Advent 4A: A Light on the Horizon

Unknown GodOLD TESTAMENT:  Isaiah 7: 10-16

Read the Old Testament Passage

During this season of Advent this year, we have read texts that get louder and louder with prophetic messages of what is to come.  This is the thing of which Christmas’s are made.  This passage actually depicts the second part of a story about an encounter between the prophet that we know as Isaiah and the Judean King Ahaz.  It locates the story in 734-733 bce, when the Kings of Israel and Aram attempted to invade Jerusalem and replace Ahaz with a sort of puppet ruler who would support their coalition against Assyria.  The invasion was actually unsuccessful but at this point in the writing, that ending is unknown.  The attacks threaten not only the survival of the nation itself but the fulfillment of a promised ruler descended from David, the great King of history.  So, the prophet Isaiah is sent to reassure Ahaz of divine protection.

Now, it is apparent that Ahaz is a ruler of faith—so much so that he will not ask as others have done for a “sign”, proof of God’s promises.  And so God gives him one anyway, proof that God is always and forever God, even in the face of one with strong and faithful convictions.

The sign is a child.  The child’s name, Immanuel (or “God with us”) reinforces the divine promise to deliver the nation from its enemies and sure demise.  The child is born of a young woman, the Hebrew “almah”, which means a young woman of marriageable age.  If the author had wanted to depict the woman as a virgin, the word “betulah” would have been used.  But in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word was translated as “parthenos” or “virgin”.  So the writer of The Gospel According to Matthew understood the verse as a prediction of the birth of Jesus.  And then all those translators that came after that capitalized on that notion, perhaps in an effort to explain the unexplainable, to rid the text of the ambiguities that were probably meant to be there in the first place.

Many scholars think that the young woman may have been Ahaz’s wife and her son the future king Hezekiah.   She also is identified with the wife of the prophet himself.  But, regardless, the very birth of a child could have evoked hope in a time of great despair and national duress.  And, likewise, our interpretation through our Christian lens interprets the passage as a promise of redemption that we see through the birth of Christ, Emmanuel, “God with us”.

This text is, as we said, ambiguous at best.  Who are we kidding?  The whole faith story is a little ambiguous at best.  Maybe it’s supposed to be that way.  But the promise of this child (whoever the child is interpreted to be) is one of hope and promise, one of joy and peace, but it can also be one of fear and apprehension.  After all, what does it mean for God to be with us, walking among us, being a part of our very lives?  How do we respond to the idea of God’s very real presence in our lives?  And how do we truly respond to the idea of full transformation of all that is into what it should be?  The details of the story no longer matter.  The point is that God is With Us.  And so, we are called to trust God and put our faith in the promise that God brings.  Ahaz, the Assyrians, everything around will soon fall by the wayside, but God’s promise will remain.  After all, God is with us.  But what that means will be something for you to discover on your own.

 

  1. What are your thoughts about this passage?
  2. What does that truly mean to live with the real presence of Christ in one’s midst?
  3. So what expectation in this Advent season does this passage evoke for you?

 

NEW TESTAMENT:  Romans 1: 1-7

Read the New Testament Passage

This is a short text but it’s definitely packed with some pretty important ideas:  being set apart, the Good News of God through Christ, the Scriptural witness, Jesus as a son of David, Paul’s mission to the Gentiles, and faith itself.  Essentially, it has to do with identity.  Paul sees himself as a servant of Christ; literally, a “slave”, one who submits totally to God, one who belongs to God.  The original hearers of this message did indeed belong to God through Christ but they were also a part of the Roman Empire.  But over and above who they are as Romans, Paul reminds them that first and foremost, they belong to Christ.  Paul himself cannot turn his back completely on his own identity and the culture in which he grew and still resides.  And he is not expecting that from anyone else.  But he is calling his hearers to an awareness of something more, something beyond who they are.

Perhaps this is Paul’s way of reminding us that God enters our lives through the normalcy of what life holds.  We are not called to change the lives we live, just the way we live them.  We are reminded to live with an obedience of faith in the midst of who we are as people.  I once baptized a baby who was eating a Ritz cracker.  Now, we don’t usually pass out hor’dourves with the Sacraments, but, really, did that change God’s Presence in that moment?  For that matter, who’s to say that it didn’t make that Presence more real?  God’s presence and God’s promise comes wherever one is.  Our calling is to respond to that presence also in the midst of the lives we lead.  But that entails learning to see and listen in a way that many of us do not.  We need to appreciate how God called others into being so that we might be able to better discern our own unique way that God is entering our lives.

 

  1. What are your thoughts about this passage?
  2. How would you describe your own identity?
  3. What does that mean for you to be aware of God’s presence in the “normalcy” of your identity and your life?

 

GOSPEL:  Matthew 1: 18-25

Read the Gospel Passage

The text is familiar.  It is the story of stories.  This is it; this is how it happened; this is how God entered the world and changed us forever.  The writer of Matthew must have had such a great sense of God in the writings of Isaiah that this was the way it needed to be described.  We already know the answer; we know what will happen.  The Christ child will again come and for a moment, if only for a moment, we will look into the eyes of hope and change.  We will look into the eyes of God.  And then something will distract us and the moment will be lost—until next year.  And yet, we are reminded of Emmanuel, God With Us.  And, like Joseph, when we awake from sleep, we are to take the Christ child into our hearts.

We skip over the genealogy.  I supposed that’s done so that we can get to the story and not be bogged down in the details.  I mean, really, most people don’t want to hear a list of names.  It doesn’t make good press or good script.  And yet, the story itself is buried in the details, isn’t it?  I suppose God could come into the world with no help from us, with no help from all of those faithful ones who came before us.  But what would it mean?  Why bother?  After all, the name of the Christ child is “God With US”.  Doesn’t that mean something?  The story is incomplete without us.  Because without us, God never would have come at all.  God came as Emmanuel, “God with us”, and calls us into the story.  The Incarnation is the mingling of God with humanity.  There’s no way out.  The Divine has poured into our midst and we are changed forever.  We just have to birth the Godchild in our lives.  Knowing that we could never become Divine, the Divine became us.  The world is turned upside down.  And so God stayed around to show us how to live in it.  So I suppose the writer of Matthew is right:  All this DID take place to fulfill what has been spoken by the Lord through the prophets…and his dwelling will be glorious.

We also are guilty of sort of skipping over Joseph.  After all, can you imagine what he must have been going through?  This was not just affecting Mary’s life. It was affecting his life too.  The proper (and probably the easiest) thing would be to quietly divorce her and go on with his life.  But in the night in a wild fit of sleep came the dream.  Ah, the dream!  “Listen to her, Joseph, she is telling the truth.  And she needs you.  This child will need you.  He will need a father in his life to show him how to grow up, to show him how to become a man.  He will need someone to hold him when he is afraid and scold him when he gets off course as all children do.  He really just needs someone to love him into being.  And Mary?  She is scared.  She needs you.  You can do this together.”  And, so Joseph awoke, took Mary in his arms, and the rest is part of the story.  But their lives changed forever.

We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us.  We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us.  The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience. (From “The Coming of Jesus in our Midst”, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Watch for the Light:  Readings for Advent and Christmas, December 21)

The Season of Advent is about waiting and preparation.  But in the midst of the tree-trimming and the gift-buying and the cookie-baking, remember to look for the moment when you feel the presence of God in your midst.  It will change you forever.

 

  1. What are your thoughts about this passage?
  2. What does the idea of God being with you really mean for you?
  3. What can we do to prepare ourselves for the coming of God into the world so that THIS TIME we know that it’s forever?

 

 

Some Quotes for Further Reflection:

If God’s incomprehensibility does not grip us in a word, if it does not draw us into [God’s] superluminous darkness, if it does not call us out of the little house of our homely close-hugged truths…we have misunderstood the words of Christianity. (Karl Rahner)

To love God is to follow the mystery, to be led by its showing and withdrawing. (John Dunne)

God is now on earth and [humanity] in heaven; on every side all things comingle.  [God] has come on earth, while being fully in heaven; and while complete in heaven, [God] is without diminution on earth…Though being the unchanging word, God become flesh to dwell amongst us.  (St. John Chysostom)

 

Closing

 

Too often our answer to the darkness is not running toward Bethlehem but running away.  We ought to know by now that we can’t see where we’re going in the dark.  Running away is rampant…separation is stylish:  separation from mates, from friends, from self.  Run and tranquilize, don’t talk about it, avoid.  Run away and join the army of those who have already run away.  When are we going to learn that Christmas Peace comes only when we turn and face the darkness?  Only then will we be able to see the Light of the World.  (“Kneeling in Bethlehem”, Ann Weems, p. 21)

 

 

Proper 24A: Transcendence

OLD TESTAMENT:  Exodus 33: 12-23

To read the Old Testament Lectionary passage, click here

As we have seen, the possibility of Israel’s future survival and well-being depends on Yahweh’s promise and presence.  We are given two speeches by Moses.  They follow the story of the golden calf both in our lectionary and in the Scriptures themselves.  Remember that at the end of that passage, we hear that God has had a change of mind.  Now that is a surprising if not powerful notion.  This omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent Creator of all just changes God’s mind!  So, where, then, are we supposed to put our faith?  In what are we to believe?

In Moses’ first speech (vv. 12-13), the verb translated “know” is used three times.  Moses wants certitude.  He wants to know about the future and the way that God intends on being present for Israel.  Israel is, in effect, having a “crisis of presence.”  They need a sort of guarantee.  So, are you with me or not?

In the second speech (vv. 15-16), Moses’ response seems more insistent, as though he had not been satisfied before.  Without the evidence of continued presence, Israel will appear to be abandoned.  Essentially, Moses wants more from God than what he has gotten.  He wants absolute and unequivocal assurance that God is there.  I suppose we all want that on some level.

YHWH responds again and seems to give over to Moses all that has been asked.  He assures Moses that he has “found favor”.  YHWH is fully committed to Moses and the future of Israel.  The old promise is still intact, even after the calf episode!  The amazing response of God is at the heart of faith.  Because God continues in fidelity, Israel must continue in obedience.  The final verses depict that Moses does get to see God—but not God’s face.  The seeing is “dimly”; the knowing is “in part”, but it is enough.

Now remember in last week’s passage, we are told that God “changed his mind” in response to Moses’ insistent pleading.  Moses tries his hand at the same thing this time, probably pushing his luck a bit.  But God does not fully fill the request of Moses’ to see God.  Instead, Moses is allowed to see only the back of God because seeing God would mean the end of one’s life.  The point is that God does choose to abide with humanity and to be in relationship with humanity.  But God is still God.  God is not our buddy.  God is not our chum.  God is God.  We are not meant to fully understand God.  We are not meant to see all that there is to God.  Perhaps we can only handle the backside of God’s glory.  The rest is, I guess, left up to faith.  But what we come to know of God’s presence is enough.  But, then again, maybe it’s meant to NOT be enough.  Maybe that’s why we keep longing and searching for oneness with God.  And maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be.  After all, what good, really, is a God that we’ve completely figured out?  What faith do we need for that?

And God is described here as one who will be made known not by “seeing” (the usual revelation, I suppose) but in proclamation, in the proclaiming of God’s name.  Hearing the Word of God, then, IS the revelation.  So, what does that say about how real we are?  God is not dependent upon what God looks like.  God’s Presence is made known by hearing the Word of God; hence the language of God—Word, speaking Creation into being, and proclaiming truth and justice.  How comfortable are we, then, with the true revelation of God?  Or are we staring blindly into the abyss as God backside stares back at us?  True meaning comes from hearing and listening and witnessing to the Good News and then being quiet enough to hear the Word again.

 

a.      What is your response to this passage?
b.      In what ways do we demand to see or know of God’s presence?
c.       What does that say about our faith?
d.      Is the God’s Presence that we know enough?  Is it meant to be enough?

NEW TESTAMENT:  1 Thessalonians 1: 1-10

http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=279615541

The two letters to the church at Thessalonica are powerful witnesses to the early church’s struggles with the sufferings of its members.  The letters make it clear that separation from leaders, alienation from former friends and family, and ongoing threats of persecution and even death were present in the early church.  Paul’s powerful thanksgiving in the first half of this reading speaks appreciatively to God about a richness and a productiveness in the lives of the Thessalonian believers.  Paul’s goal for these believers was not the “good life” (i.e. material goods), but the “life that is good” (providing meaning).  He cites three evidences of “the life that is good”:  Responding positively to the loving initiative of God, welcoming and accepting caring leaders who cared about them, and tranformation in the lives of the believers.

As he continues, Paul begins to describe events in the more distant past.  It is a way of remembering how the community came to be—receiving the “word” (of God) in spite of persecution.  A meaningful life, for Paul, requires reliable resources, things that can hold and remain through time and testing.  It means that even when things seem to be falling apart, God’s promises still provide us with a center that holds.

But hearing the Word of God is not an individual thing.  It is in community that that Word is affirmed, interpreted, and lived out together.  Otherwise, even the words themselves can become idols.  Living them out in community makes them real, gives them meaning.  But it is a costly meaning.  Being a Christian is not meant to be easy.  This early church had indeed fully committed themselves to this community and to spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.  They were open and available to wherever the Spirit would take them.

You’ll notice at the end of the passage that there is no promise of salvation in some far off future life.  Rather, Paul tells this struggling community of believers that Jesus “rescues” them.  The verb is present tense.  In other words, just by BEING the community of faith, just by BEING the Body of Christ, just by BEING who they are called to be, the Word of God, the very Presence of God, becomes real.  Jesus rescues. Jesus saves. Jesus delivers.  Jesus redeems.  So what are you waiting for?

a.      What meaning does this passage hold for you?
b.      How are Paul’s words relevant today?
c.       What does this say about the faith community and what, as a community, it is called to be?
d.      What is different about recognizing Jesus’ presence and Jesus’ redemption as a present 
reality?  What meaning does that hold?
e.       What sort of letter write to us? To our church? To our society?

GOSPEL:  Matthew 22: 15-22

To read the Lectionary Gospel passage, click here

Continuing with the questions and discussion having to do with Jesus’ authority, those against Jesus once again tried to trap him.  After all, if Jesus chose God, defying Caesar, he might be arrested.  But if he chose Caesar, he was not who he claimed to be.  But in the same breath in which he declares that paying taxes to support secular and pagan governments is not against the will of God, Jesus goes beyond their original question, declaring that what is God’s must be given to God.  The Kingdom of God embraces all of life.  You cannot pit the “secular” against the “sacred”.

While the writer of Matthew is clear that loyalty to God is a different and a higher category than loyalty to Caesar, this text is not instruction on how people who live in a complex world of competing loyalties may determine what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God.  The writer leaves it to the readers to figure out what that we means.  Are we called to be part of this world or the realm of God?  (The answer is YES)

Governments are necessary.  Taxes are necessary.  But the point is that Jesus does not set the two on the same level.  God always has priority. Dorothy Day said this: “If we were to render unto God all things which are God’s, there would be nothing left for Caesar.” As hard as we try, Scripture and God’s Kingdom does not acknowledge a “two kingdom” view.  There is no “earthly and heavenly”, no “secular and sacred”, no “body and soul”.  God is here; God is now.   So if everything belongs to God, then what belongs to Caesar?  That would be the point.  But this is not a treatise trying to get us to ignore government or taxes either.  As we said, they’re necessary.  We humans cannot really function without them.  The question is to whom do we belong?  Whose are we?  Yes, THAT is what you give to God.  Yourself…(And that includes treating each other the way God calls us to treat each other which, I’m afraid, includes paying your taxes.  I’m sure we are called to live responsibly and compassionately in both perceived realms of the world.)

It’s not just a matter of prioritizing; it’s a matter of BEING the Body of Christ.  It doesn’t mean “giving” to God what is God’s.  It means letting go of what is not ours.  It means letting go of the success and the accumulation of wealth for which we have worked so hard.  It means allowing God to be God and becoming the very image in which we were created.  It’s hard; it’s tiring; at times it may even be somewhat dangerous.  In fact, it’s probably easier to pay taxes.  I think Jesus probably knew that.  So, with a sort of nonchalant shrug, he left it up to us to figure it out.  God doesn’t want our tax dollars. God could care less. God wants us–absolute obedience, total commitment, a complete denouncement of all other loyalties.  It means that all these idols surrounding us must be broken, all these distractions must be pushed away.  It means that we let God be God and, even harder, we let ourselves become the image of the one true God.

a.      What meaning does this passage hold for you?
b.      What does that say about our political life and our faith?
c.       How does this change our view of the world?
d.      How does this change our view of our lives?

Some Quotes for Further Reflection:

My ego is like a fortress.  I have built its walls stone by stone to hold out the invasion of the love of God.  But I have stayed here long enough.  There is light over the barriers.  O my God…I let go of the past.  I withdraw my grasping hand from the future.  And in the great silence of this moment, I alertly rest my soul. (Howard Thurman)
In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t. (Blaise Pascal)
Human beings may separate things into as many piles as we wish—separating spirit from flesh, sacred from secular, church from world.  But we should not be surprised when God does not recognize the distinctions we make between the two.  Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars. (Barbara Brown Taylor)
Closing
In order to be truthful, We must do more than speak the truth.  We must also hear truth.  We must also receive truth.  We must also act upon truth.  We must also search for truth–the difficult truth, within us and around us.  We must devote ourselves to truth.  Otherwise we are dishonest and our lives are mistaken.  God grant us the strength and the courage to be truthful.  Amen  (Michael Leunig)