Notes on Background of Advent

    Advent poses a huge cultural difficulty for us. We did not adequately explain the shift to adopting the Roman Catholic church year. It feels imposed, even after 50 years of older churches moving toward the 3 year cycle of readings and liturgical convergence. Of course, the main stumbling block is that Christmas ornaments start appearing now in early November. Commercial establishments often stop Christmas material on the 26th of December, just when the Christmas season, the traditional 12 days of Christmas, starts. Hallmark movies already have been showing Christmas-themed treacle. Folks do not accept that the calendar of church does not match the cultural calendar. We may not sing carols until people are sick of hearing them in the stores and radio.

If we do try to celebrate Advent, we have utter chaos. When Protestants get their hands on traditional worship, anything goes.  The meaning of the candles seems to be whatever is decided that they should be, and we have the gall to announce that it is the way it should be. The readings for the first week usually include the doom of the cosmos, always a surefire way to get in the mood for Christmas.

It is possible that Advent was being established by the late 300s. Being now licit with the Empire, the baptismamal day of Easter may have grown crowded , so Epiphany offered another date. Before Christmas, Advent offered a period of preparation for catechumens similar to Lenten observance.

Perpetuus of Tours (461–490) established a fast before Christmas that began on November 11 (St. Martin’s Day), and the Council of Tours (567) mentioned an Advent season. The Middle 

Ages saw shift toward abstinence recent shift to blue as/ repentance

Advent may have lasted  6-7 weeks but was shortened in the West to 4 a by 1200s.

We have some special advent sermons from fairly early dates. Please note that Advent usually continues the end of the church year on matters escatalogical. They look toward the Second Advent, the consummation of God's vision for creation.The old gives birth to the new. The third sunday was Gaudete sunday, and it shifted toward expectations of Christmas. It had a rose candle to makr the shift of the readings toward Christmas.

Lutherans may have started advent wreaths but it seems to perhaps date only to the 19th century in Germany.Advent calendars may date from the end of that century or early in the 20th century, again in Germany.

The Sarum Rite (110s Salisbury) was the original basis for the liturgy of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and where blue was used for the color of Advent.  It was often specified that it be an indigo to represent the darkness before the birth.  Shades of blue symbolize royalty, the coming of the King, hope, the night sky before the dawn, the sea before creation, and Mary.  I suspect that we moved to blue as the baby boom generation does not wish to hear words such as repentance.

Advent 1 Luke 21 and Jer notes 2nd Cut

 Lk. 21:35-46, Jer. 33:10-16

When we examine Scripture we do well to be aware of its context. We do well to examine with care the wolrd it is creating, and we do well to be aware of the world view we place on the reading. Few readings involve the latter more than readings of the end times. Many of us carry the 200 year old Darbyite view of the end times where the vision and images are placed into a pattern of predicition. Most of the television work on the end times fits this pattern, and some even pu the schema on the screen to watch us fit the material to the schema.

Both readings look toward a new day, better days and both reflect on the fall of Jerusalem, the political and religious center of Israel.  Jeremiah looks at the fall of Jerusalem and assures his readers that better days have to come.Destruction would not be the final word for Jerusalem, nor would exile.  Luke has Jesus taking a classic apocalyptic posture where the shaking of the cosmos reflects the coming of something new and big. Both dream of a dawning day of redemption. Would Luke have Jesus make a clearly obvious timing mistake, or is it more likely that he and his readers saw the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of its newly refurbished temple was an apocalyptic sign?  I think Luke may be telling us that all of Luke's readers live in end times, as we can look beneath terror and know that it is not the last word. Paul Tillich entitled his first volume of sermons, the shaking of the foundations, as he saw the upheavals of the middle of the 20th Century  as events that shook the way we look at life, a mental and spiritual earthquake if you will.

 

Jeremiah sees the destruction of Jerusalem as a reversal of creation, where chaos and emptiness reign again. Would God start over, or would it be left as a ruin? I saw that the ship New York sailed  with material salvaged from the 9/11 attacks. I wonder why we have not made more of the new tower in New York near the footprint of the WTC.We have images of the new coming from the old. The mythical Phoenix rises from the ashes. In Jeremiah, a branch emerges from a dried up old stump as the sign of new life in the face of the worn out and exhausted. Life is persistent; its urge to continue is powerful. Yes, the old do die out, but the new is being born before our very eyes. Christians read this piece with reference to Jesus, the son of David. A different kind of Davidic messiah emerged. We should be more careful when we think we can read the Bible as precise prophecy.

 

End times readings tend to be concerned with the ordering of human life much more than issues of individual salvation. As the new church years begins, we are pushed into seeing, as King said, where the long arc of the universe is bending toward justice and right relations. Communion is a great vehicle to consider this, as I bow to the wisdom of session in selecting this as a Communion Sunday. Communion itself that is a gift born from tragedy. Jesus reworked the Passover of death and the movement to freedom into a sacrament that both remembers his death but his passing over into resurrection and new life. Advent is a liminal time, and Communion is a liminal act, on the boundary between heaven and earth. Like a Thanksgiving meal, everybody in the family is included, but here we don't have a children's table. Everyone is given the same spiritual food and drink, more than they need. Scarcity is not an issue; distribution is not an issue. Here, everyone get more than they deserve or need. The Advent theme is to keep alert. Our eyes soon grow tired scanning the horizon. One benefit of Communion is that it keeps us alert; it keeps our eyes open. It helps us to discern the hand of God in events and people during our days. God often seems obscure. Communion is an apocalyptic unveiling, as we look beneath the surface of bread and cup and find Jesus Christ. As we await the Second Advent, the gift of Communion opens us up to the reality of the gift of the Incarnation, the first Advent. The generous god who shares Creation with us, also shares the very divine life with us in Jesus. The patient God gives us a glimpse of what human life can and should be this morning. we get the presence of the living Christ as a present to get ready for Christmas.

The Greek word here is engizo, a verb which expresses the immanence, the “coming nearness” of someone or something.  In the New Testament there are many things that might “draw near,” from the Word (Romans 10:8; cf. Deuteronomy 30:14) and the proclamation of the Kingdom (Luke 10:9,11), to appointed times (Revelation 1:3; 22:10; Matthew 26:45; Romans 13:12) including the end (1Peter 4:7), to that which is shown to be drawing near in the leaves of the fig tree, the promised redemption of all who believe (Luke 21:28; Romans 13:11), to whom God draws near in Christ Jesus (Hebrews 7:19; James 4:8; 5:8). 

The devastation is enough to take one’s breath away—which is the meaning of the Greek word translated as “faint” in Luke 21:26: People will faint (apopsychō = to stop breathing, be breathless) from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.” Susan Garrett writes, “In the apocalyptic view, events transpiring on the earthly plane are merely the reflection or outworking of events happening on a higher, unseen plane.” In other words, the battle between good and evil plays out both on earth and in heaven. In Luke 21, Jesus reminds his followers that there is always more going on than meets the eye. There is more to reality than they might see at first glance. Not either/or, but both/and.

Advent 1- I Thes. 3-Presbytery Wabash Valley Nov. 11

  Advent 1- I Thes. 3:9-13

Is God destructive or transformative?Will the Creator of the universe  see it perish? does god have a commitment to this creation? In working with this I went back to the concluding section of .. The church does not subscribe to the doctrine of inevitable progress. How could it in the shadow of the 20th century and its bloodshed and potential for global nuclear annihilation? When we read Job we saw that god loves all of creation, not merely human beings.l I wonder then if apocalyptic readings need to include a cosmic transformation a change in all creation toward
God's continuing work toward perfecting a work in progress. Isn't that part of what evolution demonstrates, a move toward increasing complexity?Jürgen Moltmann- eschatological resurrection of Christ means that what has been cut short is gathered up into the eternal life of the new creation. .. It is the beginning of the gathering up of the mortality of all historical life into the immortal interplay of the eternal presence of God (pg. 243, The Way of Jesus Christ)”.  Christ’s legacy is a future that gives hope, instills life in the present, and extends Christ’s future fulfillment to all who honor his name.  gathers into his “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) experience a spiritual rebirth into “a living hope  and participate in what Moltmann recognizes to be “the rebirth of the whole cosmos (pg. 263, The Way of Jesus Christ)”. This for Moltmann is “a personal happening with cosmic relevance”.this is a more rounded view of the biblical material than the placing together of a few passages and coming up with a precise plan.

I Thes. 3 Can we, may we,  read God’s direct hand in bane or blessing?Wideness in god’s mercy and grace. If creation is an act of sharing grace, why not the end?

How literally do we take the physical descriptions of the new heavens and new earth? the Old Testament used a set of creation images to demonstrate a shaking of the foundations, a new world order, as President Bush (41) would say. At the same time, it usually also paired images of earthquake changes with image of restoration.

Do we co-operate with the kingdom or not? Is it solely conversionist?

In facing catastrophe, in facing death, resurrection is needed.apocalyptic thinking rises when people lose hope in their own agency and they give up. We see a hint of it in the throw the bums out search for a non-political savior to help our political squabbling and doldrums.

When do we need a new beginning and when reform or hold fast to the old ways? Romantic folks figure change will always be for the better and that things can’t possibly get worse. Oh yes they can.Jacobsen- "nearness," -the imperative of the gospel, its life-giving assurance -- the Kingdom is not far off; it is not waiting; it is not an undiscovered country; it is right here in Son of Man, and in his proclamation.  ..:Be.    patient.1 The Greek Philosopher Epictetus (55-135 CE)  saying, "No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen."

God works within time. God works outside of our time. I do not cannot  grasp what happens when eternity means a Ends can allow new beginning. They do not have to be final. In evolution we speak of punctuated equilibrium, where things move slowly even imperceptibly and then take a dramatic new turn. God doesn't seem all that interested in cycles or turning back to the beginning as much as new beginnings.

Carla Works (working preacher)Built on a hill, the slopes of the city extended down to the port. On a clear day from nearly any point in the old city one could see Mount Olympus towering over the horizon across the sea. Mount Olympus, the highest of the Greek mountains, was the legendary home of the Olympian gods and particularly Zeus, who is considered the All-Father. Furthermore, images of Roman power were everywhere, as represented by the adoption of Roma among the rest of Thessalonica’s ancient deities.

The city esteemed the emperor with honors usually reserved for the Olympian gods. From its coinage to its geographical situation, there were reminders of the divine everywhere. It is of little wonder why Paul would praise these believers for turning away from idols to serve the living and true God (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

With these daily reminders of ancient deities and Roman power, it is also easy to see why Paul might be worried about the welfare of the new church. If the account in Acts is correct, Paul was forced to flee Thessalonica by night to seek refuge in Beroea (Acts 17:10). The author of Acts records that some of the Jews caused an uproar in the city and accused Paul and all those affiliated with him of turning the world upside down, teaching against the decrees of Caesar, and proclaiming another king, Jesus (Acts 17:7).

Brown (Working Preacher)-The language here becomes very intense. “Night and day we pray most earnestly,” he says, “to see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith” (3:10). The Greek verb deomenoi, translated in the NRSV as “we pray,” is a gentler and more elegant rendition of the term than its potentially cruder translation, “begging.” It is the same verb found in Romans 1:10 used in a similar context. It conveys a sense of personal need.

The intensity of Paul’s statement is further illustrated by the phrase “night and day” and the adverb “earnestly.” Paul’s invocation of prayer language — his petition — is to see the Thessalonians and to complete what is lacking in their faith. Timothy’s visit stabilized them in their faith (3:3). Now Paul wants to visit them to augment it. He indicates there is some deficiency present. The meaning of the apostle’s statement has been made difficult because the verbs katartizein (“to restore”) and hysterēma (“whatever is lacking”) are infrequent. Moreover, it is a somewhat challenging to determine how these verbs are related to the Thessalonians’ faith.

1. The end of the passage gives us our hook for Advent’s new age. You may wish to use the well-worn trope of the already and not yet of Advent.

2. This could be a great opportunity to extend the Thanksgiving mix of secular and sacred  from v. 9. One could look at the mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits of Thanksgiving. You could win brownie points in selecting people or activity in the congregation for which you are thankful.

3. Increase and overflow/abound in love (11) has the sense of making life a fit place for the new age to dwell. Notice the mutuality here. What are signs of that individually and socially? An interchange of the love of Christ, of Paul and the people occurs here.

4. Holiness is another religious word that gets pushed aside. Consider defining or redefining it, a la Tillich on justification as acceptance.  In our tradition what are marks of holiness? 

I Thes. 3-The letter may well be an early letter of Paul. maybe around 20 years after Jesus. The city was on the water along the main road between Macedonia in the north and /Thessaly region south of it, and was a major trading area. It apparently had a rich mixture of different faiths, including honoring emperors. It was founded by Alexander, named after his sister, and was under Roman rule since 167BCE. 

Paul fits Advent as he too is an apocalyptic thinker. He does see a disjunction between the two ages, but her sees the old age in its death throes and the new age coming into being. So they are between the times.

Second Cut for Presbytery of Wabash Valley Nov. 11 Jer.33 and Ps. 25

 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. 

4th Cut for Trinity Presentation

 Rahner’s rule (but ag/LaCugna) -God's mission is intertwined within and without

Pcusa God’s Love Overflowing with its emphasis on worship has a sense of 

Lex orandi lex credendi (law of prayer is law of faith) got a lot of pushback in the death throes of the internal liberal and conservative struggle  since the 60s.

We worship a large complex capacious God

Triple helix

Examine the elements of trinity toward the others in relationship Lose from Working Preacher-The three members of the Trinity do not -- cannot --define themselves over and against each other but in, with, and through each other. We do not define the Father as the One who is not the Son and who is not the Spirit (a typical set of binary power plays). Rather, we understand the Father in and through the Son and the Spirit. Or, even more radically, God the Father cannot be Father apart from Son and Spirit. It is Son and Spirit that give context for, make sense of, even make possible the Father. This mutual, free, and shared interdependence is a wholly different kind of relationship than those that govern our world.

God as trinitarian love see ND scholar-LaCugna-Living trinitarian faith means living God’s life: living from and for God, from and for others. ... Living trinitarian faith means living together in harmony and communion with every other creature in the common household of God... Living trinitarian faith means adhering to the gospel of healing fractured relationship-Trinity names how God is God for us. It reminds us that while we experience relationships as something that we are always either moving into or withdrawing from, God does not enter into relationships. Indeed, God does not have relationships at all; God is perfect relationship. "Moreover, if God is perfect relationship, and we are created in the image of God, then the doctrine of the Trinity is concerned with our life as well. We are called by divine God whose being is characterized by an eternal movement toward us, if you will, in redeeming love. Yet LaCugna also insisted that the Trinity names our graced movement toward God, grace to enter into that mode of loving relationship that defines God's very being.

God is love-distinct modes, aspects,  of it, but still it is love.

The spirit of life

God unveiled in part in bible big complex elusive ineffable (sublime in hymn)

Holy Spirit as  anonymous “person”

Use as ordination sermon

Hendry dialectic of ID and distinction

God open in relationship open to influence a la process 

Tanner and Rowan Williams God not another being so can’t be compared-God not in competition with creation tanner uses non competitive power toward christian ethics

Please do not try to make it a mathematical relation of 3=1 and 1=3.

Richard Rohr seizes on a triad as involving participation and community in his Dance 

Pcusa God’s Love overflowing-good on pg 10 perichoresis dance of relationships Perichoresis has gotten popular due to its dance image. It may well find its route in choreography, but more likely it comes from a sense of encompassing of making space for. If a dance, a circle dance perhaps. Bruce dancing in the dark, for in even trying to speak of God we will always fall short.

Its danger lies in imagining three people dancing, so it slides into tritheism

On the other hand we could isolate the dance itself with a couple nicely  but still the danger is there, but looking at a mixture of a solo dance may work better. A Fred Astaire clip may work. Dance is movement, often a structured movement with elements of freedom. Moves with a beat, a rhythm. 

It works toward the social Trinity of co-operation and mutuality, again as one is chary about separating the elements into 3 distinct, unrelated beings.

Show one of those dance clips beat, style-movement

If you are celebrating the Lord’s Supper on Trinity Sunday, this could be a great opportunity to speak of it in a Trinitarian fashion (see20-1 f God’s Love Overflowing)

Tanner and Rowan Williams- God not another being so can’t be compared-god not in competition with creation tanner uses non competitive power toward Christian ethics

Is. 6:1-8, -this is a worship vision. It invokes a large God whose hem fills the temple area. (church sanctuary is larger than the temple area).Worship reaches for the ultimate, contact with the beyond. God, God is present in this place. God allows us the space to be in contact with the divine. worship is our response to a God we cannot grasp or control. We worship then a large complex god, not a small The Isaiah passage brings to light an important feature of discussion of divinity: holiness. Holiness is distinct from the everyday, as it is in the realm of the sacred. In our time what does holiness mean in terms of separation for a special purpose? 

This could be a fine time to work with the  transcendent God as a corrective to our God as buddy or instrument of our desires.

In a related vein, how do you see the lips being touched, maybe purified by a coal from an altar.  This could be a great place to discuss how we use our lips, or how we do not speak of God at all.

Again, one could align this purification with congestion and Forgiveness in the liturgy.

The seraphim may well have been more fearsome than our domesticated  imagination. William Placher bemoaned our puny religious imagination in an age when our imaginations are able to be seen with the magic of CGI in movies. 

Brunner- “Human reason cannot figure its way to such a God, since a God we could figure out, a God fitted to the categories of our understanding, would therefore not be transcendent in an appropriately radical sense. We can know the transcendent God not as an object within our intellectual grasp..” 

Glory has a sense of presence for me, but it also has a sense of gravity, weightiness, splendor as would befit the divine.

For Trinity Sunday, this is an image of a God who breaks all of our boundaries, a God who cannot be boxed in by our mental or emotional containers. 

1. The Isaiah passage brings to light an important feature of discussion of divinity: holiness. See David Willis. Notes on the Holiness of God, or the standard, Rudolph Otto’s book, The Idea of the Holy. In our time what does holiness mean in terms of separation for a purpose?

2. In a related vein, how do you see the lips being touched, maybe purified by a coal from an altar. Which altar?  This could be a great place to discuss how we use our lips, or how we do not speak of God at all.

3. It brings up the related issue of transcendence, when we are in an immanent period.

4. To get a handle on holiness and clean/unlcean, boundaries could come into play.

5. Glory has a sense of presence for me, but it also has a sense of gravity, weightiness, splendor as would befit the divine.

6. For Trinity Sunday, this is an image of a God who breaks all of our boundaries, a God who cannot be boxed in by our mental or emotional containers.

7. Here I am, send me. Is it always a good sign when someone is anxious to be a speaker for God?

I realize that it has not been long since we have encountered this passage, but perhaps we could consider its Trinitarian structure for Trinity Sunday.Jn 3:-17--new birth/life not to condemn but to save/heal. Perhaps that is a good divine image to consider. How does it affect the more punitive figure that lurks within many of us? Later in John 15,16  we read of the spirit as advocate, helper comforter. Placher spoke of a God of reckless love, whose presence in the life of Jesus still confounds our capacity to fully grasp, even speak clearly about. It leaves Nicodemus stammering, how can this be? He is face to face with a love so divine that it is incarnate in this Jesus with his baffling words about new birth and Spirit.

John 3:16 has become a label. I am intrigued that it is selected as a Trinitarian reading, as it does include the work of God. here it goes beyond natural procreation to the divine rebirth through and in the spirit of God with all of its force beyond easy comprehension or control. We encounter aspects of God in different forms, but they are always related to each other. That is one of the foundation points for this sanctuary and our style of worship to approach the unapproachable god in ways that always realize that distance between the divine and the human

Spirit here is agent of new creation (hovering over the waters) born again/anew/from above

Compare 3:8 with Gen. 1, 2 and Ec. 11:5. Note that Jesus sees it as more free-wheeling.

Spirit as self-effacing, the go between, divine mediation -spirit points to the future and continues the sender and the Sent

One preaching wedge would be to use some prepositions God with us , for us, through us.

Rom. 8:12-17 (and extend if one wishes)-a god of interaction and sympathy with this creation, Paul later says even God’s spirit cannot find words for interceding for us in our need.

If you wish to do a doctrinal sermon, maybe one on sanctification as Trinitarian action. One could even search for a phrase that gets at its depth, as did Tillich with acceptance for justification.

We see the interaction of God’s work in this section, a weaving image may work well, as in intertwining.

We are brought within the Trinitarian orbit with this language of adoption. One could speak on the distinction of being born into something and adopted. That would fit the Reformed idea of election nicely.

Indwelling

Spirit of life

Spirit of guidance

Bearing witness with us We make a spiritual error if we insist that we can capture the ineffable one within our fragile minds and hearts.At the same time, the spirit allows us to co-operate with the purposes of God-co-operate, not fight against. Given fallen nature, one could speak of that capacity as a gift of the spirit, instead of being co-opted or in conflict with the ways of God.Abba is Aramaic for pappa. We have it on the lips of Jesus. I would guess that the Our Father, started as Abba.A term of intimacy, but it may be also a term of respect. Maybe a  mixed community of Gentiles and Jews in the early Christian community is in itself a sign of harmony amid distinctions in the new community that reflects the “divine community.”

If you are looking for a lectionary reading for creation, here we are. In John 1, Jesus is the logos, the wisdom of God’s creative plan and work (see Prov. 8), and the Spirit “brooded over the waters” (Gen. 1) Ps. 29-Psalm 29 is considered to be ancient, an adaptation of a Canaanite hymn to Baal, a god of weather and fertility. Israel was bold enough in its theology to adapt a good prayer to its own use and place it in the five little books of the psalter itself. It sees nature as a vehicle for god in a display of awe-inspiring wonder.

(see NIB, p. 792)

Its global reach goes to both heavenly beings and to all peoples. One is left to wonder if these are angels, lesser gods, heavenly forces, stars. It sounds like the divine council perhaps of Job or Ps. 89.

My sense of ascribe to to offer what someone is due.

Glory is a tough one too, I tend to use it as a sense of God's holy presence. It has a sense of gravitas, of weight.

Worship here has the sense of bowing before the throne.

Voice is sometimes thunder, another sign of God's presence as in Exodus 19.

I tend toward seeing the waters mythically, as a sign of chaos, anything that opposes God's order.

Amidst all of the storms of life, God remains stable.

This has a rare use of the word flood (mabbul).

The blessing is shalom=peace, well=being, health, harmony.It has a creation/environment push for all of the world, not just the good, not just human beings, but creation.

The reflection question at 793 of the NIB is a good one on seeing creation material reminding us of our limits to power, especially technology or even fully understanding the intricacies of nature.

I often sneer at people equating god with the beauty of a sunset alone, but with Ps. 19, I do see the handiwork of God in nature. One could work with panentheism here as well as in “God in whom we live and move and have our being.”

Some scholars see a link to Canaanite patterns of prayer reflected in this psalm. This shows the boldness of Hebrew worship as it was willing to use other models to proclaim a prayer. On the other hand, it shifts the image of Baal’s contest with the waters; they are mere instruments at God’s power.The storm language also resonates with the storm at Sinai before the giving of the 10 commandments. God’s power and purpose g can be glimpsed in nature.

 

Mays is quoted from 138 of his Psalms Commentary. The linkage to baptism is appropriate. "Christology is not adequate unless is setting in cosmology is maintained. The OT doxology is necessary to the gospel." In other words, the incarnation and work of Jesus becomes the incarnation of God's glory, work, and goals.

1. For Trinity Sunday, one could see it as an example of worshipping a capacious god. 

2. I assume the heavenly beings are more than angels. It reminds me of Ps. 89 or Job 1 where god is pictured as the CEO of lesser divinities. One could be bold and see this as an early entry in thoughts of divinity seen in different guises as well.

3. One could speak of the trinity of relation with God, each other, and with nature. See Douglas John Hall Imaging God.

4. Older pastors recall that Biblical studies drew a sharp contrast against linking God and nature. In an ecological age, this has changed. Indeed one could do a nice job on ecology as connections with creation.

Ps 89 for Advent

 Maybe the preacher could take on the role of Ethan the Ezrahite. It could be useful to think of him within the words given us, or the entire corpus  of the psalm. It ends book 3 of the Psalms (a la Leviticus???).

Our broken selections start out with the steadfast love (hesed) /loyalty/fidelity of God. Later the psalm struggles with the seeming end of the promise, given the demise of the monarchy.

Clearly, well to me at least, this psalm is a pastiche of different materials from different times that then serve to ask deep abiding questions about God’s engagement with our lives and times. In that sense it is a great Advent selection.

Son of God had a royal referent to the king as God’s representative, or image, on earth in the Near East. How well do we capture it with Christ the King? 

How could we continue to use this idea of divine representative to examine Jesus Christ? See Douglas John Hall on Christ as representative in the 2nd volume of his trilogy, Professing the Faith.

This psalm refers to the national trauma of the fall of Jerusalem. Much work has occurred in trauma studies and good be a good entry point for this psalm, including the virus.

The father son language could be explored. While I concur with our current look for other divine role relationships and divine metaphors, we may well be in a time to assess this language in light of new conceptions of fatherhood. Clearly our psalm does not consider a biological relationship. So, what would be some  good ways to explore Jesus Christ as Son of God?

One could examine the ways that we could read Christ into the words of the psalm that we have been assigned, in both sections but especially lining it up with the gospels.

I would think a Lutheran would be able to use this to discuss theology of glory and theology of the cross.

At v. 19, we have a good deal of disagreement in translating faithful one/holy one or faithful people.

The creation v. chaos material on river and sea could be an allusion to Christ on the sea.

One could also explore this element of the mythic background of the OT, as other nations employed similar notions.

2 Samuel 7 for Advent 4

 Messianic promise in 2 Sam 7 Just a note on the hope here. We do not know how much hope was placed in a new David, a Messiah over the years. Our passage goes back 1000 years before the birth of Christ. If Luke is using it, others must have continued to hold the promise dear for many years.

Qumran had a dual messiah, a priestly one to reform the temple and a political one. Indeed some  more mystical Jewish sects had a deep messianic expectation of their leader just recently in New York. Followers of Moon see him as a new Christ  figure. 

From the reading on David, we get a good sense of how expectations can change over time. the word messiah and therefore Christ means anointed one. In Reformed tradition we notice that priests, prophets, and kings were anointed. 

This is a good Advent text as it links, past, present, future. I like how God, with a moreover, reverses David’s request and decides to be the giver, not receiver of gifts. Again, the issue of giving or receiving gifts is a good piece for spiritual growth.

The promise fell with the temple and the monarchy, no? It took some real interpretive magic to recast the messianic hope.

God treads lightly here with David’s desire to link church and state as a legitimation tool. If one feels bold, the right wing church embrace of the president fits into this passage.

God prefers the nobility of the tabernacle. One could work with this image as Jesus himself is a mobile tabernacle of divine presence.

One could go further and link God’s mobility to Emmanuel quite directly. The evocation of God’s solidarity offer  a great way to mention current events and seek  the divine presence within them, or over and under them