This week's lessons: Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37
This
week's lessons: Isaiah
64:1-9, Psalm
80:1-7, 17-19, 1
Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark
13:24-37
Emmanuel Community Church
Inter-generational Lectionary Study;
Sundays from 10:0 to 10:45 in the Board Room
Opening
Opening prayer by leader, or invite another participant to pray, or us:
Almighty God, who has caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning, open our ears and hearts today to learn from your word and from one another, we ask in Jesus' Name. Amen
Set the calendar-clock to the right date. Pentecost is ....
Today, the Gospel reviews for us ....
Review of Last Week
What was the sermon on? -
What was the Gospel lesson? -
Did anyone have any insights about...
How have you been blessed so that you can be a light to shine in the lives around you?
How will you keep Christmas alive for the full Twelve Days?
What about your faith does the Christmas season especially enrich?
Are there groups of people today that your church excludes from God's message of grace?
What are you 'called out' to do?
This week's lessons: Jeremiah 31:7-14 or Sirach 24:1-12, Psalm 147:12-20 or Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21, Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1:(1-9), 10-18
Sirach 24:1-12
To followers of Judaism, the created world is God’s, so faith and reason go hand in hand; learning about creation is learning about God; reasoning is done in the context of God. They and we seek knowledge of God as we pursue faith. In the last centuries BC, people saw that the acquisition of knowledge about God led to wisdom. The author of Sirach, Jesus ben Sira, understood wisdom as leading to prosperity. 1:1 says: “all wisdom is from the Lord ...”. In our reading, ben Sira, has wisdom (abstracted, personified – but in a metaphorical way) introduce herself “in the midst of her people” (v. 1), Israel. She does so in the presence of the heavenly court (“the assembly ...”, v. 2). Wisdom “came forth” (v. 3) by the word of God, and permeated the earth (“like a mist”) as the spirit of God. She existed before creation. (Genesis 1:1-2 says in a Jewish translation: At the beginning of God’s creating ... rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the earth ...) Wisdom was involved in the “pillar of cloud” (v. 4), the way God showed his presence during the Exodus. Wisdom is present and active throughout creation, (from heaven to “the depths of the abyss” (v. 5), Sheol, the repose of the dead in Jewish thinking), and throughout history, to all people and with them.
God commanded Wisdom to dwell among the people of Israel (v. 8). Her earthly residence is the Temple at Jerusalem, the home of Mosaic Law; she gives rules for the appropriate worship of God (v. 10). Jerusalem is God’s “beloved city” (v. 11). Wisdom “took root” (v. 12) in Israel, inheritors of God’s blessing. In vv. 21-22, she concludes by offering an unusual meal, in which the more one eats, the more one desires. Wisdom leads to godly living.
Jeremiah
From Chapter 1, we know that Jeremiah was either born or began his ministry in 627 BC. During his life, Babylonia succeeded Assyria as the dominant power in the Middle East. He was a witness to the return to worship of the Lord (instituted by the Judean king Josiah), and then (after Josiah's death in battle in 609), the return of many of the people to paganism. When Babylon captured Jerusalem in 587, Jeremiah emigrated to Egypt. God called him to be a prophet to Judah and surrounding nations, in the midst of these political and religious convulsions.
Jeremiah 31:7-14
Jeremiah probably wrote this message of hope about 600 BC. Most of his book is directed to the people of Judah (the southern kingdom, conquered by Babylon in 587 BC) but this passage is directed to Israel, the northern kingdom, which was at the time loosely subject to Assyrian rule. Vv. 7-8 are a call for celebration. “Jacob” refers to Israel; the “chief of the nations” means the foremost: Israel is paramount because God cares about it. The “land of the north” (v. 8) is Assyria. The people – even the “blind and the lame” – will be gathered together, and will return from exile. (They were deported in 722 BC.) Such a caravan crossing the Arabian desert will indeed be a miraculous event.
Joy will be mixed with “weeping” (v. 9) and compassion (“consolations”). God will “lead them back”, but (unlike in the first Exodus), the going will be easy. Back then water was in short supply (recall that God caused water to spring forth from a rock – Exodus 17:1-7), but this time “brooks” will provide plentifully. Being Israel’s father, God will restore the nation to the state already enjoyed by Judah. (“Ephraim” is part of Israel.) Other nations, including the “coastlands” (v. 10) of the Mediterranean, are invited to witness this marvellous happening. In the first Exodus, God rescued Israel (“ransomed Jacob”, v. 11) and defeated their enemies (“hands too strong”); he will do so again. When they return, they will celebrate God’s goodness with feasting (v. 12). They will be sad no longer. Per v. 14, the priests will have life and prosperity (“fatness”) as will all “my people”. Bountiful harvests will mark the start of this new era of well-being.
Psalm 147:12-20
This hymn is an invitation to praise God for his universal power and providential care. In vv. 1-11, God is praised for rebuilding Jerusalem, gathering the people, healing, creating, and providing for the needs of those he creates. V. 5b says that there is no limit to his wisdom. In vv. 12-14, worship is due to him for protecting Jerusalem, for blessing her children, and for bringing peace and prosperity. Vv. 16-18 tell of the activity of God’s “word” (v. 15) in the phenomena of nature, from the winter cold to the spring thaw. Only to Israel has he declared his covenant.
Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21
Wisdom, the spirit of God, is personified as Lady Wisdom. In vv. 1-14, the author says that wisdom has been God’s agent in saving some important people in the past. Wisdom was also active in saving the people of Israel, through Moses. They are “blameless” in that they are chosen and set apart by God. The “nation of oppressors” (v. 15) is Egypt. Wisdom entered the “soul” (v. 16) of Moses (v. 16) and withstood Egyptian “kings”. She compensated Israel for its slavery with liberty, and precious objects carried on the Exodus. The pillar of cloud both guided them and shielded them from the desert sun (“shelter”, v. 17). V. 21 recalls a legend spoken in synagogues in the author’s time (about 50 BC).
Ephesians 1:3-14
Our reading begins immediately after Paul’s greeting to his readers. “Blessed be ...” echoes Jewish and early Christian prayers. God has brought us, by way of Christ, “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”, blessings in our hearts which are unseen and eternal, which bring together the physical world and God, “just as” (v. 4, or because) (before time) he planned for Christ to come to us, for Christ’s followers (us) to be holy, set apart for him, living “in love”, for his followers (the church) to be made members of his family (“for adoption as his children”, v. 5), and to be able to appreciate and reflect the Father’s splendid gifts to us (“to the praise ...”, v. 6). God gave this to us freely; it was his will and his “pleasure” (v. 5). (After Jesus’ baptism, a voice from heaven says “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you, I am well pleased.”, Mark 1:11)
It is through Christ’s death that we are set free, rescued (“redemption”, v. 7) and forgiven our deviations from God’s ways (“trespasses”). Being now “holy and blameless” (v. 4), we have intellectual knowledge of God (“wisdom”, v. 8) and are able to apply it (“insight”); so we can know and participate in his plan for creation – which he disclosed in the Christ-event (Christ’s life, death and resurrection.) This plan, which will come to fruition when God’s eternal purposes are completed, is to unite (“gather”, v. 10) all creation (“heaven” and “earth”) in Christ. In Christ, we Christians have been adopted by God (“inheritance”, v. 11), per his plan, so that we, forerunners (“the first”, v. 12) of many to “set our hope on Christ”, may live to praise God’s manifest power (“glory”). In Christ, the recipients of this letter, having heard the gospel and believed in him, were baptised (“marked with the seal of the ... Holy Spirit”, v. 13), incorporated into the Church. The inner sanctifying presence of the Spirit is a guarantee (“pledge”, v. 14) that God will carry his promise to completion.
John 1:(1-9),10-18
Our reading is the continuation of the book’s prologue, or the whole prologue. The Word, God, Christ, has been born into this imperfect world – a world that per v. 3, “came into being through him” – but most people did not embrace him as who he is. (To know, to a Semite, involves personal commitment as well as awareness.) He came to Israel, but its people generally rejected him, but some did receive him for who he is; some became committed to him. (To know someone’s name meant more than it does today.) These received the power to be adopted as sons and daughters of God: they were reborn into God’s family, through the Holy Spirit (“of God”, v. 13).
“Flesh”, humanity, per Isaiah 40:6-8, was seen as weak, imperfect and transitory. Christ does an amazing thing: he becomes a human being (albeit, being God, a perfect one). The author is a witness to the divine presence shown in Jesus (“glory”, v. 14). John the Baptizer was the first of this gospel’s witnesses of the Christ-event, God become human.
From all that is in God (“fullness”, v. 16), we have received gift after gift (“grace upon grace”). The Mosaic Law was given by God, and Christ brought the full revelation of God’s ways. Judaism said that God could not be seen (v. 18). (Even Moses, in Exodus 33:30-44, was not permitted to see God’s face.) It is through Christ, who is in complete intimacy with the Father, that we have been given access to the Father.
© 1996-2003 Chris Haslam
© 1996-2003 Chris Haslam
E
JEREMIAH 31:7-14 This remarkably poetic prophecy strikes a chord that rings across the centuries offering hope to exiles and refugees. Addressed to the exiles in Babylon and to oppressing nations, it joyfully declares God's intention to brings the exiles home and re-establish them in prosperity and peace.
What a marvellous message for the new year from the Lord of History!
PSALM 147:12-20 As an antiphonal response to the previous lesson, this hymn summons praise to God for what God does to restore peace and prosperity to God's chosen people, Israel.
SIRACH 24:1-12 (Alternate) The book known as "the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach" (aka Ecclesiasticus from the Latin name given to it by St. Jerome) was not included in the Hebrew Scriptures nor in Protestant Bibles. It was among the several books known as Wisdom literature included in the Scriptures of Roman Catholicism. Dating from the 2nd century BCE, it consists of maxims and aphorism of worldly wisdom and social prudence.
This passage presents Wisdom personified as a woman speaking before the assembly of heaven. She describes herself as participating in creation even though she herself was created by God. She also claims a God-given special role in Israel’s destiny as the chosen people.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 10:15-21 (Alternate) Like Sirach, Proverbs, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, the Wisdom of Solomon, was included in the Wisdom literature of Roman Catholicism, but not in the Hebrew Scriptures or Protestant Bibles. Although attributed to King Solomon, it was composed in Greek in the last century BCE by a Greek speaking Jew. This passage describes how Wisdom, again personified as a woman played a role in Israel’s Exodus from Egypt.
EPHESIANS 1:3-14 Those who have been adopted as God's children through Christ, the opening lines of this letter proclaim, are the people to whom has been revealed the mystery of God's eternal purpose: to bring together all creation under the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. How do we know this? We have heard the gospel of salvation, and believing, we have been given the gift of God's Holy Spirit as the assurance that God will keep this promise.
JOHN 1:10-18 Once again the note of both continuity and discontinuity with the religious tradition of Israel sounds through this passage, as through the whole Gospel of John. Jesus is a man born into the Jewish community of his time, but his own people did not believe in him. To those who did believe - then as now - has been revealed the ultimate truth: Jesus, the Jew from Nazareth, is God's Word made flesh.
The Word (in Greek, Logos) was a term John adopted from contemporary Jewish literature, especially the work of Greek-speaking Jew, Philo of Alexandria. It was also closely related to the Jewish concept of divine Wisdom. To John it meant the gracious, self-revealed presence of God and of God's purpose uniquely made known in Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth.
JEREMIAH 31:7-14 This remarkably poetic prophecy strikes a chord that rings across the centuries offering hope to exiles and refugees as well as all oppressed and suffering people. Addressed to the exiles in Babylon and to oppressing nations, it joyfully declares God's intention to brings the exiles home and re-establish them in prosperity and peace.
This passage reminds us more of the poetry of Second Isaiah and his school of disciples (Isa. 40–66) than of Jeremiah. It contains phrases which are foreign to Jeremiah, especially the promise of beneficence to the priests in vs. 14. On the other hand, the idea that Yahweh is father to Israel, and Ephraim "my firstborn son" (vs. 9) has parallels in 3:19 and 31:20. Scholarly consensus holds that it comes from the early post-exilic period or even the years immediately before the return from exile.
The main thrust of the passage, however, presents a view of Yahweh as Lord not only of Israel’s history, but as sovereign over all nations. This is an expression of biblical faith and theological conviction which may be difficult for us to comprehend as we enter this particularly difficult new year. Many will deny that God has taken any initiative in the horrifying events of recent decades or centuries.
A flurry of pessimistic fin de siècle attitudes were widely broadcast less than a decade ago when the 20th century was called the most violent in human history. It is true that many millions of warriors and countless innocent civilians died in incredibly brutal conflicts in the 1900s. This terrifying strife has continued unabated into the new century. On the other hand, do we have access to sufficiently accurate historical records to enable us to describe any period as the most violent ever?
Now we are deeply involved in what could turn out the be a global economic depression as severe as that of the 1930s. Daily the news seems only to heighten our fears as more and more businesses and industries face imminent collapse. Perhaps this is only our way of venting our horror and moral outrage at what we are witnessing in our own time. In the light of such despair as we are seeing, can we really believe that God is in control of these events? Yet around the world many people regard the coming inauguration of a new American administration as offering hope at a time of great need.
The beautiful poetry of this passage may have been composed as a comforting message for a remnant of returning exiles more than 2500 years ago, but it has universal application. Divine love is sovereign. The return of the remnant is being determined by what Yahweh desires. Even the most vulnerable and marginalized will be among them (vs. 8b). As a father leads his children along a straight, smooth path (vs. 9) and as a shepherd gathers his flock scattered across a hillside, so Yahweh will attend to the needs of Israel. These metaphors speak eloquently of the master narrative of the whole of the Jewish and Christian scriptures: the universe is in the hands of a Loving Redeemer.
Early in the 20th century as the maw of fratricidal war consumed the noblest and best of a whole generation, a British preacher declared the biblical faith in these inimitable words: "The loving Creator would not have allowed humanity to get at the matchbox if the foundations of the universe had not been fireproof."
What a marvellous message for this new year from the Lord of History!
PSALM 147:12-20 This liturgical hymn is another of the five hallelujah psalms that close the Psalter. Like all the others, it resounds with praise for Yahweh. While no one knows for sure, all five could have been part of the New Year’s liturgy in the temple. As an antiphonal response to the previous lesson, this segment of the second reading summons praise for what Yahweh has done for the covenanted people, Israel.
Although it now appears as a unit, the psalm probably originally consisted of three separate shorter poems (vss. 1-6; 7-11; 12-20). The special emphasis of this segment is the way Jerusalem in particular receives greater security (vs. 13), peace and prosperity (vs. 14). Even then it was recognized that if the capital city was safe, the whole nation would benefit.
The poem then cites various natural phenomena which bring specific beneficence to Israel. All come as the direct gift of Yahweh. The snow, hoarfrost and ice that melt in warm spring rains (vss. 16-18) may well be a recollection from a particular winter season. These have significance for the psalmist because they provide much needed moisture in the dry climate of Israel where only a few inches of rain falls in a whole year.
No citation of Yahweh’s gifts to Israel would be complete without mention of the law. So in vs. 19, we find "statutes and ordinances," synonyms for the law reminiscent of the later writings such as the wisdom literature. Vs. 20 cites these as gifts Yahweh has given to no other people. The corollary forms the second part of the poetic parallelism: only Israel knows the law.
This emphasis on Israel’s special privilege became the significant national ideology after the time of Ezra in the 5th century BCE. It has been the central myth of Jewish history ever since. In the past several centuries, France, Britain, the United States, Germany and Russia have all laid claim to similar myths. A hundred year’s ago, Canada’s prime minister, Wilfrid Laurier, made the bold claim that "the 20th century belongs to Canada." It did not turn out to be particularly true. Perhaps every nation state needs a similar myth of aggrandizement to encourage it in its immaturity. One recognizes the political motivation of such myths. In the darkest period of World War II, King George VI quoted a poet which contained a similar theme which gave voice to a similar message of encouragement:
I said
to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
"Give me a
light that I may go forth into the unknown."
And he said to
me, "Go forth, put your hand into the hand of God.
He shall
be to you better than a light, safer than a known way.
EPHESIANS 1:3-14 Scholarly debate continues unabated concerning the authorship of the Ephesian letter. Perhaps the most radical hypothesis is that of John C. Kirby, in his Ephesians, Baptism and Pentecost. (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1968.) He believed that "the letter" began as a baptismal liturgy and sermon for Pentecost, probably at Ephesus, and was later transformed into a general epistle from that community. Others view it as a pseudonymous letter by someone who was steeped in Pauline theology, but represented the ecclesiology and doctrine of the late lst or early 2nd century. In The Oxford Companion to the Bible Markus K. Barth wrote of it: "In short, ... Ephesians is considered, together with the Pastoral Epistles and Acts, to expound what is called ‘early Catholicism.’" Barth also notes that detractors of the letter "have dubbed it "a Marseillaise of church triumphalism." (Oxford University Press, 1993).
This passage is perhaps the key to the whole letter. To quote Markus Barth again: "God’s love has been poured out as an abundant blessing; through grace and forgiveness Jews and gentiles now praise God’s glory." Kirby saw this hymn of praise as a Christian rendition of the Jewish berakah, a prayer of blessing common in many of the Psalms. He cites Psalm 105 as a good example. In the Ephesian version of this type of prayer almost every phrase celebrates what God has done through Christ. "Every spiritual blessing" (vs. 3) is identified in a crescendo of enthusiasm as the prayer proceeds.
Pauline theological concepts such as election, adoption, redemption and forgiveness all figure largely in this passage. Election occurred before creation (vs. 4). Adoption came about through Jesus Christ (vs. 5). Redemption and forgiveness resulted from the death of Christ (vs. 7). All of this is the work of grace, "freely bestowed ... lavished upon us" (vss. 6, 8). To those so blessed has been revealed the mystery of God's eternal plan and purpose: to bring together all creation under the sovereignty of Christ and so live to praise God’s glory (vss. 8b-12). How do we know this? We have heard the gospel, and believing, we have been given the gift of God's Holy Spirit as the assurance that God will keep this promise.
Along with the gospel lesson from John 1 below, this reading presents a fully rounded doctrine of the Incarnation, "Why God became human?" in the words of Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109). Indeed, this may well be the link between Pauline and Johannine theology, if it is as many scholars believe, the product of a late lst century author. The whole letter emphasizes the life in risen Christ in the Christian community much more than his death and resurrection. The latter is by no means neglected as the means by which we have been given the spiritual gifts of the Christian life. Nonetheless, the redeemed life now and forever in ordinary people is the central theme of the author’s praise and admonitions.
This emphasis lends credibility to Kirby’s thesis that the baptism of new converts at Pentecost was the occasion for the original liturgy and sermon which subsequently became a letter. Vss. 13-14 provide one key reference to this occasion. Being "marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit" as a "pledge of our inheritance" can have only one meaning: it is a metaphor for baptism. Very early in the history of the church, the practice of "sealing" baptismal candidates by marking a cross with oil on their foreheads became a normal part of the baptismal liturgy. This charism symbolized the gift of the Spirit to the baptized for the new life in Christ now beginning. The writer is holding up for all others who read this letter the example of the Ephesian community and the intensely spiritual meaning of this ritual.
JOHN 1:10-18 Once again the note of both continuity and discontinuity with the religious tradition of Israel sounds through this passage, as through the whole Gospel of John. Jesus is a man born into the Jewish community of his time. John does not tell us, either by proclamation or story, how this occurred. Instead, John tells us that he is the transcendent and pre-existent One through whom both creation and re-creation come into being (vs. 10-13).
His own people to whom he came as one of them did not believe in him. To those who did believe - then as now - has been revealed the ultimate truth: Jesus, the Jew from Nazareth, is God's Word made flesh, the source of life, the full revelation of divine glory, the one who offers the gift of a new life to all who will accept it.
The Word (in Greek, Logos) was a term John adopted from contemporary Jewish literature, especially the work of Greek-speaking Jew, Philo of Alexandria. The Word also closely paralleled the Jewish concept of divine Wisdom. Throughout pre-exilic times, "the word of the Lord" had been associated with prophetic inspiration. In later Jewish literature divine Wisdom had appeared as personified, and moreover, as a woman (cf. Proverbs 1-9). This personified Wisdom of God also had a role in creation (Prov. 3:19; 8:22-31). The author of the apocryphal book, Sirach (also known by its Latin name, Ecclesiasticus) equated Wisdom with the creative word of God and with Torah. To John The Word meant the gracious, creative, self-revealed presence of God and of God's redemptive purpose for all creation uniquely made known in Jesus, the man of Nazareth.
John went further than regarding Jesus as a mere human endowed with special gifts of wisdom. Nor was he a prophet, like Moses (vs. 17). All the OT images of God have disappeared. No longer is Yahweh depicted as almost human walking in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2-3) or speaking to and through human prophets in authoritative ways. No longer are aspects of divine character personified. The passage reads as if John felt awed by the audacity of his own imagination. Here was an entirely new revelation of truth and grace (vs. 16). More than that, here is the God whom no one has ever seen. This Jesus, the Christ, is God’s only Son.
In the hushed silence of a gathered congregation attentive to every word uttered by the reader, the words of this passage come as just that - an entirely new revelation. "The Word became flesh and lived among us....From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." He gives life - spiritual life lived in and through our fleshly life - to all who will accept it. This faith statement has become the heart of every creed since John penned it in the last decade of the 1st century. Whether or not we believe it is the crucial issue which each person must decide.
This material is copyright Rev. John Shearman, Oakville, ON Canada. It may be used for personal study and local congregational purposes.
Jeremiah 31:7-14 is essentially a message of hope. It comes near the end of the book of Jeremiah, which has consisted primarily of dire predictions of the evil that would befall the nation of Judah because of their refusal to follow the Mosaic covenant. But then, in chapters 30 and 31, a ray of hope bursts forth – the promise that, although Judah will have to face exile and punishment for their refusal to build a nation of political, economic and spiritual shalom, once their punishment has brought about the desired humbling effect, they will once again be restored to their beloved Promised Land.
“For thus says the Lord: sing aloud with gladness for Jacob and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise and say, “Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel”. See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back. I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn” (vss. 7-9).
After the dark of the night, the day dawns! After the suffering and ignominy of exile and slavery, freedom and restoration comes! The nation of Judah will be freed and its political, economic and religious leaders will be released from captivity and returned to their liberated land. Israel’s former powerful and influential will return from exile, but also those who are the most vulnerable (the blind, the lame, the pregnant). The very fact that women will return pregnant from exile is an indication that the nation has a future and a hope. God will lead them back and will become a father to the people. That miraculous return will be witness to both Israel and to the world that God recognizes that they are family (although they were very much at one time prodigal children; cf. Luke 15:11-32)), and so will restore them because “this son of mine was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found” (Lk. 15:24).
But the prophecy continues. “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd a flock”. For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again. Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the Lord” (vss. 10-14).
The focus now shifts from God’s communication to Israel to God’s communication with all the nations of the world. It is as if God is saying to the nations, “Look and see what it is like for a nation that makes Yahweh their God and who is willing to live in justice, equity and in relationship with him. Look and see how God loves his people and cares for them. For though they have been punished for their commitment to power, greed and domination (in imitation of the other nations of the world), once Israel has seen the error of their ways and has repented, then God will restore them to health and wholeness, abundance and wealth. They will prosper (an abundance of grain, wine, oil, livestock). They will live in joy and delight (the women dance, the young and old men both make merry). They will be comforted by God. And they – young and old, women and men, laity and clergy – they will all experience the love and generosity of God! That is the end of all those who truly receive God’s grace and live in obedience to God’s call.
Psalm 147:12-20 is a hymn of praise that follows on from Psalm 146. It praises God for his great love and power, exercised for humanity. I am struck once again, in verses 1-6, how the psalmist interposes the themes of the creative power of God and God’s commitment to the outcast and the powerless. It is intriguing that, invariably, these are the two primary characteristics of God lifted up by the psalmists. These are the two godly elements that cause us to perceive and worship God as God! Note the juxtapositions:
“The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. . . . The Lord lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground” (147:2-4, 6).
One of the most beautiful metaphors in the Psalm is the author’s use of a horse and a runner to describe those who compete well and are normally successful in life. The psalmist states that God does not take delight in the success of the most competitive (the “winners” or “haves” of society), but rather takes delight in those who “take pleasure” in God.
“His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of the runner; but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (vss. 10-11).
The psalmist then ends this psalm with these words: “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you. He grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat. He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down hail like crumbs – who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow. He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the Lord” (vss. 12-20).
The psalmist completes this hymn of worship by using God’s creative work as the connecting tissue throughout the Psalm. In the early part of the psalm, he had linked God’s creative power and God’s commitment to the outcast and the powerless. Now, he links God’s creative power (“he gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes; he hurls down hail like crumbs; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow”) and God’s commitment to create a nation of shalom (“he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you; he grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat; he declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel”).
The psalmist describes that shalom community that God is building within Israel. God’s shalom people are a people with a strong defense against enemy attack (vs. 13a), a people whose children live in contentment and freedom (13b), a people who experience peace between each other (14a), who are economically prosperous (14b), and who are living in a right relationship with God (vs. 19). They are even a people who, living in shalom, experience oneness with creation subdued and quieted before them (vss. 15-18). In other words, the psalmist is describing Israel as a shalom community politically (vss. 13-14a), economically (14b) and religiously (vs. 19). Their systems, as well as they themselves as a people and as individuals, are “at-one” with God, each other and all creation. “(God) has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances” (vs. 20a). Therefore, how else can God’s people respond but with the cry, “Praise the Lord” (vs. 20b)!
John 1:1-18.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:1-5).
With these dramatic words, the Gospel of John begins its Christmas story. But unlike Matthew and Luke that tells us of the birth of Christ, John tells us about creation itself – and Jesus’ relationship to that creation. Therefore, since it is the “third Christmas story”, it is appropriate to study this passage as the Gospel lesson for the Second Sunday in Christmastide.
“In the beginning was the Word”. The Gospel of John opens with identical words to Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning”. Through the Hebrew creation story runs a profound theme, repeated eight times (Gen. 1:3-6 and 7, 9, 11, 14-15, 20-21, 24 and 26-30). That theme is “And God said . . . And it was so.”
Genesis tells us that God spoke the world into existence. So, John is declaring the same truth. The Word – in Greek “logos, in Hebrew “dabar” – is not just a word spoken by human beings. It is the word, for the “dabar” or “logos” is the conduit by which Yahweh invades humanity and writes sacred history into our history. The “logos” of God is God, the voice of God speaking the creation into life. Without the Word, there is no world!
For whom is this Word intended? The Word, John is telling us, is intended for the world. The Greek word used here for “world” is “cosmos”. The cosmos is not simply the geographical world – our sphere. The cosmos, to the Greeks, was the entire created order, the universe. The Word, John tells us, has entered the “cosmos” which God created, bringing to that cosmos “life”, “light” and “power”.
But how did the cosmos and its people respond? “The cosmos did not know him.” “His own people did not accept him.” Rejection of the Word (and therefore of God) occurred at two levels – societally (i.e., the cosmos) and individually (i.e., people). The “cosmos” and its “people” had refused to come into an intimate relationship with its creator because “darkness” had kept it and its people from the “light”.
However, such rejection of the Word is not universal. “But to all who received (the Word) . . . he gave power to become children of God” (1:12). There are those who have responded to the Word and have become right with God. But how do they do that, John asks?
God’s people are to be shaped around their embracing of the free gift of God’s redemptive love (1:13), and making that “amazing grace” the foundation for their life together. God’s “shalom”, the “cosmos” as God intended it to be will come into existence through “all who received him, who believed in his name” and who therefore create together a new community, an alternative society built upon God’s love and grace.
The magnificent prologue of the Gospel of John now rushes toward its climax, as it gives to the reader the essential theme of the remainder of the Gospel of John.
“The Word became flesh”. The Word – the “dabar” of God, the “logos” of God, has become an actual, living human being. The Word “lives” among us within a human being! The Son of God, the enfleshment of the “Word”, is journeying through the human experience, John is telling us, as the personification of “grace and truth”.
But what does John mean by “grace and truth”? What John is doing here is using two Greek words to capture the essence of one Hebrew word – “chesedh”. “Chesedh” is the depth of God’s love expressed towards us, a love that accepts us as we are and yet calls us to become all that we have the potential that God has created us to be. And now John is telling us that God has “tabernacled” (the actual meaning of the Greek) among us so that we might become God’s people as we live out “chesedh” in both our private and public lives and in the very ways we carry out the political, economic and religious functions of our society.
Now the Prologue reaches its climax. It names the “Word”. The “father’s only son, full of grace and truth” is Jesus Christ. “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (1:17).
God’s “chesedh” is not going to come to humanity and the “cosmos” any longer through “Moses” (that is, the Jewish political, economic and religious system). The Law created by God to incarnate God in humanity’s structures has become the exact opposite, for it has become the oppressive system of the first century that is designed to maintain power for the few while holding the populace in economic, political and religious slavery. The “Law” has become so exploitive and dominating that it is beyond redemption.
But “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”. God has had to find another way. And that way is Jesus!
What John is proposing here is radically revolutionary. Is he right? The remainder of the Gospel According to St. John is his effort to demonstrate through the life and ministry, the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth the authenticity of what he has here proposed. And it is to demonstrate that authenticity against the landscape of the horrendous oppression of the Jewish and Roman systems! This is the magnificent Christmas story of the Gospel of St. John.
Ephesians 1:3-14 is the Epistle lesson for the Second Sunday of Christmastide. In its Greek original, Ephesians 1:3-14 is one long sentence! Consequently, it is a single thought meant to introduce this entire letter. In other words, Ephesians 1:3-14 is the “executive summary” of this essay, in which Paul tells us what it is he is going to tell us more thoroughly throughout this letter.
In this section, Paul reviews what it is that God has done for us. He does so in a most succinct manner (even though it is all one lengthy sentence). Further, he then states why it is that God has done what he has done for us. Let’s look at that list.
First, God “blessed us in Christ, with every spiritual blessing” (1:3).
Second, God “chose us before the foundation of the world” (1:4).
Third, God “adopted (us) as his children through Jesus Christ” (1:5).
Fourth, God “redeemed” and “forgave” us through Christ’s redemptive work (vss. 7-8).
Fifth, God has “made know to us the mystery of his will” (i.e., what we are called to do as God’s people) (1:9).
Sixth, God has “marked (us) with the seal of his Holy Spirit” (1:13).
Thus, Paul is telling us that everyone of us as Christians and all of us as the Body of Christ have been blessed, chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, have come to know God’s will and are marked with the Holy Spirit! God has given all of this to us through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But why has God done this work in each of us and in all of us as Christians? Why has God blessed, chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, called, baptized us and filled us with God’s Spirit? This introduction to the book of Ephesians now reaches its apex of intention. God has done this great work within each of us and all of us, Paul writes, so that we, as God’s adopted family, might participate in God’s “plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (1:10), so that we “might live for the praise of his glory” (1:12).
God has worked in us as individuals and as a community of faith in the ways Paul describes in this passage in order that we might live out in the world the work that Jesus intends to do through God (“things in heaven”) and through us (“things on earth”). But what does Paul mean by “things in heaven and things on earth?”
Because this passage is the “executive summary” of the entire book of Ephesians, Paul will spend much of the remainder of that book in defining “things in heaven and things on earth” and our obligations towards them. Paul, as a first century person, believed that the spirit world (“things in heaven”) and the physical world (“things in earth”) were closely link. This is caught up in Paul’s theology of the “principalities and powers” that is developed throughout the books of Ephesians and Colossians.
Paul’s theology of “the principalities and powers” is built on the premise that what happens in the spirit world has its counterpart on earth, and what happens on earth impacts heaven. Therefore, the principalities and powers are, at one and the same time, both spiritual and earthly, with the spiritual dimension of that power providing the spiritual dimension and unique power of any earthly system! Therefore, we need to understand that every reference in Ephesians to “principalities and powers” or “heaven and earth” is a reference both to the Roman Empire and to the dark spiritual forces controlling and shaping and driving the Roman Empire!
Thus, in Ephesians 1:10, Paul’s reference to “(God’s) plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” is not rhetoric to Paul. It is his code for the political, economic and religious institutions of earth – and especially of Rome – and their matching “principalities and powers” in the heavens (cf. Col. 1:15-16).
Since Paul means here the systems of the government, of the marketplace and of religion, what is he saying that the church is called to do? What he is stating is that the church is to be active in participating on the side of God in challenging the systems here on earth, even as the angels wage comparable war in the heavens. What Paul is declaring is that the church is to be involved in public life as its essential mission! And that is why God has “blessed, chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, made known his will, and given us the Holy Spirit” – so that we could be God’s agents in the world, working through the politics, economics and social systems of that society to transform it into the kingdom of God!
PARTNERS IN URBAN TRANSFORMATION
“Pew-work” is like Home-work, except that it is done in the pews, instead of being done at home. Because it is focussed on the readings (as the sermon, presumably, also is) it can be done during the sermon to help the listener concentrate. Or, it can be done while waiting for everyone else to finish their communion. It isn't done during prayers, or hymns, or the readings, because
During Prayers, we pray
During Hymns, we sing
During the Readings, we listen
Middle-school Students' Pew-work
Elementary-School Students' Pew-work