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A couple of heavy-weight lessons as we move another week into Advent – Is 40 and Mk 1. Here are a couple of thoughts to keep in mind as we go through -
First, three verses from a hymn by Thomas Troeger -
Wild the man and wild the place/Wild his dress and wild his face.
Wilder still his words that trace/Paths that lead from sin to grace.
“Throw yourself in Jordan’s streams/plunge beneath each wave that gleams,
Wash away what only seems/Rise and float on heaven’s dreams.
“One now comes whose very name/Makes my words seem mild and tame.
I use water to reclaim/Lives that he will cleanse with flame.”
Then this from Joseph Donders -
As long as we think about John like that
– preaching in his own country two thousand years ago -
his preaching remains distant and very far away.
Let us try to get that wilderness and also John’s word nearer home,
so that it can cut us to the bone.
Let us speak about the wilderness in which we live.
And let us think not only of sin but of the world we are accustomed to.
Ok -
Psalm 85.1-2, 8-13
+ looking at the whole psalm, vs 1-3 are all about how God has blessed, forgiven, is no longer angry. Then vs 4-7 are about “bring us home and don’t be angry”, “will you be angry forever?” Some think 1-3 are remembering previous times, 4-7 are about the present – a time when God’s salvation is not particularly realized. (Well, their present, which was perhaps kind of a “new years” event or a fall harvest celebration. Perhaps the harvest had not been so good. Note that the psalm comes towards it’s close (vs 12) with an agricultural note – the land will produce wonderful crops.)
+ note vs 1-7 are spoken to God, ie, are a prayer. Vs 8-13 are words about God, ie, are a proclamation.
+ vs 10-11 are just really nice.
Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.
Note the cosmic dimension – faithfulness coming up from earth, righteousness looking down from heaven.
+ vs 13 – Righteousness will go before him - How does John the Forerunner resonate with this image?
+ to sum it up, as God has done before, God will respond to our need, but has not yet. What is it that we need today?
Is 40.1-11
+ the historical context is most likely the Babylonian exile. The Israelites were defeated in battle by the Babylonians, and sent off into exile. Years have gone by...
+ Four voices. Vs 1,2 is God imploring someone to comfort God’s people. Note 3 elements -
1) their warfare/slavery is over, 2) their iniquity is pardoned, and 3) their suffering has paid double for their sins. How does suffering pay for sins – or is it just that when you are pitiful enough God’s heart melts?
+ Vs 3-5 another voice calls for a highway to be cleared, on which God would travel from Babylon back to The Land of Promise, and the people would tag along. I like that “Land of Promise” idea. “The Promised Land” sounds like a specific place (and time?). The Land of Promise could be anywhere – even here in Marquette! Does this help us with Donders’ suggestion (above)?
+ the third voice (vs 6-8) calls for someone to “Cry out”. Even though human experience is as fleeting and fragile as grass, God’s word has endured from the time of Creation and is dependable.
+ in the fourth voice, Isaiah calls on Jerusalem to proclaim all around that God is coming. Note that again God is coming with great power and with shepherd-like tenderness. Those two qualities don’t mix very well in anyone but God. “God’s reward and recompense” – what are they about? One writer suggests it’s like the spoils of war – I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.
+ Jerusalem is to cry out from the highest mountain – is that effective? Do we think of Jesus giving a sermon on the mount?
+ Lines from a Harry Chapin song in The Cotton Patch Gospel-
When I look up, what do I see,
- whoa, Sweet Jesus on the mountain top, bring everybody peace.
When I look out, what do I see
– rainbow on the far horizon leading to eternity.
When I look down, what should I see
– road nestled in the golden valley, leading back home to me. (Or something like that.)
+ So what is our context? What would comfort us? Where do we see God’s action in our past so that we might trust for the future? I had an interesting (to me, anyway) thought on Sunday. Jim was saying how God created all that is, and that is certainly true, but also I wondered could you look at it as God created Adam and Eve, but then we have created people ever since? And also, if God created a certain amount of atoms, molecules, matter, and we have created all these people, what have we created these people out of? What is missing in our world because there are all these people?
2 Peter 3.8-15
+ we shift from the “letters to” section to the “letters from”
+ time and patience from God’s perspective is different than from ours. Do you have days that seem like a thousand years? Or is life going by too quickly?
+ the Day of the Lord – vs 10 – “earth and everything will be disclosed”. CEV says “will be seen for what they are.” Here’s bit from Frederick Buechner on Truth -
Pilate asks "What is truth?" and for years there have been politicians, scientists,
theologians, philosophers, poets, and so on to tell him. The sound they make is like the
sound of crickets chirping. Jesus doesn't answer Pilate's question. He just stands there.
Stands, and stands there.
As we say, it is what it is!
+ again, the CEV says essentially everything will be burned up and God will provide us a new earth and heaven – “We’re really looking forward to that,” it says. You bet we are. But this word does not let us take the earth and heaven we have now lightly.
+ Fire is cleansing more than destruction or punishment.
+ “so be pure and spotless” “You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout…” In fact, Jesus is coming to town because we can’t be pure and spotless, no matter how hard we try.
+ one writer notes it’s a question of worldview. If we believe God had a hand in the beginning, can’t we also believe God will have a hand in the concluding? Do we?
+ And then while we may struggle with the Day of the Lord as the ending of things of earth, we have no trouble thinking of several ways the things of earth might come to an end – climate, war, pollution, extinction, and so on.
+ Peter does not simply dismiss the ideas of final judgment, destruction, salvation, and new creation because of the delay, but rather “reimages” or reinterprets them. How do we think about these things?
+ Preparation is not timetables and Advent calendars, but being ready at each moment.
+ another writer put it “the new world is a place where righteousness is at home.” Does that describe what you are longing for?
Mk 1.1-8
+ John – Baptizer, Forerunner, Messenger. Which clicks into place for you?
+ John preached in the wilderness, and by the river, not on a high mountain. One writer says we need to take the ”wilderness” thematically and theologically, not geographically. What wilderness do you encounter?
+ “They told how sorry they were” – confession includes being sorry, I guess, but certainly goes farther than that?
+ John baptized them and their sins were washed away. Again, what about those downstream? It calls to mind the word last week about the sheep that drank and then muddied the water so others couldn’t. How does the washing away of our sins effect others?
+ John’s message is “anticipation and preparation”
+ John’s clothes and diet – he is intriguing and exotic, but Jesus is the story.
+ “Repent and be baptized” – addressed now to God’s people, not just to “others”. Again Joseph Donders – do we hear that addressed to us, today?
+ John and Jesus stories are linked and harmonized, including the “handing over to death”. Advent is not just waiting for the Baby, but also waiting for the one who is betrayed to death.
+ and finally this from Fred Craddock – “Memory is the soil in which hope survives, and that which is remembered is the promise of a faithful God.”
That’s it for now -
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