Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013

First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-16
The joy of Christmas is drawing near, but we still have another week of Advent to reflect on the Incarnation, God becoming human in Jesus, the Messiah. Isaiah foresaw the Messiah as a good king, the successor to King David. He spoke of current times when he warned King Ahaz that by the time the child was weaned (“eating curds and honey”), the king’s land would be conquered. Christians would later look back and see Jesus in Isaiah’s prophecy about a child named Immanuel (“God with us”) born to a “young woman,” the Hebrew word​ “almah,​”​ which the Greek Old Testament that the Evangelists knew would later translate as​ “parthenos” or “virgin.”

Psalm: Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
A Psalm of lament over Israel’s exile, this song, too, expresses hope that God will free the people and come with power to restore the kingdom and the Covenant. Early Christians surely took hope from reading these ancient verses as speaking of Jesus, “the one at God’s right hand whom God makes strong.”

Second Reading: Romans 1:1-7
The opening verses of Paul’s letters follow formal patterns set in Greco-Roman culture, 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
Now we come to the brink of Christmas! Imagine Joseph, a man of an ancient, patriarchal culture, discovering that his sweet young fiancee is pregnant, and not with his child! Who wouldn’t decide to call the whole thing off? But Joseph is righteous and prefers to end the engagement quietly, without scandal or gossip. And then an angel comes to assure Joseph that Mary is bearing God’s son. And the angel repeats Isaiah’s prophecy! “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.” And then, as in an exciting movie serial, we must breathlessly wait for Christmas Day and the birth of Jesus.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013

First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10
The third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete (“Rejoice”) Sunday, a pause in the quiet anticipation of Advent to feel joy at the coming celebration of Jesus’s birth. Today’s readings share themes of joy and service, beginning with Isaiah’s prophetic voice of hope for return from exile: “The desert shall rejoice and blossom … rejoice with joy and singing.” This hope of joy is offered specifically to the oppressed, the weak, those who suffer pain … all those who Jesus would call us to serve.

Canticle 15: Luke 1:47-55
Today in place of a Psalm we sing Luke’s Song of Mary. If you think of the mother of Jesus as a sweet, submissive figure, take a closer look at the words this teen-aged Palestinian woman sang when the angel tells her she would be the mother of God: “ … he has scattered the proud … brought down the powerful … lifted up the lowly … filled the hungry with good things … sent the rich away empty.” This divine command links Torah and the Gospels. It is the command that Jesus explicitly asks of those who follow his way.

Second Reading: James 5:7-10
“Be patient, therefore”? What an odd way to begin a reading! Look back a few verses to see what led to this, and we find James – like Mary in the Canticle – 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.” Then we get James’s command: Love each other, and be generous with one another, lest we be judged.

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12
Matthew’s Gospel consistently emphasizes that Jesus is Messiah, the lord and savior whom the prophets foretold. Here he narrates a conversation between Jesus and John the Baptist in prison, invoking an Isaiah prophecy to declare John God’s messenger making straight the way for Jesus. Then Jesus sets out his priorities, which echo 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 Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Dec.8, 2013.

First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10
These verses inspired the 19th century American artist Edward Hick to make more than 100 versions of his famous work, “The Peaceable Kingdom,” a memorable portrait of wild and domestic animals living in peace. surrounded by children in white. This is a beautiful image, and it portrays a peaceful life that surely appeals to us all. Isaiah prophesies this happy state as the glorious home of King David’s royal descendant on Zion’s holy mountain. It’s surely easy for Christians to read it as foreshadowing the reign of Christ, who the Gospels also declare a shoot from Jesse’s stock, a descendant of David the king.

Psalm: Psalm 72
Subtitled “Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King” in our New Revised Standard Edition Bible translation, this Psalm – perhaps originally intended to be sung at a royal coronation – offers support and counterpoint to the Isaiah reading. It hammers home the Old Testament’s consistent call for justice and righteousness for all the people, including the poor, the needy and the oppressed. Rabbi 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
At the time of Paul’s beautiful letter to the Romans, the city’s Jews – including Jewish Christians – had been banished to exile for years. Now the Roman Jews are coming back home, but there was tension between the Jewish and Gentile Christian communities. Paul turns to Isaiah and holds up the Root of Jesse, understanding the verses as Isaiah’s explicit prophecy of Christ as king over all humanity. His ultimate advice is universal: Live in harmony with Jesus and each other and glorify God.

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12
We met John, Jesus’s cousin, as an infant in a recent reading in which his father, the temple priest Zechariah, foretold that the boy would become a great prophet. Now we meet John again as a loud, wild prophet, urging people to repent and baptizing them in the Jordan river. Matthew tells us that John is the fulfillment of another 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 Holy Spirit.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013.

First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5
The book of Isaiah begins with a description of God’s anger against Jerusalem for its sins; but now, in Chapter 2, the prophet pens verses of poetic beauty, envisioning a future time when the city is restored as the Lord’s house, center of a world in which swords have been beaten into plowshares and there is no more war. Actually, most scholars think that the book of Isaiah was actually the work of three great Old Testament prophets: One who wrote before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and its temple; one during the people’s exile in Babylon, and one who told of their eventual return and the hard work of rebuilding.

Psalm: Psalm 122
This Psalm, attributed by legend to King David’s authorship, sings counterpoint to our Isaiah reading, looking toward a glorious future, too, as it praises and prays for Jerusalem as the city of God, future home for David’s throne and a place where security, prosperity and peace will prevail.

Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14
Paul exhorts the people of the young church in Rome to be prepared for the return of Jesus, an event that Christians of that time believed and prayed would come very soon. “The night is far gone, the day is near,” he writes his flock. In the meantime, behave well, live abstemiously, avoid quarrels and jealousy. These verses follow immediately after Paul’s urgent reminder to follow God’s commandments and love our neighbors as ourselves, a way of life that prepares us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Gospel: Matthew 24:36-44
“Eschatology,” a long word having to do with humanity’s expectation of Earth’s final days and Christ’s return, will run through our Advent readings, as our Sunday Lectionary selections now move from Luke’s gospel to Matthew. We have seen hints of this today as each reading peers into the future for signs of God’s activity. Now Matthew turns up the heat, reminding us that only God knows when the last days will come, just as sinful humans in Noah’s time had no warning of the Flood. We needn’t take literally what some might interpret as Matthew foretelling a “Rapture” event. The essential Advent message is simple and true: Be ready. If God were to come to you now and ask what you’ve been up to, would you have a good answer?