Jer.33:14-16 see also 23:5 and 31. One may wish to go back to v.6 or so. It gives a nice sense of Advent promise. Thai is within the book of consolation section, in my opinion. It does seem to have an appeal to the exiles, so post destruction of 587.
This section is not in the Septuagint, and only v.16 in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This closes the little book of consolation, and that in itself could be a good entry point for Advent. I realize that this is a relatively short passage, so one could extend it toward the end of the chapter or back to the beginning of the chapter. The lectionary discipline is important to me, but I still treat the passages as a guide more than explicit command.
1) we pick up on Jer. 23:5-6 as an extension of hope. Promise in v. 14 is literally good word, so gospel.
2) righteous Branch shares first sounds (ts) with sprout-are we correct in assuming that the sprout comes from something cut off or even chopped down? What are some good images or vignettes that would make clear a sprout emerging from the ashes, such as the phoenix?Branch/dawn/dayspring (LXX) has the sense of something/someone emerging/coming to light
3) The promise of salvation for Judah remains from 23:5, but safety now centers on Jerusalem.Please notice the new name of Jerusalem: God is our righteousness-To me righteousness in the OT is relational, but that includes our relations with the least of these: the traditional concern of Jewish ethics, the widow, the alien, the orphan.(A good example of this reading of righteousness is the book Mighty from their Thrones by Walsh).
4) Since 9/11 we read the hope for safety more directly. Of course, crime’s evil power makes us aware of personal safety, as well as the media reports of disasters of all types, as the plague continues.
5) Church and state are considered together, but function differently. Please note that Jerusalem gets a new name not the kings as in ch. 23.
6) The image here obviously is reworked over time. How do Christians cleave to the same image and how have we changed it? We still do not see its promise fulfilled. How do you handle that in Advent? Can we, should we, spiritualize it?
7) This passage sees God as faithful into the future. How do we align that with predictions of destruction in the popular forms of end time interpretation?
8) If our passage is a later addition to the book’s corpus, it brings up the question of absence and restoration. This could be fitting in a time when it seems exceedingly difficult for worship attendance to move back to former levels, virus or no virus. What would the people do without the gateway to God, the temple? What would the people do without God's representative for governance?
9)This could be an opportune time to examine the word, righteous, and make it more than a churchy word, easily dismissed. If you see it as right relations, what does that look like in 2021?
10)The branch, the sprout, may emerge from something that may well appear dead. In the midst of the ashes now, what sprouts of hope do you see emerging in Advent 2021
11)Consider examples of how a mere sprout in history grew into something much more stable and vital.
12)Jerusalem, the temple site, possibly or probably destroyed by the time of our section, acquires a new name. One could use the name and apply it to the local church.
Anne Stewart, From Working Preacher-It is a period of waiting in the darkness. It is a season in which we are caught between joyful expectation and the harsh realities of the present condition while we wait for the promise to be fulfilled. And the discipline of this season puts the church at odds with contemporary American culture, in which the holiday season consists of bright lights and celebrations and packages tied with neat bows. There is no room for darkness and little patience for prayerful expectation when holiday carols blare from every speaker and the neighborhood is glowing with displays of lights. Yet ironically, this experience of being out of sync with our surroundings may attune us more deeply to the nature of Advent. In Advent, we live in the unsettling tension between what is and what will be.
Ps. 25:1-10
We don’t often use Psalms as a text, yet, we live in a great period of Psalms study with names such as James Limburg, James Mays, Clinton McCann, Patrick Miller, William Holladay, and many others who may be connected to the Psalms group meeting in SBL. (I wonder if it says anything about my spirit that I mistype Psalms so frequently? For that matter, I mistype spiritual all the time too). For this psalm, it is an acrostic, so it has a device for easier recognition and recall. Also, it is very much concerned with learning. So, we could use some time to discuss Christian education and learning in differing venues. I was going through some CIFs (church information forms/want ads, in Presbyterian jargon) and noted the small percentage of active CE involvement v. the number of worshippers.
1) This is a personal plea against real enemies, a plea for help. I tend to read them as internal or external. I tend to include the enemy of cancer as well. At the same time one lifts up soul/nephesh/whole self to God.
2)put to shame is mentioned twice quickly. shame is a sense that we often repress or ignore, and it may do us well to reflect on it and its cure in salvation
3) 3-4 have the image of God as teacher, of torah as instruction/teaching more than law
4) 5-6 touch on the divine memory, so what should God be mindful of in hesed/steadfast love and what God should forget, sins? v.7 Mercy-related to womb (rehem) so motherly love/tender mercies?
5) v. 10 tells us of the paths of v. 3-6) who are the humble do you think? Is this a virtue we honor in 2012? Do we see humility as a virtue any longer? Can we dare to call most American Christians to be of the humble?
7) in v. 8 how does God instruct sinners? In your experience how does God instruct sinners?
8) We only have to extend the reading a bit, and we get the big three Hebrew words for sin. hata=hamartia =to miss the target-pata=transgressions/rebellion, and guilty -awon- has a sense of being twisted/bent out of shape/pushed down.This is a welcome antidote to our current view of sin as mere mistake or minor personal fault or miscalculation. These views are all much deeper and less cognitive than our current way of speaking of sin.
9 McCann thinks it probable that we are being directed to its center, v. 11.So we may need to adjust the reading accordingly.
10) What is Advent leading us toward? Way can easily be extended to a way of thought, a way of life.
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