The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for the Season of Advent
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Overview and Connections
The first week of Advent always looks forward to Christ’s second coming. The 2nd and 3rd Sundays focus on John the Baptist, announcing Christ’s first coming as he began his earthly ministry. This fourth Sunday is always a focus on the nativity of Christ. We travel backward in time as it were.
Christ is coming! Micah predicted his coming over 500 years before he came. He came. He will come. He is coming moment by moment. His coming has been predicted for a very long time, but it is happening. Mary brought Christ’s presence to Elizabeth, just as we bring Christ’s presence to the world each moment of our life. Get ready: Christ is coming!
Micah 5:1-4a
Last week we heard from Zephaniah whose ministry was in the 600s BC – just before the fall of Jerusalem. Micah is about 100 years before that. The fall of the kingdom began after King David’s reign, about 1000 years before Christ. After David’s death, there was no clear succession and almost immediately the kingdom was split into north and south. Over time the northern kingdom was increasingly harassed by foreign nations and it fell to foreign rule in 720 BC.
Micah is concerned about the people’s rejection of God. Religious expression under King David was strong, but over the centuries, more and more people turned to other gods. Micah predicts a punishment coming because of this sin, so we see allusions in him to the Babylonian exile. He is primarily concerned with social justice and points out neglect of the poor. Micah lived in a time of wars and invasions, but he concentrates on denouncing the people for their lack of social justice.
The prophet Jeremiah drew heavily on the prophet Micah, who was a “prophet of doom” before him.
Today’s reading is a message of hope from the middle of the book – right in the middle of the doom and gloom! (chps 4-5). This is the only use of Micah in the Sunday lectionary, but I would argue it’s one of the most recognizable passages of the Advent season.
V1 begins by addressing Bethlehem-Ephrathaha, which is always challenging to pronounce. Bethlehem we know, but where or what is Ephrathaha? In 1 Samuel 17:12, we are introduced to David, the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Historically, Ephrathites were the original Canaanite inhabitants of what later was named the Jewish city of Bethlehem. To complicate things, there were actually two cities by the name of Bethlehem: one was in the northern province of Galilee (see Joshua 19); the other was in the south. Adding “Ephrathaha” clarifies that the prophet is speaking to the city in the south.
Identifying the city name this way made it intelligible to both Jews and non-Jews, and it concretely locates the geography. The main point is: salvation comes from an insignificant little city.
Bethlehem means “house of bread,” while Ephrathaha means “field of fruit or fruitful.” Matthew 2 will quote this verse when the Jewish leaders answer Herod, who wanted to know where the Messiah king would be born. The expectation of the Messiah coming from Bethlehem in the south had a long tradition, beginning with the prophet Micah.
From an insignificant little town is coming someone who will rule Israel much like King David, someone who has inconsequential origins.
V2 says that God “will give them up.” Other ways to translate this include “truly he will leave them helpless” (Jewish Study Bible) or “Israel will be abandoned” (NIV). It will be as though God is no longer with them until she who is to give birth has borne her child.
Traditional Jewish interpretation saw this as a reference to all the trials and hardships that Israel would suffer until the coming of the Messiah. The birth metaphor in general reflects the struggle involved in letting go of one form of existence in order to emerge into another. Of course, Christianity read back into this a prophecy of an actual birth.
This verse feels to me like a dissonant note in this season of joy, but I think we always have to balance the nativity against the shadow of the cross. We Balance the joy with the trials that bring us to that joy.
The last part of v2 envisions a time of exile that eventually results in a return and all being reunited. V3 turns even more optimistic, with the Messiah overcoming all the struggle and setting up a kingdom of peace and prosperity.
V4 begins by saying “he shall be peace.” The Jewish Study Bible translates this phrase, “he shall wax great to the ends of the earth; and that shall afford safety.” Perhaps we Christians translate this verse through the lens of the many times when Jesus brought peace with his very presence. Peace in scripture is more than the absence of conflicts; it involves a wholeness, a total well-being.
We could read this passage in something of an apologetic mode: see! Eight centuries before Christ came, the prophets predicted him, and even said where he would be born. That must prove the validity of our faith!
That’s not untrue, but to restrict it to this would be to miss the richness of this as an Advent reading. Remember: Christ came, Christ is coming again, and Christ is always coming. Christ came in concrete circumstances in a little town called Bethlehem. Christ will come again, in concrete circumstances in the history of the world. Christ is always coming… in the concrete circumstances of our daily lives. This Advent reading is there to give us hope for all the comings of Christ.
Can you think of great things in your own life that came from insignificant beginnings? What small things are being birthed in your right now that might be the start of something much greater?
Hebrews 10:5-10
There was a note of dissonance in the Micah reading and we get one here as well. Again, we can never separate the birth from the death; the mystery of the incarnation includes the entirety of Jesus’ earthly life.
Part of the message of Hebrews for this season is to say, “Don’t stagnate in this in-between time!” To apply this to the Advent season: we are living in that in-between time between Christ’s first coming and his second coming. The author exhorts us to keep watch and keep growing.
This section in Hebrews is about putting the exhortations of the earlier chapters into practice. Chps 8-10 summarize everything; they’re the pinnacle of the book. The main point is that Jesus’ sacrifice, his ministry, the new covenant – all of this is vastly superior to what came before. Last week in the Luke reading, John told his listeners that their Jewish blood was no longer enough to keep them in right relationship with God. Hebrews 10:1-18 is saying the same thing: the Jewish system of sacrifices is no longer enough for right relationship with God. Rather than a system of sacrifices always at work trying to keep people in right relationship because of sin, Hebrews lays out Jesus’ death as the ultimate sacrifice intended to address the root problem: sin itself.
One commentary observed that this is “one of the most important passages in Hebrews for it defines Christ’s sacrifice as the offering of his body in obedience to his Father.” It seems to me that, in being called to imitate Christ (Christians = little Christs), this is also exactly what we are being called to. Not to some heroic martyrdom; but, rather, to a daily offering of our entire being up to the will of the Father. A preeminent example of this is Mary, who offered her entire being up to the will of God in the concrete circumstances of her daily life.
V3-4 are not in the lectionary but they reference the fact that the Jewish sacrificial system could never take away sins. This leads into v5: because that system could not ultimately save people, Jesus himself came into the world. Vv 5-7 then quote Psalm 40:6-8.
Vv5-6 reference sacrifice, offerings, holocausts, and sin offerings; these cover the four main types of offerings in the Jewish system. V7 says yes, God instituted the Law which contained animal sacrifices, but that was not the primary interest. The primary interest of God is doing his will.
V8-10 are basically a homily on the Psalm passage, reinterpreting it through the lens of Christ. V8 says that God neither truly desires nor delights in all the different types of sacrifices, even though they are all made according to the law. In the original context of the Psalm, the message is that God prefers interior obedience over exterior observance of the sacrificial system. V9 says that God takes away the first (the sacrificial system) in order to establish the second (doing God’s will). In doing the Father’s will here on earth, Jesus takes away the law in order to establish obedience, which is what God truly desires. Other places in scripture, of course, remind us that doing away with the law does not mean we live wantonly. Obedience to God calls us to a deeper observance of the spirit of the law.
V10 declares us hagios, consecrated, made holy, and set apart for sacred things. God has willed this for each one of us, and that will is accomplished through Jesus.
So what does this have to do with Advent? The incarnation is the entirety of Christ’s earthly life. Yes, we look forward to his first coming during this Advent season. But implicit in that coming, in his birth, is his death. And that death has accomplished God’s will of consecrating each of us, making us holy and set apart for sacred things, which was God’s original desire and plan at creation.
Christ came to accomplish God’s will. In what ways are you already accomplishing God’s will in your own life?
Luke 1:39-45
Last year on the 4th Sunday of Advent we covered the annunciation story in v26-38. This year we read the next passage: Mary’s visit to Elizabeth.
Luke’s account of the events surrounding the nativity are all intertwined with John the Baptist, who is seen as a great figure. But, always, Jesus is greater. To put it in the language of Hebrews, John represents the sacrificial tradition which is important, but can never be enough. Jesus represents the fulfillment of all that the Jewish tradition hopes and longs for.
V26 told us that Mary was in Nazareth, which is in the north near the Sea of Galilee. Today’s reading opens with her hurrying to a town in Judah, in the south. Because Zechariah was a priest in the Temple, we can assume he and Elizabeth lived in fairly close proximity to Jerusalem. The “hill country” begins with Jerusalem and goes south about 40 miles along the coast of the Dead Sea. This was about a four-day journey for Mary.
The scene opens with Mary leaving her home in haste: the angel told of her cousin’s miracle and Mary is eager to experience this miracle and perhaps share the news of her own miracle.
When she arrives, she greets Elizabeth. V41 evokes 2 Samuel 6: King David was dancing before the ark of the covenant with all his might. Both David and John leap and dance because they know they are in God’s presence.
Elizabeth, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, begins to pray over Mary. Luke uses the word eulogeo, translated here as blessing, but is a word that simply means to speak well of, like the eulogy at a funeral. Elizabeth was not giving Mary a blessing; rather, she was recognizing and speaking well of the blessings Mary had already received.
V43 is another parallel with the 2 Samuel passage; there, David asks “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” The Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament was a sign and symbol of God’s presence. It embodied the unseen God and was treated as the very presence of God. Theologically, it was the Council of Ephesus in 431 which gave Mary the title Theotokos, Mother of God. This was not a new concept but, rather, stating what Elizabeth proclaims here.
In v44 Elizabeth speaks of her infant leaping in the womb. This symbolism of leaping is used throughout the Old Testament to describe joy. The passage ends with Elizabeth once again “blessing,” or speaking well of Mary. Elizabeth is a prophet, gifted with knowledge of things beyond the earthly sphere of knowledge and wisdom.
This is such a familiar story, but I want to see if we can’t draw out a practical nugget. One of my commentaries made this statement: “There is always excitement at this time of the year. It is as if everything is filled with promise. Animosities are set aside; estrangement dissolves into reconciliation; the whole world seems gentler; and we are filled with the spirit of generosity… the possibility of newness is almost palpable…. Today we stand on the threshold of fulfillment.”
I think this could prompt us to ask some questions:
What holds promise for you right now?
What wants newness?
What threshold of fulfillment is beckoning you?
I also want to consider this: each one of us bears Christ within us. Jesus resides within us, and we carry him; perhaps not exactly like Mary did but we carry him nevertheless. I wonder: do people’s spirits leap with joy at the sight of us, at the sound of us?
Think about someone who embodies Christ for you. Imagine them showing up on your doorstep and ponder the ways in which they are bringing Christ to you.
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© 2024 Kelly Sollinger