{"id":876150,"date":"2022-10-08T13:48:32","date_gmt":"2022-10-08T17:48:32","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-23T19:55:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T23:55:34","slug":"bible-study-pentecost-23-c-november-13-2022","status":"publish","type":"bible_study","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/bible_study\/bible-study-pentecost-23-c-november-13-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible Study: Proper 28 (C) \u2013 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[RCL] Isaiah 65:17-25; Canticle 9; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is a pervading sense of both the present and the future in each of these readings. Indeed, the readings share a seemingly apocalyptic language with their repeated and related phrases of \u201cand in that day\u201d (Isaiah 12:4, NRSV), and \u201cthe days will come\u201d (Luke 21:6), of the un-remembering of \u201cformer things\u201d and the creation of \u201cnew heavens\u201d (Isaiah 65:17). The second letter to the Thessalonians \u2013 and even more so Luke\u2019s Gospel \u2013 throw us into a time warp. While they surely point to an anticipated not-yet, there is still something left to do in the already: communal work for the Thessalonians, bold testimony for the Lukan disciples. In this way, the readings are not strictly apocalyptic as much as they are an exhortation about how believers ought to behave in the here and now: to behold, to believe, to be here, and to be ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah 65:17-25 \u2013 Behold<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In the original Hebrew, our first passage from Isaiah (65:17-25) opens with the proclamation, \u201cFor, behold, I am about to create new heavens\u201d. While some translations, such as the King James Version (KJV), retain the interjection \u201cbehold\u201d, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) leaves it out\u2014and very much to our loss. For implied in this word (hinneh, behold) is a sense of here-and-nowness that defies time, of being present to something about to become. Whenever \u201cbehold\u201d shows up in the Bible, it is heralding the inbreaking of the not-yet, alerting its listener or reader to be here, to be present\u2014and to be ready. And in this passage from Isaiah, those who behold catch a glimpse of God\u2019s ultimate promise and vision. Beholding is part of the joy and delight in such not-yet heavens and earth, part of its promise and its creation. Indeed, there is a remarkable promise at the heart of this passage, one that goes beyond our human understanding of the already and the not-yet: \u201cBefore they call I will answer\u201d God tenderly declares (65:24). Our not-yet is already God\u2019s before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n