Category Archives: Advent

Advent 4C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 22, 2024

Madonna of the Magnificat

Madonna del Magnificat (Madonna of the Magnificat), tempera painting on panel (1483) by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Micah 5:2-5a

God’s active, liberating preference for the poor and the oppressed is made manifest in Sunday’s readings. This theme may seem surprising at first, but it is in fact a deeply significant message for the impending birth of Jesus, who will hold up the poor, the hungry, the ill, and imprisoned and oppressed as the central focus of his good news. We begin with a reading from Micah, one of the earliest prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Micah has warned the people of Jerusalem that their injustices against the weak and the poor will bring down God’s wrath. In Sunday’s verses, Micah foretells that a new ruler was to come from the village of Bethlehem – the birthplace of King David – to reunite the surviving remnant of Israel as a shepherd leads his flock, all under God’s protection in peace.

Psalm: Canticle 15 (Luke 1:46b-55)

The Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise, may either be sung as Sunday’s Psalm or read as the second portion of the Gospel of the day. In this beloved story as told by Luke, the pregnant Mary sings out grateful praise for God. She rejoices in all that God has done for her, celebrating a powerful yet merciful God who loves us and calls us to acts of mercy and justice. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly, she sings. God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. God’s justice is restorative – taking from those who have much and giving to those who have none.

Alternate Psalm: Psalm 80:1-7

Psalm 80 was likely written during a time of exile and destruction or recalls such a time. The place names in the second verse suggest lamentation over the loss of the Northern Kingdom – Israel – to the Assyrians. The first seven of its 18 verses resonate in sorrow as the people call on Israel’s God to come and help. The people, we hear in a memorable metaphor, have been fed with the bread of tears and given tears to drink. Though they have suffered the derision, laughter, and scorn of their enemies, including their own neighbors, the Psalmist expresses the belief that God has the power to save them through the light of God’s own countenance.

Second Reading: Hebrews 10:5-10

We return for this one Sunday to the Letter to the Hebrews, which we had visited extensively for several weeks this past autumn. Consistent with its theme of contrasting Jewish Christianity against Temple Judaism, it echoes prophecies of Isaiah and Amos, who warned of a God who “takes no pleasure” in temple sacrifices. Instead, it proposes that God’s promise to Israel at Sinai has now been fulfilled through the Incarnation of Jesus and his sacrifice on the Cross.

Gospel: Luke 1:39-45

This lovely reading includes the narrative that immediately precedes the Magnificat, the Song of Mary. The evangelist we know as Luke tells the story of Mary’s visit to her older cousin Elizabeth. Both women were pregnant – Elizabeth with John, Mary with Jesus – and both had conceived in miraculous ways after being visited by angels with the news that they would give birth. When the women meet, Elizabeth feels her child leap in her womb with what she perceives as joy. Elizabeth, suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit, declares Mary blessed among women. Elizabeth wonders in amazement, “Why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” Then, in the following verses, Mary responds with the Magnificat, the revolutionary song that we heard in the Canticle appointed for this day.

Advent 3C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 15, 2024

Saint John the Baptist Preaching

Saint John the Baptist Preaching (c.1735-1745), oil painting on canvas by Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788). Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Scotland. (Click image to enlarge.)]

First Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-20

This week we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath for the Third Sunday of Advent, traditionally called Gaudete (“Rejoice”) Sunday or Rose Sunday. A common thread in the day’s Lectionary readings calls us to be joyful even in times of stress. The minor prophet Zephaniah warned that Jerusalem would be destroyed because its people had turned away from God. But then, in this passage from the third and final chapter of this short book, the prophet’s thoughts turn to hope: After an exile, a joyous time will follow, when God will gather Israel’s righteous people, restore their fortunes, and bring them home.

Psalm: Canticle 9 (Isaiah 12:2-6)

Even in modern times, a seasonal drought is a serious threat to crops, farmers, consumers, and even a nation’s economy. In biblical times, drought was even worse: A failed crop could mean life or death. Isaiah, the major prophet who foretold Israel’s destruction, exile, and return surely knew that water is one of the most important things that God gives us. This Canticle, drawn from the first portion of Isaiah before the exile, called on the people to thank God with joy whenever they draw precious, life-giving water from the springs of salvation.

Second Reading: Philippians 4:4-7

Last Sunday, in the opening verses of Philippians, we heard Paul express his love. Now, near the end of this affectionate letter from prison in Rome to the people of this little church in Northeastern Greece that he had founded years before, he urges them to be gentle and kind: Rejoice in God’s love and trust in God’s mercy and peace. Paul’s words to them, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,” have become a familiar blessing through the ages.

Gospel: Luke 3:7-18

At first glance, it’s not easy to find the joy in this Gospel portion, which concludes Luke’s account of John the Baptist in the desert that we began last week. Luke shows us a long-haired, ranting prophet, yelling at the crowds who came to be baptized by him, declaring them “a brood of vipers.” John is no Messiah, he tells them. But he shouts that one more powerful than he will soon come to baptize with the Holy Spirit, separating the good wheat from the unworthy chaff. Get ready, John demands. Share your clothing and food with those who have none. Don’t cheat. Don’t be selfish! These are the themes that we’ll hear repeatedly in Luke’s Gospel this Lectionary year. Jesus too will proclaim them as he spreads the Good News, the joy.

Advent 2C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 8, 2024

Saint John the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness

Saint John the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness (c.1640), oil painting on canvas by Pier Francesco Mola (1612-1666). National Gallery, London. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Baruch 5:1-9

A messenger is coming to make the way ready for the Messiah! Two alternative passages from minor prophets both draw this hope to our attention in Sunday’s first reading. The first option is found in the book of Baruch, whose name in Hebrew means “Blessed.” His is one of the apocryphal books placed at the end of the Hebrew Bible. Echoing a more familiar passage from Isaiah, Baruch tells Israel in exile that it no longer needs to mourn, for God will lower the mountains and fill up the valleys to make level ground upon which the people may walk safely home. In Sunday’s Gospel, we hear Luke repeat Isaiah’s verses in the voice of John the Baptist.

Or:

First Reading: Malachi 3:1-4

In this alternative first reading, the minor prophet Malachi – whose name actually means “my messenger” in Hebrew – brings a dire warning to the people living in Jerusalem generations after the return from exile: God’s messenger must cleanse the people with fire, he prophesies, an action necessary to make them pure and pleasing to God. “Who can endure the day of his coming?” the prophet sings, in words that Handel would make unforgettable 2,000 years later in The Messiah. “He is like a refiner’s fire!”

Psalm: Canticle 16 (Luke 1: 68-79)

We sing Canticle 16 from the Book of Common Prayer – a direct quote from Luke’s Gospel – in place of a psalm. These verses tell the story of John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, a priest of the Temple. When Zechariah had refused to believe that his elderly wife, Elizabeth, had really become pregnant after an angelic visitation, God struck him mute. Now Zechariah’s voice is restored as he holds the infant and names him John. This child, Zechariah declares, is to be a prophet like Abraham, the messenger who will “go before the Lord to prepare his way.”

Second Reading: Philippians 1:3-11

The Christian community at Philippi in Greece, according to Luke’s account in Acts, was the first church formed by Paul in Europe as he traveled west from Asia Minor. This brief letter, written from a Roman prison several years later, is full of love and gratitude. In these opening verses, Paul offers greetings, love, thanks for their friendship, and prayers for their well-being. Recalling how eagerly they had accepted the Gospel, Paul prays for this congregation’s continued spiritual growth and insight, which he hopes will lead them to a harvest of righteousness and justice.

Gospel: Luke 3:1-6

Zechariah’s son John is a grown man now, and he has begun his public life as John the Baptist, a prophet crying in the wilderness along the Jordan. Beginning his account with a detailed roster of Roman and Jewish leaders of John’s time, including John’s father, Zechariah, Luke tells how John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Then, in words we also hear in Handel’s Messiah, Luke roots John’s prophecy in Isaiah’s call to prepare the way of the Lord, making his paths straight, filling every valley and making every mountain and hill low so that all humanity may see God’s salvation.

Advent 1C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 1, 2024

The Great Last Judgement

The Great Last Judgement (1617), oil painting, altarpiece, by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16

Advent has come, and we begin a new Lectionary year centered on the Gospel according to Luke. The commercial celebration of Christmas may already be in full swing, but the quieter, gentler celebration of Advent comes as a blessing. Advent is a time to prepare, to wait for the celebration of Jesus’s birth – the Incarnation – and for the final coming of Christ’s kingdom in power and glory. Sunday’s readings begin with a prophecy from Jeremiah to Israel in exile. Jerusalem and the temple have been destroyed, and King David’s dynasty has ended after 400 years. But there is hope, Jeremiah assures the people: A new branch – a messiah – will spring up and grow in David’s line, and will restore justice and righteousness in a new Israel.

Psalm: Psalm 25:1-9

Echoing Jeremiah’s promises to Israel in Sunday’s first reading, this passage from Psalm 25 speaks of a people facing the threat of humiliation and defeat. Trusting fully in God for salvation, relying on God’s everlasting compassion and love, the Psalmist asks God to forgive the people’s youthful errors and wrong turns while teaching them the right path. The Psalmist asks God to remember us not for our sins but with all God’s compassion and steadfast love – “chesed” in the original Hebrew – an emotion-laden word that may also be translated as “faithfulness,” “kindness,” “mercy” or “grace.”

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

This short passage is drawn from the earliest of Paul’s known letters. It was written to a beloved community in Northern Greece, seeking to strengthen their hearts in holiness so as to remain blameless before God when Jesus and his saints return: an outcome that in those early days was still expected to happen at any time. Writing from far away, Paul calls God’s blessings on the lives of the Thessalonians, expressing hope that he may soon be reunited with them. In the meantime, he prays that the people of this community will love one another and everyone, just as he loves them.

Gospel: Luke 21:25-36

Jesus is teaching the apostles after they have left the Temple, not long before they gather for the Last Supper and his passion begins. In alarming apocalyptic language reminiscent of the Gospel from Mark that we heard the Sunday before last, Jesus warns of the destruction of the Temple and of hard times to come. There will be frightening signs in the earth and heavens and the seas; false prophets speaking in Jesus’s name; nations rising against nations, famines, and wars and rumors of wars. But these signs will reveal, Jesus tells them, that the world’s redemption is drawing near. So don’t be alarmed, he assures them: This is but the beginning of the birth pangs, the Kingdom of God drawing near.

Advent 4B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 24, 2023

The Madonna of the Magnificat

The Madonna of the Magnificat (1481), tempera painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Advent ends on Christmas Eve this year. Our readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent trace the Messianic line of King David that Christians follow down the ages to Jesus. In the first reading, David muses that it seems wrong for him to rest comfortably in a palatial house of cedar while God’s house, the Ark of the Covenant, rests in a mere tent. The prophet Nathan agrees that God should have a fine house, a temple, but God has a different plan. God lives and moves with the people, and needs no house! God, rather, will establish the house of David, the dynasty of God’s people. We hear this echoed in Luke’s Gospel for the day, as the angel tells Mary that Jesus will inherit the throne of his ancestor David.

Psalm: Luke 1:46-55 (Canticle 15)

The Magnificat, the surprisingly radical Song of Mary, which was offered as an alternative to the usual Psalm last week, returns as the Psalm of the day this Sunday. As we will hear in the Gospel, the Angel Gabriel has told Mary that she will give birth to King David’s heir, the Messiah. When Mary visits her relative, Elizabeth, who will soon give birth to John the Baptist, Elizabeth feels the infant move. Mary rejoices in a poetic celebration that echoes the words of the prophets; thoughts that, perhaps, her son Jesus would hear from his mother: “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.”

Alternative Psalm: Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26

In harmony with our first reading, this Psalm portion celebrates God’s covenant with David and his descendants, a royal family that God established to last forever. Even through the devastation of war and the pain of exile, when Israel and Judah feared that God’s promise might have been revoked because the nation had broken its covenant by failing to be just and righteous, the Psalm sings of a new King David, a Messiah and King who would rule the land forever, “from the great sea to the river,” from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Jordan, the Galilee, and the Dead Sea..

Second Reading: Romans 16: 25-27

Throughout Paul’s powerful letter to the Romans, he gently encourages Rome’s Gentile and Jewish Christian communities, who had been separated during the exile of Rome’s Jews, to come back together in Christian love and unify as one. Here, in ringing verses that conclude the letter, he reminds them that God’s covenant with the people in the First Testament, as expressed by the ancient prophets, now extends to all humanity, all living forever in glory through Jesus Christ.

Gospel: Luke 1: 26-38

As Advent ends on Christmas Eve this year, we hear Luke tell the familiar story of the Angel Gabriel’s visit to a young Palestinian woman named Mary. Through God’s Holy Spirit this young woman will give birth to a son named Jesus, who will inherit King David’s throne and rule over an eternal kingdom. She responds to this amazing news with simple, trusting acceptance: “Let it be with me according to your word.” Just a few verses later in Luke’s Gospel, she will go on to utter the liberating poetry of the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, celebrating the God who casts down the mighty, lifts up the lowly, feeds the hungry and sends the rich away empty.

Advent 3B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 17, 2023 (Advent 3B)

Magnificat: La Visitation

Magnificat: La Visitation (1491), tempera painting on panel by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448-1494). The Louvre, Paris. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

On the Third Sunday of Advent it is customary to light the one pink candle on the Advent wreath, a hint of rejoicing in a season that we otherwise associate with preparation and expectation. Now our Lectionary readings for Advent shift from the fire and upheaval of an apocalyptic Judgement Day toward a different kind of expectation: A joyful hope that anticipates God’s restorative justice coming with the Messiah. In our first reading, the Prophet Isaiah – writing words that Jesus will later read and declare fulfilled in his presence when he speaks in the synagogue at Nazareth – tells the people that God will comfort all who mourn. God’s good news will come to the poor, the oppressed, captives and prisoners, turning them from mourning to gladness.

Psalm: Psalm 126

Just as Isaiah told the people in exile of God’s promise that justice and righteousness would be restored, here the Psalmist sings that God’s promise has been fulfilled. God has indeed restored the fortunes of the Temple on Mount Zion, the Psalmist exults. Throughout this short Psalm’s seven verses we hear shouts of laughter, joy, gladness, or praise. God has been good, the Psalmist sings. God has turned the people’s tears into songs of joy; their weeping into a bountiful harvest.

Alternate Psalm: Canticle 15

The Magnificat, the deeply meaningful Song of Mary (Luke 1:46-55), may be sung as an alternative to Psalm 126 on this day. Mary sings this powerful song as she greets her relative, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist, feels the infant move with joy inside her when Mary comes in. Elizabeth declares Mary the blessed mother of God, full of grace. In response, Mary sings these startlingly radical verses that echo the Isaiah passage and foreshadow Jesus’ own teaching. These are liberating verses of distributive justice. Mary praises a God who scatters the proud, casts down the mighty, and sends the rich away hungry, while filling the hungry with good things.

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Paul concludes his short first letter to the Thessalonians with themes consistent with those that we heard in the first readings from 1 Corinthians and 2 Peter on the first two Sundays of Advent. He urges the people to rejoice always, pray unceasingly, and give thanks for all things, staying faithful and filled with the Spirit. Hold fast to the good and abstain from every kind of evil, he urges them, so they will be ready, “sound and blameless,” when Jesus returns.

Gospel: John 1:6-8,19-28

Following the story of Jesus with John the Baptist in Mark’s Gospel last Sunday, we now turn to the vision of John the Baptist as told in the Gospel according to John. This version makes no mention of the Baptist’s attire or his dietary preferences. Rather, it quickly moves into a tense scene in which the Temple authorities, worried about the noisy crowds surrounding John, want to know just exactly who John is. John replies that he is not a new prophet; nor is he Elijah. Repeating the Isaiah verses that we heard last week, John declares himself the voice crying out in the wilderness, calling on the people to make straight the way of the Lord. He baptizes with water, John says, to make way for the one who is coming after him, who is so much greater that John is unworthy to untie his sandals.

Advent 2B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 10, 2023 (Advent 2B)

St. John the Baptist

St. John the Baptist (1911), oil painting on board by Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929). National Museum in Warsaw, Poland. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11

The Messiah is coming! Get ready! The Messiah is coming! Make the way clear! Re-imagined in modern language, Sunday’s readings as we begin the second week of Advent might shout, “Roll out the red carpet for the Messiah!” The first reading from Isaiah – which may sound familiar, as Handel drew from it freely in his beloved oratorio, “The Messiah” – sings out comfort and hope to the people in exile. Jerusalem has paid doubly for her sins, the prophet declares, adding that although our lives are as short as grass and flowers, God’s word stands forever. Prepare the way! Make a straight highway in the desert, the prophet calls. Then the reading closes with the poetic image of a kindly Messiah who holds the lambs closely and gently leads the mother sheep.

Psalm: Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

This portion of Psalm 85, edited to skip over several verses that express wistful doubt, shares the joyful hope of the Isaiah reading. The Psalmist remembers the people’s time in exile, rejoicing that God did, indeed, come to the people with comfort and peace. Even though the people had been sinful and broken their covenant with God, God forgave their iniquity and blotted out all their sins. The straight highway that was built at Isaiah’s command has become a path for God’s feet.

Second Reading: 2 Peter 3:8-15a

The short second letter in Peter’s name, the latest epistle in the New Testament, was likely written a century or more after the crucifixion. After so long, Christ’s expected return had surely become a concern for the early church. What did this delay mean? Perhaps God’s time is not like our time, the writer suggests in the letter’s closing lines. They echo a theme in the Isaiah reading: With God, “One day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” Be patient, the author urged. Live holy and godly lives. Be at peace, be prepared, and wait patiently for God.

Gospel: Mark 1:1-8

We will spend most of the coming liturgical year going through the Gospel according to Mark. The earliest and shortest of the Gospels, Mark seems to move at a headlong pace, beginning here with no mention of the birth of Jesus or his death and resurrection. Mark simply declares the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, then – proclaiming Isaiah’s prophecy of a messenger who will make the way straight for the Messiah – jumps right into the story of Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Jesus, John says, is so powerful that John is not worthy to stoop down and untie his sandals. John tells the crowd that he baptizes only with water, but Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit!

Advent 1B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 3, 2023 (Advent 1B)

The Second Coming

The Second Coming (1560-89), painting by Jean Cousin le Jeune (c.1522-1595), the Louvre, Paris. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 64:1-9

One clear idea rings through the Lectionary readings as Advent begins this Sunday: God is coming. God may come quietly, quickly; God may come amid fire and upheaval. We had better be ready. In our first reading we turn toward the end of Isiah’s great book of prophecy. The people are returning home to Jerusalem from exile at last, but they must face up to a difficult reality: This is not the city they knew, but a devastated place, a ruined city on a hill with its great temple destroyed and only a remnant of defeated people remaining. “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,” the prophet calls out, urging God to show their might, restore the people, make them new and forgive their sins.

Psalm: Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

The selected verses of Psalm 80 echo Isaiah’s call. This anguished cry to God goes up three times: “Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.” The people have suffered. God’s punishment has forced them to endure their enemies’ derision and laughter. They have eaten and drunk their own tears like bread and water. Send us a messiah, the Psalmist pleads – the son of man at God’s right hand – and the people will never turn from God again.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is a deeply pastoral epistle that throughout its pages addresses many fractures in a small, passionate Christian community in a Greek seaport city. Paul begins with no hint of conflict, though. Writing in the formal style of ancient Greek correspondence, he sets the scene by greeting the people with grace and peace. He reminds them that grace has come to them through Jesus and enriched them, filling them with spiritual gifts. Because of this, Paul assures them, they will be ready, strong and blameless when Christ returns.

Gospel: Mark 13:24-37

In our first reading, we heard Isaiah’s prayer for God to come with justice after the first destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Now, in phrases likely set down not long after the Romans had destroyed the city and the temple again, the evangelist Mark imagines Jesus coming again amid clouds, in power and glory. In an apocalyptic passage that echoes the Hebrew Bible’s Prophet Joel, Jesus foretells a time when the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the skies. This will be a tumultuous time, Jesus warns his followers, so they must watch for signs of his return: They must stay awake, ready and alert.

Advent 4A

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Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Dec. 18, 2022 (Advent 4A)

First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-16

As we have gone through the four weeks of Advent, we have had the opportunity to deepen our appreciation for Scripture’s account of the coming of the Messiah, which Christians understand as the Incarnation, God becoming fully human and fully divine in Jesus.

The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel

The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel (1308-1311) tempera on single poplar panel by Duccio di Buoninsegna. Andrew W. Mellon Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Click image to enlarge.)

Our first reading draws again from the prophet Isaiah, who understood the Messiah as a good king, a successor in the line of King David. Isaiah was speaking of his own time when he warned King Ahaz – an evil leader who had collaborated with the Assyrians – that as soon as the child was weaned (“eating curds and honey”), the king’s land would be conquered. Christians would later look back and interpret the birth story of Jesus in Isaiah’s prophecy that a child named Immanuel (“God with us”) would be born to a “young woman.” That Hebrew word,​ “almah,​”​ would be translated in the Pentateuch, the Greek Old Testament that was in common use in the time of the Evangelists, as “parthenos,” meaning “virgin.”

Psalm: Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

In this psalm of lament over the destruction of the temple and the people’s exile, the Psalmist begs to be spared the divine anger that has left the people with “bowls of tears to drink” as their enemies laugh them to scorn. These verses echo the Isaiah reading in the hope that God will free the people and come with power to restore the kingdom and the Covenant. Send a man of God’s right hand, the strong son of man, the Psalmist pleads, promising that the people will never again turn from God’s way if only God will save them.

Second Reading: Romans 1:1-7

The opening verses of Paul’s letters follow formal patterns set in Greco-Roman culture, much like the “To whom it may concern, I hope this letter finds you well” that we might see in modern formal correspondence. Still, even these formulaic verses tell of Paul’s pastoral concerns for the Romans. Paul emphasizes that he is an apostle of Jesus, and that Jesus is the son of God, the descendant of David prophesied in Scripture – such as the Isaiah verses we read today. Paul assures Rome’s Christians that he comes in Jesus’s name to the Gentiles, who are God’s beloved, called to be saints.

Gospel: Matthew 1:18-25

It is the fourth and last Sunday of Advent, and our Gospel takes a decided turn toward Christmas as we hear of an angel visiting Joseph, who is described as Mary’s husband, at a critical moment. Imagine Joseph, a man of an ancient, patriarchal culture, discovering that his sweet young fiancee is pregnant, but not with his child! Who wouldn’t decide to call the whole thing off? But Joseph, a righteous man, prefers to end the engagement quietly, without scandal or gossip. But then, before things go off the rails, an angel arrives to assure Joseph that Mary is bearing a child of the Holy Spirit, a son who will save his people from their sins. Finally the angel repeats Isaiah’s prophecy, quoting the Greek Pentateuch: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.”

Advent 2A

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Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Dec. 4, 2022 (Advent 2A)

First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10

When we hear a call to repent and wait for the Messiah’s coming through this week’s Sunday Lectionary readings, don’t think of “repent” in the sense of guilty remorse. Hear it rather in its traditional sense: “Change your mind” or “turn back” in the New Testament’s original Greek and in the Hebrew Bible.

St. John the Baptist Preaching

St. John the Baptist Preaching (c.1665), oil painting on canvas by Mattia Preti (1613-1699). Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. (Click image to enlarge.)

If we are on the wrong path in our relationships with God and our neighbors, Sunday’s readings advise us, now is the time to turn back and watch for the light of God’s Kingdom. In our first reading, Isaiah envisions a time when the Messiah – the descendant of King David, whose father was named Jesse – will reign from the Temple on Zion’s holy mountain, where justice will prevail for the poor and the meek.

Psalm: Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

The Psalmist seems to draw from the same wellsprings as Isaiah in this hymn of blessing for a new king. Tradition holds that Psalm 72 was written in memory of the coronation of King Solomon. In the verses chosen for Sunday’s reading, we hear the people call for a just and righteous king who will rule fairly. They ask God to provide a king who will bring prosperity to all the people; a king who will take special care to provide for the poor and the oppressed; a king who will reign as long as showers water the earth; a king who will bring peace on earth as long as the moon shines.

Second Reading: Romans 15:4-13

At the time of Paul’s beautiful letter to the Romans, the city’s Jews – including Jewish converts to Christianity – had been banished to exile. Paul wrote this letter when Rome’s Jews were coming back home after years in exile. There was tension between the Jewish remnant and the Gentile Christian community that had stayed home all along. Paul turns to the passage we heard from Isaiah to remember the Root of Jesse, presenting the verses as if they were an explicit prophecy of Christ as king over all humanity. In the memory of that time of return, Paul urges the Romans, “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

We met John, Jesus’s cousin, as an infant when we read the Song of Zechariah as a psalm on Christ the King Sunday. In that passage, John’s father – the temple priest Zechariah – regained his voice to foretell that the boy would grow up to become a great prophet. This Sunday we encounter John again. He has become a prophet indeed, a loud, wild prophet clad in camel’s hair robes and eating locusts and honey, urging people to repent as he baptizes them in the Jordan river. Matthew tells us that John is the fulfillment of another Hebrew Bible verse – Isaiah 40 – promising that a prophet would come to make way for the Messiah. That figure is coming, says John, speaking of Jesus; and he will baptize not with mere water but with the fire of the Holy Spirit.