Advent Workshop Ps. 80 4th Sunday

 Ps. 80:1-7

Why do we not preach on Psalms more? In this case, a communal lament doesn't seem to fit the season. It is a plea for restoration, a different take on Advent hope. It runs counter to the flow of the readings, but its communal lament certainly demonstrates the difficulty in Advent waiting and preparation when how long is the burning question. When we are at the end of the rope, we need to be rescued, delivered, saved. We cannot do it all on our own.

1) save us-This could be a good time to consider the depth of the word salvation. With the feast of the Incarnation approaching, it could be a good time to talk about its senses in this world, as well as the world to come--enthroned upon the cherubim-ark image from Ex. 25, is it a cosmic one as well?. 

2) restore- this is repeated, always an important sign in Hebrew. face shine note how it works off the Aaronic blessing. Literally, it is return (the root is sub in Heb, so it could connote repenting as well). Some of us yearn for the old days and ways at the holidays. The face of God is reflected in the face of a newborn child very soon.

With that introduction the prayer moves to a familiar lament-how long? The new year approaches, and this is familiar territory for us.

3) fed with bread of tears is a most arresting image-who is fed with that bread right now, as compared to the bread of presence?

4) angry=  smoke pouring out of nostrils (like a bull/dragon?) We moderns would not deign to use such a natural image, would we? What are some images of God that we use that may be sneered at as primitive in the future?How do you think God would be smoking mad with prayers? How do you interpret the angry/smoking hot God today? would it be their content or the context, as in Amos of prayers without justice?

5)Scorn in v. 6 is from Syriac, while the Hebrew would be  contention or strife (madon) a favored word in Proverbs. This could be entry into family strife during the holidays, especially when many of us seem so on edge and itching for contention. V. 7  repeats what we just heard earlier. What is the effect of that quick repetition? When do we repeat things?

6) One could play a bit with the character of Asaph and maybe even make up a  story on prayer and song. Maybe it could morph into a story about the composing of Silent Night.

7) Limburg reminded me that the shepherd image is frequent in the Asaph psalms in the the seventies in particular. How could we work with the Shepherd of Israel and the shepherds upcoming in a few days for Christmas Eve.? Here the shepherd seems to be asleep at the wheel, inattentive as folks watching football  during a holiday gathering.

Advent Workshop Lk.3:7-18 with note on Lent v. Advent

 When we say that God is Love, do we teach men that their fear of Him is groundless? No. As much as they fear will come upon them, possibly far more … The wrath will consume what they call themselves; so that the selves God made shall appear … ” George MacDonald

I do not recall preaching on the Baptism during Advent, but I could be mistaken. So, this material is as much for me as it is for our audience.

Our presbytery leader, Jennifer Burns-Lewis asked us to consider Advent in relation to Lent last week. Here goes. As we have mentioned Advent may have started as a space for those  learning of the faith for Epiphany baptism, as the rolls were too full for Easter. Both are periods of preparation. While preparation for Holy Week is a huge undertaking, Advent has us seek to prepare for the new age, a new world, the consummation of the divine order in the cosmos. Lent has seemed to be the more penitential of the periods: think of Lenten abstinence as opposed ot an Advent calendar. Yet, they point toward repentance.

Advent’s 2 part scheme looks both to Incarnation and to the enfolding of the world into God’s full ambit. Lent points to the apocalyptic reconsideration of the word of the cross (I Cor. 1:18-31). Advent is the advent of God moving toward us, while Lent ends in the burial of Holy Saturday’s hinge between death and new life of Easter. (Here see Alan Lewis’s book on Holy Saturday). Quite simply, Lent asks us for examination of the sins that separate us from God’s way in the world and to change. Advent invites us into the shock of the new. Both have a break in the readings that feature the word rejoice the 3rd Sunday in Advent and the 4th in Lent (laetare).

Maybe we could work with devotional material with three Advents: the end as the beginning, the Advent of God in the Incarnation, with real attention toits meaning, and the third Advent of union with Christ, even theosis.

Time is felt in different dimensions. Time itself seems to change at the cusp of eternity and the new age. Yet, the new age dawns in a particular place and time with the birth of Jesus.  Lent’s last week slows down time as the detail of Jesus’s last hours are detailed, but the cross is imbued with an eschatological character in Matthew especially.

John in art-Cranach, for instance with his Lutheran orientation. Barth loved that figures of the Baptist point not toward himself but away toward Christ. One could use different depictions with elements you wish to convey.

John starts out like a liberal/progressive preacher speaking about justice and lets the listeners have it. (Yet, liberal preachers may not often call listeners a brood of vipers.Insert your own jokes here) That raises a question: how effective is denunciation as a tool for change? Is it persuasive? I find it intriguing that preachers call prophetic railing against large scale social ills, but seem allergic toward decrying individual sinful behavior. It reminds me of the old canard that liberals love humanity in the abstract, but not individuals. Perhaps it is easier to rail against Sin instead of sins that we may share. John starts his program on repentance/metanoia/ conversion with an eye to forgiveness of sins. In the current climate, I wonder if we can include speaking of social forgiveness, but rather beating the drum on social sin. I do applaud the materials out on being anti-racist as giving us tools to repent of social sins such as racism, misogyny, classism, and the host of isms that afflict us.

John wants to see action, actual change. Being children of Abraham ( being of the chosen ones) is insufficient in his view.  What does fruit worthy of this sea change, this paradigm shift look like in 2021?

John shows himself to be an apocalyptic and radical thinker, as he sees a reckoning coming, like a climate change Cassandra. Radical has the sense of getting to the root and John is warning that no chance for a sprout; root and all will be laid low. See Fleming Rutledge on Advent and the Baptist.

How is this description of John’s message  then called exhortation and good news?

Given that beginning his program is  moderate: share food and clothing; don;t cheat; don;t falsely accuse-the latter two have the power of the state behind them. Remember the New testament is produced in an environment of subjugation.

In the fresh start of Advent we are welcomed to a consideration of baptism, by John with water and a figure who will touch with fire and the Holy Spirit.

Again we get apocalyptic elements with the ultimate duality of wheat and chaff.

WVP Advent Workshop Notes on Mary Lk. 1:26-55

 Again consider pairing some of your sermon with clips of art work for the passages.

Maybe consider using clips of the ways Mary is portrayed in movies.

I continue to detect a skittishness with Protestants dealing with Mary, even though we seem to love having her in manger scenes. Perhaps look at Gaventa's work on Mary,

Luke crosscuts here as in a movie. He starts with the annunciation to Zechariah. Now we go to Mary and tie Mary with Elizabeth and the Holy Spirit. Mary’s song is then paired with Zechariah’s song. After the scene of Jesus growing up, we shift to a grown John the Baptist, as it has been since 1:80 that he grew and lived in the desert wilderness.

V.28 Hail, hello,Greetings to the  gifted, graced, favored lady-no wonder Mary is taken aback.

V. 29 diatarasso different than Zehcariah’s similar position (v. 12) utterly confused/perplexed/thrown off kilter, even terrified

V.32 Luke uses Most High perhaps as Isaiah uses Holy One. If you are interest in intertextual material, Most High appears around 20 times in the Pslams, and El Elyon in Genesis is translated as Most High, see Mechizedek in Gen. 14 in particular.

v35 overshadow/fall over you 

Nice balance here-Mary -now two women-then Zechariah speaks

V.41 infant leaping skirtao may relate to the jostling in Rachel’s womb see also Mal. 4:2

V. 43 my Lord alerts the reader to the identity of Jesus early

44 gladness agalliasis was used by Gabriel to Marty

V.45 typical word for blessed makarios , see v. 42 eulogomene to be spoken well of (now and future) fame in the older sense v. infamous

46 soul magnifies/extols see Hannah’s prayer but Luke seems to be drawing from a variety of biblical materials

48 servant/slave doule lowliness=state of humilation/under another’s thumb tapeinoso

51- right as side of power-arrogant in understanding of their hearts

Two women make this scene, with two new lives within them. Two expectant relatives meet for the first time since their startling news of being with child. Churches like to have what they term living nativity scenes (Nativity means birth, of course).  Here are two living manger scenes talking to each other. I wonder how clear it was to them that the new lives they carried would create a vast change  for generations to come.  When I was little, one of the first prayers we learned was the Hail Mary. Its first words are drawn from Elizabeth's inspired greeting. Even early, religious language confused me. What did fruit of the womb mean? Elizabeth is certainly not blinded by pride with her miraculous conception, but she is able to see Mary as carrying a very special child as well. Their words carry  the narrative here; no male speaks. Of course, Zechariah is still mute, and Joseph is nowhere to be seen. God notices a lowly pair of women. God favors them both with a miracle. God hears the words of two women, often silenced in their day and time. One of the newer Christmas songs is "Mary Did You Know"  with some thoughtful lyrics. Two spring to mind: "when you kissed your baby boy you kissed the face of God, and the one you delivered would soon deliver us."

 

In her burst of praise for God, Mary doesn't express fears and doubts about being the mother of Messiah. Now she may well have done so over the years, but we are not privy to it. Mary slides from the personal to social. Like Hannah on the birth of Samuel, she sees herself as a representative of a people. She is the chosen instrument of a new future. Mary imagines a generous social realm, where Scrooge is transformed but so is the system that makes and rewards Scrooge. Mary imagines a world where the rich get a taste of their own medicine, but the poor, whom she terms the lowly, get more than their share for once.  God sees an invisible one, oppressed by invisible forces, the idea that human beings have some sort of right to violence and exploitation of those a rung below them on the social ladder. She sees mercy as an act of God to life people hope; the rich and well-born don't need much material help; they are already filled with good things./.

 

The words, to take Israel  by the hand, imagines a people still in childhood.. As their children grow, they will take them by the hand, to help, to guide, to lead, to protect. It has the sense of course that this old ethnic and religious group is still like a child.Even in the womb, the future John the Baptist has a connection to the arrival of Jesus. A major moment in expecting a child is when the baby kicks, but to say the child leaped in womb leaped for joy is a special connection. In its ancient roots, the word gladness refers to shining. That fits this season of craving light at the time when the days are so short.

 

Every generation faces a time pregnant with meaning and change, where we are expectant for something. With the election of President Obama, we take a new direction as a country. Christmas, though, is intensely personal for us, and we anticipate what it means and brings. Mary, did you know that people would be gathered in church over 2,000 years later, in a country you did not knew existed, would gather together and read of you? Mary did you know that the fruit of your womb would continue to bear fruit for all of these years. Mary did you know, that we would celebrate the birthday of your baby boy as Christmas all of these years later?

Sermon Lk. 1:26-55

 

Mary was an ordinary woman. Taken aback, but only for a while, by Gabriel’s announcement, Mary found her voice. While women had private voice, they could not often speak publicly. She found a voice that spoke for social life. She goes beyond the charity of Scrooge in a Christmas Carol. She sees the selection of her as a sign of big things to come, a new game in town, when the old ways would not cut it any more. The ways things are cannot be the way things should be, could be, or would be.

Jesus would be with us in ordinary life God did not put the divine hopes on angels, or power, but in the hands of a young, possibly quite young, woman. How can this be? After all of this time, God would pick an ordinary family to raise the one to be called Jesus. She knows of the promises of God all the way back to Abraham and David. Messianic reading of promise to David She starts to see that she will be the vehicle for promises that were thousands of years old coming into being in a way as new as the child within her womb. That dream was half forgotten, said as much as out of the realm of possibility, but now it was alive in her.

It was appropriate for Gabriel to deliver the message. First, we have a little joke. The name means a mighty one for God, as in the army of the heavenly host, but here the general is a mere delivery service for the prince of peace. Second, Gabriel was associated with ripening fruit, and he announces that the fruit of Mary will be Jesus of Nazareth. (By the way, I have to throw this in. The followers of George Rapp in New Harmony believed that Gabriel spoke with him, and one can see the footprint of the angel there.) Finally, Gabriel was a figure of the end times. Gabriel announces the beginning of the end of the old order and the start of the new way of God with the announcement of the impending birth of Jesus.

The announcement was only the beginning, of course. Mary waited nine full months to have her baby. I wonder if nine months seemed long enough to start to grasp what the future could hold for her and Joseph. Luke has her doing a lot o travel in her expectant months, to Elizabeth and then a hard journey to Bethlehem. Even now, many of us wait a while to even announce a pregnancy, as we hope everything will be all right. With ultrasound we get to hear the fast beat of the heart, a holy moment as we hear the sound of a new life. Advent is only four weeks. It is time for us to learn to listen for the heartbeat of Jesus in the ordinary. Can we spot a Gabriel making a birth announcement of a new turn in life? Every day, we give birth to the new future, or maybe the hand of God helps bring us to new birth in the future.

Christmas is almost here. In these few remaining days, I pray that all of us set aside some time.to seek the spirit of the new life of Christmas. It may be in listening to old songs, or finding some new Christmas stories, to watch a Christmas movie, to read once again, the biblical story of the Nativity. Mary would never have another firstborn. We will never have another Christmas of this year. It would be a shame to enter into another Christmas dispirited, never giving the story of the Incarnation some time to take hold and grow within us. We have a third Advent.As the hymn says (O Little Child), “where meek souls will receive Him still/ the dear Christ enters in/ be born in us today/we hear the Christmas angels/the great glad tidings tell/o come to us, abide with us/ O Lord Emmanuel.

WPV Advent Workshop Phil 4:4-7(Third Sunday)

Phil 4:4-7 is a good reading for Advent. For Advent 3, it starts with the key word for this Sunday, rejoice, as we turn to the Incarnation, the first Advent and away from the cosmic  2nd Advent.

Let’s just take the verse, the Lord is near. It could be taken to mean near in time, but it could also mean near in locale. Indeed with the Incarnation and the indwelling spirit, we could say that the presence of the Lord is as near as our next breath.We then have no need for a second Advent as it is present with us in our baptismal life.

This reading underscores the shift in readings as Gaudete Sunday, with its word, rejoice.

eggus can be understood spatially or temporally (see Ps. 145:18).. Spatially, it means “near” or “close at hand.” If this is true, then “near” here signifies that the Lord is close to or present with the Philippians. Let’s just take the verse, the Lord is near. It could be taken to mean near in time, but it could also mean near in locale. Indeed with the Incarnation and the indwelling spirit, we could say that the presence of the Lord is as near as our next breath.We then have no need for a second Advent as it is present with us in our baptismal life.

Gentleness-epieikes, is associated with  being reasonable, mild, tolerant, “not insisting on every right of letter of law or custom.”  being considerate, being magnanimous. It is more than a disposition; it is an action, a determination to so act. Elsewhere, Paul uses the word epieikes (“gentleness”) to describe Christ (2 Corinthians 10:1). It is paired with prautes, which is translated “meekness” but is better defined as “the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance.” (Hearon, Working Preacher [The Gentleman] is always truthful and sincere ; will not agree for the sake of complaisance or out of weakness ; will not pass over that of which he disapproves. He has a clear soul, and a fearless, straightforward tongue. On the other hand, he is not blunt and rude. His truth is courteous ; his courtesy, truthful ; never a humbug, yet, where he truthfully can, he prefers to say pleasant things. [The Rev. John R. Vernon, "The Grand Old Name of Gentleman-see also gentile

huperecho- to govern, have authority; to be better than, transcend; (n.) surpassing greatness: to hold above;, intrans. to stand out above, to overtop; met. to surpass, excel, ὑπερέχον, excellence, preeminence, to be higher, superior/  In other words, peace has power over, excels, and surpasses mental and emotional processes. Peace, after all, is God’s shalom—wholeness, well-being, security, restoration, and goodness. 

The word anxiety  (v.6) certainly fits all of the rushing about this season and its demands on time and money. Merimnao=to worry, have anxiety, be concerned; to give careful thought; to be preoccupied; to feel an interest in, Phil. 2:20

The issue of prayer as an Advent discipline, the chief exercise of faith, as Calvin said jumps up here. Why separate prayer and supplication here?  Is this a form of the expression why pray when you can worry? How will you respond to the immediate thought that prayer has not produced a peace that surpasses understanding?

PWV Advent Workshop Heb. 10:5-10 (4th Sunday)

 We are moving to the conclusion of a long discussion of priesthood and sacrifice in Hebrews. Keep in mind that the letter is an exhortation for the tired people to find the endurance to keep on going. Jesus can be seen as a decisive divine move for reconciliation. Sacrifice was a system of bridging the human and divine (think thanks and well being offerings). God moves toward something that need not be repeated. OUr passage starts with the words of Ps. 40 as if Jesus were speaking them. 

Peeler (Working Preacher)  “eisercomai” could indicate then the cause of his speaking: “he says these things because he is entering God’s sinful world so that members of that world can enter God’s restful sanctuary or sanctified rest.”

The participle could also be an indicator of time. As a present participle, it would show that he is making this speech as he is entering the world. — His entrance into the world is the will of God that Jesus came to enact. “By God’s will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus the Messiah once for all” (10:10).  God’s will, then, is the Son’s embodiment. The will of God is that God the Son take on a body, offer that body. In so doing, he brought the foreshadowing of offerings to an end and he began the process of reconciliation and built a bridge between the two realms and the two ages. . God’s command to offer the bodies of animals foreshadowed the offering of the human body of God.

V. 9-anaireó compound word (ana +haireó) “to take away,” “to abolish,” or “to claim (for oneself), to remove.”  ana can signify “up” or “up to.” I dislike supersessionism, so let’s say Jesus works in a different key or dimension or phase, or that it is parallel to the system/structure   of the temple in a alternative mode of being a priest, indeed a new high priest. Jesus embodies the function of the offering system into his very being and work.

Psalm 40:608- note what has been rendered here as “a body you have prepared for me”, in distinction to  a literal translation of the Hebrew text , “you dug ears for me”--I like with as the Hebrew emohaisze hearing as in the shema, to keep and observe, but the LXX opens the door to the entirety of the life of Christ.Jesus lived his entire life as an offering of faithful obedience to God. God’s will is seen in the embodied life of Jesus, in his flesh and blood life. So either translation would work.John Van Nuys likes Placjer's use of Calvin's full measure of obeidence as referrign to the entire life, and that would work well here.

This passage then allows us to explore the meaning of the Incarnation. At a basic level, how does the Incarnation touch on the meaning of Emmanuel, God with us?

I wonder if the temple had long been destroyed when this was written.As the rabbi struggled to reconstitute the faith, as in settling the Hebrew Bible, Hebrews is speaking to the same issue, but through the lens of Jesus Christ as a different way of coming at some of the religious issues the destruction of the temple would create.

PWV Advent Worshop 3rd Sunday Zeph. 3:14-20

 Guadete Sunday is based on rejoicing as we turn toward the first Advent. Our passage starts with the very word. 

The security of the remnant as a humble people is an unexpected view of restoration. This is less a vision of empire than of Tolkien’s shire. (3:11-13).This seems to be an ethical paradise where people do no wrong.The golden age ending  of v. 13 is a striking image, reminiscent of the 23rd psalm or Micah’s declaration of a similar hope (4:4).

As we move into 3:15 - the Lord is in the midst of human life itself.the judgements are taken away and better times, restoration is ahead-the threat seems to perish here too

note.The theme of shame and haughtiness recurs in a new key.  Instead of the confusion of the close of the primeval history, are we getting a  restoration of unity, of serving with one accord/ standing shoulder to shoulder? 

Zephaniah ends on an upbeat, visionary note as it closes Again we hear the great biblical call to not fear.  Instead of the repeated cry of joy as a shout of woe and a broken heart, we hear songs and shouts of victory.God with you (NIV) in your midst-My mind goes to Revelation 7 and the song of the martyrs in the very throne room of God. 

Again we hear the great Biblical call to not fear (3:15-16).  The  command to sing could be a lyric of joy or a victory hymn and shout is to really shout out loud. Instead of the repeated cries of lament as a shout of woe and a broken heart, we hear songs and shouts of vindication and surprise.Twice, we now hear that God is with them, in their midst, not against them, not distant but in their very midst (3:3:15,17). The judgments are taken away, and restoration is ahead-the threat seems to perish here too. Singing is more a victory hymn and shout is to really shout. Instead of the repeated cry of joy as a shout of woe and a broken heart, we hear songs and shouts of victory.

God with you (NIV) in your midst-My mind goes to Revelation 7 and the song of the martyrs in the very throne room of God. 

 

Instead of the confusion of the close of the primeval history, are we getting a hindu restoration of unity, of serving with one accord/ standing shoulder to shoulder?  

Opponents of the way of God seem to be the proud, the haughty. As an American, it gave me chills to read this as we reign as a military superpower.

In our time, we certainly can grasp the issue of a purified speech. In an image saturated culture, when do we hear or speak a transparent truth. Our political discourse has become so debased that it seems that basic facts are dispensed with in the name of ideological purity.Social media such as twitter becomes the den of the sarcastic and the angry, over such invaluable objects as the outcome of a single sporting contest.Spin is the operative word. We cannot agree on facts, so we readily accept distortion in their stead. 

 

I am fascinated how differently 3:17 is translated.v.17 will quiet you or be silent or renew you in his love. 

 the masoretic text has be silent in love, by seeing the root as hrs,and the NIV has to quiet you in love, but the NRSV has renew you in love, by going with the Greek translation that assume a misreading (In Hebrew script, the r is rounded just as in English script, but the d is written at a  ninety degree angle, and sometimes they can easily be mistaken for each other).. Zepheniah's name may have the sense of God sheltering us.  Yes, we can be  in difficult times, but it does not always have to be that way. End times vision gives purpose, a goal, a compass point to our travels. When your heart gets broken, you are engulfed by the sheer weight of pain. You cannot imagine that you will feel better again. You will. One day you will be able to rejoice again, to love again, to see the rainbow and not only the rain, again. Ministry needs a future orientation, beyond the brute tyranny of the way things are but imagine the way things could or should be. Is v. could be, what if. It is good not to live in the future, but the future does give us direction and energy to work toward its shape. Bonhoeffer said "the will of God is not a system of rules established at the outset, but a living will, the grace of God that is new every morning." We get a great banquet image here. 

 

At the beginning the people are told to be quiet, to hush. At the end, it is God who quiets  in the divine embrace, in divine care and, yes,  love.he first image is commanding and fearsome, and the second strikes me as exceedingly tender. 

The Advent vision here is one of the vulnerable being rescued  (for Tiny Tim, for instance). The scattered ones will be gathered together( 19-20).

We rarely think of God rejoicing over us with singing. At this time of year, what Christmas carol  would fit for God over you, over all of us.?

Part of the Biblical vision is security. Here the enemy is turned back, and no harm will come to them. God has a shield of protection over Israel (15).

PWV Advent Preaching Workshop Micah 5:2-5A

 Micah 5:2-5  second cut

We should be reminded that this passage is maddening to translate, and we deal with the push to link it to Christmas with the Matthew citation for the Magi.

1)As usual in apocalyptic  pieces, this description of a better future is in contrast to issues of punishment and judgment, even if it is not full blown apocalyptic visionary work. I suppose that it could be referring to a birth of a royal child as in Is. 7,8. I would tend toward going back to Micah 4’s relation of labor and apply it toward a more apocalyptic birth pangs reading. Not only will pain not last forever, but better times are coming.

2) Of course, one could emphasize that the immense God is one who seems to like to work at small scale. of a Bethlehem.. One could talk of the "butterfly effect"

I am not sure of ephrathah/fruitful. I assume it is a place name, maybe a clan name,but do not grasp it use i here clearly.

3) I don't have a good notion  why mosel=ruler is used and not king. Still God reigns, not kings.Is it reflecting some continuing disquiet with the monarchy, or being sick of the terrible rulers under which they suffer. To dwell securely itself would be a good sermon topic. Be careful to avoid the notion, not in the text, that to dwell securely would mean only some sort of spiritual security. After all shalom=well-being, health, wholeness, not only inner spiritual peace. This will be peace could refer to what just preceded, what will come next,as a demonstrative pointer,or I suppose, both. 

4) The shepherd imagery is often used for leaders. This time he will be a "good shepherd.'I don;t know if people have already heard too much about the shepherd image or not, especially its political connotations/. I would note that this messianic text does not use hte word in the passage. Some would read v.2 as of old as referring to Jesus, maybe even pre-existence and not the promise itself.

5) In history this goes back to David, around 300 years. Christians see it as taking 700 years to come to pass. I see a tinge of exilic material here, but that will not happen for some time, unless we are seeing some insertions over time.

6) I tend to read in line with the apocalyptic themes in 4:9-10, for instance, as Paul does in Rom. 8 It uses the pain of birth as a prelude to a miracle to come. Twice a woman, maybe Jerusalem/Dame Zion and this time announced in Bethlehem of a woman in childbirth. The image of a new age arriving with birth pangs continued. At any rate, we have a birth of a messiah being part of an apocalyptic point of view.

7) One could look at Bethlehem, house of bread. A then and now approach could work. One could plumb its association with David and Ruth. Bethlehem is litt.e The small as harbinger is in biblical territory. We could apply it to a small church, or even to the PCUS, once prominent, now riven by factions and no longer a denomination of size nor public standing. It social position appears more in line with anabaptist churches.

8) The way we approach this text is a great example that we have the world of context, when this was composed and edited, but it also creates a world within its pages as well that frees it from context, but we also read the words from our vantage pt, and that changes the reading, so there is the world behind the text, the world of the text, and the world in front of the text.  Of course, the direct quote from Mt. 2 is a spur to this reading, so a nativity scene overwhelms reading it from Micah alone.

 

We are in ancient territory here, the late eighth century. perhaps he was working at the same time as early Isaiah material. His work is known to Jeremiah (see 26:18-19).

 

Micah stands for me as opening us to perennial concerns: peace, theodicy, poverty, but also a stirring call to hope.

 

Most of my work in the ministry has been in small churches. Sometimes I could pick up on the barely suppressed sneers of pastors of large churches  of social and ecclesial importance. I recall a denominational executive speak of love for the small churches, as long as they don’t cause us any trouble. Congregational members pick up this cultural attitude and often use the phrase: “we’re just a small church.” Micah is from a small town, just like Jesus.  In large churches or small, we often hear his words, at least quoted, if we read Matthew’s account of the Magi as they seek to honor the one announced by the great star sighting.

I also think of the King Arthur legend, where we look to the misty past to find the utopian leader.

Of course, this promise is here due to the Zion theology of a promise to David in II Sam. 7:16-17

Is. 12:2-6 Advent 3 Presbytery Preaching Workshop First Cut

 1) See Patricia Tull’s wonderful commentary in the Smyth and Helwys series on Isaiah. The open format suits her, plus she writes exceedingly well. She is alert to intertextual features as an additional factor.Here, (246) she notes a linkage to the Song of the Sea. and Ps. 118:14,21.

The pronouns shift all over the place in this chapter.

2) From early days, the church heard a distinct sound of baptism in v. 3-Baptism as a link to Advent strikes me as an opportunity we rarely use.when I was on CPM, I was always amazed at how poorly the excellent candidates would do on the sacramental portion of their statements of faith, so I would suppose that afflicts congregations as well. In addition, one could work with the image of water in a variety of ways as well, including that water is turning to ice at this time of the year in many places. (See #6).

3)not be afraid-this uses a fairly rare word for being afraid (pahadu, as in Ps. 78:53 in the exodus experience).Indeed, some see this hymns as a pastiche of psalmic material (12, 118, 78, for instance).   This pslamic allusion provides an opportunity to preach on songs of Advent or songs of Christmas for that matter, and draw some points form the hymns of the season (See vv 5-6). Sometimes, it can be helpful to tell the story of the composing of  hymns. Tull notices that  the voices in this song extend the voice of the seraphs in ch. 6. 

4) Zion theology is always problematic with its linkage of church and state and such a specific emphasis on the location of divine presence (v. 6) Note royal could be merely inhabitant of Zion. 

5) Holy One seems to be growing in popularity as a name for God--why is that do you think? Does the title work for you?

6) Sukkot has a water ceremony. We call this Tabernacles in English.Recall Peter wanted to build a booth/tabernacle at Transfiguration. Is not baby Jesus a tabernacle for the presence of the divine?

7) This is a song of praise and thanksgiving. I have read pieces on the loss of lament and praise over the years. What of thanksgiving? Is it often perfunctory? Thanksgiving does not come easily to me, and I learned it by reading and rewriting thanksgiving psalms to a small extent.One could also come at it from the opposite angle of complaint by talking about the struggle of drawing up water form a well or preparing people to say thank you when they are not happy with a Christmas present. I saw a commercial where a gentleman goes into blissful reverie just thinking that his teenaged daughter is just a wee bit grateful for her haul of presents.Why are the new songs of praise so unfailingly dull? Do they not fall into the artistic trap of demanding a certain feeling instead of eliciting it?

8) Remember Isaiah means God saves. Salvation words float through this passage. One way the OT speaks of salvation is life itself:  its maintenance, sustenance, and security. The phrase, has become my salvation(v.2) with is my salvation caught my eye.

Lk. 1:68 Zechariah Advent 1 Workshop Wabash Valley

 

Advent is a time of waiting in the dark, where the light of love is obscured by violence, in its variety of terrible shapes and guises. All of us continue to live under the shadow of death, in mortality and as a nation. The president with his Nobel Peace Prize announced another troop increase in Afghanistan, with a date to start to remove them. I sincerely pray that this will be a path toward peace, but I fear that we are throwing more blood and treasure down the drain. Zechariah's prayer spoken under Roman occupation,  is certainly appropriate to our day and time. I have long loved the words, tender mercies (78 compassion)s. In a tough world, we certainly need the tender mercies of heaven, to ease our way through.

 

In a dark time, Zechariah's prayer sees the private matter of a surprise birth as a harbinger of a change for the people of Israel, a multi-layered salvation. His prayer is one from the side of the underdog, more sinned against than sinning. The prayer get more and more specific as it moves toward his new son. Zechariah strikes me a a thoughtful person. of course, he's had time to think, as he has been struck mute during the pregnancy of Elizabeth. He sees deeper meaning behind the birth of John.The birth of John is a signal flare that a new day is coming. The hymn, O Come Emmanuel, speaks of a dayspring, instead of the more pedestrian dawn. It's the dawn of a better days, that sees signs of tender mercies, of forgiveness, of light in the darkness of trouble.

Answers Is. 59

Horn symbol of power-I sam 2:10, Ps18, 

Righteous as a virtue

Dawning alos related to the branch (Jer. 23, Zech 3:8) darkness if lxx Ps. 106 (107 :10)

As in the Magnificat, Zechariah lifts the miracle child into the story of the nation.

One could consider comparing the two great prayers.

He speaks inspired words (see Ezek. 37)He sees the promises of old coming true somehow.

God has not forgotten about them (72) (Why covenant with Abraham and not Sinai or even the new covenant of Jeremeiah? See Is. 42 and 59 and many psalms for allusions.

Salvation has what meaning here do you think?

Redeemer sense of freeing someone through payment of a ransom

Rescue permits free service

How does forgiveness give knowledge of salvation at this point?

Light shining in the darkness of the shadow of death-(Ps. 106) we have lived in the shadow of violence, criminal and governmental for too long-Zechariah ike the elderly in Joel can peer into a new future, and he knows it will not be a mere repetition of what a has come before-

Tender mercies-deep compassion from the gut/heart of God mercy/pityas it what we would call heart feelings, affectionate feelings, warm feelings, in a number of KJV psalms 25, 40 In Robert Duval movie Tender Mercies in his new wife’s prayers

Given that we have a lot of gray hair in our churches, this could be an ideal time to look at Advent reading here as a time of new life and hope for Elizabeth and Zechariah.

Advent Workshop Lk.3:1-6

 The first lectionary selection is short. If you wish to preach on the Baptist, one may wish to  extend it with next week’s lesson,

Tiberius emperor from 14 or 15.

Pirate governs (has hegemony) from 26-36

Herod Antipas of Galilee-ruled  until 39.

Philip another Herod son (who amazingly survived)

Annas was appointed by Quirinius as high priest. You will probably read of him when reading 

Luke 2’s Christmas story.stopped right when Tiberius rules and then Caiaphas, but Anna seemed to have some influence. Caiphas was his son in law and Annas ahd 5 snow who served that role as well.

Odd inclusion of Lysanias, as one we know lived much earlier.

Baptist introduced with political history just as 1:5 and  ch. 2. One could consider starting a sermon with present day political and religious leaders. (Think of it, in the days of Jennifer, the visionary leader…)

Is. 40-Used by Mt and Mk as well.Luke too uses the LXX, so that is why we have salvation in this passage as it does not appear in the Hebrew version, and he has given a longer reference than the other 2 gospel approaches.. Selected the Is. 40 passage with all flesh/ (All people Heb) gives an global dimension to Luke-Acts.

How does Luke detail salvation in his 2 volume history?

This could be a good time to look at baptism as both an entry into Christian community and an ongoing process.

repentance/conversion is metanoia doing a turn about, getting a new paradigm, having a revolution in world view and could be used in an Advent mood.

Forgiveness is always a good topic. For Advent it could be the conversion of our imagination of how to handle wrongs we do or inflicted on us. It can bring a dying even dead relationship to life.

We just passed a major building program for our country. What is the condition of the royal road of Isaiah in 2021? What obstacles lie before us that need to be smoothed out?

Advent Workshop Phil 1:3-11

 Phil. 1:3-11.

This reading is an invitation for us to use the cultural Christmas feelings in songs and TV movies that surround us.

I suppose this section is an Advent reading as it twice mentions the day of Jesus Christ. Here Paul seems to see as it a culmination and conclusion for the movement of life that start with the advent of Christ. The advent of the church in Philippi presages the day of Christ. It may well be that he is adapting the OT day of the Lord for the day of Christ here.

It may be that Paul is linking the day of Christ to judgment day, so he wishes them to be pure and blameless.

 It's a good reading for the time after Thanksgiving, as Paul says that he thanks God for the church there. . Look at v.6 about the completion of good work in you on the day of Jesus Christ. Notice that Paul transforms the day of the Lord from the OT into the day of Jesus Christ with no fanfare. For whom are you thankful in your life? Do you tell them that? Who is thankful for your life? Are you told? 

We speak of togetherness at this time of year. Paul adds the prefix syn(m) to words to emphasize being together. Even with koinonia (community/fellowing) he add together to get a sense of mutual participation.Saring is community here (v. 5)

Paul uses a number of words for thinking through situations here: phronesis

What would a harvest of righteousness appear to be?

Does Scrooge enjoy a harvest of righteousness?

See the children’s book an Orange for Frankie

See Capote's a Christmas Memory for an overflowing of love.

Possible Preaching Pts

1. Confidence in God's work with the church in Philippi moves throughout. In ouur difficult time, would we be bold enough to speak with such confidence of god’s work in our congregation?

2. Here some fields are waiting to be harvested as I write. One of my favorite images of abundance is seeing grain pouring into a truck from a combine, into a wagon, or into a silo. That could be one entry point into considering a harvest of righteousness. Be careful to be clear in how you are defining that word.

Lk. 21 ADVENT WORKSHOP WABASH VALLEY

  Lk. 21:35-46

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.

 

End times readings tend to be concerned with the ordering of human life much more than issues of individual salvation. As the new church year 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 in selecting this as a Communion Sunday. Communion itself 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 gets 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. (To what degree is Lord’s Supper apocalyptic?)

(From Working Preacher)engizo, a verb of imminence, 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), 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.

It continues to be time that we do not hand over apocalyptic material to only one set of interpretation, a poor one at that. I realize that this will take effort and CE/bible Study that folks often stay away from. On the other hand, Jesus, in my view, carries a good deal of an apocalyptic set of lenses on the world, so we may do well to examine it and not merely toss it aside.

I would guess that the temple had been destroyed for a good while before Luke wrote, yet another destruction would come a generation or so later. Recall that Jeremiah was almost killed for his words against the temple.At any rate, what one would see at the end is a signal of persecution fo the church in a time of turbulence and revolution.

The nasty part of mean wonders about applying vv 8-9 to the TV preachers who know the end is near.

V. 9-11 offers a basic apocalyptic format of cosmic upheaval. It may be that you preached on Mk. 13, and you may want to do some comparison and contrasting. (Willimon just posted an apocalyptic sermon on Facebook on Mk. 13).

Perhaps the struggles with the authorities in 12-19 are to be read in an apocalyptic context. It could be seen as the birth pangs of the new age. In that light, it seems to promise more of a direct divine inspiration in speaking to authorities, as wisdom will be imparted.

V. 19 has a ring of losing life to keep it-it could be a signal chance to explore possession and life/soul itself.

Mal. 3 for Advent Workshop

 

Malachi starts with love. One should be open to extend the reading.he purpose of divine judgment is not to punish but to prepare the way of the Lord. It is to bring restoration and renewed life. It is to train the people in obedience to the covenant so that they may offer reverent praise.

The event is expected to be so serious that its process alarms the messenger himself. The prophet wonders, “But who can endure?” (verse 2a) The Hebrew verb used here for “endure” (mekalkel) Reduplication often signifies repeated action or sustained state. With the sound effect from the repeated consonants, Malachi invites audiences to imagine the challenge and struggle that will accompany the Lord’s coming. To endure the day, one will need endurance.

Messenger-my angel-could be Malachi or a future one Used to describe the Baptist but also for Jesus wants to clean up the priesthood a la Dead Seas Scrolls community-Will this messenger be heeded any better than others-Is it pointing to Elijah at the end of its scroll?

A look at cleansing with the image in Mal 3. How is cleansed different than atonement? One could spek of baptism as a cleaning ritual.

Alfred Fuller started Fuller Brush in 1906-Fuller’s soap and whitening-Fulling involves two processes: scouring and milling (thickening). Originally, fulling was carried out by the pounding of the woollen cloth with a club, or the fuller's feet or hands. In Scottish Gaelic tradition, this process was accompanied by waulking songs, which women sang to set the pace (peope wlaked on the ool in old days). From the medieval period, however, fulling was often carried out in a water mill, followed by stretching the cloth on great frames known as tenters, to which it is attached by tenterhooks. It is from this process that the phrase being on tenterhooks is derived, as meaning to be held in suspense. The area where the tenters were erected was known as a tenterground.

In Roman times, fulling was conducted by slaves working the cloth while ankle deep in tubs of human urine. Urine was so important to the fulling business that it was taxed.[1] Stale urine, known as wash, was a source of ammonium salts and assisted in cleansing and whitening the cloth. By the medieval period, fuller's earth had been introduced for use in the process. This is a soft clay-like material occurring naturally as an impure hydrous aluminium silicate.  More recently, soap has been used.

The second function of fulling was to thicken cloth by matting the fibres together to give it strength and increase waterproofing (felting). This was vital in the case of woollens, made from carded wool, but not for worsted materials made from combed wool. After this stage, water was used to rinse out the foul-smelling liquor used during cleansing. Felting of wool occurs upon hammering or other mechanical agitation because the microscopic scales on the surface of wool fibres hook together, somewhat like hook and loop fixings.

Whitens cleanses alkaline products-often had odor and worked outside town-like in Latin and in Scotland  it has a sense of walking on it-white clay, putrid urine, (for salts) and the ashes of certain desert plants (Arabic qali, Biblical "soap"; Mal 3:2).

Spend some time on refining fire-purifies metal by skimming off the dross may take some days (for gold) may have used lye or other material to bind with impurities

This renewal comes through testing and cleansing. It is the refining fire that brings precious metal to light, and it is the washing with strong detergent. The Hebrew term for “soap” (borît) sounds quite similar to the word for “covenant” (berît). Ironically, it is the soap that restores to covenant faithfulness, as the covenant is in some measure a metric of obedience. T

May be related to worship practices

Deals with the questions of wearying god and seeking the god of justice in their time and place, where blessings and rewards and punishments seem to be randomly assorted.

May messenger be related to both the baptist and Jesus?

1. Our little section relates to the question of justice in 2:17. So, one could choose to work with justice, not charity, but justice. What elements of justice in the new age would you like to see arise. (already happened)

2. An image of cleansing is another wedge point. In a time when the word toxins and toxic are prevalent, focus on some areas of cleansing. It could be an opportunity to speak of cleansing us from shame, of the sense that we do not measure up, that we are a mistake, more than mistaken, as opposed to guilt as transgressing a boundary, or even survivor’s guilt.

3. Marshall McLuhan spoke of the medium as the messenger. Who are the heralds, the messengers in our time? One may wish to pay attention to the messages of social media.  What new year’s message (advent) does your congregation need to hear?

4. Some speak of refining as suffering’s purpose, as it burns away the dross of our lives. Do you accept or reject this image? Given the doctrine of total depravity, it there gold in the deepest recesses of the human being?

5) What offerings would be pleasing to the Lord in 2021?  How would we need to be purified?

Look at Mary Douglas Purity and Danger-Mary Douglas's "Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo" explores the cultural notion of dirt and its symbolic meanings. She follows Emile Durkheim in defining dirt as that which is out of its place (ketchup in fine in the bottle, but not on my shirt-bathroom tap water). What Douglas does is to tie this distinction to the distinction between the sacred and the profane (a long held interest of structuralist anthropology). Uncleanliness, she holds, is a cultural matter determined by actual and  symbolic power structures. 

For example, Douglas studies the Jewish Kosher laws, arguing that they separate the easy categorized and thus understood from the threatening undetermined (Douglas later retracted this understanding of Jewish laws, see Douglas's "Purity and Danger" and Power Structures).

 

Douglas further argues (especially in chapter 2 of the book) is that, unlike previous notions in anthropology, the distinction between the scared and the profane did not disappear in modern times- Douglas also holds that these notions bear an analogous form of the specific social order of a group. What makes for "dirt" is that which is considered anomalous and transgressive of normal bounds. This makes the symbolic meanings of contamination socially dependent and thus relative.

 

Uncleanness in Leviticus is about protecting the tabernacle from contamination, it is not primarily about mundane things.’ But if Douglas excoriates the interpretations of Leviticus from the late biblical period onward for ‘primitivising’ the book, might not this idea of preserving the absolute purity of a physically demarcated sacred space itself reflect a primitive way of thinking? She anticipates such objections by arguing that the integrity of the sanctuary is crucially important because the sanctuary, with its sharply divided zones, constitutes a model of the sacred cosmos, and that this modelling is represented by Leviticus in intricate detail with extremely subtle literary sophistication.

What enables this whole process is a mode of ordering reality that Douglas characterises as ‘analogical thinking’; it is mentioned briefly here, but more elaborately in Leviticus as Literature. We are accustomed, she proposed in the earlier book, to analytic thinking, but many cultures construct the world through analogical thinking, which is different from our own mental procedures, but by no means more primitive. In analogical thinking, reality is seen as a complex system of correspondences in which given components may throw light on their counterparts or actually symbolise them.

Leviticus, then, in Douglas’s view, is not in its deepest concerns a series of regulations