Is. 40 in a Viral Year

 1) Calvin noticed that a difference in tone starts here in the book. Most of us think that much of the next chapters reflect an exilic promise, far removed from the earlier material’s major concern.

Not only that we are in a sort of choral back and forth with different voices. We appear to be in another throne room scene as in Is. 6. We may well be in a meeting of gods, or demigods, if you prefer, with God as the CEO of the meeting. It is not clear to me how Isaiah is there, in a vision or some other form of transport. Hanson does a good job with this in his Interpretation commentary.

2) Comfort (nhm) here is a verb, an imperative plural verb. I guess it could be directed to a group in heaven.  Could it be to all of the people, if directed to the prophet as a representative of the people>? To whom would you direct it now? Notice the imperative to speak tenderly.

3) The response is one of resignation. Why bother? Life is transient.

4) Mark uses some of this material to introduce the gospel and the Baptist. How can you weave it into Advent? Many churches may have Communion this Sunday-how does that affect your reading?

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5) Double for her sins. The punishments were more than condign, they exceeded a proper sentence. Is this not more than tough love? For me it has the sense of enough is enough, or more than enough. Does this aid you in preaching with those who see the virus as divine punishment, and they know precisely what the punishment is for? What highway for God’s help do we need right now? What would make it easier travelling?

6) When God promises to be the shepherd, it is a swipe at the failed human leaders/ shepherds. Is it an admission of divine failure, of misplaced  confidence in human leaders? 

7) Does the statement about the transitory nature of life, as in the flower fades, get a satisfactory resolution or response, or did I miss it? How do you find comfort over that point, or as Bruce Springsteen says, “everything dies, baby, that’s a fact.” Yet, instead of nurturing the breath/spirit removes life (7). What word, which word stands forever?

8) If I remember correctly Lee Michaels had a hit with a song that started out, it's been 40 days, in Do You Know What I Mean, and Art Garfunkel had a song 99 miles. both deal with yearning on the road. Maybe that would be a good entry point to consider the King’s highway on this passage.

The roadway image has an apocalyptic element, certainly, but doesn’t it have a sense of obstacles being removed along with its natural upheaval?

9) Don;t let it slip by you in the rush to finish. There it is again: do not be afraid/do not fear.

Notice how far we are from the divine warrior in v. 11. Now reward comes and recompense. It has elements of a maternal image as well. Notice that the imperatives hide the last phrase of gentle leading.

A look at Is. 64:1-9

 

Some hold that we are in a new section of Isaiah from chapter 56. With a book that mixes so many periods and images, it is hard to tell. If they are correct, we are dealing with the disappointment of the returned exiles that everything is not perfect, but so difficult. Returning home is fraught with peril.

This section is a counterpoint to preceding material.

1) The writer yearns for the active presence of God, as we all do, at least at times. We do not enter into the presence of God as much as God moves toward us. For Advent this makes it a verb, as in a God who arrives, who makes an entrance. It wants signs and wonders, as in the old days. When Jesus is baptized, the heavens indeed split open.

2) If I understand v. 5 (NRSV) correctly, they see God hiding and this pushed them into a complacency that allowed sin. In other words God has some responsibility for the sin of the people with the seeming deafness. While ch. 40 has voices of heaven, no one calls here in the awful silence. Seitz (NIB:529) sees this as the cry of the servants who suffer.

3) It seems to me that “yet” means that in spite of God's hidden quality, God is still a father. We have a good example of father language here  as our, not my; a sense of God, the creator of all. All Israel begs for help. Here is an interesting way to take the chosen and still make a universal claim.

4) Do I detect, in v. 7, at least a hint that people do not call on God because not only is God not seen, but God doesn't listen anyway? These are people tired of waiting and waiting, yet are told that God works with those who wait and hope. Qavah has a sense of gathering, of expecting, so God’s act was unexpected in v.3.

 

5) We move from a desire for the power of God as of old to an image of God as artisan. As we know from Jeremiah, the potter clay image is a powerful one. Here it has a sense of God molding us through adversity as well as success. It has a sense that our spiritual life is molded even when we may be unaware of the processes shaping us. I would hasten to add that the metaphor breaks down a bit when we consider that we, the clay, have some hand in shaping ourselves as well.

In our time, we are always looking for signs of divine favor. Here we could prize being an artistic creation, or it may lessen our arrogance if we see ourselves as rather inert raw material for the creative acts of God.

Maybe God has frustration in working with us that would be similar to my unmechanical skills trying to put together a crib or setting up a new device, or heaven forfend reading some assembly required for a special toy. 

On the other hand, this prayer sounds a challenge. What does God expect of us; God made us with these limitations and weaknesses.

 

6) This silent God, this invisible, this hidden God is a deep well. It is a healthy reminder that spiritual life is not dealing with an easy God. One could go in a mystical direction in pursuit of the silence. Hanson in his Interpretation commentary has a good section on this covenantal, relational God.

7) If you are unaware workingpreacher has nice commentary material that easily translates into sermonic material. Christopher Davis has a good, new view of waiting in his piece for this Sunday.

8) For those who see God as punishing us with the virus, the end of this passage is a moving prayer.

 

Rom. 15:4-13 Advent 2

Rom. 15:4-13 Advent 2

Romans is a difficult mountain to scale, but this week's reading could be worth  renting the equipment and moving toward its summit, or if you wish, heading back to base camp.

First I seize on the word welcome. Welcome home will be chanted in home upon home during this time of year. The word could mean in Greek, accept, embrace, take a hand, make a companion). This word alone could make a wedge for a sermon.

Romans extends the welcome: as Christ has welcomed you. I attended an ecumenical thanksgiving service in one of the in dependent churches that as a table of political brochures castigating anyone they consider on the left side of the spectrum, and speaking of being oppressed  anyone who disagrees with them. Now, I do wish to be fair, the romantic left in religious circles does not wish to extend welcome to anything but the latest facet of thought that catches their fancy either.

How do we welcome Christ? What receptivity and festal pomp fits the advent of Christ into our world?

Context: This section is on the dispute about food again, kosher or not. It has the tone of the Thanksgiving dinners where vegans assert moral superiority, or gluten-free food is the price of admission for some. Paul is desperately seeking unity among people determined to split into factions. In god's eyes, he will see both groups as important and equal, even if "strong and weak." Neither side may claim precedence over the other.

Also consider this context as an ethic between the Advents. Notice its univesralizing thrust. Life is too short to waste time dividing into sides. On the other hand, his ethic points us toward living as a messianic community, toward tikkun olam.

The blessing at the end of our passage, v. 13 is wonderful,and could be a sermon from that passage alone.

Is. 35-Advent 3

While an adversary is promised nothing but trouble in ch. 34, here we have a vision of delight. It seems ti take special care to reverse negative images of previous chapters. Faced with a panoply of images, the preacher may wish to select some natural images, or more likely images of new-found strength and courage. The holy highway that becomes a processional way could be a good place to go. Of course, fear, that biblical vice, is displaced, and is always a fruitful topic. Joy, that exuberance  so difficult to discuss closes our section. One could link it to the anticipation of Christmas, the first Advent. In Indiana, we could use ready-made agricultural images to fit the themes rather easily.

One could use v. as an entry point into disability and find some links to Tiny Tim perhaps.

Please try to avoid using these beautiful images and turning them into diatribe about no Christmas spirit or consumerism. If you need to do so, select another passage.

On the other hand, this could induce one to speak on a vision of a new future, in the face of discord and disharmony.

Is. 11 for Advent 2

As I’m working on this,  early Christmas, really early Christmas music, is streaming from the chapel. Of course, we have started Advent in the church year. We have permitted the destructive themes of apocalyptic material dominate discussion, but here the aim of the revelation is to point to a brighter future that is new, that does not replay the past.

Jesse Tree-Jesse, of course, is the father of David. Some use the Jesse Tree as a decoration to teach the antecedents and promises of the Messiah. It is a  large Advent calendar, in its way. Some may combien it as a gift tree for getting the poor some needed resents.

Regeneration- The emergence of a green shoot out of a seemingly lifeless stump is a type of resurrection. Patricia Tull notes in her commentary (229) the messianic power of this passage in  late second temple Judaism. One could perhaps use this image to speak of regeneration in individual and collective life.

Again Hicks and the Peaceable Kingdom, that we touched on in Is. 65 recently certainly comes into play again. Notice how he often had Penn’s treaty with the natives of his colony, a sign of political peace for him. Again, look at the shifts in his repeated composition over the years.

End of Predation-”Nature is red in tooth and claw” with blood. That violent element of creation is pictured as ending, and a new era of natural shalom will emerge one fine day. 

Gift of the spirit-we speak if this passage less than the fruit of the Spirit from the NT. We could spend more time on its emphasis on counsel, on deliberation. I learned 7 gifts, since the LXX added piety to the list, so it acts as the culmination of the set of pairs. Mental acuity is a major feature of this list of illumination. One could use it to discuss loving God and others with the mind.

Advent 1
Is.2:
Advent could be a difficult season, especially its end time is the beginning early weeks and our collision with a culture that started the Christmas season already in early November. One way to forestall complaints about Advent hymns could be to use the peace hope in this reading into a Christmas Song.

First  we have the close use of this one in Micah 4, or its opposite in Joel 3 .Zech. 8 extends  it.
2) The temple will be a lodestar, as well as the portal of the divine presence. All will be drawn like a magnet to it. Advent points the way, like the finger of the Baptist in art, to the Christ. It marks a turn from the trampling of temple and justice in chapter 1.

3) Torah is usually translated as law, but here it has the sense of teaching/instruction. It helps stifle the urge to make Judaism a legalistic faith. This is the antithesis of the troubles in chapter 1.

4) Of course, peace is the hope here. We point toward non-violent ways of dealing with disputes. The resources and the implements of war will be tamed and useful for life, not death. We will have no need of War Colleges.

5) v. 5 knows that hope becomes reality when we act in its light.

6) I may be wrong but here I find temple worship as instruction on how to live in the world around Mt. Zion. Worship prepares us for the work in the world for peace. In a time when worship gets downplayed, except for seeking a novelty, the temple material is a clarion call toward public worship.

I find Christ the King to be a most difficult challenge. I have a difficult time with the very idea of kingship in a democratic society. I dislike its sense of hierarchy. Calling the day of reign of Christ is scarcely an improvement, as reign seems to me to mean reign over, not with. I do not work well with the humble Jesus Christ being transformed into a cosmic czar with the ascension. Further, if that reign is active, it pushes me yet again to ask why then is suffering so rampant? So, I seize on a text that could be fruitful, including a difficult one such as Col. 1:11-20

The Interpreter’s Bible is quite good on our passage for Sunday. For me, the McDonald commentary in Sacra Pagina series on Col and Ephesians is superb. See also New Onmterreter’s-The new Outlook piece is excellent and please consider looking at working preacher for commentaries on all of the readings for this Sunday and going back a few years in the reading cycle as well

V.11-strengthened could be empowered, I would think,as God’s presence/energy infuses us

endurance/perseverance/ keep on keepin on  are good translations for hyponome, and makrothumia has the sense of longsuffering, of enduring suffering-more forcefully-give me your best shot-bearing up under suffering gets at it-both words are often translated as patience and run us into trouble often, both in distinguishing them and having a sense of “patience.”

V.12 Giving thanks is a nice link to the upcoming holiday.It is the last of four participles in the set.

Made fit/qualified to share is an unusual word  I suppose a legitimate sharer could work, especially with the following notion of inheriting a share.

Saints in the light takes us back to All Saints Day and a sense of being in the reign of Christ

V.13 here we are in a change of citizenship or being ruled from the power of darkness-we are liberated from one power to live in freedom and light in another. (see similar thought on light in the Qumran DSS)-the thought continues in the sense of being transferred to a different reime. Note well-that process is current-it is not for heaven alone.

V.14 Deliverance-redemption, as in release, liberated from bondage/imprisonment is the semantic field here

15-20 is thought by many to be a Christ Hymn-For me, the ley is Christ holding things together, and yes, that includes our thoughts and feelings in difficult times, I would think.

v.15-I don;t know if we should refer to Genesis 1 here or not. I am not sure if it helps or hurts the iconoclastic strain in Reformed thought. At any rate, we now overuse the word, icon, but its use may well be helpful in speaking of Christ this Sunday.

First born of all creation-This is a minefield, but I do think it helpful to made a linkage to the view of Wisdom in Prov. 8. It also helps with  later notion of being “before all things.” Still, I think that the emphasis is one of importance, at the top of a hierarchy, perhaps. The one of Bethlehem and Nazareth is above the rulers of Rome.

V.16- the little phrase in him is a deep one-I read it as prehensile, of grasping a reality, of being a participant and agent of it. 

We get invisible again. As Carrie Newcomer says, just because we don;t see something at work doesn't mean that  energy of change is not at work.

V.17 I am not sure if before is temporal or spatial. I stress the hold together (sunistemi) sun is a prefix emphasizing together. It had a sense of the coherence of the cosmos, or perhaps less formally, the connections , the networks of the universe.

head=can mean at the head of the class, but it can mean source as well, headwaters, say. The previous meaning is strengthened by the next phrase first place. Again, the rejected one is transformed here, as in the last shall be first.

V.19 pleroma, fullness could be a sermon in itself. Its emanations are featured in Gnostic speculations of its many leveled divine world. To me it is clear that the incarnation carried with it the gravitas of divinity.

V.20 Reconciliation of course is the theme of the Conf. of ‘67. Here it seems to be relating to the healing of something that has been ruptured, a bridging of a chasm, a bringing together that which has been separated or alienated.

Make peace strikes me as a long way from the criminal law image we use for atonement and reconciliation. If we insist on a legal metaphor, it sounds a lot more like the civil realm than the criminal.With the cross we are in a subversive mode for the images of ruling that we would associate with Christ the king.