Month: December 2017

Advent Oaks

If salvation is not another place and time but the reality of this world as it should be (what we mean when we say the Kingdom of God), then Isaiah asks us to think about how we might participate in ushering in what is, theologically speaking, the “real world.”  Being missional, in light of this passage, means profoundly challenging all forms of cultural Christianity that would make “church” an end in itself, a community of the saved devoted to maintaining a building, a set of programs, and a fellowship of the like-minded.  -Scott Bader Saye

This week’s lesson material encourages you to open class on the third Sunday of Advent by asking what salvation means to each class member:

  • Salvation means God’s deliverance in the here and now
  • Salvation means life with God in heaven after we die.

Of course, there is not a right or wrong answer here.  In fact, both are correct.  For most, however, one or the other receives most of our attention.  And much has to do with worldview, life circumstances, and what we first learned about God.

For some, life has been and remains difficult.  Others see how life is unfair for so many folks.  These may even feel guilty due to their relative ease and others pain.  Heaven offers them a hope that God does have something better and eternal that helps make sense of the suffering here on earth.  Goodness does win out in the end for those who can’t see a different outcome here.

For others, life has been hard and unfair.  Or they acknowledge to have lead a blessed life while acknowledging this isn’t the case for everyone.  Yet, they don’t assign hardship to God’s will.  It is the sin-filled world that works temporarily against God’s desire.  Humanity’s role is to repent for its participation in sin and join God in bringing about the world God had in mind when he called it out of the void.  They believe heaven will one day come, when everything will be set right.  But in the meantime, God’s people are called to be actively involved in bringing heaven to earth through righteousness.

When I say righteousness, I don’t mean for it to sound churchy – that makes it less meaningful and accessible.  Righteousness is really just desiring what God desires.  If heaven is a place where God’s intentions and plans are always met, then as Christians living here on earth, our desire should be that our living matches heaven as much as possible.  That includes how we treat our neighbors – whether they live across the street or across the world.

In our study today, we get to look at salvation in the light of the second group of people.  Salvation happens when a big change takes place in our lives and impacts the way we understand the world and our place in it.  We confess that God, through Christ, bring us salvation when we understand that without Jesus our sin-filled life would have its way in us.  First, we would be separate from God.  Our sinful behavior creates me-focused living that often takes advantage of all of God’s creation for our own benefit.  Sin leads us to abuse relationships – even all of God’s creation – all for the sake of me.

Salvation occurs when the Holy Spirit opens our awareness to the fact that we were made to know and follow God – to be in a relationship with God.  Our new awareness that we are headed down a dead-end path that we were not created for causes us to repent and seek God.  Seeking God leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to desiring God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Which leads us to our passage today.  Isaiah 61:1-4 is a familiar passage – Jesus quotes this passage in Luke 4, when he announces his ministry by reading the Isaiah passage from the scroll and saying “today, the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

So, what does God want?  For Isaiah, it is a people whose communal life is dedicated to God and whose behavior is so counter to the way the world behaves, others have to take notice.  Our society awards winners based on how successful they are.  How much money to you make?  How popular are you?  Do you look a certain way, drive the right thing, live in the right zip code?  None of these things are wrong in and of themselves.  But we have a way of making these things the ultimate – our God – so that we are willing to do whatever it takes to possess them, even at the expense of other people.

Isaiah, and later Jesus, says righteousness is all about wanting what is best for others, sometimes maybe, at the expense of ourselves, instead of what is best for us at the expense of others.  Jesus certainly modeled this as he was willing die on a cross so that our eyes might be opened and we might have life with God.

This is what advent prepares us for.  Are we prepared to welcome God among us who is willing to lay his very life down for our sakes?  And who challenges us to do the same for others?  Are we willing to proclaim good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim release for the prisoners, to comfort those who mourn and proclaim the Lord’s favor, at the expense of our getting ahead in the dominant system we live in?

For those who are, they will be recognized as “oaks of righteousness” by our creating and saving God.  Oaks stand strong and live long lives.  They lay down deep roots.  They do not spring up overnight.  Perhaps this means that it takes we humans a long time of growth and training to reach such a counter-intuitive and faithful way of life.  Or perhaps our faithfulness to the things God desires for his creation transforms us into strong, wise oaks.  Either way, to be compared to an oak is a good thing to hear from our Lord.

Finally, our lesson helps us see that God’s desire all along is for all creation to live in a loving, self-sacrificing relationship with one another.  In looking back at Leviticus 25:1-28, 35-43, we see that God sets up a way of living together for the Hebrews that requires concern for one another.  For sure, there are consequences for bad choices or behavior.  If  you don’t manage your resources correctly, and you may lose your land and your income.  But even when that happens, the people of Israel are counseled to not take advantage of people in need.  Rather, in all dealings with people who are in a weakened state, God calls his chosen people to deal fairly and justly.  We even see that God has concern for the land that nourishes life. Every seven years, the people are told to let the land rest for a year (and in doing so, allow their servants rest, too).  And every 50 years, the Israelites are to forgive any their debts of their fellow people and restore them to their former wealth.  They are to give everyone a chance, whether they deserve it or not, and start over again.

Why?  God says, “for the land is mine” Lev. 25:23 and “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.” Lev. 25:38.  God reminds the Israelites that he called them from nothing and gave them a name and a land.  They did nothing to earn it.  So treat each other the way I’ve treated you.

We’d do good to remember the same is true for us as well.  God started this relationship – he made us and gave us meaning.  Sin pulled us away from seeing and realizing our purpose.  God sent us his son as messiah, to redeem us from our sin and set our purpose back on its proper course.  As righteous oaks, we continue to follow in his Son’s footsteps in the present tense, longing after what God desires for all his creation.

 

Preparing for Christmas

December is the time of year that I pull out what I consider my favorite movie and watch it again and again.  While I like movies, I’m not one to watch movies over and over again or remember the dialogue enough to quote it word for word.  Except for one:  Christmas Vacation.  Christmas Vacation, though rather irreverent, puts a smile on my face every time I see it.  So this week’s lesson, all about preparation and good news, reminded me of a classic scene in the movie.

Christmas Vacation Clip

Clark Griswold loves Christmas.  In the movie, he is determined to give his family “the best family Christmas ever!”  In addition to the perfect experience, he also wants to give the best gift – a swimming pool.  Only problem is, he has to put a large down payment on the pool before he gets his Christmas bonus, a check he has to have to cover the cost.  He grows anxious when, come Christmas Eve, his check has still not shown up.    Finally, a knock at the door reveals a delivery man who has an envelope from the company.  Unfortunately, the gift inside the envelope isn’t quiet what Clark has prepared for.

  • How do you prepare for Christmas?
  • Does it matter how we prepare for Christmas?
  • Do much effort do you give to the secular Christmas and how much to spiritual?
  • Often times, there is a let-down after the busyness of the season?  Why?  Might the amount of attention we give shopping and parties versus the time we give preparing our spirits for Christ have a direct correlation?
  • When have you been disappointed when something you have looked forward to doesn’t work out?

This week’s lesson is about preparing the way to receive the good news about Jesus, the Messiah.  Our text is Mark 1:1-8 and the first verse will set the stage for our lesson.  “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.”

For Christians who have been hearing “the good news” or “gospel” for some time, this language can seem rather mundane and ordinary.  There is the temptation to get past this introduction and get to the meat of the story.  While Mark’s gospel obliges this request and doesn’t mess around with a lot of details, it also doesn’t include a birth story or any childhood mention.  He gets straight to the point, starting with Jesus’ baptism.  So this Advent season, sitting with Mark as our guide, we are left with John the Baptist’s message of preparation, repentance and forgiveness.  How does this message help us prepare for Christmas?  Knowing a little more about the context of Mark’s audience and the language he employees, even in verse one, will help.

The roots of an announcement of “good news” or “gospel” as a new beginning of peace and prosperity can be traced to the Old Testament, especially in Isaiah’s announcement of hope for the faithful exiles in Babylon (Isaiah 40:9; 52:7; 61:1).  The herald of good news pointed to a hope that lay in the future.  The Old Testament lesson for Sunday (Isaiah 40:1-11) illustrates this.

In the more immediate context of Mark, “good news” is linked with the announcement of military victories.  During Jesus’ day a Roman messenger bringing good news may have looked like this:

The messenger appears, raises his right hand in greeting and calls out with a loud voice: Greetings…we are victors!”  By his appearance it is known already that he brings good news.  His face shines, his spear is decked with laurel, his head is crowned, he swings a branch of palms, joy fills the city, euangelia (sacrifices for good news) are offered, the temples are garlanded and the one to whom the message is owed is honored with a wreath.

By the time of Mark, the term good news or gospel was closely connected with the acclamation of Caesar Augustus as a divine man who by his victories had inaugurated a new era of peace for all the world.  An inscription from Priene in Asia Minor links the term “good news” to Augustus who is also called “savior.”  Against this background, Mark 1:1 would have been understood as both the fulfillment of the messianic hopes of Israel and a polemic against the cult of the emperor.  Mark’s message is the crucified, not the enthroned, should be worshiped for overcoming evil and ushering in a new kingdom of peace and deliverance.

Knowing this, Mark starts his story of Jesus with quite a strong statement.  This Jesus is significant.  Mark then quotes Isaiah 40:3, Exodus 23:20 and Malachi 3:1 when he refers to John the Baptist’s work of preparation:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” – “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”

What is the significance of this voice calling out for Mark’s audience and why is it important for we modern Christians to hear during advent, as we prepare to celebrate Christmas?  Mark’s earliest audience would have heard the following Old Testament scripture in John’s voice:

In Exodus 23:20, God promises protection through an angel who will go before them to protect them and guide them as they take the land of Canaan.  God, through the angel, was preparing the way for Israel to be established as a light unto the nations.  The greek word for angel can also mean messenger.

Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament and is addressed to a people who had grown indifferent to God’s presence and their role as light to the world.  Malachi’s name is literally “my messenger” and his aim was to stir his audience to a renewed commitment.  Malachi 3:1 portrays a mysterious and unpredictable God that an apathetic people would be fearful of encountering.

Isaiah 40 is a well known advent text that portrays God as comforter to a people who, in exile, have paid their debts.  The messenger asks his hearers to make a way for this forgiving God who stands above and beyond time while we are subject to finality.

Part of John’s call for preparation was baptism.  Baptism does not hold the same meaning this side of the cross as it did for Jews in the first century.  While baptism now reflects a change in status from death to new life in the light of Jesus’ sacrifice, both call for repentance.  Repentance is a recognition of sin and a complete turn from an old way of behavior to a new and different way.  Essenes, Jews who lived an ascetic life of piety and purity in the wilderness, practiced ritual washings that required repentance which brought forgiveness. But repentance had to be genuine – no saying one thing and then behaving in your old manner.  Baptism meant nothing if nothing changed.  Essenes may have influenced John’s understanding of baptism.

Josephus, a Jewish historian alive at the time of Jesus, reports that John the Baptist,

“Exhorted the Jews to lead righteous lives, to practice justice towards their fellows and piety towards God, and so doing to join in baptism.  In his view this was a necessary preliminary if baptism was to be acceptable to God.”

So what does Mark 1:1-8 teach our modern ears in regards to preparation for Christmas and faithful living?

  1. Jesus is the Messiah.  He may come to us in unexpected ways:  as a baby born into poverty to an unwed mother, in the wilderness, or challenging the people and things which we give priority.  In the end, Jesus – the Son of God – is victorious.  His strength, however, is found in his selflessness, gentleness and his truthfulness.  Unlike other conquerors of the past, there is nothing for Jesus to hide or conceal, making his truthfulness both good news to those who are prepared to receive it and inconvenient for those who chose to avoid it.
  2. Repentance forgives and prepares.  The good thing about a beginning (v. 1) is that it conveys newness.  Genuine repentance recognizes we haven’t lived according to the way we were created to live. We haven’t contributed to God’s shalom (wholeness).  Genuine repentance says, “knowing what I know now about my life, I’m going to live in a different way.”  John’s baptism marked that moment in which folks could look back and say “at that moment, I changed my direction.”  Unlike the people in Malachi, those who sought baptism in the Jordan were ready to give up their apathy toward God and were thus ready to recognize God when God appeared.

So how do we confess that Jesus is good news today?  What stands in our way?  More importantly, does our confession match our action?  Are we genuine? Nothing could be more damaging in 2017 than a confession that is not complemented by behavior and action.  I’m afraid that nowadays, our society expects to be disappointed by our leaders.  How can our confession that Jesus is Messiah overcome the failings of so many leaders in religion, business, government and entertainment?

How might our preparation of the way of the Lord this advent help us recognized God at work among us?