschatological traditions according to the Christian faith in Jesus as the long-expected Messiah of Israel. These traditions tended to perceive the crises of the present in terms of the ultimate purpose of God and to project the hoped for deliverance from contemporary dangers to the future end of history when God’s purpose would be fulfilled. The apostolic church shared this perspective, but the church expressed this faith in terms of the fulfilment having occurred in the coming of God into the world in Jesus the Christ. They then cast their prospective deliverance from present evils to that moment when Christ would return in glory to establish his reign on earth as in heaven. Thus early Christian eschatology held to a scenario of both present and future salvation through faith in Christ.

Uncertainty as to the timing of the so‑called Second Coming is the key thought in this reading (vs. 32-37). It is noteworthy that while Matthew 24 includes much of the Markan passage as did Luke, the latter turned the analogy of the fig tree (vss.28-31) into a parable. The warning to stay alert that ends the passage has a number of parallels in the first three gospels.

Two millennia later, many Christians have sincere, but serious difficulties with belief in the Second Coming of Christ. That some sectarians have promoted outrageous predictions related to the dawn o the 21^st century does not help a cogent understanding of the significance of this and other eschatological passages in the NT. “Is faith in the Second Coming essential to faith and salvation?” some may well ask. Even the great creeds of the church give this element of doctrine relatively slight treatment, despite the emphasis placed on it by NT authors. As time has passed in human history, the matter has become less and less meaningful. Modern scholarship often sought to reinterpret the NT references to watchfulness in terms of contemporary moral and spiritual opportunities for witness and service which should not be missed. At least one scholar of my acquaintance proposed that the Second Coming had occurred at Pentecost and that the church’s emphasis on a future Parousia was misplaced.

In an all but forgotten book Jesus Christ And The Christian Life, written as an adult study text for The New Curriculum of The United Church of Canada in 1965, the late Dr. A.B.B. Moore, of Victoria University, Toronto, wrote:

“The idea of a second coming is an integral and important element of the gospel tradition which traces the shape of the Christian hope. It deals symbolically with the end of history and as such is not to be blue-printed by the predictions of the limited human mind. Indeed the scripture makes quite plain that when the act occurs and how it occurs is not man’s business but God’s. The purposes begun in and by Christ will be fulfilled in him and his shall be the victory. The judgment that has been inaugurated by him will not lapse or be defeated but will be completed by him as he establishes his kingdom. The coming of the Lord lies at the boundary of history beckoning man to share in God’s triumph and eternal order. Human achievements within history must always stand under the judgment of that order and reflect it in person and relationship.”

-30-