Lectionary Notes 12/4/11

This Sunday is a communion Sunday. We therefore will be having our always-tempting fellowship breakfast beginning at 8:15 a.m., and wewill not be having Bible Study at 9:00 a.m. Gordon Forbes will be preaching at the service on two much-loved passages from Scripture, Isaiah40:1-11 and Mark 1:1-8:

Isaiah 40:1-11 (NRSV):

God’s People Are Comforted

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.

Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do notfear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

Mark 1:1-8 (NRSV):

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way;

the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.

I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Notes:

1. This week’s passage from Mark is, of course, based closely on the passage from Isaiah. The two passages taken together illustrate how those who witnessed the revelation of Jesus interpreted what they experienced in the words and images of their pre-existing faith, which was of course the faith of the Hebrew Bible, including Isaiah and the other prophets. This week’s readings show the very ancient continuity of the faith that we proclaim each time we get together at Westmoreland.
2. In both passages, God’s people look with joyful anticipation to great events in the future. In both passages, we can feel the excitement of great developments impending in creation. We try to capture this sense of enthralled waiting every year during Advent. During Advent, we wait with joy for the next chapters of creation to unfold.
3. Through much of human history, including Biblical times, most religious people probably conceived of creation as occurring through bursts of divine intervention. That is, it was thought that when God believed humanity was ready for a new revelation or a new historical era, God would take the steps needed – bringing rain, say, when God thought the people needed it, or for that matter plagues and destruction when God thought that was required. This view of creation had its psychological challenges for people – God could be a very scary entity — but the Biblical conception of creation had the huge benefit of reminding people of our utter dependence on God.
4. Over the last 150 years or so, scientific developments have given some religious people a somewhat different picture of how creation unfolds. The ideas of evolution, and of apparent randomness (“quantum uncertainty”) in the tiny motions of the smallest particles of which everything is made, have caused some to believe that God does not work by initiating big physical interventions in our affairs from time to time. Instead, it appears that God has allowed the world – and us – a lot of freedom. Under this view, for example, God doesn’t decree precisely when an earthquake occurs – it occurs when, through zillions of small subatomic motions, the various molecules in the Earth’s crust find themselves aligned so that they can’t stay together anymore without shifting. And then there’s the matter of human free will. The molecules in our brains aren’t fixed in place. Instead, by a combination of our reactions and our conscious decisions, as well as those pesky little unpredictable events to which all matter is subject (yes, our brains are far from perfect), our opinions, consciousness, and actions are determined in a process that even God can’t control.
5. The changes in scientific imagery have led many to believe that God doesn’t effectuate creation alone – instead, God depends on us to assist in the process of creation. God couldn’t possibly create alone, since a creation fully under God’s control could lead only to perfection – to, essentially, a Xerox copy of God – and this wouldn’t be creation at all. No, God needed – and needs – to put creation at least in part in the hands of the created. We still, of course, depend utterly on God – but we depend on God to give us the reality of our physical existence, and then to lead us toward God’s realm, rather than to do all our work for us. This may mean, of course, that we see the world as a more dangerous place even than did the ancients – we know our own shortcomings all too well, and hence the thought of our human responsibility before God can be terrifying.
6. God’s revelation tells us today, as it did thousands of years ago, that great things are still to occur; the best does indeed still stand before us. But we will realize this promise only if, as a species, we follow God’s guidance and work consciously toward God’s realm here on earth. Our historical track record in this regard is mixed; this should give us pause. We know better today, than in ancient times, why we feel trembling along with our joy in Advent. Let us pray that, through every molecule in our bodies, we see clearly the guidance that God sends forth to us, and on which we utterly depend.

Hope to see all at breakfast.

Mike

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