Dec. 6-Mal. 3, Lk. 1:68-78, Phil.1
Malachi talks of a deep cleansing. purification-cleansing-without harm to the fabric refining has a fearsome ring to it-what does it mean to have our impurities burned away-purgatory image it is bleaching a fabric as a fuller or burning away the impurities in refining a metal or refining oil for that matter.
Malachi mean angel or messenger.It fits our time in a couple of ways. first, it fits a time of smaller concerns, where the great figures seem to line the distant past. Second, it has a faint hope for divine intervention as hands are exhausted at living a good life.As we have experienced the first advent of Jesus Christ perhaps we can approach the season more kindly and gently.
It links worship and proper social behavior. Let’s be clear here. it does not invalidate worship. Our section answers a question from the people in 2:17: how have we wearied god? (see Is. 43 on god being wearied )Where is the god of justice-why does God seem to see the vil as good?Answer appears to be eschatological, in an indefinite future. Maybe a link to the angel of Ex. 23:20-elijah, malachi-John the Baptist or the baby Jesus in some reading alignments. That seems reasonable, but it does not limit other readings of the passage.
Phil 1 sounds like a parent wanting to see a child come home for Christmas-
Is god grateful for us-too often, the church asks for more,more ,more-It is good to hear a word of thanksgiving
peace that passes all understanding read at funerals, but it is a hope for our anxiety -ridden lives. (Notes on anxious communication) outrage culture know little of peace, and it has infected churches as well
Worship is us being grateful to God for this world, God’s hope in the midst of division, for christmas As phronesis practical wisdom-learning about gift giving and gratitude gifts with and without strings-learning gratitude by acting on it even when we don’t feel it
Zechariah talks, no we are told, sings, of a God who is patiently faithful.It draws in other Scripture to blend into this poem.
No gospel speaks of peace as much as Luke. I just picture Zechariah as the very image of the guy we portray as representing the old year. Life has passed him by. People have murmured that he can’t be so good as he has not been blessed with a child. He has given up on waiting. He was struck mute when he dared to question the angel’s message of a new child. Now his tongue is loosened.Zechariah is old but God remembers even if he won’t. Like Hannah and Mary he takes the birth of a child as a sign that god has not forgotten his people but remembers them. Every new life is a sign that God’s commitment to life continues.
bob dylan-oh mercy-used to be a first name-tender mercies could be the heart the inward compassion/mercy/charity of God. Do we think of god as tender? The word could be inmost, form the gut and act of mercy/charity/kindness. god’s inner disposition is glimpsed in the birth of the child who will become the Baptist.Tender Mercies is still one of my favorite movies. when Mac, the down and out country songwriter and singer, is rebuffed in his attempt to get some new work published, his new wife tells him that when she prays, she widowed at 18 with a small child, tell hims that when she counts her blessings and god’s tender mercies toward her her husband and young son are at the top of the list. She is the embodiment of tender mercies.
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