RonBlog

Sunday 12th December, 2010 Third Sunday of Advent

Sentence
Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.’ Isaiah 35: 3-4

Collect
Almighty God, You have made us and all things to serve You; come quickly to save us so that wars and violence shall end and Your children may live in peace, honouring one another with justice and love; through Jesus Christ Your Son our Lord. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Isaiah 35: 1 – 10

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you." Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God's people; no traveller, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Psalm The Song of Mary

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord: my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour
Who has looked with favour on His lowly servant: from this day all generations shall call me blessed
The Almighty has done great things for me: and holy is His name
God has mercy on those who fear Him: from generation to generation
The Lord has shown strength with His arm: and scattered the proud in their conceit
Casting down the mighty from their thrones: and lifting up the lowly
God has filled the hungry with good things: and sent the rich away empty
He has come to the aid of His servant Israel: to remember the promise of mercy
The promise He made to our forebears: to Abraham and his children for ever.

Epistle James5: 7 – 10

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

GOSPEL Matthew 11: 2 – 11

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me."
As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, 'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.' Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

NOTES ON THE READINGS

Old Testament
For anyone who delights in offering ‘fulfillment of prophecy’ studies, a word of warning is offered. Although much of the material available to people these days tends towards the ridiculous that does not mean that the old prophets are to be ignored. In fact they need our attention, but on a more real level.
This passage, if you read it through a couple of times, seems to be taking us a two or three different directions at once. There is the flowery and light-hearted bit, and the promise (threat?) of retribution, and then a going on to where perhaps we need to look more closely.
It has to be said that prophets were not, repeat not gazers into some distant future. They were spokespeople from God to their own day and age, and as we connect to what it all meant then, so are we more able to see where things connect in our own day and age. So the first thing to note is this: that Israel was facing stern difficulty around then, and the prophet encouraged the people to keep going, regardless of the circumstances. That is a firm response at any time in history or life.
The common expectation of the time from the promised messiah was the vindication of Israel by a God Who would punish those who ignored or disobeyed Him. It might be excusable for people then to have the expectation of God being the powerful bruiser of the time, for life was brutish and short those days. So it is a little surprising to find that cameo of healing and restoration: blind, deaf and lame being healed. (This imagery was taken up to a much more expansive extent by Isaiah’s successor, Isaiah II. )
When it comes to the final paragraph of this passage, the position that the prophet took was not an exclusive one: ie. One did not need to be pure to be part of the flow. It was and remains the case that the Faith has always called for a significant response to God. In other words, those excluded in this passage are those who would have nothing to do with the life-pattern of faithfulness.

Song of Mary

I have reported elsewhere the shock received by some MU members, years ago, as we explored what the Song of Mary really had to say. It points to little other than the reshaping of society, in terms of caring and sharing and upsetting the power-brokers. Read it through again to ensure that you get the picture, please.

Epistle

Be patient until the coming of the Lord. There was a time when I adhered to the expectation of a parousia (or Second Coming) sooner rather than later, until my understanding of Scripture grew somewhat. The real point of it all, surely, is to recognize that what we may think as slow passage of time is seen rather differently from a Divine standpoint, if I may be so bold as to offer my opinion. History itself shows how slow things really move, except in some rather drastic situations. However, it is true most of the time that real and lasting change is not accomplished in a hurry. I often suggest that people read through the New Testament in order of its various dates of authorship to see how the Infant Church moved from the expectation of some immanent ‘Return’ to a rather more far distant view. And please realize that the point and purpose of such perception is not (like old Israel) some expectation of doom and judgement, but the statement that each of us are responsible for our actions, and sooner or later will face to face that fact. Responsibility is rather different to punishment. And it offers a chance to move forward also.

Gospel

I referred to this passage a Sunday or two ago, indicating a real difference of understanding between Jesus and John. It may seem strange to you that people on the Biblical stage, so to speak, were so diverse and capable of misunderstanding each other. John was looking for a ‘gung-ho’ messiah, and Jesus did not fit the pattern one little bit. It must have been disconcerting for the Baptist, but I suspect that his perceptions stemmed not so much from Scripture and observation as from the teaching (propaganda?) of the Essenes. That interesting sect of the Jews, from whom certainly we have gained the Dead Sea Scrolls, were somewhat on the lunatic fringe, and such folk tend to get too much air time, with their rather odd views.
Jesus’ response to John was typically gentle, and framed in question. You should be aware that Jesus’ reply was framed in a quotation from Isaiah, from one of the Servant Songs. John would have been quite familiar with the passage, but probably not in giving it the eminence that Jesus gave. (In a recent email conversation with a great Jewish mate, we debated the Servant Songs: she had a very different outlook on this passage, which was a great and sad surprise to me.)

NOTES FOR A SERMON

I do not know about where you live, but where we do these days, we seem to be surrounded by churches and groups that tend to have a great penchant for what they call ‘Biblical prophecy.’ Christadelphians seem to love the subject, and also appear to have – to my mind – a strange outlook on Scripture and contemporary history, still seeing Russia and the USA as the great antagonists. Around the corner – almost – is another denomination where similar studies appear to be held, and one is left wondering why! We appear to be surrounded by Christian people who are focussed on extraordinary expectations about what the Lord will or will not do, as the world seems to race on to a crisis of its own making. With Advent here, I am cheeky enough to raise the issue and ponder some other directions.

One of the main sources of the strange debate tends to be the apocalyptic sections of the Gospels in particular, where Jesus talked about wars and rumours of wars, and earthquakes and all manner of stars falling from the skies. Recent events along the Ring of Fire in our own hemisphere may well have upped the ante, along with floods and global warming and so on. Sadly, such readers seem to be unaware of the Jewish style of writing about critical issues.

That old Hebrew affection for apocalyptic writing – and getting the message across, - had little or nothing to do with end of the world stuff. In accord with the entire Biblical drift, it had to do with being aware of and responding honestly against those forces in human history and culture that demean and destroy people. If you like to put it this way, apocalyptic is yet another way of preaching for the Kingdom of God as opposed to the kingdom of humans.

It is only a year or so ago that I was ‘bouncing off’ the second readings in Church, where those readings were from Revelation. I wondered out loud whether people were scared of John’s writings, or perhaps just confused. Nods generally indicated the perception that Revelation was not on the ‘often read’ list for just those reasons. Having spent quite some time over the years expounding this book to groups in parishes, I asked them to see something of what I underline to you now. The Old Testament prophets were emphasising the same or similar issues; and Daniel may possibly be one of the first to use this strange style of writing. Daniel’s huge concern was that Israel and its culture and faith would be over-run by Hellenistic ideas, fearful that Judaism would be blunted and defeated.

So back to present-day realities. Advent is the annual reminder that the task of the modern Christian is to be aware of the faith and of the philosophical differences between Christianity and the culture in which you live. It also emphasises the need for the People of God to remain true to the Faith once delivered, perhaps even at the cost of their own lives. Failure to be aware of such issues is one of the horrors that permitted the rise of Nazism, amongst others.

One final word: ‘save us from the time of trial’ is a phrase in the (said to be new) Lord’s Prayer, against which some folk still have reservations. This is, in fact, an accurate translation of the original Greek – and for good reason. It is precisely that situation of needing to stand firm against contrary pressure in times of crisis that makes this phrase so relevant – and perchance having to wear the violent reaction many people would have. Please never forget that.