1st Sunday of Advent Year B - Hearts Burning Within

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation during Advent

Today we begin to wait. We look back on our history (corporately, spiritually, individually) and see that many of our hopes remain unfulfilled. Think back to the beginning of this calendar year. What hopes did you have? What goals or resolutions did you make? How are those looking here in the last month of this year? Think back to an earlier phase of life when you had plans about the impact you would make in the world. How have you lived into those plans?

Today we begin to wait and Isaiah sets the tone with lament. Paul reinforces this by reminding us we are not yet where we would hope to be. Jesus reminds his listeners that he is leaving them soon and they must await his return. How will you wait in this season?

Isaiah 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7

You read background on the book of Isaiah here.

Our Advent readings begin with lament. This feels strange in a season supposedly of joy!

The exiles had returned with high hopes but then encountered the reality: the land had been laid waste and the temple was destroyed. The restoration was not progressing as quickly as they had hoped and the author sees this as being due to their sins. The passage is a cry for divine intervention rooted in the humility of knowing ourselves as ones who do not always say yes to God.

The passage begins with two titles for God. As familiar as we are with calling God Father, it is actually not a common designation for God in the Old Testament. The second title is Redeemer which comes from a Hebrew word denoting an individual who defends the interests of a person or group, particularly the poorest members of a family. This would be a widow without children, someone who has fallen into extreme poverty, someone sold as a slave, or someone unjustly killed. God has voluntarily taken on this role for us.

Verse 17 poses some interesting questions directed at God. Why did you make us leave you? Why did you harden our hearts? Doesn’t it feel odd to blame God for our sins? We know God doesn’t make us sin – we choose that. But God allows us full freedom, including the freedom to sin. This mystery forces us to see deeper into the mystery of God’s redemption.

In verse 19 The author recalls Exodus 19 and Deuteronomy 4 where God showed God’s self on the mountains. The author is asking for a similar theophany to take place: let us see you once again.

The rest of the passage laments where sin has led them. God seems distantly angry. The people feel unclean and unworthy. It feels like they are all alone.

Often we want God to come with loving kindness and tenderness and God often does show up that way. What is striking about this reading is that the prophet calls on God to come in fiery judgment and burn away all that separates the people from God.

Advent is a season of hope. And so we begin with this reading. It might seem that Isaiah is not very hopeful and yet I think he is. The God that Isaiah knows is one who is patient, and who never gives up hope in his people. This God is the one always waiting and watching for the son to come to his senses and return home. This God is the one who always wishes us to come and join in the feast. Equipped with this image of God, Isaiah invites us to uncover all the things that separate us from God, lament those things, and then turn back to God in hopeful expectation.

Advent is a paradoxical season. In early Gaul, it was a time of penance in preparation for the coming of Christ while in Rome it was a season of joy for that same preparation. Even today we see this paradox: we don’t sing the Gloria (just like in Lent) but we do say alleluia (unlike Lent). Another paradox is that the second coming of Christ is to be a time of judgment. We eagerly await to be judged?! We pray for the kingdom to come and yet, the final fulfillment of that kingdom is the end of the age – the end of opportunity to respond to the gospel, to be changed by it.

How is God shaping you right now? How are you cooperating with that? Where are you resisting it?

The prophet recalls God’s awesome deeds. What has God done in your life that you recall while humbly acknowledging who you are?

Think back to yesterday. If Jesus had appeared at a given moment, what were you doing? Would God have met you doing right?

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

See background on this book here.

These verses open the letter of Paul to the community at Corinth. They are both greeting and thanksgiving.

As much as Paul will criticize many things about the Corinthian community in this letter, at the outset he assures them that they are not lacking in any way. Every one of them has gifts that will help them wait and wait well for the appearing of Christ. Do you believe this about yourself?

In verse 5 Paul reminds them that Christ has enriched the community in every way. The word enriched means “to bring fullness.” God has taken the innate gifts of each person in the community and is working to bring about a fullness to those gifts. Paul mentions specifically the gifts of speech and knowledge; these were two gifts highly prized in the community but the use of these gifts is something Paul will criticize the community for later on in the letters. But he roots the discussion in gratitude for these gifts.

Verse 6 reminds them that Christ’s testimony has been confirmed among them. The word for testimony is martyrion, from which we get our words martyr and martyrdom. The word confirmed means to walk where it is solid and reliable. When we walk in the light of the Paschal mystery (Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection), we can be sure we’re walking on firm ground.

Because we walk on firm ground, following the footsteps of Christ, Paul reminds us in verse 7 that this means we will always be equipped to walk the journey. And this equipping helps us wait well. The word translated revelation is apokalupsis, which means “an unveiling.” In the context of the First Sunday of Advent, this can be interpreted as the second coming of Christ. The words Paul uses for “as you wait” imply an eagerness to do the waiting. They also imply a separation – a putting away all that should remain behind or does not serve our waiting.

Verse 8 references the Day of the Lord. This is an Old Testament designation for the final reign of God as found particularly in Isaiah 13:6,9 and Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11,31.

Verse 9 says that we are called to “fellowship” with Christ. This is the Greek word koinonia which means partnership and a sharing in.

Paul tells us that we, as a community, are not lacking in any gifts. Do you feel this to be true of yourself? What about of your community?

Think of someone in the Christian community that you tend to avoid for whatever reason. What gift do they have that might help you wait well for the appearing of Christ?

Mark 13:33-37

Background on the book

Mark 13 is called “The Little Apocalypse” (as opposed to The Great Apocalypse of the book of Revelation). This is a literary form that intends to reveal the mysteries of the future. In this chapter, Jesus describes impersonators, wars, earthquakes, famines, persecutions, divisions, and tribulations. He warns about following false prophets. And he describes cosmic events that lead up to a revealing of who he is and a vindication of the “elect.” In light of all this, Jesus says in today’s passage: be watchful for it!

Why do we suffer? This is a particular interest of Mark’s gospel and this chapter explains in the near term that we suffer for being faithful to the kingdom and to God. In the long term, we must understand our suffering against the backdrop of God’s unfolding plan. There is an invitation to a deep trust that God is in control and is working towards unseen aims that we can only guess at.

Are we to take Mark’s imagery in this chapter literally? Are we on the lookout for one too many earthquakes or a particular impersonator? Or has Mark shifted into metaphorical language to talk about the fullness of God’s coming kingdom – something that evades words?

In Mark’s gospel, this is the end of the first part of the Passion week in Jerusalem 11:1-13:37. Chapter 13 forms Jesus’ final discourse before his passion begins. In this chapter he will speak of sufferings (5-13) and tribulation (14-23). But then he will turn to triumph (24-27) and an exhortation to confidence as well as vigilance (28-37).

Verses 28-31 introduce the parable of the fig tree – a metaphor for reading the signs of the times. Verses 33-37 (today’s reading) are a second parable about being ready. On one hand, with the metaphor of the fig tree, Jesus seems to say that if you look hard enough, you can figure it out. But this is balanced by his statement in v32 that no one really knows except God the Father, so the second parable tells us to constantly be on watch.

Today’s parable equates the man traveling with Jesus about to depart his earthly life. He puts his servants in charge which equates to the whole of the Christian community. This might prompt us to ask – how are we doing in charge of the master’s property as we await Jesus’ return? We don’t know when the Lord will return so we are urged to live as though it might be in this very moment.

In verse 32 Jesus says we can’t know the day or hour – chronos time, chronological and sequential; the time we live in. In verse 33, Jesus switches to kairos time – God’s time that is not bound by chronology. In Kairos time, everything always is. It is in kairos time that we celebrate Mass and are present at Jesus’ passion because that passion is always happening in kairos time.

In verse 35 – the watches listed anticipate Jesus’ passion. Foreshadowing like this is a common technique in Mark’s gospel. Jesus is found in the garden in the evening, brought to trial around midnight, is denied by Peter at the dawn rooster crow, and sentenced to death in the early morning. At every point, his disciples fail him, reminding us that part of the reason we are called to stay alert is that we don’t always see and understand what’s going on right under our noses.

Jesus tells us to be watchful. We often get lulled into thinking that we have plenty of time. Plenty of time to get things done, to address important issues, to let things go until we “find time.” Some of us will get a wake-up call in the form of a health diagnosis. Or something will happen in the context of family relationships. Something that makes us realize time is up. That this life does indeed have a deadline.

What lessons does death have to teach you right now about waiting well?

How do you structure your life so that you are actively watching for and would welcome Jesus’ coming at any moment, at this moment?

What concrete reminders might prompt you to remember throughout the day to be watchful and alert for Jesus’ coming?

Although today’s readings and questions are oriented toward Jesus’ second coming, they are equally valid for the way Jesus comes to us in every moment of our lives. Ponder these questions from both perspectives.

Questions to ponder