Advent 1C

redemption – salvation – repentance – rejoicing – nativity
Stand up and lift your heads! Luke 21:28
• Overview of Luke's gospel

Luke 21:25-31

²⁵ "There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. ²⁶ People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

²⁹ Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; ³⁰ as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. ³¹ So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Advent

On the first Sunday of Advent the church begins a new year of grace. Happy New Year!

The Latin Ad + Venire summons us towards the coming of Jesus. Advent always opens with a splash of apocalyptic, signaling the end of the world as we know it, the beginning of a new way of living and being—the world is about to turn. Many churches sing Canticle of the Turning that's based on Mary's Magnificat during Advent.

Blue, the color of hope has become the liturgical color for Advent. Although it includes a call to repentance, Advent is especially about hope. In Spanish esperar/espero means wait, hope, and expect. We hope for and anticipate not a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays as the rest of the world sincerely wishes us; we hope for the incarnation of mercy, grace, and love. Instead of an irenic peace that's little more than a temporary cease fire, we hope for, wait for, and expect the fullness of shalom the Prince of Peace brings us.

During Advent, the darkest time of the year in the global North, we light candles to challenge the darkness. One more candle for each Sunday, and then on Christmas we light the large Christ candle as we celebrate the Christ child's nativity.

Come, Lord Jesus!


Today's Gospel

We're now in lectionary year C, Luke's year.

The gospel reading for this first Sunday of Advent doesn't come from the start of Luke's gospel—that would be his dedication to lover-of-God Theophilus and the birth of John the Baptist. Instead we hear from Jesus toward the end of his public ministry, as he tells us about signs and symbols coming alive in nature/creation. We'll soon celebrate the birth of Jesus who is not a god in nature, but God and Lord of nature.

Advent light shines amidst all kinds of darkness, including a seemingly endless pandemic that's now become endemic; injustices that don't or won't quit; wars and rumors of war; political upheavals; global economic calamities; individual and familial misfortunes, an earth so desecrated it grieves its own losses. You can add to that short list.

This Advent we hope for that dawn of the new creation the death and resurrection of the Prince of Peace will initiate.

Come, Lord Jesus!

Luke Overview

Original festive table photograph
by Dmitry Shironosov

The Gospel According to Saint Luke

With the first Sunday of Advent, the Revised Common Lectionary segues into Year C, Luke's year. Luke is a synoptic gospel that views Jesus' life and ministry in a similar manner to Matthew and Mark. Luke is the only Gentile, non-Jewish writer in the entire New Testament. Luke was a highly educated physician, but think "bronze age" in terms of sophistication. Luke wrote a two-volume account consisting of this gospel and the Acts of the Apostles; we sometimes refer to "Luke-Acts" because in many ways they are an inseparable unit.

Most likely Luke substantially compiled both Luke and Acts, though he drew upon sources other than memories of his own experiences and his own imagination. Both Matthew and Luke copied a lot from Mark, the earliest gospel. Matthew contains around 90%, Luke contains about 50% of the verses in Mark. In addition, Matthew and Mark both contain parallel, sometimes identical, passages not found in Mark. Luke also may – or may not – have had a separate "L" source.

Luke's distinctives include:

• world history and Jewish history. Luke opens his gospel with a political, geographical, social, historical introduction, and with [biblical number] seven witnesses—in plain language, this really happened!

• Jesus' genealogy that ends with "Adam, son of God." Luke's human Jesus and divine Christ both minister to each one's body and spirit.

• the Holy Spirit has been prominent throughout scripture's witness, but Luke-Acts brings a fulfillment of God's reign in the Spirit

• prayer

• women

• marginalized people of every class and description—the underclass; great reversals, a.k.a. "The Upside Down Kingdom!"

• table fellowship

• neighborology: the word about the neighbor! During Year C the lectionary includes several readings from Jeremiah and Deuteronomy that also emphasize the neighbor, the other, living together faithfully in covenantal community despite differences.

• Starting with John the Baptist down by the riverside counseling people to share what they have with others in order to prepare for the arrival of God in their midst, we find a lot of "social gospel" in Luke. However, this isn't about how many good works we humans can accomplish on our own; it's always about the indwelling and outgoing power of the Holy Spirit.


Canticles

Luke includes three psalm-like songs or canticles:

• Mary's Magnificat, "My soul magnifies the Lord; he has put down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly…" –Luke 1:46-55

• Zechariah's Benedictus, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; he has visited his people." This is John the Baptist's father Zechariah—not Zechariah from the OT Book of the Twelve or Minor Prophets. –Luke 1:67-79

• Simeon's Nunc Dimittis: "Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace; mine eyes have seen they salvation, which thou hast prepared…" –Luke 2:29-32


Uniquely in Luke

• Joseph and Mary journey to Bethlehem for the census –Luke 2:1-7

• Shepherds abiding in the fields—and angels! –Luke 2:8-20

• Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6:17-49, which emphasizes re-distributive justice and material well-being. Matthew's parallel Sermon on the Mount is more about spiritual well-being.

• Good Samaritan –Luke 10:25-37

• Prodigal Son –Luke 15: 11-32

• Stones cry out Luke –Luke 19:37-40

• Emmaus Road in Luke's post-resurrection account takes us back to the Maundy Thursday Upper Room and to Luke's many accounts of Jesus' table fellowship with all comers, but now as a meal with the risen Christ, it is the first Eucharist! –Luke 24:13-35

Emmaus Road and Emmaus Supper by He Qi

Reign of Christ 2024

We give thanks, O Lord God Almighty
who art, and wast, and art to come
because thou hast taken thy great power
and begun to reign.
Revelation 11:17

John 18:33-38

³³ Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" ³⁴ Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?"

³⁵ Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" ³⁶ Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here."

³⁷ Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

³⁸ Pilate asked him, "What is truth?"

Year In Review

We've journeyed through another twelve month long year of grace. We began with Advent expectation and hope. Since then we've

• welcomed the newborn Jesus
• followed him to baptism by the river whose waters connect all waterways and all peoples
• experienced and learned from his ministries and his teachings
• journeyed to Jerusalem
• been in the upper room on Maundy Thursday
• grieved at his trial, death, and burial
• met the risen Christ at the dawn of resurrection day and later in the day on Emmaus Road
• trusted his promise to be with us forever
• followed him into our futures…

• Today? We acknowledge the ruler, the sovereign, the king, whose throne is a cross.


Gospel Reading

Today's reading is unique to John's gospel. Earlier on, after feeding the crowd of 5,000++ Jesus rejected the people's move to make him into a king (John 6:15), but here he says his kingdom is not from this world. "World" is the same word – cosmos – we find in John 3:16 with its declaration God so loved the world. We've seen how Jesus' subversive ways of love, justice, mercy, inclusion, are the opposite of hate, injustice, violence, exclusion. His ways doesn't belong to the world, yet Jesus lived fully engaged in the world.

This ruler and his reign have no checks and balances.

In response to Jesus' claim he testifies to the truth, Pilate asks, "What is truth?" Jesus' truth isn't necessarily verifiable data or observable events measurable in time and space; Jesus' truth embodies God's truth with integrity and wholeness. It will redeem (buy back) and restore all creation.


Like Everyone Else

God's people insisted they wanted "a king to govern us, like other nations." You can read 1 Samuel 8 and heed its warnings of how existence would unfold under a dictator or autocrat.

More often than not, people have been anxious about their overall political, economic, and social situations. It's easy to capitulate to trends and it's even easier to try to return to what felt like security and certainty. Remember the yearnings of the exodus desert wanderers?

• "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt!" they said. "There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this wilderness to starve this whole assembly to death!" Exodus 16:3

• Then the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you…" Exodus 16:4

• And then in response to that manna from heaven:

• The rabble that was among them had a strong craving, and the Israelites also wept again and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic, but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at." Numbers 11:4-6


Where We Live

God gifted the people with the Ten Words or Commandments after they'd left Egypt, before they reached the land of promise. So they wouldn't become like the people and their leaders in the place they just left. So they wouldn't become like the other residents in the place they were on the way to.

Slavery to empire (in spite of its many enticements!) no long would be their frame of reference. Instead they would reverence God by serving the neighbor, establishing a commonwealth of justice, mercy, love, inclusion, and shalom sufficiency. They'd learn to live together in this here and this now without undue longings for what used to be, without overly extravagant imaginings of what the future might hold.

In baptism, we live reborn in the water of Jesus' birth and alive in the transforming, rebirthing power of the cross. We live fully engaged in the world, yet as an alternative community to those under the reign of death, its idols and its artifacts, as we embody God's truth with wholeness and integrity.

We began the year anticipating the birth of an infant; we end the year with a cross. Martin Luther insisted if you really want to see the fulness of God's power and rule, look to the Bethlehem manger—look to the Calvary cross.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet
until he comes to Shiloh
and to him shall be
the obedience of the peoples.
Genesis 49:10

Pentecost 26B

Hannah, prophetess and mother of Samuel, thanking God
Miniature from the Paris Psalter, Tenth Century
Bibliothèque nationale de France
from wikimedia commons via Vanderbilt University Divinity Library

This year of grace is almost over! Next Sunday is Reign of Christ / Christ the King, and then it's Advent, with quiet, yearning, hope-filled days and nights. Every Advent

we hear and sing Mary's Magnificat

that evokes parts of Hannah's hymn of praise. Advent is only two weeks away, and how serendipitous that one of today's readings is part of Hannah's story; the responsive psalm to the reading from 1 Samuel is Hannah's lyrical song.

Jesus' mother Mary heard, learned, and memorized scripture through synagogue attendance and probably from scripture reading and teaching at home by her parents. Mary's words were Spirit-inspired, but she was able to express herself so beautifully because she knew Hannah's song by heart and carried it with her.

• The alternate first reading, 1 Samuel 1:4-20, tells part of the story of Hannah.

• Here is a synopsis of Hannah's story that includes expressive paintings along with detailed scriptural background.

1 Samuel 2:1-10

¹ Hannah prayed and said,

"My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God.
My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your victory.
² There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.

³ "Talk no more so very proudly; let not arrogance come from your mouth,
for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by God actions are weighed.

⁴ "The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength.
⁵ Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn.
⁶ The Lord kills and brings to life; God brings down to Sheol and raises up.

⁷ "The Lord makes poor and makes rich; brings low and also exalts.
⁸ God raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world.

⁹ "God will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked will perish in darkness, for not by might does one prevail.
¹⁰ The Lord's adversaries will be shattered; the Most High will thunder in heaven.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; and will give strength to the king and exalt the power of his anointed."

Pentecost 25B

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
Psalm 146:5

Hebrews 9:24-28

²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. ²⁵ Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the holy place year after year with blood that is not his own, ²⁶ for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world.

But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once and after that the judgment, ²⁸ so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews, week 6 of 7

Before we take a quick look at this week's text from the elegant and theological deep homily, a short review.


Week 1, Pentecost 20

Hebrews 1:1-12

The book's poetic opening sums up Jesus' essence, role, purpose, and persona; the entire letter consistently reminds us Jesus Christ is both fully divine and fully human, with refrains of "like God" and "like us."

Hebrew's explicit insistence on both natures of Jesus Christ looks forward to the Council of Chalcedon that in the year 451 described Jesus "…in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation…" Most denominations affirm the very short Definition of Chalcedon.


week 2, Pentecost 21

Hebrews 4:12-13

4:12 The "living and active" word of God here is more God's dynamic proclamation and revelation than it is the written scriptures. God's word is like a sharp knife that reveals everything, and it does some welcome mending and rearranging, too. In any case, it's not a cursory dusting off.

4:13 "God to whom we must render an account." Logos is the word for account, but this is not the preexistent Word that John's gospel identifies with the Christ of God. It's more financial in terms of what you owe God and others—like your car note.

Hebrews 4:16

After explaining that Jesus as high priest, as mediator between heaven and earth in his resurrection and ascension, knows us and sympathizes – resonates! – with us, Hebrews 4:16 advises us to "approach the throne of grace with boldness in order to receive mercy."


week 3, Pentecost 22

Hebrews 5:1-10

Although Jesus was not a Levitical priest in the lineage of Moses' brother Aaron (5:4), he met qualifications of (5:2) compassion and understanding; plus, (5:4) God called and appointed Jesus. Being from the tribe of Judah, he didn't qualify as a priest in human terms, but (5:6) Jesus was a priest in the much older tradition of Melchizedek.

As one commentator observed, Hebrews "looks away from the temple. back to the exodus—to the tabernacle in the wilderness." Then it glances further back, to Abraham, to the patriarchs and matriarchs. And then? Further into history to Abram, with Melchizedek, whose name means King (Melech) of righteousness (Zadok, Tzadek…).

When the Jerusalem high priest entered the Holy of Holies once every year, the high priest's sacrifice atoned for the peoples' sins and for his own. Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension never needs to be repeated. It literally has been finished, "once for all." Late pastor and theologian James Nestingen used to speak of Jesus "delivering the goods" of absolution and forgiveness.


week 4, Pentecost 23

Hebrews 7:23-28

Earlier weeks have been about typical requirements and duties for the high priest as mediator between earth and heaven, along with ways Jesus didn't meet some of those in human terms, and the manner in which he met and exceeded them in divine terms.

In all this Jesus goes way far back in the journey of God's people to the book of Genesis and a high priest named Melchizedek, who provides a large part of the template for Jesus' unique high priestly role.


Today's Reading

9:24 "Christ entered heaven itself…on our behalf!"

Interpreting 9:24 "sanctuary made by human hands … a mere copy of the true one" is difficult without knowing the author's purpose. But whether it's about God's original intent for earth not yet achieved, or about an ultimate, eschatological location, just like all of Jesus Christ's actions described in Hebrews, it's for us and at no cost for us—it's grace and not transaction. Verse 25 picks up on the refrain that unlike yearly actions of a high priest at the J-Temple, Christ's single action was sufficient to redeem all.

9:28 "…so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him."

Along with some scripture-based creeds and confessions, the bible in places affirms a second coming (a return, an appearance, a parousia, an advent) of Jesus Christ, although when, how, and where details are so unclear it has led to some highly imaginative scenarios. In any case, this verse assures us Jesus is for us and will be with those who await him, though it doesn't suggest when. I find the assurance for our future especially interesting because this homily or sermon mostly has been about what Christ already has done for us.

Pentecost 24B • All Saints

All Saints ELCA, University City, San Diego
All Saints Sunday 2013

• Here's All Saints 2020, the first All Saints Day during Covidtide

• And here's All Saints 2023


Hello, Readers,

Despite insisting I was going to blog Hebrews until Reign of Christ, the reading for this Sunday is "more of the same" as I've already written about Jesus as high priest.

• Hebrews 9:11-14

I'm not familiar enough with Hebrews to dig out much more, so let's consider the first reading.

Deuteronomy 6:1-9, [10-12]

¹ "Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, ² so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long.

³ Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

⁴ "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

⁶ "Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. ⁷ Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. ⁸ Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem [frontlet] on your forehead, ⁹ and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

¹⁰ When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you – a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, ¹¹ houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, ¹² be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

• Psalm 119:1-8 aligns perfectly with the reading from Deuteronomy.

Similar to the Beatitudes in Matthew's gospel, Psalm 119 declares those of us who walk in God's ways, keep God's decrees, learn the righteous ordinances (maybe learn best by doing?!) will be blessed, happy, content.


Love the Lord Your God

Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. Deuteronomy 6:1-2

You know the story! Out of imperial Egypt, liberated from production quotas, into the exodus desert, on their way yet still far from the place God first promised Abraham, technically Israel was free. In the desert's sparse economy, only after God quenched their thirst and filled their hunger with surprising gifts like water from the rock and manna from the sky, Israel received the Ten Words or Commandments of the Sinai Covenant. With guidelines and boundaries that would help them stay free, slavery to empire no long would be their frame of reference; instead they would reverence God by serving the neighbor. Walter Brueggemann calls the commandments "breathtaking gifts of grace."

Scholars consider both the nomadic desert lifestyle and the commandments constitutive events for God's people.


Shema, Israel's Creed to Live By

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:4-5

The Shema is about exclusive loyalty to God. In the same way the first commandment charges us "no other gods," no value system, religion, ideology, art, beauty, or aspiration (all good things) is to replace God as our ultimate reference and ground of meaning. One scholar mentioned it's also about "God's internal unity," citing every experience of goodness, love, beauty, wisdom, etc. as "disparate and scattered signals of God's presence." David G. Garber, Working Preacher, 2024

Martin Luther begins his Small Catechism with the commandments. As Luther insisted, we need only the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods." He asks, What does this mean? And answers, "We should fear, love and trust in God above all things."


Milk and Honey

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey... Exodus 33:3

…a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Deuteronomy 6:3

Milk and honey is a sign of the fullness of God's reign in justice and righteousness. Flowing honey and surging milk begin with fertile land. Rivers of usable water mean luxuriant grass so cattle can graze, cows produce milk, people make cheese. Bovines will bear healthy calves, and they'll fertilize grain and vegetable gardens. Bees make honey; bees pollinate fruits and flowers, vineyards and other food crops. Bees mean fertilized crops; bees mean jars of sweet honey on the shelf, drizzles of honey on your home-baked bread.

Streams mean irrigation for olives, figs, pomegranates, vineyards, barley, and wheat. All that good eatin' outta the good earth leads to conversing and connecting around the table.

Dairy, beef, honey, and harvest mean nourishment for farmers, families, and community, with overflowing everything to sell at market or barter and trade in order to get whatever you cannot grow on your own. I've probably left some connections, but it's about heaven's blessings aplenty on earth, from the heart of the earth—and notice how interrelated and interdependent all this is! As I wrote, I couldn't figure out how to put anything into logical order.

I can just hear the people listening to Moses, loving his words, and promising, "We will do all the words God has spoken!"


Where We Live

Only when milk and honey abounds can we offer back to heaven the feast of eucharist that gathers and welcomes all creation and all people, excluding only those who exclude themselves. This "foretaste of the feast to come," as the liturgy expresses it, is the sign and realization of all creation's reconciliation, a celebration of justice and integrity of all and for all.

The people all answered together,
"All the words the Lord has spoken we will do!"
Exodus 19:8