The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for the Season of Advent
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Overview and Connections
Today, the authors of the Jeremiah passage and Luke have inherited prophecies of something coming, something that once felt urgent, but now seems blunted by the passage of time. These readings speak of promises made but not yet fulfilled.
Our human nature is to approach God as having human characteristics. How often do we implicitly assume that God, like so many humans we have known, is one who does not ultimately keep some promises? We might pay lip service to a different message, but functionally, I suspect many of us hold God at arm’s length, not able to believe that God always does what God promises in God’s own time.
What are some promises that God has made to you in the past?
The Advent season calls us to wait. When I think about waiting, I always recall the prodigal father parable in Luke 15. I imagine the father going out each and every day to the end of the driveway, coffee cup in hand. He watches and waits for his son to return home. I can’t imagine someone would do that if there wasn’t at least a tiny spark of hope that it would happen.
And then I think of the disciples after Good Friday, withdrawing in fear behind locked doors. Jesus had told them on multiple occasions that he would die and that he would also rise again. But it seems there was no spark of hope that could get them out looking, watching, and waiting.
These two stories make me think that the opposite of waiting, of expectant and hopeful waiting, is fear. I imagine the prodigal father felt some degree of fear as he waited for his son. But he didn’t let the fear rule. There was room for both the fear and the possibilities.
What fears are limiting your ability to wait with hope and expectation?
This is the beginning of a new liturgical year. New beginnings are always good times to take stock and look ahead. What blessings can you glean from the past year? What might you want to do differently going forward?
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Chp 32 opens with the story of Jeremiah buying a field, symbolic of God’s promise to restore the Jewish people to their homeland. Chp 33 continues an exploration of that theme. Vv14-26 introduce the idea of the Messiah coming to rule the future restored kingdom, which will be a continuation of the line of David.
These verses are an almost verbatim duplicate of Jeremiah 23:5-6. Most scholars see those verses as the original oracle of the prophet, while today’s verses are likely a later disciple reusing it for a new situation. Jeremiah, in his career, had predicted the reestablishment of the Davidic dynasty. One can imagine the people, in long years of exile, coming to doubt that prophecy and needing to be reminded of it in fresh form.
These verses contain a promise of redemption, and they also highlight the characteristics of that redemption:
- It is inclusive – both the northern and southern kingdoms are involved.
- It is united. It recalls the Davidic monarchy as a time when the land enjoyed peace and prosperity, united under a single, strong ruler.
- It is a time of peace and security.
- The name Jerusalem means “city of peace.” Its new name will be “the LORD our justice,” suggesting that justice is the overriding quality. The Message translates the last verse as “The motto for the city will be, ‘GOD Has Set Things Right for Us.”
These verses may well be a revival of an old promise for new times. Perhaps the God who made us knows well that we forget and often need to be reminded of things. Recall some promises you know God has made. How might you renew your faith in the God who made those promises?
1 Thessalonians 3:12—4:2
Vv11-13 are a prayer of intercession, couched in the form of a blessing. This prayer contains three petitions: for Paul to make a return visit to the community; for an increase in their love for each other and for all people; and for the fulfillment of their Christian life of holiness.
Chp 4 begins with an exhortation. For the short time Paul was with them, the community received a model of how to live the Christian life. Paul doesn’t spell it out again here; he simply reminds them of what they know. This is an important point about the need for Tradition in the Christian life. Paul was with them and orally taught them how to live. That oral teaching was then continued in the community by preachers and teachers. And it is that oral teaching to which Paul refers. Both the written word of scripture and the oral teaching were and are necessary in order to understand the Gospel.
Scripture spells out in many other places how to live the Christian life. But perhaps we can take a few pointers from Paul’s prayer in particular. First of all, we are to live as people who love. We are to increase in that love more and more. It is a love we have for each other, and also a love we have for those outside our circles. It is a love that encompasses all.
How do you live so that love increases and abounds in your life?
The second way to live the Christian life is to grow in holiness. In his Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete Et Exsultate: On The Call To Holiness In Today’s World, Pope Francis lists some signs of growing holiness which include perseverance, patience, and meekness; joy and a sense of humor; boldness and passion; being in community; and being in constant prayer. In what ways are these signs of holiness already present in your life?
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
The Gospels are a special genre of literature. But nothing is completely one thing or another. Within the gospels we find poetry and wisdom teaching, along with apocalyptic passages such as today’s reading.
Chp 21 can be interpreted through two lenses. One lens shows the consequences of the religious leaders’ rejection of Jesus; the other lens looks to the future vindication of Jesus with God’s reign established on earth for all eternity.
Vv25-33 show a series of cosmic disasters. Vv10-11 began to narrate a series of disasters, and v25 picks up the series but, in the latter verses, Jesus is shown as in control and victorious.
At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple, which leads to a discourse on the last days. Luke is particularly interested in Jerusalem and the temple. The gospel begins and ends there. Vv 8-24 seem to talk about the fate of Jerusalem and recall the destruction of the temple that had already happened when Luke was writing. Today’s passage expands that (in typical Lucan fashion) to the fate of the whole world.
When Mark uses this material in chp 13 of his gospel, Jesus adds that no one knows the day or hour, not even him. Luke moves this saying out of the gospel into Acts 1:7. Luke also makes a much stronger distinction than Mark between what happened to the temple and what will happen at the end of time. Mark was most likely writing just before the destruction of the temple. It would have been next to impossible for him to conceive of its destruction; it might as well have been the end of the world. Luke is writing after that event and knows that it was, in fact, not the end of the world. So the Jesus in Luke makes those two things much more distinct.
V25 begins the passage with a series of strange phenomena. Compare the list with Isaiah 13:10 and Joel 2:31. Many places in the Old Testament associate the coming of God’s reign on earth with similar cosmic disasters.
Vv29-33 are not in the lectionary reading but present a parable of the fig tree – a metaphor for reading the signs of the times. Fig trees predictably lost their leaves each year and then produced new ones just before the summer harvest. On the one hand, with this metaphor, Jesus seems to say if you are attentive enough, you can figure out when these things will happen. But this is balanced by the following verses which suggest that it will come as a surprise.
V34 speaks of drunkenness and “carousing,” a Greek word meaning the nauseous aftereffects of drinking too much. For Luke’s audience, the way to drown out the constant barrage of daily life was to party and get drunk. Our modern culture often uses entertainment such as social media, movies, and sports to accomplish this end. Always we must be on guard against fundamentalizing scripture. If we read this and say, “Oh, I don’t party and drink too much, so I’m fine” then we miss the point.
Teilhard de Chardin in The Divine Milieu says that “we Christians have been charged with keeping the flame of longing alive in the world.” The season of Advent invites us to once again light our own flames of longing for Christ to come. We could point to any number of events on the world stage as a reason for that flame to be doused. Do you believe in Christ’s parousia? Do you believe that Christ will come again? Do you believe that Christ is coming right here and now? Do you look for that coming so ardently that nothing else matters? Are you praying that coming into being? Are you setting your own flame of longing on a hill to shine for others?
This passage presents two possible ways of responding to Christ’s coming. One is to be fearful and hide. The other is to stand up and look around. When I read this passage I often think of my cousin. At 6’7”, he served for a time in the Secret Service, guarding presidents. Training for these agents is completely against the grain: if you hear shots fired, stand up and stand over your charge. Such a reaction in a time of duress can only be achieved through long hours of repetitive training. It does not come naturally. In what ways might you train yourself to look around at our world today and, rather than becoming fearful, to stand tall with head high, on the lookout for the coming of Christ?
Big events that are looked to with high anticipation have the power to shape our lives. An expectant mother prepares in a consuming way for a new child. A bride and groom prepare in a consuming way for a new life together. A recent college graduate prepares in a consuming way for a career. In what ways is the anticipation of Christ’s coming evidenced in a consuming way in your own life?
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© 2024 Kelly Sollinger