Isaiah, an Old Testament prophet, is the prophet of Advent, proclaiming the coming Kingdom of God, the Messiah, and the joy and hope of Zion. However, the use of Isaiah in the New Testament betrays an underlying truth of the book \u2013 as Paul D. Hanson points out in \u201cIsaiah 40-66: Interpretation\u201d (John Know Press, 1995), it was written over several years, had many writers and editors, and it is difficult to understand as a cohesive whole. Today\u2019s scripture comes in what is known as Third Isaiah \u2013 the final and latest addition to the canon of Isaiah\u2019s prophecy. Hanson explains that this passage comes after the joy of Zion is delayed, leaving Third Isaiah to reconcile the current experience of the people of Israel with the one promised in earlier times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When reading this passage, it is important to remember the narrative of Jewish history. God acted mightily to save the Israelites from Egypt, leading them into the Promised Land and giving them the Law. However, the people of Israel had a difficult time responding to God\u2019s self-giving, straying from God time after time \u2013 a normal human tendency. Hanson explains that in this passage, the writer recognizes (and blames) the unfaithfulness of the people of God \u2013 and himself \u2013 for the delayed promises of Second Isaiah. The writer of Isaiah here implores God to \u201ctear open the heavens and come down\u201d (v.1) that the people of God might believe. Verse 9 gets to the heart of the prophet\u2019s message; recognizing the failures and waywardness of his people, the prophet begs God to \u201cnot be angry,\u201d to not \u201cremember iniquity forever\u201d \u2013 to remember, that despite all of this, that the prophet\u2019s people are the people of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the reader of this passage today, and at the start of Advent, Isaiah is calling us to remember, to hold ourselves accountable, for the ways that we fail to follow God to the fullest. Isaiah reminds God, and reminds us, that we are God\u2019s people, and although we have strayed, and although we fail to love God and our neighbor, that God does \u201cforgive and forget\u201d and that we are still inheritors of the promises of Second Isaiah \u2013 that we might see God, that the Messiah will return, and that we will revel in the joy of the coming Zion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The psalms were an integral part for the worship of the Jewish people. In Jewish liturgy, both past and present, the role of history \u2013 and how God acted in history on behalf of God\u2019s people \u2013 was essential to how Jewish worship was understood and practiced. Psalm 80 is the counterpart psalm to Psalm 79, both answering a simple question: How do God\u2019s people return to God after falling away?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Berit Olam series\u2019 book on \u201cPsalms\u201d (Liturgical Press, 2001), Konrad Schaefer writes that Psalm 80 is about returning to a normal relationship with God \u2013 a returning after a falling away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Psalm 80 recognizes several things about the relationship between Israel and God. First, it recognizes God\u2019s sovereignty and role in the lives of the Jewish people \u2013 God is a shepherd leading a flock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, that flock has become wayward \u2013 and they are suffering under the burden of their waywardness. This psalm might remind a reader of the prayer of confession, \u201cWe do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; the remembrance of them is grievous unto us, the burden of them is intolerable\u201d (Book of Common Prayer, p. 331). In this psalm, the people of Israel \u2013 as a worshiping community \u2013 recognize that they have fallen out of right relationship with God, and suffering under this burden, look to be drawn back into the fold of God their Shepherd. There is an urgency in the psalm, a desire to be again \u2013 and immediately \u2013 under the care and direction of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Verses 7 and 19 serve as a refrain and express the longing of the psalm\u2019s writer: \u201cRestore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.\u201d The writer of the psalm recognizes that it is in the capacity and graciousness of God to be forgiving \u2013 to offer restoration to all who seek God\u2019s face. In the face of our own sinfulness, and our own wanderings from the fold of the Shepherd, God is always there, beckoning us back, offering restoration and salvation for all who seek God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We often take for granted that the letters of Paul are actually letters. When we hear them read in church, or in private devotions, we often lose the fact that Paul was writing a letter \u2013 opening up a dialogue \u2013 with a specific people, in a specific church, in specific region, time and context. The First Letter to the Corinthians in no different. Paul was writing to the Corinthians about certain aspects of their church \u2013 problems that they faced in their own, Roman, metropolitan context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reading today comes from a section of Paul\u2019s letter known as the \u201cthanksgiving.\u201d It was typical \u2013 and rhetorically expected \u2013 that first-century letters would begin with a salutation and thanksgiving, usually to a Roman deity. However, Raymond F. Collins, in his analysis \u201cFirst Corinthians\u201d (Liturgical Press, 1999), points out that Paul subverts this tradition by appealing to the work that Christ is doing, and has done, in the midst of the Corinthian church. In this letter, the thanksgiving has a very eschatological edge \u2013 meaning that Paul is looking forward, too, and reminding the Corinthians of the promise of the return of Christ. This foreshadows themes found later in the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twice in the thanksgiving (vv. 7, 8) Paul reminds the Corinthians of the promise that Jesus would return. Paul\u2019s sentiment has the air of a Markean immediacy \u2013 as if Paul is convinced that Jesus could return at any moment. It is easy, when the Bible speaks of the return of Christ, to get lost in the uncertainty and mythos surrounding this item of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Paul is clear about what this expectation should do for us, as Christians: exercise and hone one\u2019s spiritual gifts, and work to be blameless. This is not a call for the Corinthians to work harder; Paul\u2019s exhortation is matched by his belief that \u201cGod is faithful.\u201d Paul reminds us that it is God who called us through the revelation and person of Jesus Christ. In this way, God will not forget or abandon us; God is preparing us, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to be prepared and blameless before the reign of God is fully realized on earth. Paul is calling the Corinthians, and us, to work toward the ends of the Kingdom of God \u2013 undergirded by the faithfulness of God through the life and revelation of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark, despite its position in the New Testament, is, historically, the first gospel written \u2013 the gospel closest to the ministry of Christ. Key themes, often attributed to its early nature, include the \u201cMessianic Secret\u201d (that Jesus\u2019 nature as the Messiah was a secret known only to a select few), rhetorical immediacy of the gospel message (often identified by Mark\u2019s use of the word \u201cimmediately\u201d), as well as Mark\u2019s \u201ceschatological immediacy\u201d (Jesus was coming back, and soon, so we all must be ready).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Narratively, this reading comes during the section of Mark\u2019s Holy Week narrative where the story slows down, and Jesus does a lot of talking. This passage concludes what scholars call Jesus\u2019 \u201cLittle Apocalypse\u201d \u2013 Jesus looking to the future and proclaiming the mysteries of heavenly things. We often think of Revelation or of the TV show \u201cThe Walking Dead\u201d when we think of the word \u201capocalypse,\u201d but as John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington remind us in their analysis \u201cThe Gospel of Mark\u201d (Liturgical Press, 2002), in Jesus\u2019s time, and throughout the Bible, the word \u201capocalypse\u201d describes a genre of literature that tends to be prophetic and forward thinking. This passage is no different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the ways to read this passage \u2013 the image of the Coming Son of Man, the warning metaphor of the fig trees and the call to prepare for the return of the Messiah \u2013 is to recognize the dual nature of the comments. The writer of Mark is using Jesus to speak to two parties: his disciples (historically), and to all Christians reading the gospel (narratively). Imagine the writer of Mark using Jesus\u2019 apocalypse as a means of breaking the third wall \u2013 Jesus is speaking beyond the narrative setting and talking directly to the reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, what is Jesus saying? After affirming the divinity of Jesus as the Son of Man (v. 24-27), Jesus uses the fig tree and the warning about the impending apocalypse to get the reader\u2019s attention. Mark, through Jesus, is calling Christians into a deeper life of faith and call, calling on them to be prepared for the immediate return of Christ, that they might be ready to join in the work of the Kingdom. (Think of Markean themes.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Verse 33 is a nice summary of this call: \u201cBeware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.\u201d The passage is calling Christians to live lives with an eye on the future \u2013 and an eye on the fulfillment of the work that God started in the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is an important reminder during the Advent season: We are not only looking forward to the commemoration of the birth of Christ, but we are the church expectant, waiting for God\u2019s reconciliatory work to be fulfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isaiah 64:1-9 Isaiah, an Old Testament prophet, is the prophet of Advent, proclaiming the coming Kingdom of God, the Messiah, and the joy and hope of Zion. However, the use of Isaiah in the New Testament betrays an underlying truth of the book \u2013 as Paul D. Hanson points out in \u201cIsaiah 40-66: Interpretation\u201d (John…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201221,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,23,52,3],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-767033","bible_study","type-bible_study","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent","category-bible-studies","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-advent-1b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":10,"label":"Advent"},{"value":23,"label":"Bible Studies"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":116,"label":"Advent 1B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/767033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bible_study"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/767033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951610,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/767033\/revisions\/951610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}