Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 22, 2019

First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-16

Christmas is drawing near, and we can all but feel the Incarnation – God becoming human in Jesus, the Messiah – in our readings for the fourth Sunday of Advent.

The Angel Visiting Joseph in a Dream (c.1628-1645). Oil painting by Georges du Mesnil de La Tour (1593-1652). Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our first reading, we hear the prophet Isaiah describing the Messiah as a good king, a worthy successor to King David. The prophet warns David’s descendant, King Ahaz of Judah, that his land will soon be conquered; but a child named Immanuel – “God With Us” – will be born to a young woman, and the child will eventually bring good in place of evil.

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

This psalm of lament over Israel’s exile remembers the shame and disappointment of being conquered. It calls on God in a sorrowful voice, asking to be spared the divine anger that has left the people with “bowls of tears to drink” as their enemies laugh them to scorn. Send a man of God’s right hand, the strong son of man, the Psalmist begs, promising that the people will never again turn from God’s way if only God will save them.

Second Reading: Romans 1:1-7

Paul gets directly to the point as he opens his letter to the young church in Rome, a congregation that he has not yet met. He tells them that he is an apostle of Jesus, called to that ministry; that Jesus is the son of God, the descendant of David whom the prophets had foretold; and that through his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ is Lord, the Son of God. He comes to them in Jesus’ name, he assures his mostly Gentile audience: They, too, are God’s beloved. Only after offering these important assurances does he come back to a proper formal greeting: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Gospel: Matthew 1:18-25

In Sunday’s Gospel we come to the brink of Christmas, but there’s a bump in the road: Joseph has learned that his young fiancee is pregnant, but not with his child! We can easily imagine how a man in the culture of the ancient Near East might react to such news. But Joseph, a righteous man, decides to end the engagement quietly, without scandal or gossip. Before this can happen, though, an angel appears to Joseph and assures him that Mary is bearing God’s son. In words almost mirroring the Isaiah prophecy, the angel announces, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.” (The Hebrew word translated as “young woman” in Isaiah now reappears in the New Testament as “virgin” in Greek.)

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 15, 2019

First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10

When the Messiah comes, when the Kingdom draws near, those days of glory will be filled with righteousness and justice, joy and abundance, with healing and good news for the poor. This is the message that we hear in the readings for the third Sunday of Advent.

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

This Sunday the readings shift focus from quiet expectation toward anticipatory joy, a change in pitch that many like to mark by wearing something pink to church. The first reading offers Isaiah’s vision of the people’s return to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, a homeward journey when the desert itself shall rejoice and blossom with joy and singing.

Psalm: Psalm 146:4-9

In Psalm 146 we sing praise for God our creator – who made heaven, earth, the seas and all that is in them – by seeing the happiness of those who have received God’s assistance. The oppressed receive justice from God; God feeds the hungry, sets prisoners free, cares for strangers, orphans and widows, and gives sight to the blind. All this foreshadows the words that Mary will sing in the Magnificat (which is also available as an alternate Psalm on this Sunday); and we hear them echo again when Jesus describes God’s Kingdom on earth.

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

Tradition has come to show us Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a sweet, submissive figure. But the Magnificat, the Song of Mary from Luke’s Gospel, shows a very different Mary, a brave Palestinian teen-ager. Shouting out when she first feels the baby Jesus moving within her, she thanks God for this gift in a song about God’s righteousness and justice. In words that we will later hear again from Jesus, she sings that God has “scattered the proud … brought down the powerful … lifted up the lowly … filled the hungry with good things … and sent the rich away empty.”

Second Reading: James 5:7-10

“Be patient, therefore”? What an odd way to begin a reading! Turn back a page in your New Testament to see what led to this, and you’ll find James excoriating the rich, or more exactly, the selfish rich. “… you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. … You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” But we don’t hear that this Sunday; we begin with the next verses, in which James reminds us to must love each other and be generous with one another, lest we be judged.

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

As we move through Matthew’s Gospel in this new Lectionary year, we will hear frequent reminders that Jesus is Messiah, the lord and savior that the prophets foretold. Today we hear a conversation between Jesus and messengers from John the Baptist in prison, asking outright whether Jesus is the Messiah or if they must wait for another. In response Jesus sets out his priorities, which echo Isaiah’s prophecies and his mother’s song: “… 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.”

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 8, 2019

First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10

Repent! In our Advent readings this SundayListen to a bold call to repent and await the Messiah. But don’t think of repentance in its modern idea of deep regret and remorse.

Saint John the Baptist Preaching to the Masses in the Wilderness (unknown date); oil painting on oak by Pieter Breughel the Younger (1564-1638). Galerie de Jonckheere, Paris. (Click image to enlarge.)

Hear it rather in its ancient sense, as “change one’s mind” in New Testament Greek, or “turn back” in Old Testament Hebrew. If we are on the wrong path in our relationships with God and our neighbors, now is the time to turn back and watch for the light of God’s Kingdom. In our first reading, the prophet Isaiah envisions a time when the Messiah, the descendant of King David (whose father was named Jesse), will reign from Zion’s Holy Mountain. The lion and the lamb will lie down together, peace will reign, and the poor will receive justice.

Psalm: Psalm 72

Sunday’s Psalm – perhaps originally intended to be sung at a royal coronation – offers support and counterpoint to the Isaiah reading. Subtitled “Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King” in our New Revised Standard Edition, it hammers home the Hebrew Bible’s consistent call for justice and righteousness for all the people, including the poor, the needy and the oppressed. Jesus surely knew these verses, too, and proclaimed them in his commands to love our neighbors, shun riches, and bring good news to the poor.

Second Reading: Romans 15:4-13

Paul wrote this letter at a time when all of Rome’s Jews, who had been banished to exile for a decade by the Emperor Claudius, were finally able to come back home after the emperor died. But there was tension in the young church as returning Jewish Christians rejoined Christian communities that had become entirely Gentile. Paul turns to the Isaiah passage that we heard in the first reading, and calls attention to the Root of Jesse, Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah coming as king over all humanity.

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

In this Gospel reading we encounter John, the cousin of Jesus. John has become – as his father, the temple priest Zechariah, had foreseen in the canticle we sang two Sundays past – a great prophet in the spirit of Isaiah and Jeremiah. John is a loud and angry prophet indeed, dressed in camel’s hair and eating locusts and honey. He insults the Pharisees and Sadducees as “a brood of vipers,” and calls on the people to be baptized in the Jordan river as a sign of repentance from sin. John, too, invokes the Prophet Isaiah as he declares himself the prophet who Isaiah said would cry out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. John says that while he baptizes with water, the coming Messiah will throw away the old traditions and baptize not with mere water but the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 1, 2019

First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5

Advent begins, and with it a new Lectionary year. We have completed our year with the Gospel of Luke, and now turn to Matthew’s Gospel for the next 12 months. Advent begins the church year as a time of preparation and expectation for the coming celebration of the birth of Jesus.

Christ in Glory (c.1660), oil painting by Mattia Preti (1613-1699). Museo del Prado, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

As we look forward to Christmas Day, our readings foresee a bright Messianic future. In verses of poetic beauty in the first reading, the prophet Isaiah foresees Jerusalem and its Temple restored. It will be the highest of the mountains, the center of a world that recognizes it as the house of God. It will be a world of peace, a time when swords have been beaten into plowshares and there is no more war.

Psalm: Psalm 122

This Psalm, attributed by legend to King David, sings counterpoint to our Isaiah reading. It looks toward a glorious future, too, a time of triumph and peace for Jerusalem, the city of God, the throne of the new King David, the Messiah. The house of David is a city at peace, a city on a mountain where all the tribes of Israel go up with gladness to praise God’s name. At David’s throne, all the people can expect fair judgment; there the love of God is rewarded with security, prosperity and peace.

Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14

We will read Paul’s letter to the Romans in three of the four Sundays of Advent. His last letter, written to introduce himself to the young church in Rome just before he sailed there some 25 years after the death and resurrection of Christ. In this passage we hear Paul exhorting the people to be prepared for the return of Jesus, an event that Christians of that time expected to come very soon. “The night is far gone, the day is near,” Paul assures his flock. In the meantime, he calls on them to “put on the armor of light” by behaving well, living abstemiously, and avoiding quarrels and jealousy.

Gospel: Matthew 24:36-44

In this passage from Matthew’s Gospel, we see Jesus talking with the apostles on a hillside on the Mount of Olives, looking across a small valley toward the Temple. In preceding verses Jesus has told them – in words similar to those told by Luke two weeks ago – that the temple will be torn down amid a time of war and great suffering, before Christ comes to usher in a new age. Now, in Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus warns them that only God knows when the last days will come, just as sinful humans in Noah’s time had no warning of the coming flood. This frames a simple Advent message: Be ready. Be prepared. Live as if Christ might return at any hour.