I'm preaching again this Sunday. And I'm wrestling with the lectionary scriptures this week. Wanna get in on the wrestling?
It would be particularly pleasing to know what folks in the Broadway congregation would care to contribute. What would we want to say just now if we were to follow Jesus' advice to "Go and tell John what you hear and see!" Of course, there's Bible study Wednesday evening during which we'll consider these same passages. All are welcome to come join in the conversation then, as well. Come for the Advent reflection "Blue Christmas" at 6 and stay for the potluck and study from 6:30 until about 8:15. Broadway United Methodist Church
The full text of all lectionary readings in New Revised Standard Version is available at
Lectionary Readings for third Sunday in Advent
Isaiah 35:1-10 Isaiah speaks to an exiled and defeated Israel proclaiming a hoped for future where all is transformed into abundance and justice and the way will be wide and inclusive for all God's people. There are repeated images of water in the desert causing new life to spring up from bone-dry ground.
Matthew 11:2-11 John the Baptist is in jail. He sends his followers to ask Jesus, "Are you the one?" Jesus answers, "Go and tell John what you hear and see!" and names all the ways that he is turning things upside down, all to the good of the most vulnerable and marginalized. Then he talks about John and asks whether people are ready to hear from such a wild, uncouth person or whether they expected someone in "soft robes."
What do these passages bring to mind for you in personal, congregational or public life just now?
Good thing it's Advent, because I'm waiting and expecting. Short and sweet is as good as long and complex. Concrete examples are good, too. But don't be surprised if your ideas are referenced in Sunday's sermon!
Arlie
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5 comments:
Hi, Arlie.
All of those passages have one thing in common: paradox is used to help visualize justice/redemption/peace.
desert : fertile
deaf: hearing
lame: leaping like a deer
I know it sounds odd to say that 'healing' is 'justice', but what other kind of justice can you have for those who are ill? The Old Testament is full of these paradoxes. In this case I think what it is saying is that Jesus is the Holy Light that balances out the darkness in the world.
Not only that, but Jesus identifies with the common person - like John the Baptist he doesn't where 'soft robes'. His message is too big and important to be limited to only the wealthy, for God him to us all. He is the Messiah of the clean and the unclean. And by their faith in him (Psalm: Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God) they are saved / get to walk on the 'Holy Way' (Isaiah 35:8).
Jessica
Arlie - Continued thanks for your blog. By the time I got through this weeks complete lectionary readings, I was so relieved to read Matthew! I mean, Isaiah talks about "unclean should not travel" and "No Lion shall be there." The Psalm mentions the "way of the wicked bring[ing] ruin," and Luke says "brought down the powerful" and "sent the rich away empty." And James warning of being judged. Not exactly images of a God whose Love embraces ALL. In my heart, I believe ALL means ALL - even the lion; even the wicked; and yes, even the rich! I am thankful for the Hope of the Matthew passage. Especially in this season of advent; of hope and anticipation. I think even in those dark passages before, there is hope - it's just a little harder to find. With Peace, Tom
I can't be with you at church tonight, so here are my thoughts:
I'm so struck by the crocus imagry in Isaiah 35:1. When I was in high school I walked to school. It was a great day when, walking home in the afternoon, I'd see crocuses popping up through the ground that hadn't been present that morning. To be more precise, they had been present (underground) but not visible; had they not been started, they wouldn't have been able to grow that much in 8 hours! I know this isn't a kin(g)dom parable, but it has the same feeling to me. It's here already, and it's also coming. It's waiting to burst forth in its entirety. The day the crocuses popped out was also usually the first day that I could walk home carrying my coat instead of wearing it; it was still cold, but it was a refreshing cold that spoke of things to come in the spring. This is especially good news in the midst of an ice storm like we're having!
Now on to Matthew:
It's interesting to me that Jesus doesn't answer questions directly (interstingly, neither does John the Baptist, in John 1:19ff). He's asked "are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" and he doesn't answer either question. Instead he tells John's disciples to go tell John what they're seeing; John, it seems, will have to make up his own mind on whether Jesus is the one who is to come. That question--are you what we've been waiting for? (paraphrased)--seems depend on what it is you've been expecting. If you've been expecting a _________ (fill in the blank), then no, Jesus isn't the one you've been waiting for. But if you've been expecting a ________, then perhaps Jesus is exactly what you've been waiting for. (I couldn't think of any definite examples that wouldn't bring up more problems that I couldn't handle in one blog comment!)
Maybe there's also a modern psychological angle here (this might be pushing it!). It's always said that I can't change anyone; perhaps the struggle has been to change Jesus into what we want Jesus to be. Instead, we need to let Jesus be Jesus (the perhaps contradictory one who couldn't be labeled in my examples above. Who sometimes talks about bringing peace, and sometimes talks about bringing a sword; who is sometimes a political figure out to change the way things are done, and sometimes is an ethical figure out to change individual lives...) We can't impose our ideals on Jesus, we have to let Jesus be Jesus. We are in Advent, the time of year when, more than any other time, we focus on God becoming human. If God is a being/essence/presence that can't be defined or completely understood (think Barth), then why should we think that Jesus can be?
(For what it's worth, I like my first comment--about Jesus' being the "expected" one depending on one's "expectations"--better than this one!)
Then there's this weird bit about Jesus turning the conversation away from himself and on to John. Why is Jesus saying that John is the greatest? What is the "least in the kingdom" that is greater than John?
Hope this helps.
Jen
Me again, Arlie! Here's one more comment (not thoroughly thought through!) on Isaiah:
In verse 4 it says "Be strong, do not FEAR. Here is your God, who will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. God will come and save you." A God who comes with "vengeance and terrible recompence" is a scary thing to me; why shouldn't I fear? Simply because that God is going to save ME, rather than my "enemies"? That God is violent, just not toward me (at the moment!?!)?That's scary in itself!
I'm reading Rudolph Otto, "The Idea of the Holy" right now for my 20c exam. He uses the terms numen (I belive for God, or the divine more broadly) and the numinous (the experience of mystery/holiness that undergirds all religions). Yesterday I read about his phrase "numinous dread", which is a response to the numinous akin to awe. One of the commentators I read used a quote from CS Lewis; something about "if someone told you that there was a tiger in the next room, you would feel fear knowing that you were in real danger. But, if someone told you there was a ghost in the next room you wouldn't feel fear of danger as much as you'd feel an uncanniness about the unknown." The latter description is what Otto is speaking of in conjunction with God/The Holy/numen. It's a completely different category of fear than feeling scared. Could we do something with that in this passage? I'm not sure, but it got me thinking...
Jen
Tom and Jen both mentioned the negative sounding parts of the lectionary passages. "the rich shall go away empty," God will come with "vengeance and terrible recompense," etc. It always helps me to look at who the prophet other writer is talking to, exactly. In Isaiah's case, he's talking to a defeated, exiled, lost Israet. For them, it must be hard to imagine a future. They are like all the victims of war and domination who feel they have no way of evening the score with the great "evil" power that rages against them. In that context, for me, the talk of God's vengeance, the mention of the "unclean" not going on the road, is not so much about bringing people down as it is about bringing down systems that put some people way up on the power and privilege scale and others way down on the abused and dehumanized level. This is why Jesus talks about the way things have been turned around, too, when he answers John. He, like Isaiah, is pointing toward the time when God's order will be established, and it won't look anything like the world's order of things, where the poor and outcast stay that way and the rich and powerful keep hold of their power and ever grasp onto more. Since the audience was the down and out, the passages probably did not seem so dark.
Loved the images, Jen and Jessica, and Tom, you grapple with the very words of judgment that I find hard to fit into my somewhat "universalist" approach to the gospel.
Thanks for the stimulating ideas. MORE WELCOME!
Arlie
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