Lessons Advent Three

Jas 5:7 Be patient, then, my friends, until the Lord comes. See how patient farmers are as they wait for their land to produce precious crops. They wait patiently for the autumn and spring rains.

Today is one of those rare days when it is the Epistle Lesson that has caught my attention. As I write this Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving so it seems only apt that Farm life be used as a metaphor for the Christian Life. Farmers are used as an example of faith, hope, and expectation. They read the signs and observe weather patterns; they place good seed in the ground in hopes that the spring rains will come and enable it to germinate and grow. They till the soil and patiently wait for their crops to mature. They are dependent on conditions beyond their control for the success of their venture. When the crop matures they work hard to harvest it and store it safely where it will not come to harm. All this takes patience. Most crops do not grow overnight and some seeds take up to a month to germinate. Planting the seed is an act of faith and dependence on God to provide the conditions that will lead to a harvest. Crops can take months to reach harvest time. Many are the weather conditions, weeds and parasites that can damage or impede the growth of those crops. The work is done in the hope of a reward to come at a later time. For someone who plants a vineyard or an olive tree that reward can be decades in the future. The work is not done once the planting is complete. The crop must be tilled, pruned, nourished and watered or it will die. Many workers are needed once the crop is ready to harvest it before it spoils in the field.

In Isaiah the faithful are exhorted not to become discouraged. They are to be patient and wait on the Lord. In good Deuteronomic parlance the unjust will be punished and the righteous rewarded. In the Day of the Lord the blind shall see, the deaf shall hear and the lame leap and dance for joy.

Isa 35:10 They will reach Jerusalem with gladness, singing and shouting for joy. They will be happy forever, forever free from sorrow and grief.

The Psalm continues the theme of rewards for the faithful, the Lord always keeps his promises.

In James we learn the importance of patience. The faithful may endure suffering but must trust that the Lord will be full of mercy and compassion and provide in the end.

This is Advent, a time of expectation. John's followers are looking for the Messiah, he whose coming John had prophesied. When asked if he was the one,

Mat 11:4 Jesus answered, "Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing:
Mat 11:5 the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor.

John can be compared to that farmer who planted the seed and prepared the way for the harvest that is to come but like the farmer who laid the seed in the ground to die John opened the way for the Messiah who was to come. John is asked to look for the signs that the harvest is ready.

Our expectations as with those of the people of John's day are very high but we must be prepared for their fulfilment in the person of a helpless infant. We need to till our own lives so that He may reap a harvest in us.

Lessons Advent Two 2013

That Jesus was of the house and lineage of David fulfilling the prophesy of Isaiah the prophet is considered so important that the book of Matthew begins with his family tree from Abraham through Jesse and David to Joseph his Father. Luke 3 follows his genealogy through Joseph back to David through Abraham to Shem and Noah to Seth son of Adam son of God. Matthew 3 is a reworking of the book of Mark and equates John the Baptist with the prophet Elijah who was swept living into heaven and his message is nearly a direct quote from Isaiah 40:3. Isaiah 11 speaks of the coming Messiah in allegorical terms. The people to whom this message was addressed have been oppressed by the Assyrians and are in need of deliverance. This scion of David will usher in a golden age of peace.

The Psalm is an enthronement hymn which adjures the king to rule justly and fairly so that his people may know prosperity.

Romans 15 describes a God of patience and comfort, hope, and peace. Once more a descendent of the house of Jesse is invoked and
various OT passages are quoted. What is made clear is that it will be the actions of God's people and their adherence to the teachings of Scripture that will serve to bring forth the promised golden age with God the Father and the Son as our inspiration empowered by the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew John comes preaching a baptism of repentance. The people must turn away from their sins in preparation for the coming Messiah. We must not be complacent in the belief that our being Jews and ancestors of Abraham or even Christians will save us from the wrath to come. To John's way of thinking the acceptance of God's grace is hollow and empty if it is not accompanied by a repentant turning away from our past sinful ways. If we confess our sins and receive forgiveness and then return to the same behaviours we make a mockery of God's grace. The sophistry of the Pharisees and Sadducees is described in rather colourful terms. It is not enough to appear righteous and cloak oneself in holy observance, one must live it in one's daily life.

In summary David, son of Jesse, is anointed king while a simple shepherd boy and is forced to flee the wrath of Saul. Jesus is son of Joseph, a carpenter who has to flee the wrath of Herod to save his child. King David's Reign was the golden age of Israel. The birth of a Messiah of David's line is prophesied as ushering in another golden age. While King David's reign was responsible for Israel's earthly prosperity Jesus Kingdom is a Spiritual one and his Kingdom is accomplished by a change in the hearts and minds of his believers. In looking toward the birth of this Messiah we must search our lives and our consciences to see what changes we need to make to prepare our hearts to receive this child.

Lessons for Advent One 2013

With the beginning of a new church year we return to lesson series A and its OT Lessons based solidly in Isaiah. In verse one it is made clear that the prophet is a seer (of visions). His intended audience was Jewish and they continue to understood his words in the context of the Israeli political and cultural situation. Christians have taken his words and applied them to Jesus. Our Jewish confreres are still looking for the promised Messiah.

In the OT the greatest expression of Godliness was a trip to Jerusalem and God's Holy Temple. It was the symbol of God's presence here on earth. They looked for a time of Jubilee when soldiers would turn the instruments of war into farm implements. When wars would cease. Then the peoples would prosper.

To properly understand our Epistle one must read the first ten verses in the chapter. The NT Writers anticipate the Day of the Lord when the Saviour of the world will make all things right. What Paul makes clear in Romans 13 is that it is our actions that will be instrumental in bringing it to pass. The Gospel emphasizes that we must live our lives in such a manner that we will be ready whenever the day of accounting should come for we know not the day or the hour.

I like the commentator's idea of placing a plough in the Narthex for Advent One, then a stump and stones for latter lessons.

We have been serving up a great deal of eschatological writing lately. Many OT and NT writers wrote about an apocalypse in which God or Jesus would intervene in history to raise the dead--the resurrection and judge the living and the dead in a final cataclysmic event. Many early Christians looked for this intervention to come within their lifetimes indeed Paul cautions his fledgeling congregations against laziness and sloth because some had sold all they had and were sitting back waiting for it to come. Indeed the Nicene Creed has us state, "We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."; the Apostles Creed, "the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."

There have been numerous doomsday prophets in recent years who looked for these end times putting a date on the event all of which have obviously passed so far. There have also been cults that engaged in mass suicide to bring on their own version of the apocalypse, we can think of the Jonestown Massacre and the Branch Davidians in Waco Texas.

We are left with the question of the nature of the resurrected body and life of the world to come. Many have taken apocalyptic writings literally and inspired by allegorical writings such as John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and John Milton's Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained think in terms of a Angels appearing at the last Trumpet, Pearly Gates guarded by St. Peter, and a physical Heaven where the streets are paved with silver and gold. God with a long flowing silvery grey beard gets off his rocking chair and mounts a massive throne for the final judgement.

The Biblical Message is obviously filtered through the minds of Early Christian writers. We would do well not to take their allegorical writings literally. When Jesus says:

Joh 14:2 There are many rooms in my Father's house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so.
Joh 14:3 And after I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, so that you will be where I am.

he does not necessarily speak of a physical location inhabited by physical bodies. In fact the best indication I can think of was the confrontation between Jesus and the Sadducees we studied 3 Sundays back in Luke 20: 27-38 in which the Sadducees raise the hypothetical question of the woman with seven husbands. In Christ's response he declares that life everlasting transcends our mortal existence and our concerns of time and space. Both Jesus and later Paul counsel that we live our lives in constant preparation for 'that day'. But we are told that the best preparation we can make is to be about our Father's work here on earth. As Christians we enter the eternal Kingdom of God which transcends earth and heaven. We enter it here on earth and at the hour of our death become permanent members of that Kingdom. As moral beings we cannot fully understand that spiritual realm but we are counseled to believe that God wishes us every good thing. We are advised to trust in this and to live our lives without concern for the things to come, it has already been taken care of.

As to the when we know that in 5-6 billion years the sun will become a red giant and engulf the orbit of earth. There is also the remote chance that an asteroid will slam into the Earth and wipe out life as we know it save for the cockroaches. What we are all certain of is our own mortality and the fact that we all face death. At our deaths our spiritual 'bodies' enter eternity. Whether the bright light at the end of the tunnel symbolizes our union with God eternal matters not; it is the lives we have lived here on earth that have prepared us for that union. If we have strived to bring God's Kingdom on Earth then we need have no concern for the life to come.

Christ the King

Whether or not Jeremiah is predicting the birth of Jesus and his establishment of the Kingdom of God he is admonishing the nation's leaders to take concern for God's people and work to do good for them. We are assured that God cares for his faithful flock and will gather them to himself. As Christians we understand that God's Kingdom is not an earthly one but an eternal spiritual nation.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psa 46:2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

Psa 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Today's lessons continue the eschatological theme making it clear once more that God is with us and though the earth be shattered we will always find a firm foundation in the God of our Refuge.

In Colossians we are reminded that God is the creator of all things. Christ is the head of the church and in the priesthood of all believers we can always find stability.

Luk 23:43 Jesus said to him, "I promise you that today you will be in Paradise with me."

Last Sunday Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple and warned that his Disciples would be persecuted for their association with him. Today the Gospel confronts the crucifixion, the destruction of Christ's Earthly Temple. But we know that it was followed in three days by the Resurrection. If we like the criminal crucified beside him acknowledge Jesus as Lord we too will be with Him this day in Paradise. I suppose there could be no more dramatic means of demonstrating that Christ's Kingdom is not of this world than to celebrate his death on Christ the King Sunday.

Php 4:7 The Peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Unfortunately in considering Jeremiah I am confronted with a prime example of failed leadership in the person Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto. The man seems incapable of understanding that a good leader leads by example. His 375 pounds testifies to his self-indulgent lifestyle. He has been repeatedly appeared in public intoxicated. He admits to smoking various illicit drugs as well as marajuana. He abuses the privileges of his office and flouts the law having been seen speeding, texting, and talking on a cellphone while driving. The man is a disgrace to the office he holds.

Our Psalm speaks to a desert people something Texans can take to heart. God meets us in the hurly burly of daily life. His 'voice' may not thunder as one may have seen portrayed in the presentation of the Commandments on Mt Sinai but if we wait for perfect quiet to hear it we will have missed the point as well. Our walk with God provides us with an inner peace that cannot be moved no matter what life throws at us.

Our Epistle Lesson emphasizes the point that we are members of the Kingdom of God Today, this is not pie in the sky by and bye. This is our Father's world and in Christ he has already declared himself the victor over the powers of evil that would destroy us. Safe in that knowledge we are empowered to do God's work now. We do not wait for the heaven to come but live amid the Peace of God today.