To the Millennia and Beyond!

I CONFESS THAT I do not often use the Revised Common Lectionary. As a Bible professor, I prefer to read texts in their larger literary and historical contexts. When a brief reading from one time period is lifted out of its context and juxtaposed with another written many centuries later, it can feel like an invisible hand is forcing me to compare apples and oranges—or even apples and mushrooms.

Nevertheless, I have been enriched by this year’s readings for Advent and Christmas. My “larger historical context” has become the sweep of a thousand years of Israelite history, from King David to the birth of the “son of David.”

For Christians, the coming of Jesus was a singularity. Though we focus on his birth in this season, that lower-class event was barely noticed at the time, and it is not mentioned by two of our gospel writers. It is his entire life, ministry, death, and resurrection that echoes throughout the ages and ushers in our hope of salvation. Our prophets and psalmists from the Hebrew Bible could not foresee details of the Christ-event from their perspectives centuries earlier. Yet their intuitions and hints and poetic expressions of joy over God’s in-breaking from their times are now borrowed to give voice to our exultation over Jesus’ coming today.

In a culture measured by quarterly profits and immediate gratification by credit card, we need a longer view to better understand what God is doing throughout human history. These Advent readings call us beyond the present to the millennia of the past and the hope of the future stretching to eternity.

The other texts announce good news and provide comfort for those who have not had any in a long time. Isaiah 40 exudes comfort and excitement. Israel’s fortunes are changing! Yahweh will care for them as a shepherd with his sheep. But a 150-year-long silence lies between chapters 39 and 40. The 8th century B.C.E. prophet warns King Hezekiah that after his lifetime Jerusalem will lose everything and his sons will be castrated and carried to Babylon (39:5-8). But that was then. Right now Yahweh is working through the Persian ruler Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1) to bring God’s people home to Zion! By 539 B.C.E., a “Second Isaiah” offers comfort and hope for the end of exile.

Mark 1:1-8 announces good news by weaving together lines from Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3. “In the wilderness” John the water-baptizer announces the coming of one who “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (verse 8). But this divine intrusion follows 450 years when Israel lives without any prophetic witness to God’s presence, often under foreign domination.

Decades later, 2 Peter 3:8-15 addresses believers who wait for Jesus’ final return that never seems to come. Hang on—God’s timing is different than ours, but “the Day of the Lord will come!” (verse 10).

Advent symbolizes the end of God’s absence and the period of expectant waiting in hope. It is like C.S. Lewis’ land of Narnia, where melting snow signals that Aslan is on the move.

[ December 14 ]

Christmas Justice

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28

IF YOU KNOW anything about Luke’s gospel, you know Isaiah 61—or at least the beginning lines. In Luke, Jesus stands up to read it in his synagogue, making Isaiah’s good news for the poor Jesus’ platform for ministry. That he includes non-Jews in this social reversal is clear by his following commentary on the widow of Sidon and Namaan the Syrian. But this was so offensive to his listeners that they drove him out of town.

The original racial-economic context of this majestic poem seems quite similar. Scholars generally agree that Isaiah 56 to 66 reflects yet another period in Israel’s life. If Second Isaiah (chapters 40 to 55) represents the hope and thrill of returning from exile, then Third Isaiah writes during the years that follow the return. Starting over is not easy. For one thing, the elite Jews from Babylon do not return to an empty land. Many Israelites have remained and, without temple and law, have assimilated with other ethnic peoples in the area. So who is in charge? And how do we deal with syncretism?

It is the priest Ezra who brings Torah to the people and calls for breaking up inter-racial, inter-religious marriages in order to maintain Hebrew purity laws. In contrast, Third Isaiah, according to Walter Brueggemann’s commentary, argues the opposite: Yahweh’s covenant with Israel is inclusive of all nations and focuses on “neighborly needs.” It is this perspective that Jesus embraces—and that infuriates those who draw boundaries and claim special status.

The third context is today’s America, where some would keep out refugee children, where the “justice” system is biased, and where wealth inequality has grown to staggering proportions. If you stood in your church this Advent, read the Isaiah text, and challenged the audience to refuse to buy any Christmas gifts from corporations that underpaid their workers, what do you think the reaction would be?

[ December 21 ]

Kings and Royal Cities

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38

IF WE WERE British subjects, these readings would make more sense. The royal House of Windsor can trace its lineage back to the Holy Roman Empire. American citizens have no such tradition.

Three of our four readings name King David as the originator of a dynasty that Yahweh established and would maintain forever. This is promised to David himself through the prophet Nathan. The full reading of 2 Samuel 7:1-16 contains a clever word-play, where a literal “house” is what David wants to build for the Lord. But according to Nathan’s dream, Yahweh does not need such a house. Rather, “the Lord will make you a house" (7:11) from your offspring, so that “your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever” (7:16). Psalm 89 confirms this covenant in majestic poetry.

Whatever “forever” meant, the reality was quite different. Hezekiah’s sons cannot procreate. For centuries no Davidic king rules in Israel, as the Judeans suffer under occupation by one foreign empire after another. Even a century of independence does not bring David’s dynasty to the throne.

It was critical, then, for the authors of our New Testament to identify Jesus as the final fulfillment of God’s promise to David. Even so, there are mixed messages. Some scholars doubt that “Jesus of Nazareth” was actually born in Bethlehem, City of David. Although the angel Gabriel promises Mary that “the Lord God will give to [her son] the throne of his ancestor David” (Luke 1:32), a virginal conception does not biologically connect him to “Joseph, of the house of David” (verse 27).

Perhaps Paul got it right in his letter to the Romans. Although Jesus was somehow “descended from David according to the flesh” (1:3), the real revelation of this mystery is much more comprehensive and pervades all the prophetic writings (see 16:25-27). It is the good news that the message of grace is not only for Jews but also “to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles” (1:5).

[ December 28 ]

Odes to Joy

Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3; Psalm 148; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:22-40

THE TIME OF expectant waiting is over. The child has been born. Though the event was noticed only by poor and insignificant people at the time, with hindsight we now recognize its singularity. Set in this context, Psalm 148 calls all created things-—from angels to the solar system, from animals and plants to men and women—to dance and sing before the Lord in a paroxysm of delight. The poetry of Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3 echoes this joy. We celebrate that moment in history when “God sent his Son, born of a woman ... so that we might receive adoption as children” (Galatians 4:4-6). It is the still point of the turning world.

In Luke’s text, we shift to Jerusalem. The baby’s parents are law-abiding Jews, so 40 days after the birth they climb Mount Zion to dedicate him in the temple and offer their sacrifice. But more meaningful are the persons they meet. Both Simeon and Anna are old; it is as if their lives have been divinely extended in order to witness this moment and this child before they die.

Holding the baby, Simeon quotes from Second Isaiah: The child will be “a light for revelation to the nations and for glory to your people Israel” (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6). Though Luke quotes Simeon’s prophecy, we know more about Anna, also a prophet. She is from the tribe of Asher, one of the 10 lost tribes—which hints at Luke’s inclusive agenda of Jesus restoring all of Israel as well as bringing light to the nations. A fixture in the temple, Anna recognizes many who come to worship. She speaks “about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).

What can we as believers do to carry on Jesus’ living hope?