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Sojourners on Advent 2A

Don't miss the free sample week of the subscription service, "Preaching the Word" from Sojourners! They've assembled a number of articles and studies on lectionary passages and themes (Justice & the Poor, Preparing the Way of the Lord, and Gentiles & Repentance) for Advent 2A.

Advent - BBC

At BBC Religion & Ethics: Advent. Programmes, Advent Calendar, the History of Christmas, etc.

Karen Armstrong

The Freelance Monotheism of Karen Armstrong, American Public Media Speaking of Faith.

"Armstrong has written a memoir, The Spiral Staircase, about her progression from a disillusioned and damaged young nun into, in her words, a "freelance monotheist." She's a formidable thinker and scholar, but as a theologian she calls herself an amateur — noting that the Latin root of the word "amateur" means a love of one's subject. But she didn't always have this passion. Seven years in a strict religious order nearly snuffed out her ability to think about faith at all. In this program, we hear the story behind Armstrong's own ideas about God."

Matthew 24:36-44

Some thoughts from around the web:

John J. Pilch, "Historical Cultural Context," Saint Louis University Center for Liturgy:

"For our present-oriented ancestors in the faith, the ongoing delay of Jesus' expected imminent return forced them to think "future." When this delay had reached fifty years and more in Matthew's community, the evangelist was able to force his present-oriented people to begin to think of at least a slightly remote, if not yet very far off, future.

"The challenge to American believers is quite different. Americans are so terminally future oriented, often to a distant future (college for the infant; retirement for the new worker), that they frequently miss the present entirely.

"With our futures relatively well-secured, we need to be wakeful to and watchful of the present lest misfortune creep up on us before we realize it."

Some helpful thoughts from Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary, Advent 1, by Paul Nuechterlein & Friends:

"1. Matthew 24:38-39: "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man." The Greek word for "swept away," airo, more generally means "take up," "carry away," or "remove." It occurs 19 times in Matthew. In other words, it has a similar meaning as that of being taken up in the rapture, though it does often have more violent connotations. In other words, couldn't we say that according to this verse those in the flood experience a kind of rapture, being carried away in it? Which would mean that it was only Noah and his family who were left behind after the flood waters receded.

2. The Greek word for "the coming" of the Son of Man in 24:39 is parousia.

3. Matthew 24:40-41: "Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left." The Greek word for "taken" in these two verses is paralambano (16 occurrences in Matt.). The word for "left" is aphiemi, the meaning of which the Friborg Lexicon says:

(1) send off or away, let go (MT 27.50); (2) as a legal technical term divorce (1C 7.11); (3) abandon, leave behind (MT 26.56); (4) of duty and obligation reject, set aside, neglect (MK 7.8); (5) of toleration let go, leave in peace, allow (MK 11.6); (6) of sins or debts forgive, pardon, cancel (LU 7.47); (7) give or utter a loud cry (MK 15.37).

What a range of meanings! From "leave behind" to "forgive"! Is it just a coincidence that the word for left behind here is also the word for forgive?"

Continue to read Nuechterlein's argument at his website. There are some very interesting insights here, and a different way to look at these passages.

During Advent, the Process & Faith Lectionary Commentary is being presented by John Cobb:

"It would be easy to be cynical. The hopes for Jerusalem expressed in Isaiah and Psalms, after two and a half millennia, are yet to be fulfilled. The coming of the Son of Man has thus far failed to materialize. There has been no collective resurrection of the sort Paul anticipated.

One might wonder why, after all these disappointments, we should continue to live in anticipation and hope. Some Christians reply that it is simply a matter of time. Eventually every prophecy will be fulfilled quite literally. Some of these Christians discern in current events in Israel/Palestine the beginning of the fulfillment of many biblical prophesies. One may support this line of thought by pointing out that the passage from Matthew emphasizes that no one knows just when the prophecies are to be fulfilled. But for most of us, these moves do not work. Read in their context, these prophecies are not directed to a time thousands of years later. It is clear that the hopes and expectations of Jews and early Christians were repeatedly disappointed...

What can we learn from this? We can learn that we human beings are not good at predicting the future. We can learn that the actual course of history is far more ambiguous than are the visions that lure us forward. We can learn, at least we process thinkers have learned, that even God does not control the future or know just what will happen.

But we can learn also that the hope that keeps us going is far deeper and more fundamental to our faith than any particular formulation of its contents. Hope has survived repeated disappointments in the past. It will survive many more in the future. It will do so as long as we believe in the biblical God."

From Dylan's Lectionary Blog. (Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church):

"But this Sunday's gospel, and this season of Advent, proclaim Good News to God's people. The Ruthless Masters do NOT have the last word; Jesus does. The completion of Jesus' vision for the world, in which "the least of these" and those who worked for justice for them are finally vindicated, is coming! The signs are all around us, though some people don't recognize them any more than the kings of the earth recognized their Lord when he was a baby, or a homeless man, or a convict on a cross.

"Jesus is coming. Will we recognize him? The best way to know, deep down, is to get lots of practice. Whatever we do for "the least of these," we do for Jesus. If we want to see Jesus and know Jesus, if we want to experience the Good News that Jesus is coming, we need to listen to the stories, the hopes, and the concerns of "the least of these." If we want Jesus to recognize us as a neighbor, we must become neighbors to "the least of these, building real community – shared bread, shared dreams, shared vision – with them. That shared vision is Jesus' vision. That shared hope is what makes the certain news of Jesus' coming Good News. That shared dream is coming true among us, and Jesus invites us to make it our own."

At Pilgrim Preaching, Mary Hinkle lifts up for our consideration the Monty Python "Spanish Inquisition" skit:

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. "If the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into" (Matthew 24:43). The Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour...

"In Matthew's gospel, we hear quite a lot about Jesus as "God with us" (1:23), present with us in tough times (18:20) and for the long haul (28:20). One of the benefits that the ongoing presence of Christ offers the church is the chance to live in the end time ahead of time. We have the presence of Jesus with us even before he comes again in glory. "Lo, I am with you always," he said. His presence heals, reconciles, calls to account, opens the door to the banquet, pays workers all the same, and on and on, ahead of the time of his return to judgment. Paul's words in Romans are all about living "ahead of time," anticipating with our lives that way of life that will be ours when Christ returns.

"Maybe the surprise, when Christ returns, will be that he was here all along. Maybe the surprise will be that, ahead of time himself, he has been calling, gathering, enlightening and sanctifying the meek and all the rest of those who bear his name. Come, Lord Jesus."

From "First Thoughts on Year A Gospel Passages in the Lectionary: Advent 1," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia:

"Attentiveness to what is going on in relation to the big picture and the longer perspective is in deficit in our communities. Our imaginings about the realities of the future may or may not include points of time, but they can envisage both dramatic events and slowly spiralling dangers. The theology that God is in the end need not change. The same Jesus-shaped God of hope meets us from the future and lifts our gaze from our own preoccupation with eating and drinking, marrying and being married. These good things and the rest of life’s activities which make so many people very busy today conspire to produce a situation where people have or make room only for small thinking and limited horizons. They often prevent or subvert our watching. There will be tired people listening to your exposition who are in exactly this plight. Systems and structures press ahead above us and beyond us as we tread the pavement below and genuinely care for all the immediate concerns which confront us. Meanwhile things go on which affect economies and ecologies, relationships develop or breakdown among communities and nations, and it is a real struggle to get people to think beyond immediate causes and effects.

"The watching is a dramatic way of speaking about God-connectedness. It is not very edifying if it is reduced to an exhortation not to misbehave in case you get 'caught with your pants down', as they say, when Jesus comes. It is about developing an awareness of what the God of the future is saying and doing in the present, to take a God perspective on the issues of the day and the future and to let that happen at all levels of our reality, from our personal lives to our international community, including our co-reality in creation. It is a stance nourished by the eucharistic vision of hope. It is taking the eucharistic table into the community, into the present, and letting it watch us and keep us awake to what is happening."

Being ready. For what? How? When? Filling ourselves with hope. For what? How? When?

About 6 months ago, friends of mine lost an infant - a stillbirth caused by an umbilical cord wrapped around the baby's neck the day before the baby was due to be born. Our subsequent conversation was about hope and faith. Does "faith" and "hope" mean putting faith and hope in specific things - a healthy infant, eventual life in heaven, etc? Or is hope and faith somehow deeper than the things we tend to set it within? Are we called to put our faith in a God who gives promises about things that are counter to our intuitive ways of understanding promises, and in things that are not the things we might ask for? What ARE we waiting for, hoping for, putting our faith in? What would it mean to meditate on that question and keep it 'open', instead of rushing to answer it quite so quickly?

The Meaning of Communion

At Table: The Meaning of Communion, American Public Media's Speaking of Faith, November, 2004. "What are the origins of communion, and what is its deepest social relevance? Two leading theologians of communion [Don Saliers & Edward Foley] describe a ritual that is not just personally meaningful for the believer, but also collectively and ethically challenging for Christians."

John Updike on Religion

At PBS Religion & Ethics Newsweekly Web Exclusive, John Updike on Religion, Benedicta Cipolla. "On Thursday, Nov. 18, novelist John Updike spoke at the Center for Religious Inquiry at St. Bartholonew's Church in New York City. Read Benedicta Cipolla's report."

Christian Moderates

At PSB Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Christian Moderates :

"Correspondent Judy Valente talks with scholars and moderate Christians as well as an evangelical pastor in the heartland about the meaning of "moral values" and the many post-election discussions that are going on about religion, politics, values, and moral issues."

America and Religion

From Opium of the People: America's Drug of Choice, by Bill Wiser, posted at Bruderhof Communities:

"And never have we been subjected to such doses as during the recent presidential campaign. After listening ad nauseum to the patriotic arrogance of this nationalistic religion, our family turned to the “Song of Mary” in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke. It was like diving into ice-cold water—painful, but instantly invigorating and reviving.

"…He has scattered those who are proud in their thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty-handed…

"Any who would claim the name of Jesus would do well to ponder these words, particularly as we approach the weeks of Advent—set apart in the Christian calendar as a time of consideration and preparation for Christmas. These words are revolutionary, rather than illusionary. They offer hope to anyone ready for a change more radical (from the Latin, “more at root”) than Karl Marx envisioned, to all who will not rest until the conditions Mary describes become reality.

"If we can do away with the illusion of religion, we will be ready for the real thing—for God to take hold of us and change everything in us and around us. It will be painful (for who is not “proud in their inmost thoughts”?), but absolutely invigorating and reviving."

Thanksgiving Mythology

"Thanksgiving Mythology," lectionary reflection for Thanksgiving C, Robert Two Bulls, Proclaiming Gospel Justice at The Witness:

"Every year when Thanksgiving Day approaches, I feel without fail a growing consternation inside me. I attribute this feeling to the inevitable emergence of the whitewashed historical record of this day and to the sudden attention that America directs toward the Native American Indians...

"[W]e celebrate a false mythology that plays into our notion of greatness. It is presented like a bridge that connects a mythic past of one's ancestors having nothing to present-day descendents having a superabundance of everything. The troubling aspect of this symbol is that the foundation on one side of this bridge is unstable..."

Luke 19:29-38

Two recent posts on the Luke 19:29-38 lectionary reading (BCP alternate reading for Christ the King):

Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Christ the King. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church:

"Christ the King is the one whose kingship was shown in how he treated the poor and outcast as royalty, and whose vindication from the God in whose name he rode into Jerusalem showed us that his humble service is the kind of behavior God truly honors."

"A Righteous Branch," Carter Heyward, Proclaiming Gospel Justice, The Witness.

"We do not simply 'wait' for the birth of Jesus; we expect God to come, to be born among us, again, as God always is, in the most unlikely places. And how we need this kind of '“Advent spirituality' in the early winter of 2004, a few weeks after The Election in which . . . the hopes and dreams of progressive folks were buried beneath a rubble dubbed 'moral values'!"