dec 23

Gospel for December 23, 2018

Author’s Note: I encourage all of my readers to prepare for the Christmas season with the Choose This Day Family Bible Study for the Advent season. It’s a fun, short (10-15 minutes) Bible study that the whole family can enjoy daily from December 1 to 25. You can visit that website by clicking this link.

And now, back to today’s lectionary reading:

This stained glass window depicting “The Visitation” is from Magdalene College, Cambridge. [photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Luke 1:39-45
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Luke’s careful investigations and interviews with those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word (Luke 1:2) provide a unique insight into the lives of these expectant mothers, Mary and Elizabeth.

Mary the young unmarried virgin from Nazareth is a descendant of the house of David. Her kinswoman Elizabeth, (who is descended from Aaron, the first High Priest of Israel), is well past the age of fertility for women.

And yet, because of the intervention of the Holy Spirit, both of these women have miraculously conceived.

Mary, learning that she has been favored to be the mother of the Messiah, and also learning that Elizabeth is expecting a child, seeks fellowship with another mom-to-be in these special circumstances.

So this young mother-to-be travels, likely on foot, from the highlands of Galilee, likely skirting the Samaritan highlands and traveling along the Jordan River Valley, and then up into the hills of Judea — a trip of about four or five days to cover roughly 60 miles.

But the meeting of these two women, who have perhaps not seen each other in some time, is electric:

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit . . .

Although the movement of unborn children in the womb is hardly unusual (Elizabeth is at least six months pregnant at this point), the Holy Spirit interprets to Elizabeth what this means — her unborn child is recognizing the supremacy of the unborn child in Mary’s womb.

[She] exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.”

Elizabeth recognizes the unique honor that Mary has received. Elizabeth also acknowledges how honored she is by Mary’s visit. It has been revealed to Elizabeth by the Holy Spirit that the child Mary is carrying is in fact the Lord! Elizabeth interprets this visit as though Mary is royalty.

The next sentence is a little puzzling:

“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

Has Elizabeth been briefed about what the Angel Gabriel has promised Mary? Or does she know this also by divine inspiration? In any event, she completes the cycle of submission and faith that began when Mary said to Gabriel:

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Mary is blessed because she has heard this unlikely promise of a virgin birth, and a holy child, and she has not only believed but obeyed.

APPLY:

These are two women of faith whose meeting becomes more than just a comparing of notes about pregnancy. Their meeting becomes a spontaneous celebration of worship.

Mary’s response to Elizabeth’s confession of faith is the matchless Magnificat, one of the most beautiful and prophetic songs in Scripture.

In one sense this passage is unique. There never was before or since such a pair of women with such extraordinary pregnancies or children. John, who was to be the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah, was already announcing the advent of his Lord even in the womb!

But all expectant parents who gather at birth classes and nurseries to talk of their hopes and dreams for their children can certainly identify with the breathless sense of anticipation that both of these women experience.

Perhaps we can also have the sense in this Advent that we are expecting the birth of Jesus in our own hearts.

RESPOND:

The Roman Catholic and Orthodox regard for Mary provides inspiration for me as a Protestant Christian. Although I certainly don’t venerate her as the Queen of Heaven, nor do I anticipate asking for her intercession now and at the hour of our death, nonetheless I find her worthy of admiration as a woman who freely submitted her will to the will of God, and who became the mother of my Lord.

And I certainly do resonate with the Orthodox title for Mary as Theotokos, which means God Bearer.

But I also find Elizabeth to be admirable and worth emulating. Elizabeth foreshadows the attitude of her own son in her deference to Mary.

Elizabeth acknowledges that Mary’s child is her own Lord, and does obeisance to Mary:

And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?

Similarly, her son John the Baptist will acknowledge the superiority of Jesus:

….one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals (Luke 3:16).

And in my own spiritual life, I must endeavor to follow John’s example as I seek to present Christ to others, and live as Christ’s follower:

He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Our Lord, my prayer is that I may recognize your presence just as Elizabeth recognizes that you have come to her. Be present in my life, and be born in my heart. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“The Visitation” by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for December 23, 2018

And now, back to today’s lectionary reading:

Pieta
Michelangelo’s work from 1499 in the Vatican Basilica. It is the only work he ever signed and it was carved when he was just 25 years old. [ photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Hebrews 10:5-10
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage may seem an odd choice for the last Sunday of Advent, just before Christmas. But this is a sober reminder that this child that we celebrate on December 25 with trees and glitter and presents and feasting — came to die.

Hebrews addresses the fulfillment of the types and symbols of temple sacrifice by Jesus, who is the ultimate sacrifice for sin. In his sacrificial death, Jesus abolishes the need for the signs and symbols of atonement that were observed in the Old Testament.

As Hebrews 10:1 says:

the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities…

Jesus is the embodiment of these realities. Hebrews attributes to Jesus the words from the Septuagint version of Psalm 40:6-8:

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’
(in the scroll of the book it is written of me).”

Is the body you have prepared for me a reference to the body that Jesus has taken on in the incarnation? We are reminded of the words of the Gospel of John, describing Jesus as the Word, who is one with God:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1).

But the key here is that this Word, who is the only begotten Son of the Father, and is the second person of the Trinity, has taken on a human body:

the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Hebrews contends that all that Jesus does is in fulfillment of the Hebrew scriptures:

“‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’
(in the scroll of the book it is written of me).”

Then Hebrews provides a very clear line of demarcation between the sacrificial laws and the real purpose for which Jesus has come:

“You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.

The sacrificial laws of the temple have been abolished, and Jesus has established himself as the ultimate sacrifice by accomplishing God’s will. This differentiation between the laws of sacrifices and God’s will is suggested in the Old Testament:

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6).

Even more significantly, Jesus sees his whole life as the full and sufficient sacrifice. This is what he seems to mean when he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the eve of his crucifixion:

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39 NIV).

His whole life has been lived in surrender to the will of his Father, from the incarnation to his earthly ministry, to the cross, the resurrection and the ascension.

And God’s ultimate will is not merely that his Son should suffer and die. That is a means to an end. The end, or goal, is that those who believe in him should be made righteous and holy:

And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

This can only be accomplished through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

APPLY:

There is no escaping the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement. This is the doctrine that states that in order for our sins to be forgiven, a perfect and holy sacrifice is required. And furthermore, this perfect and holy sacrifice cannot be provided by the blood of animals, or even a good man.

The only perfect and holy sacrifice that is adequate as a substitute for our sins is the One who is perfect and holy. And the only person who is perfect and holy is God himself! Therefore, God has emptied himself and taken on human form in order that he himself might be our perfect sacrifice.

Jesus was born for just this purpose — as the incarnate God and the second person of the Trinity — to live the perfect and sinless life and to offer his own body as the perfect sacrifice in our place.

Because of the righteousness of Christ and his sacrifice, we are sanctified (made holy). This is a holiness that we have not earned, but that is given as a gift of grace, received by faith.

RESPOND:

I laugh at a scene in the movie “Talladega Nights” every time I’ve seen it. In this comedy, Ricky Bobby is a champion NASCAR driver.

In one scene, he is sitting at the dinner table with his family, and his trophy wife suggests that he give thanks for the food. When he begins to pray, he prays to the Dear Lord Baby Jesus.

When his wife and father-in-law try to explain that Jesus grew up and became a man, Ricky Bobby ignores them. He says Well, I like the Christmas Jesus best and I’m saying grace.

We don’t have that option. Jesus is the Christmas Jesus, of course. But this is the same Jesus who was preexistent and the only-begotten Son from the Father, who confronted evil and the devil in his life, who died a cruel death on the cross, and was raised from the dead, who lives and reigns with the Father, and will return at the end of the age.

If we don’t understand that the whole life of Jesus is our source of salvation and sanctification, we have completely missed the point.

Our Lord, you have taken on a body so that you might become a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for me. All I can say when I see the Christmas creches is, ‘thank you that you were born to die and to be raised to life again.’ Amen.

PHOTOS:
"Pieta" by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for December 23, 2018

And now, back to today’s lectionary reading:

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

NOTE FROM CELESTE LETCHWORTH:
As most of you know, Tom went to be with the Lord 6 months ago.
Since the lectionary cycles every 3 years, I am able to copy Tom’s SOAR studies from the archives and post them each week with our current year’s dates.

However — the United Methodist lectionary Psalm reading for December 23, 2018 does not include verses 17-19.

Tom wrote the following SOAR study based on the Advent season Psalm reading for December 3, 2017, which included verses 17-19.

OBSERVE:

This Psalm appeals to the Lord for intervention in a time of adversity. It is described as a Psalm of Lament. It is difficult to tell from the context alone if the Psalm was written before or after the exile of Israel. It doesn’t really matter to the reader, because it is clearly a cry for help in any event. One clue, though, might be the mention of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, which would suggest that the Psalm was written before the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

The imagery of the Lord as Shepherd is familiar to us, and comforting — but then there is the imagery of the Lord sitting enthroned between the cherubim. The cherubim are those terrifying angelic figures who are depicted as the guardians of Eden with a sword of flame, and the close companions of the Lord who bear him up with wings of the wind. This description of Yahweh is much more intimidating. There may also be a reference to the winged cherubim made of gold who flank the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies within the temple.

But what does the Psalmist seek? Restoration, revival, salvation. He cries out for the Lord to awaken, and to make his face shine on them again. This hearkens back to the Deuteronomic blessing that Aaron was instructed to give as High Priest:

Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
Yahweh make his face to shine on you,
and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift up his face toward you,
and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

There may also be a reference to the glory of God that accompanies his presence — the same glory that made the face of Moses shine after he’d been in the presence of the Lord.

But there’s a catch — God is now angry with Israel. The result of his anger is the deep grief of Israel and the derision and mockery by their enemies. Their grief is expressed in a very concrete image — their very food is drenched by tears, and their drinking bowls are full of tears!

We don’t really know the specific cause of this disruption in their relationship with their God, but it could be any one of many of Israel’s historic setbacks.

The refrain recurs as a kind of litany three times:

Revive us, and we will call on your name.
Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

And what is the source of that salvation? The Christian reader can’t help but read into the Psalm a messianic prophecy:

Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.

The phrase son of man may have many meanings, but one that is inescapable for the Christian is Messianic. Jesus uses this phrase repeatedly in the Gospels when referring to himself.

APPLY:

At some point we all know how it feels to be defeated, demoralized, in despair — as a nation, a family, an individual. The cry of the Psalmist isn’t far from the experience of any of us.

We have all tasted our own tears of grief or shame; and we probably know what it feels like to be despised by someone because of our mistakes.

What we cry out for, in our nation, our church, our family, our own lives, is revival and restoration. If once we have experienced the presence of God in our lives — if we have known the shine of his face — and it has faded for us, we earnestly yearn for it again.

We will find our revival and restoration in the life and the light of Christ, who brings not only salvation from our sins but healing to our hearts, and the power to live the holy lives to which he calls us.

RESPOND:

I find myself from time to time dealing with my own drift away from God. I have to cry out again for renewal and revival. As with the Psalmist this happens when I begin to call out God’s name and seek to live according to the claims of his name.

Our Lord, our nation experiences victories, but also sees defeats — the disabled veteran who wonders ‘was it worth it?’ The ambiguity of race relations in a divided country. And our own personal struggles with grief or depression. We don’t have the wisdom to provide all the answers. But you have provided a Person who is wisdom incarnate, and salvation, and new life! May we find our source of healing and salvation in Christ! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Psalm 80-7” by tea4judy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for December 23, 2018

And now, back to today’s lectionary reading:

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Micah 5: 2-5a
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Micah is a contemporary of Isaiah, prophesying during the reigns of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah (Micah 1:1), roughly between 740-687 B.C.

Like Isaiah, he has a kind of ‘double vision.’ He sees the contemporary events of his own day, and the threat of the Assyrian Empire to Samaria (aka Israel, the Northern Kingdom) and Judah. But he also sees events in the future which the Christian church can only interpret as prophesies of the Christ.

This week’s Old Testament lectionary reading is a case in point. Micah looks forward to the Messiah who is to come out of Bethlehem of Ephrathah.

But before Bethlehem grew famous as the birthplace of Jesus, or as the hometown of David, we are reminded that Bethlehem Ephrathah was merely a small, rural town in the Judean highlands. If it was famous for anything, it was known for the grain that was grown nearby and processed in Bethlehem.

Bethlehem literally means “house of bread.” We are reminded of Boaz, the wealthy landowner from Bethlehem who married a young woman who gleaned in his fields — her name was Ruth, and she was to become the mother of Obed, and the great- grandmother of David.

Ephrathah is identified as an older sister city of Bethlehem that was later absorbed into Bethlehem; and the region around Bethlehem became known as the district of Ephrathah.

But despite these humble beginnings, Bethlehem of Ephrathah would become famous as the hometown of David, and the birthplace of David’s most famous heir, Jesus:

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.

So, what does Micah mean when he says,

Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has brought forth;
then the rest of his kindred shall return
to the people of Israel.

Just who is the woman who gives birth? She is the mother of this Messianic figure of the house of David, who:

shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

This description of the Messiah as a shepherd over his people is a reminder of David, who began as a shepherd-boy before he was anointed as king.

And this Messiah’s rule will extend far beyond the humble origins of Bethlehem of Ephrathah:

And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth;
and he shall be the one of peace.

Micah’s designation of this Messianic figure as the one of peace reminds us of his contemporary, Isaiah:

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

APPLY:

Place and setting are important in the Bible. But they are important not because of themselves but because of people, events, or circumstances that are associated with them.

Bethlehem becomes important because it is the hometown of David, from whom a royal dynasty is to arise. Bethlehem is important in the prophecy of Micah not because it is such a significant place but because it becomes a kind of signpost to us that this child born to Mary:

. . . shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace.

In this season of Advent, the signs are everywhere that we’ll be celebrating Christmas soon. But even more importantly, we look to the signs in Scripture that Jesus is the one for whom we are waiting.

RESPOND:

I think of places that have been significant in my own life. The front yard of my parent’s home in Highland, California where God became real to me as I looked out over the glittering city lights in the valley below. The delivery rooms where my sons were born.

Small, humble places sometimes far exceed their external image. I recall taking my sons to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. We stood in the very room where Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and other patriots debated American independence.

The room had been cleared of all of the original furniture for the purpose of refurbishment. So all we could see was a bare room, with the tall, paned windows.

I remember being struck with how small and simple the room appeared. And yet the events of July 2 through 4, 1776 changed the world!

The point is simply this — the difference that a small, humble town can make, or a cattle stall, is in direct proportion to the One who comes from there!

Lord, thank you for the signposts that are scattered throughout your Word that confirm for me that Jesus is the one “whose origin is from of old, from ancient days,” and who has come to be “the one of peace.” Amen.

PHOTOS:
"11th-Dec-Advent-Quote" by Lex McKee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.