Theme and Season
Commentary
If the spirit of expectancy and anticipation is appropriate at Advent it is clear that a question arises: from what source does this expectancy arise? What prompts people to anticipate some great event? Where did such a spirit have its beginning?
One of the themes of biblical literature is that we can hope and expect and wait because our God is one who makes and keeps promises.
There are those who maintain that our faith is a system developed on the basis of our projected desires and anxieties. We are just keeping reality away by creating a pseudo-reality we like better. We are, in the end, fooling ourselves.
That is surely true of the idolater, says the Bible, but not of those who trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Jesus. Our God tells us what he plans for us ahead of time.
Of course, some imagine that the poetic form in which his promises are made are in fact predictions of specific details. But prophecy is usually poetic and an attempt to speak the unspeakable. The wonder of God's acts is far beyond our language. Alas, too often we reduce his promises down to human size and lose the dimension of eternity and majesty.
It is the spirit of the Lord who anoints his chosen one to work his will. It is God who will sanctify and keep his people sound and blameless. It is the Lord whose way is prepared by his messengers.
God doesn't usually surprise us. We are surprised because we weren't listening.
OUTLINE I
Title: Our Expectations and God's Promises
Introduction: Comment on the way in which the Bible always keeps the initiatives for salvation with God. His gracious activity is always unmotivated, undeserved, unmerited.
1) God's messengers came to carry his message. This is a good place to seek to differentiate between our taking our hopes and dreams to the scriptures seeking support and proof text and the discipline of going to the scriptures as a listener. If we are to hear the message we ought to seek to recall the original circumstances. Isaiah 61 is addressed to a community of people who have returned to Israel with great hopes-and dreams only to find tough times and hard days. Deal with the problem of disappointment expecting God to do what we expected rather than what he promised.
2) Show how Paul's letter to the Thessalonians is meant to turn their hearts away from daily concerns to the larger picture set in the frame of eternity. This is a good place to contrast short-range material concerns with the long-range spiritual values God has in mind for us.
Conclusion: Show how we are prone to measure God's activity by our own shortrange objectives. We pray and, because no answer comes in twenty-four hours, we grow skeptical about prayer. We believe something and there is no instant payoff so we abandon belief. We trust God for something and receive something else and are disappointed. There is a need to be reminded that in all things God is at work for our good.
OUTLINE II
The Gospel Lesson
Title: Make Way!
Introduction: It may be helpful to do some homework on the John versus Jesus conflict in the gospel story. It does appear that a John sect had arisen during the latter decades of the first century. Especially in the Gospel of John there is a clear and overt attempt to put John in his proper place. Even John is brought "on stage" to verify that he is number two.
1) Witnesses are just that, witnesses to something or someone else. We are to let our light shine so that others may see our good works -- and -- give glory to God. John saw that as a privilege. This is a good place to deal with our usual propensity for shining on our own behalf.
2) If indeed we mean to be witnesses then we ought to get to know the one on whose behalf we witness. There's not much substance in an "Oh, if I could only tell you" approach. Good witnesses make certain that they are informed and are faithful to the one on whose behalf they witness.
3) Check out Barclay's commentary that the word witness means martyr. This can lead to some discussion of the cost of discipleship and a description of the lengths to which we are expected to go as witnesses.
Conclusion: Emphasize the privilege, the responsibility and the cost of witnessing. Close with an appropriate poem. Try "O Jesus, I Have Promised" or "O Could I Speak the Matchless Worth."
Reference: Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Discipleship
OUTLINE III
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Title: Justice or Mercy?
Introduction: Comment on the concern some have for "exact" quotation of scriptures. Then counsel a close comparison of New Testament quotations with Old Testament sources. A comparison of Isaiah 61:1-4 with Luke 4:18-19 will reveal that biblical writers did not hesitate to edit and choose.
1) Discuss the New Testament understanding of Jesus as the one who fulfilled the role of the anointed one who is so variously described in Isaiah. It is clear that the concept and the intent is at issue in Isaiah rather than the identification of a specific person (which was speculated on anyway).
2) Comment on the differences between the Isaiah and Luke passages. Note that the "day of vengeance" is left out. Why? Does Luke see the work of the anointed one as more a work of grace than judgment? Has he, with other Jews, finally been able to resolve the seeming paradox between God's wrath and grace? so, is judgment abandoned or are its purposes now the purposes of grace?
3) Emphasize the list of gracious promises. The world in which we live still contains the broken-hearted, captives and the saddened. Their plight is our concern because it is God's concern. We hear much talk about justice these days. The scriptures take a bolder step and speak of mercy.
Conclusion: Show how the Christian witness takes the extra step, offers the healing word and is ready to do the sacrificial thing when it is true to God's purposes. A good poem for quoting is F. W. Faber's "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy."
One of the themes of biblical literature is that we can hope and expect and wait because our God is one who makes and keeps promises.
There are those who maintain that our faith is a system developed on the basis of our projected desires and anxieties. We are just keeping reality away by creating a pseudo-reality we like better. We are, in the end, fooling ourselves.
That is surely true of the idolater, says the Bible, but not of those who trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Jesus. Our God tells us what he plans for us ahead of time.
Of course, some imagine that the poetic form in which his promises are made are in fact predictions of specific details. But prophecy is usually poetic and an attempt to speak the unspeakable. The wonder of God's acts is far beyond our language. Alas, too often we reduce his promises down to human size and lose the dimension of eternity and majesty.
It is the spirit of the Lord who anoints his chosen one to work his will. It is God who will sanctify and keep his people sound and blameless. It is the Lord whose way is prepared by his messengers.
God doesn't usually surprise us. We are surprised because we weren't listening.
OUTLINE I
Title: Our Expectations and God's Promises
Introduction: Comment on the way in which the Bible always keeps the initiatives for salvation with God. His gracious activity is always unmotivated, undeserved, unmerited.
1) God's messengers came to carry his message. This is a good place to seek to differentiate between our taking our hopes and dreams to the scriptures seeking support and proof text and the discipline of going to the scriptures as a listener. If we are to hear the message we ought to seek to recall the original circumstances. Isaiah 61 is addressed to a community of people who have returned to Israel with great hopes-and dreams only to find tough times and hard days. Deal with the problem of disappointment expecting God to do what we expected rather than what he promised.
2) Show how Paul's letter to the Thessalonians is meant to turn their hearts away from daily concerns to the larger picture set in the frame of eternity. This is a good place to contrast short-range material concerns with the long-range spiritual values God has in mind for us.
Conclusion: Show how we are prone to measure God's activity by our own shortrange objectives. We pray and, because no answer comes in twenty-four hours, we grow skeptical about prayer. We believe something and there is no instant payoff so we abandon belief. We trust God for something and receive something else and are disappointed. There is a need to be reminded that in all things God is at work for our good.
OUTLINE II
The Gospel Lesson
Title: Make Way!
Introduction: It may be helpful to do some homework on the John versus Jesus conflict in the gospel story. It does appear that a John sect had arisen during the latter decades of the first century. Especially in the Gospel of John there is a clear and overt attempt to put John in his proper place. Even John is brought "on stage" to verify that he is number two.
1) Witnesses are just that, witnesses to something or someone else. We are to let our light shine so that others may see our good works -- and -- give glory to God. John saw that as a privilege. This is a good place to deal with our usual propensity for shining on our own behalf.
2) If indeed we mean to be witnesses then we ought to get to know the one on whose behalf we witness. There's not much substance in an "Oh, if I could only tell you" approach. Good witnesses make certain that they are informed and are faithful to the one on whose behalf they witness.
3) Check out Barclay's commentary that the word witness means martyr. This can lead to some discussion of the cost of discipleship and a description of the lengths to which we are expected to go as witnesses.
Conclusion: Emphasize the privilege, the responsibility and the cost of witnessing. Close with an appropriate poem. Try "O Jesus, I Have Promised" or "O Could I Speak the Matchless Worth."
Reference: Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Discipleship
OUTLINE III
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Title: Justice or Mercy?
Introduction: Comment on the concern some have for "exact" quotation of scriptures. Then counsel a close comparison of New Testament quotations with Old Testament sources. A comparison of Isaiah 61:1-4 with Luke 4:18-19 will reveal that biblical writers did not hesitate to edit and choose.
1) Discuss the New Testament understanding of Jesus as the one who fulfilled the role of the anointed one who is so variously described in Isaiah. It is clear that the concept and the intent is at issue in Isaiah rather than the identification of a specific person (which was speculated on anyway).
2) Comment on the differences between the Isaiah and Luke passages. Note that the "day of vengeance" is left out. Why? Does Luke see the work of the anointed one as more a work of grace than judgment? Has he, with other Jews, finally been able to resolve the seeming paradox between God's wrath and grace? so, is judgment abandoned or are its purposes now the purposes of grace?
3) Emphasize the list of gracious promises. The world in which we live still contains the broken-hearted, captives and the saddened. Their plight is our concern because it is God's concern. We hear much talk about justice these days. The scriptures take a bolder step and speak of mercy.
Conclusion: Show how the Christian witness takes the extra step, offers the healing word and is ready to do the sacrificial thing when it is true to God's purposes. A good poem for quoting is F. W. Faber's "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy."
