INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Year C - 1st Sunday of Advent
A new year begins on the liturgical calendar of Christian worship. This will be the third year, Year C, in the cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary.
Advent is the time when we make our spiritual preparations for the coming of Christ by thinking first about his return in glory as promised throughout the New Testament.
JEREMIAH 33:14-16. Jeremiah lived seven centuries before Christ was born. Yet he spoke with intense hope of a time when an anointed king of David's line would come to bring righteousness and justice to Israel and so give the nation the security it so desperately needed and earnestly desired.
PSALM 25:1-10. The personal faith of the individual Israelite expressed in a prayer forms the central theme of this instructional psalm. In Hebrew, each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew language. This was done for easier memorization. The special covenant relationship between God and Israel also lies behind the prayer as a secondary theme.
1 THESSALONIANS 3:9-13. The two letters of Paul to the Thessalonians were probably the first part of the whole New Testament to have been written, possibly no more that twenty years after the death and resurrection of Christ. Prominent throughout these two short letters is the expectation that Christ would soon return to establish his eternal reign of justice, peace and love. Here Paul urges that continued spiritual growth and warm personal relationships be maintained by these early Christians until that glorious day.
LUKE 21:25-36. The expectation of Christ's return dominated early Christian
thought. Bible scholars debate whether these teachings came from Jesus himself or the early apostolic church. Many of the concepts and images are drawn from typical Jewish apocalyptic writing found in the Hebrew scriptures and similar writings of the period between the two parts of our Bible.
A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.
JEREMIAH 33:14-16. Jeremiah lived seven centuries before Christ was
born. His ministry spanned four decades from about 627 to 586 BCE. Two
great crises occurred during this time. The break-up of the Assyrian empire
and the rise of the Babylonian empire changed the economic and political environment for the kingdom of Judah. The resurgence of religious nationalism during the reign of King Josiah (ca. 640-609 BCE) created a new social, moral and spiritual environment. Jeremiah may well have been greatly involved in that revival as the narrative parts of the book describe.
As the Book of Jeremiah comes to us now, it is a composite work of several
different types of literature drawn from several sources and dealing with several
themes. But like most pre-exilic prophets, Jeremiah was primarily a preacher,
not an author. So the book that bears his name must be regarded as only
partially his. The lectionary passage comes from a so-called "Book of
Consolation" (chs. 30, 31 and 33) into which is inserted an incident from
Jeremiah's life illustrating this hopeful theme (32). These oracles are probably
of varied origin that offer hope beyond national disaster. They also show the
influence of the earlier prophet Hosea and close links with Deutero-Isaiah
(Isaiah 40-55). Some of the material is undoubtedly that of Jeremiah himself as
well as from Baruch, the scribe. (See Robert Davidson's article "The Book of
Jeremiah," in The Oxford Companion to the Bible, 343ff) Baruch may have
been responsible for writing down some of the prophecies attributed to
Jeremiah.
This passage speaks with intense hope of a time when an anointed king (Hebrew = masiah) of David's line would come to bring righteousness and justice to Israel and so give the nation the security it so desperately needed and earnestly desired. It emphasizes the prophetic faith that the nation's fate will not be not decided by the Babylonians, but by Yahweh. This faith in Yahweh as Lord of history is found throughout the Old Testament, but especially in the oracles of the great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It presents a hopeful faith for difficult times such as our own.
Our problem today is to recognize and accept this biblical faith that God does
indeed have a providential purpose to be fulfilled through the actual events of
human history. This faith implies an interventionist God who cares what happens to creation, but this is also open to wide misinterpretation found so often in some narrow theological views that claims God is really on our side and against our enemies. Such views have frequently led to civil, international and interfaith warfare. The mediaeval Crusades and the Irish Troubles of the past several decades occurred because of such disastrous religious prejudices. The great danger of the present moment is to see the extremist Islamists' jihad, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories in a similar light.
It also has to be recognized that such a narrow view is evident in the scriptures
themselves. After the global wars of the 20th century, one is tempted to reject
all theological interpretations of history. How could we ever conceive of a God
in control of such tragic events when millions of innocent civilians died
because they belonged to an "enemy" nation or a particular race or ethnic
group? It is at this point that the vision of Jeremiah of the Messiah "executing
righteousness and justice" becomes relevant to our own time. Without these
qualities dominant in human character and practiced in personal, national and
international relations, history will continue to be a record of human failure to
do as God wills.
PSALM 25:1-10. The special relationship between Yahweh and Israel as well
as the personal faith of the individual Israelite form the central theme of this
psalm which is both liturgical and instructional. It is a prayer of supplication for Yahweh's intervention in some unstated personal problem and as such was useful to anyone seeking divine help in distress.
The psalm has the form of an acrostic, however. In Hebrew, each verse begins
with a different letter of the Hebrew language. This was done for easier
memorization. It also contains similarities to Wisdom literature, e.g. vss. 4-5;
12-14. As such, its superscription "Of David" is an anachronism attached to
the psalm to give it liturgical authority. This type of psalm appeared only in the
late post-exilic period when the worship of temple was highly structured by the
Levitical priesthood. It may have come from a collection of psalms of varying
age and authorship attributed to but certainly not composed by David.
While the implications of vss. 1-2 indicate an external human enemy whose
treachery the psalmist feared, there is no reason why this could not also refer
to an inner, spiritual enemy. The habit of personifying the impersonal can be
found quite commonly in Hebrew literature. Mediaeval art and some modern
literary images depicting various forms of temptation as evil angels (e.g. C. S.
Lewis’ Screwtape Letters) followed the same pattern.
The psalmist had found that obedience to the way of Yahweh led to moral
uprightness and spiritual strength when confronted by life's vicissitudes.
Dependence on the mercy and steadfast love of Yahweh yielded the power to
overcome (vss. 6-10). A note of sincere humility crept into the prayer as the
psalmist openly confessed his youthful transgressions and personal guilt (vss.
7 & 11). He also had concern for others, that they would reverently seek to be
taught by Yahweh and reap the reward of prosperity through keeping the
covenant (vss. 12-15).
Vss. 16-21 return to the original petition. The psalm ends with a brief reference
to the need for Israel's redemption from troubles which are never disclosed. The
personal and national distress to which the psalm gave expression can best be
understood in the light of the covenant relationship between Yahweh and
Israel. Each Israelite, as a "son of the covenant," (b’nai b’rith) felt a deep sense of personal identification with what happened to the whole community. Today, we can see this in the way our Jewish neighbors feel about and defend Israel whenever they perceive some incident as threatening to that modern state.
1 THESSALONIANS 3:9-13. The two letters of Paul to the Thessalonians
were probably the first part of the whole New Testament to have been written,
possibly no more that twenty years after the resurrection of Christ and
relatively early in Paul's ministry. Prominent throughout these two short letters
is the expectation that Christ would soon return to establish his eternal reign
of justice, love and peace. Paul shared this viewpoint with the whole church of
the Apostolic Age. It greatly influenced the oral transmission of Jesus'
teachings and the writing of the earlier Gospels.
Paul's intimate relationship with some of his early European converts comes to
the fore in this passage. The immediately preceding verses (3:1-5) describe his
considerable anxiety for them as they struggled to live their recently acquired
faith in very difficult circumstances. They were probably mainly Gentiles experiencing strong persecution from non-believers of their own community not unlike the opposition confronting Jewish Christians in Judea (2:14). Accordingly, Paul had sent his colleague Timothy to encourage them (3:2). Timothy had returned with good news (3: 6). So Paul was writing this first letter in response to what Timothy had told him.
Thanksgiving and intercessory prayer for the Thessalonians highlight Paul's
very personal concern. He earnestly wanted to return to see them and
strengthen their faith. In the meantime, he urged that they continue to grow
and maintain warm personal relationships within their fellowship until that
glorious day when Christ returns. He did not elaborate on the details of the
apostolic expectation of Christ's second coming.
In general, all NT writers concentrated on the purpose rather than the manner
of this anticipated event. It was as if they felt that Jesus' work of establishing
God's kingdom had been left unfinished by the crucifixion and resurrection. In
all honesty, the world still seemed - then and now - as if the reign of God had
not yet come. The promise of Christ's coming again offered hope that what had
gone before had not been in vain. The love of God in Christ would triumph in
the end and those who refused to believe and follow his way would be rejected
in the final judgment.
The phrase "strengthen your hearts in holiness" in 3:13 offers a very
appropriate Advent text. Instead of rushing around in consumer panic, we need
these four weeks before Christmas to prepare spiritually for Christ's coming.
Holiness in daily life is best expressed in love for God and neighbour. It is not
just happenstance that charities make their strongest appeal for public
support during the last few weeks before Christmas. The problem most of us
face is how to share our resources, material and well as spiritual, in this
particular season when so many demands are placed upon us. Childhood
Christmases during the Great Depression of the 1930s showed me personally
how it is that while material resources may be limited, spiritual resources for
this season can be truly unlimited.
LUKE 21:25-36. The expectation of Christ's return dominated early Christian
thought. Bible scholars debate whether Jesus himself or the early apostolic
church taught in such terms. Uniformly, the gospels and Acts attribute this
teaching to Jesus, although in John's Gospel there is some ambiguity whether
certain sayings of Jesus referred to his resurrection rather than an
eschatological Parousia at the end of historical time. Many of the concepts and images were drawn from standard Jewish apocalyptic writing found in the Hebrew scriptures and similar eschatalogical literature of the intertestamental period.
The prophets much earlier had declared their faith in a future historical event,
the Day of the Lord, when God's rule of righteousness, peace, justice and
prosperity would become permanent for Israel. The earliest gospel statement in
Mark 1:15 set the ministry of Jesus as the dawning of this new age. Matthew
and Luke shared this belief. But the moment had not yet come by the eighth or
ninth decade of lst century CE when Luke's Gospel was composed. Later New
Testament writers, notably the author of the Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus, dealt with the delayed expectation of the church.
There may well be actual historical events behind this apocalyptic passage in all three Synoptic Gospels. As can be seen by comparing Matthew 24:4-36 Luke 21 5-38 to Mark 13:5-37, Matthew and Luke were dependent on Mark’s original statement of the early oral tradition. The differences in the three accounts may have been due to an earlier version of Mark which the two other authors had before them, but were altered in what is now a much debated “Secret Gospel of Mark.” (Biblical Archeological Review, , “Secret Mark: A Modern Forgery?” November-December 2009. Vol.35, No. 6. 43ff.)
All four Gospels were written after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70 CE and reflect that momentous event. Written about 70 CE, Mark’s Gospel was closest to the catastrophe . There is a strong tradition that shortly before that fateful event in Jewish history, the Christian community in Jerusalem fled from the city and settled in Pella, an established flourishing Roman and Greek town on the eastern side of the Jordan River about 16 km (10 mi) south of the Sea of Galilee. Hence the reference in Luke 21:21 “Then those is Judea must flee to the mountains ....” (Cf. Mark 13:14; Matt. 24:15-16). The tradition came from that fact that the Christian community there existed there until the Moslem period in the 7th century CE. Thus, in this passage we may well be reading the leaders of the Christian community cast their counsel and hope for Christ’s return to their endangered community in the eschatological words of Jewish apocalypse taken from the Hebrew scriptures they knew so well.
Nor has that hope in the future return of Christ yet been fulfilled twenty-one centuries later in the traditional manner in which it has been declared. In the meantime, the church's faith in the Second Coming has been variously interpreted, depending on the approach to scripture taken by the interpreter. Is it specific prediction? Or more general prophecy of God's intention? Or is the descriptive Second Coming more of a symbol of God's ultimate triumph? Or are we merely discussing the personal identification of the individual with Christ? Or has it already taken place - at Pentecost? Stephen H. Travis, of St. John's College, Nottingham, England, writes: "In any case, it is possible to affirm the basic structure of Christian hope, with its emphasis on the second coming as the goal and fulfillment of God's past work in Christ, without committing oneself to any precise view about its nature or when it will be." (The Oxford Companion to the Bible, p. 686.)
That may not be a satisfactory approach for some, but it does give us a
continuing hope and a commission to carry on the ministry of God's love for
the world so fully expressed in Jesus Christ. How each person fulfills that
commission is to be realized in the choices and priorities one makes in the
myriad human relationships which engage one's energies day by day. For some
it may mean quiet prayer and contemplation. For others it may mean active
participation in ministries that seek justice for all. For still others it may have
extensive economic and/or political ramifications. One form or expression of
hope does not fit all situations.
To some extent, there was truth in what former US President George H. W. Bush (1988-92) advocated when he said that we all have a responsibility to create "a thousands points of light”. It would be a grave mistake, however, to regard any specific political or military events occurring at this or any other moment in history, no matter who may perpetrate them, as signs that the end times have begun. The Day of the Lord envisioned by the prophets of Israel and the eschatological passages of the NT is always here and now.
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