The Preacher’s Study
First thoughts about next Sunday’s sermon,
26th Sunday after Pentecost
(or Advent II, expanded season)
William H. Petersen
Note: The
official calendar regards the day as indicated. For congregations engaged in
trial usage of an expanded Advent season (see www.theadventproject.org ) this
is Adonai (Lord of Might) Sunday. The designation for the Sundays in this
schema are taken from the Messiah’s scriptural titles as found in the Great “O”
Antiphons. In either case, the readings and psalms are identical.
Contextual Considerations
Again
this week the embarrassment of riches continues with three (!) options for the
first reading. Yet each of these along with the Gospel lection all combine to
continue and emphasize the unifying eschatological focus of this season at the
outset of the liturgical year. For those following an expanded Advent, the “O”
antiphon which designates the Sunday is Adonai
– the “Lord of might” who gave the law on Sinai’s height “in cloud and majesty
and awe.” The two options from Isaiah and the alternative from Malachi all set
forth the activity of this same Lord in putting things to right. The Gospel
goes on to make explicit for Christians the identification of Adonai with Jesus as the true Messiah
who is, as such, not only Lord of history but protector- savior of those who
faithfully persevere. As last week we heard Paul, this week – in the face of
cataclysms of apocalyptic proportions – we hear the voice of Jesus encouraging
us to “keep calm and carry on.”
Reflection on the Lections
Isaiah 65:17-25. In this reading we have, of course, the
magnificent vision of the peaceable kingdom where health, wealth, fertility,
and longevity abound for all. The Adonai
who gave the law for righteousness on the mountain now acts to “create a new
heavens and a new earth” where “they shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy
mountain, says the Lord.” These two phrases bracket the vision. As that vision is effoliated by the prophet
there are splendid phrases along the way that preachers can employ to great
effect in relation to our own times and the events of the day. I am always, for
instance, deeply moved by the hope expressed that “they...shall not bear
children for calamity” or the Lord’s assured and prevenient presence “before
they call, I will answer.” There also might be room for some humor in the
sermon to explicate how the world would see this vision (and as the world
always misses the point of transformation). For instance, one might work in
Woody Allen’s, “Sure the lamb will lie down with the wolf...but the lamb will
be very, very nervous.”
Isaiah 12:1-6. The majority of this lection will be
familiar to most as Ecce Deus (The
First Song of Isaiah) as it appears among the Daily Office canticles. In the
former reading the prophet speaks as the voice of the Lord articulating the
vision of things set right. Here, by contrast, the prophet has the Lord giving
to us fitting words of confession (“you were angry with me, [but] your anger
turned away”) and gratitude for the gift of salvation. It is the Lord who gives
us even the words we need and that source is profound: “you shall draw water
from the wells of salvation.” We are called not only to voice a paean of
praise, but to fulfill a mission of proclamation as well: “make known his deeds
among the nations.” We will need that water for such work in the desert of this
world. And again, there is here the affirmation that it is Adonai, the Holy One who is with us in all this.
Malachi 4:1-2a. While
from one perspective or another, the Isaiah readings present a largely positive
vision of the kingdom or reign of God, this short lection from the concluding
book of the Hebrew Scripture presents the final judgment in a sic et non manner. First, “the day
[that] is coming” is announced as the negative aspect of “God’s great cleanup”
– all that stands over against the Lord’s righteousness will be like stubble to
be burned and the conflagration will be comprehensive and permanent (“root and
branch”). But at last, and positively, for those who revere Adonai’s name and God’s righteousness, a
new and healing day will dawn. Preaching judgment is never popular, since most
contemporary English-speakers usually hear “judgmental” when the concept of
judgment is broached. Nevertheless, a careful handling of the distinction may
have good results. In any case, it will be important here to emphasize the
difference between what might otherwise be interpreted as Divine violence and
“the arrogant and all evildoers” enduring the consequences of their own
attitudes or actions as over against God’s righteousness.
Psalm 98. Well, there’s no getting around it: if the
choice of Psalm 98 was taken last week, here it is again, but this time without
option! There are, however, several strategies to meet this exigency. One
option is disguise: have the assembly (or the choir) sing it to Anglican chant
rather than Simplified Chant (or vice
versa) depending on what was done last week. Another ploy would be to
recite it in a different way, e.g. by
a cantor/lector taking verses with the assembly singing/reciting an antiphon.
Or, for something completely different, since Advent – from the world’s
point-of-view – is the subversive
season, the assembly could sing Isaac Watts’ great paraphrase of Psalm 98's
second half (vss. 5-9), namely, Joy to
the World. A careful reading of the text discloses that it has absolutely
nothing to do with Christmas and everything to do with the parousia – “the Lord has come” (besides as a good scion of Puritan
stock, Watts would never, ever have written a Christmas hymn!). Of course, your
congregation will think you’ve gone mad. So one of the former strategies is
commended.
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13. Compared to the clear eschatological note of
last week’s reading from this epistle, there is seemingly little in this week’s
continuation to raise the lection above the level of a moral exhortation (or,
for those who do not find the Apostle congenial, a rant). Nevertheless, the
preacher might notice two points. First, from the outset Paul grounds the
authority for his message on “the name of our Lord [Adonai, again] Jesus Christ.” Second, it just may be that the
idlers and those in the congregation who appear unwilling to work are those who
were maintaining that the “day of the Lord” had already come. As a consequence
they might have felt liberated from mundane tasks or bearing their fair share.
Such an interpretation would certainly give more urgency to Paul’s moral
message as it affects underlying formational values that, when put into
practice, build character and bear on behavior in the community.
Luke 21:5-19. Point-of-view is important to reading the
obviously present eschatological note of this passage. For original hearers
Jesus makes an apocalyptic pronouncement about the fate of the Temple that must
have been received as nearly, if not outrightly, blasphemous. From the
evangelist’s place in time, that cataclysm had already occurred at the hands of
the Romans in AD 70. With the perspective of two millennia, the list of
“dreadful portents and great signs” enumerated by Jesus in the passage may
appear to us as itemization of “this is the way human history unfolds” (or to
paraphrase Augustine’s later statement: just one damn or damnable thing after
another). For any and all hearers to the present time, however, what counts in
this reading is faithfully living in terms of the kingdom or reign of God. The
concluding phrase is meant both for our comfort (in the usual sense of the
word) and strengthening (in its more unusual sense). In regard to the
eschatological dimensions of the reading, and if Eucharistic Prayer B (BCP
1979) or Eucharistic Prayer 3 (BAS) is appropriately being used in this season,
the preacher could call attention to the operative phrase for why we are
engaged in giving thanks: “For in these last days...” – what follows covers
from then to now and into the future.
Bonus Suggestion
Here
is a collect for the day that for those following an expanded Advent is the thematic prayer for this Sunday. For
others, the prayer may be employed as a concluding collect following the
Prayers of the People:
O Lord our God, you gave your law that
righteousness might abound: Put it into our hearts to love justice for others
as much as we desire it for ourselves, that, as we know you to be our judge, so
we may welcome your reign as it is manifested through Jesus Christ our savior;
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and
ever. Amen.
William H. Petersen is Emeritus
Dean & Professor of Bexley Hall Seminary, Founder & Convener of the
Advent Project Seminar, and an Honorary Member of APLM Council.
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