Bible Tuesday for Advent III, 2017
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
4They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. 8For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
10I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Prior to Pentecost, the Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit (aka: Spirit of the Lord) as being given at certain times for certain purposes, and as being taken away for certain sins. In this passage from the Third section of Isaiah, the prophet proclaims that the Holy Spirit has been given him to proclaim that God is inaugurating the Year of Jubilee.
The Year of Jubilee is prescribed in Leviticus to occur every 50 years. In the Year of Jubilee, all debts are cancelled, and those lands granted to families but which had been sold would revert to those families. All in indentured servitude were released.
The above passage of Third Isaiah was written to the Israelites who had been in Babylonian captivity for 50 years. The Persian king, Cyrus, defeated Babylonia and released the Israelites so they could go home. The Israelites were indeed servants who had been emancipated. As they were released to return to Jerusalem and the surrounding area, they were fearful of what they would find. The whole area had been ravaged by the Babylonian army as it conquered Israel. What houses, businesses, and farms that survived were occupied by others now. The Year of Jubilee called for everything to revert back to its original owners and life to begin again.
Luke 1:46-55
46And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
When the Israelites were following Moses back to the Promised Land, they understood that land to be finite. There were only so many acres and God was going to divvy it up between everyone so that the parceling of land was fair. Israelites thought about wealth and power in the same way, it was finite. If one person was really rich, it was because he had somehow amassed the wealth of others who were now poor. It someone was very powerful, it was because he had somehow usurped the power of others we were now deprived of some of their power. The Year of Jubilee falling every 50 years was meant to be a reset button, re-leveling the playing field of life and redistributing wealth in a more even way.
In former times when the liturgical color of Advent was purple, there was one Sunday of reprieve from this shorter season of repentance, Rose Sunday. The third Sunday of Advent was reserved for Mary, The story of Mary and Elizabeth was read on this Sunday, which was marked with a pink candle on the otherwise purple candled evergreen wreath. Though the theme of Advent has shifted from the purple penitence to blue hope, we still celebrate with Mary on this 3rd Sunday of Advent.
In her Magnificat, Mary speaks an “aha moment”. Gabriel’s announcement, and Elizabeth’s greeting have given Mary eyes to see the Year of Jubilee that God is inaugurating in and with her. All the up-side-downing in her speech is God redistributing wealth and power to bring everyone back into the middle where everyone has enough and no one has too much. Because, in the Kingdom of God, all peoples’ needs are satisfied to empower them to love and satisfy the needs of others.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise the words of prophets, 21but test everything; hold fast to what is good; 22abstain from every form of evil.
23May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
These last verses of Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica remind me of parent’s final instructions as a son or daughter moves away from home. All of those life lessons crammed into final, frantic instruction, concluding with a benediction of love and promise.
John 1:6-8, 19-28
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
19This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 21And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. 24Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”26John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” 28This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
In this Lectionary B year of Mark, we get a long of readings from the gospel of John. (Mark is short and terse, and John is weird so let’s just throw them together and make them share a year!) The opening verses of the gospel of John are called The Prolegomena. Prolegomena is defined by Dictionary.com as
1.a preliminary discussion; introductory essay, as prefatory matter in abook; a prologue.
2.
Usually, prolegomena. ( sometimes used with a singular verb) a treatise serving as a preface or introduction to a book.
In this case, the first 18 verses of the gospel of John are the Prolegomena. We have part of that assigned for this week’s gospel reading. The second part of the above reading is from the second section of the gospel of John. The Prolegomena, unlike the other three gospels, proclaims Jesus eternal, the will and word of God incarnate, that is, in human flesh. The Prolegomena also introduces the metaphor of light and darkness which is woven throughout the gospel.
On this third Sunday of Advent, we zero in on John the Baptist. John the Baptist’s name actually exists on a document found in an archeological dig! He was famous, truly drawing large crowds to the Jordan. John the Baptist had disciples who did not recognize Jesus as Messiah but continued on in his tradition of baptism of repentance for preparation for God. There are actually a couple of John the Baptist congregations in the US.
The above section of the gospel of John is a strong statement of orientation correction. Here is this guy, John, devoting himself and his whole career to pointing to and preparing for someone else. And when that someone comes, John recognizes him and points him out to everyone else. While the other three gospels tell of John the Baptist, the gospel of John makes it very clear to all readers that John the Baptist was an arrow…pointing to Jesus. Don’t worship the arrow…follow its direction and worship that to which it points, the Word made Flesh.