Today begins the countdown before beginning the 12 Festal Days of Christmas. Today, we are winding down the secular days of Christmas shopping including the 12 days of lavish Ellen Show gift giving on TV. And since the WDRG Study has been preparing you to receive the good news of a holy Christmas, thanks to your reading aloud the first chapter of Matthew and Luke 1:1-2:20, you are ready for the entry of Jesus into our world.
In the almost 2000 years since the birth of the Christ Child, believers have added to the NT gospel narratives other accounts of human action to help us all understand, each in our own way, the power of what it means to enshrine the sacred in our everyday lives. Some very significant events are to be encountered in our Christmas countdown times, both secular and holy.
STARTING OUT THIS WEEK:
Let’s begin with today to discover how humans find ways to glorify, or reflect back the goodness of God, through special Christian celebrations. Today, December 21, is the feast of Saint Thomas, the Apostle. Remember this guy! He’s the one who, in John 20:19-29, is nicknamed “doubting Thomas” because he insisted on personally witnessing the reality of the risen Jesus, his friend and companion. Thomas reminds us that it is okay, in the compassionate heart of God, to have human times of disbelief before embracing the full understanding in our everyday lives of who Jesus Christ was and is. Think of Thomas as a role model for coping with the secular consumerism preceding God’s true Christmas gift that is pure love.
BECOMING TOTALLY INVOLVED:
The day after Christmas Day, December 26, is the feast of Saint Stephen, Deacon and Martyr, whose saint’s day originated in Jerusalem in the 4th century and actually may have been celebrated there before the Christmas nativity was. Historically, the early Christians thought it especially important to honor the commitment of the first martyr who gave his life for his belief in Jesus as Savior. (Acts 6:8-8:1a recounts Stephen’s story.) The example of belief here parallels ours, as Stephen was not one of the original disciples, but a follower of Jesus, as we are. How serious is your commitment?
GIVING & RECEIVING GOOD WORDS:
Annually, December 27 is the feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist, the person honored by the name of our Cathedral in the Diocese of the Rio Grande. Today, as in the ancient world, John was a common name. Which persona named John fits the “apostle and evangelist” job description? Not John titled “the Baptist”. Not John, the brother of James and son of Zebedee, who was the 4th apostle Jesus called to fish for people.
The message bearer who fills the dual feast-day role of apostle and evangelist is the NT writer we call John, who wrote the great mystical gospel, three letters and Revelation, the creative symbol-filled final book of the Bible. This author penned his texts a generation or two after the life of Jesus. John, our Cathedral’s patron saint was a towering figure whose defining 1st century Christianity continues to give us valuable inspiration.
CREATING A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE:
Much Christmas storytelling ends after the visits of the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20 and the wisemen in Matthew 2:1-11. Don’t let your awareness of the information end there.
As important now, as it was 2000 years ago, is the “rest of the story” in Matthew 2:13-23. A few minutes of reading aloud will connect you with the current strong impact of migration turmoil teaming across our globe. The Holy Innocents of the Bible is truly a real-life story that challenges us to prayerful action.
The core of the Christmas story is that all things are possible with God. Don’t let the immensity of any world problem overwhelm you. Pray. Then find a way to package your Christmas gift of yourself, so you will tie your efforts to those of other Christians to bring the angels’ announcement into reality. Let there be peace on earth. Make your response be to bring God’s gentle love to all in the world. Amen.
The Louvre in Paris is the current home for this glazed terra-cotta rondel by Andrea della Robia (1470-1520) showing the Madonna, John the Baptist as a child, and two cherubim surrounded by a heavenly host of angels adoring a sleeping Jesus.December 14, 2015: The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year C)
In your flurry of preparations for Christmas, take time to review Luke’s short accounts surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ. It will take you a mere 20 minutes to read aloud in full the first two chapters of Luke. Muse over carefully detailed facts Luke knew would be important to his audience, either hearers or readers, who never had experienced the earthly life of Jesus. Who was Jesus? What made Jesus special? Why should anyone follow Jesus?
VOICES FROM THE PAST:
Luke, unlike Mark or John, begins the good news of his gospel with events surrounding the birth of Jesus. A wise writer, because everyone loves a good baby story. But Luke’s way of telling his tale has a very distinct direction designed to take us back to the very beginning. Luke wanted us to have a solid foundation for accepting Jesus Christ…son of the human line of David and son of the eternal majesty of God.
Rock solid for Luke was making it clear that Jesus was a Jew. Luke’s audience was a mix of traditional Jews and also of Gentiles, who did not practice a belief in the powerful oneness of a single deity. With only a fledgling structure of Christianity to undergird him, Luke was challenged to make a convincing argument that Jesus, fully God and fully man, should be the leading influence in every life for everyone.
VOICES IN CHORUS:
In your reading of the first two chapters of Luke, you have experienced the final “selling” point in the text without fully being aware of what was happening. From the Jewish tradition, it would have been obvious. To a Gentile or to us, as persons living in 2015, the continuum of God’s action in human lives may not seem clear.
Luke’s gospel shows the expanse of the Holy Spirit across earthly time, as he consciously connects parallels in OT tradition with what would become accepted NT thought. When Luke was writing, of course there was no NT.
Already, in your 20 minutes of reading chapters one and two, you have spoken four NT lyrics that Luke has updated from key parts of the OT. Luke is making a point that “what was, what is, will always be.” By lifting elements from known human time into the time of Jesus, Luke has made the boundaries of time vanish for those who understood and believed in Jesus Christ, fully God and fully human. Luke was making God ever present in all human lives.
VOICES TODAY:
The songs Luke uses are part of our regular worship today. To know their ancient roots lifts them from ordinary words to rich exclamations of praise. Mary’s Magnificat (Lk. 1:46-55) is Hannah’s Prayer (I Sam. 21:10). Zechariah’s Benedictus (Lk: 1:67-79) draws on OT Psalms (18:1-3; 92:10-11; 132:17-18) as well as Malachi and Isaiah. Simeon's Song or the Nunc Dimittis (Lk. 2:29-32) has thoughts plucked from Isaiah. Luke recast familiar words and phrases to claim them for Christian purposes.
Luke’s poetry becomes Morning and Evening Prayer Canticles, familiar parts of our BCP services. Luke’s Gloria or Angels Song (Lk. 2:14), with many OT references, precedes Holy Communion. God’s songs are timeless.
VOICES GOING FORWARD:
Luke’s birth story introduces us to ordinary, everyday people who can guide our Christian lives. Supported by OT tradition, Mary comprehends Gabriel’s announcement. She understands God’s blessing to her. Mary’s joy overflows and is shared during her visit with her also joyful cousin Elizabeth. Good news is heard by “just plain folks.” Good news is being spread!
Luke wants us to know that spreading the good news is our responsibility. As a writer, he did his part to tell everyone, partial and even non-believers, that God is with us to bring goodness to our lives. Luke’s message…the Christian message…is clear. God is eternally with us! Celebrate Christmas by sending, sharing, and giving good news.
December 7, 2015: The Third Sunday of Advent (Year C)
In Lectionary Year C, as we read through the great historical
gospel written by a person that tradition has identified as Luke, it
is important to be aware that the whole message is presented as the Holy Spirit
active in human lives. Everything that
happens in this well-written text, from the genealogy lists, the birth
pronouncements and ministry of Jesus, the post-crucifixion appearances and into
the second volume Acts of the Apostles: All of these stories have the unseen,
underlying “ghost” of the Holy Spirit. Be aware. When
you read Luke’s two NT documents aloud, you are enacting the presence of the
Holy Spirit in your life.
STORY SPINNER:
In reading any part of the NT, today’s reader can easily get bogged down in details that were grounded in the stylistic rhetorical conventions of the first century. Such diversionary pitfalls are all present in Luke. The best way to get to the heart of the message is to read the text aloud in full, without dwelling on the details, thereby missing the intent of the story. Luke is a masterful storyteller. The details are all there to strengthen the story, so you will stay on the road of understanding.
STORY PREPARATION:
The powerful command of the OT prophet Isaiah is relayed to the people of the wilderness around the Jordan River, with Luke passing on the account of John’s actions to the early Christians and then to us. We are to “Prepare the way of the Lord.”
This echoing over the centuries of Isaiah’s words by John, the son of Zechariah, are especially important to us today. The impact of jarring, terrorizing events throughout the world in our time threatens to overwhelm us. Luke’s scriptural reminder is needed. In Year C Advent readings for the second and third Sundays, Luke 3:1-18 is assigned. While the descriptive context is first century, the message is timeless. Be ready! Good news is coming!
John makes it very clear in his pronouncement, that he is merely a guidepost for the one who is to come. He does not want a following of groupies. John’s role in this spiritual drama is to open the door and lead people to the awareness that the Lord’s presence is active for good in human life. Now, as voices of fear swarm around us, do not detour from the route that can make Luke’s good news a reality.
STORY PARTICIPANTS:
One of the difficulties people have in contemplating the Bible is that to a modern mind it seems to have little connection with life today. While the language is often complex to work through, one of the greatest disconnects comes because in current thoughts, the people portrayed and the actions they take seem not to be rooted in reality. Luke, as a storyteller, works really hard to connect his readers (or listeners, as would have been the case in the early centuries of the Christian Church) with the humanity of his characters. To Luke, Jesus Christ is not a myth.
As Advent advances to Christmas, take time to seriously contemplate the meaning of your own humanity. And, think prayerfully on God. God is separate and apart from humanity, though all of us, male and female are created in the image of God.
Finding the wonder in the “wholly other” magnificence of God is what makes the Christmas holy miracle a reality. At Christmas, God is born into humanity. At Christmas, the baby Jesus becomes fully human and fully God. Jesus is “the way” that his fully human cousin John urges us to seek. The way of Christ Jesus is a world without sin, without separation from God or from all our human neighbors. That good news is what Luke is telling us. Let us prepare. The Holy Spirit is with us as we make way for Christmas on earth.
The Holy Children with a Shell is a painting done about 1670 by Bartolome Esteban Murillo that is in the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid. Humanity is shown here, as the Christ Child offers his cousin John the Baptist a drink of water
November 30, 2015: The Second Sunday of Advent (Year C)
STORY SPINNER:
In reading any part of the NT, today’s reader can easily get bogged down in details that were grounded in the stylistic rhetorical conventions of the first century. Such diversionary pitfalls are all present in Luke. The best way to get to the heart of the message is to read the text aloud in full, without dwelling on the details, thereby missing the intent of the story. Luke is a masterful storyteller. The details are all there to strengthen the story, so you will stay on the road of understanding.
STORY PREPARATION:
The powerful command of the OT prophet Isaiah is relayed to the people of the wilderness around the Jordan River, with Luke passing on the account of John’s actions to the early Christians and then to us. We are to “Prepare the way of the Lord.”
This echoing over the centuries of Isaiah’s words by John, the son of Zechariah, are especially important to us today. The impact of jarring, terrorizing events throughout the world in our time threatens to overwhelm us. Luke’s scriptural reminder is needed. In Year C Advent readings for the second and third Sundays, Luke 3:1-18 is assigned. While the descriptive context is first century, the message is timeless. Be ready! Good news is coming!
John makes it very clear in his pronouncement, that he is merely a guidepost for the one who is to come. He does not want a following of groupies. John’s role in this spiritual drama is to open the door and lead people to the awareness that the Lord’s presence is active for good in human life. Now, as voices of fear swarm around us, do not detour from the route that can make Luke’s good news a reality.
STORY PARTICIPANTS:
One of the difficulties people have in contemplating the Bible is that to a modern mind it seems to have little connection with life today. While the language is often complex to work through, one of the greatest disconnects comes because in current thoughts, the people portrayed and the actions they take seem not to be rooted in reality. Luke, as a storyteller, works really hard to connect his readers (or listeners, as would have been the case in the early centuries of the Christian Church) with the humanity of his characters. To Luke, Jesus Christ is not a myth.
As Advent advances to Christmas, take time to seriously contemplate the meaning of your own humanity. And, think prayerfully on God. God is separate and apart from humanity, though all of us, male and female are created in the image of God.
Finding the wonder in the “wholly other” magnificence of God is what makes the Christmas holy miracle a reality. At Christmas, God is born into humanity. At Christmas, the baby Jesus becomes fully human and fully God. Jesus is “the way” that his fully human cousin John urges us to seek. The way of Christ Jesus is a world without sin, without separation from God or from all our human neighbors. That good news is what Luke is telling us. Let us prepare. The Holy Spirit is with us as we make way for Christmas on earth.
The Holy Children with a Shell is a painting done about 1670 by Bartolome Esteban Murillo that is in the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid. Humanity is shown here, as the Christ Child offers his cousin John the Baptist a drink of water
This Advent, with the beginning of Lectionary Year C, the WDRG Study has an opportunity to talk about basic NT Bible trivia. In our bound copies of the Bible, the 27 books of the NT begin with four gospel narratives of the life of Jesus.
GOSPEL DIFFERENCES:
The first three biographies…Matthew, Mark, and Luke…are called synoptics, because the story they tell is similar in content. Scholars believe these writings share the same source material and add additional embellishments to inform the Christians in communities they were written for.
The fourth gospel, is very different in content, as this version is told by a mystic more concerned with the meaning of the life of Jesus, than the facts. All four gospels include long, detailed accounts of Jesus’ death, indicating to us that the Passion story was the true heart of the earliest Christian message, rather than Christmas baby birth.
GOSPELS IN THE LECTIONARY:
The theologians and scholars, who created the common lectionary most Christian denominations use, organized the Sunday readings from the three synoptics, so our knowledge of Jesus’ life is reenforced from a different writer’s voice over a cycle of three years. This orderly plan happens to focus on each of the three gospels using the order that they have in the NT table of contents: Matthew is Year A; Mark is Year B; and Luke is Year C.
We’ve now begun Year C, and the Sunday lessons from this Advent on expose us to the ideas communicated through in-depth writing of an unknown author, who has been give the name Luke.
Scholars think that none of the gospels are eyewitness accounts. Mark, the earliest and shortest was probably written about 70 CE, a generation after Jesus’ life. Mark begins his biography with an adult Jesus. Mark has no birth story. There are no gynecological references included in the inspired words of John 1:1-18. This text, composed at least two generations after the life of Jesus paints an eternal creation picture.
GOSPEL BABY BOOKS:
Imagine yourself a decade or so later as a grandparent Christian believer, a time when the author of Matthew begins his gospel with the pedigree of Jesus from Abraham through David via Joseph. This first NT Jesus baby notation can be found in Matthew 1:18-25 and, because of its simplicity, you can read aloud these verses in less than two minutes.
Probably the latest, most detailed, and definitely the longest, of the four gospels comes from Luke, the first true Christian historical writer. The date for Luke’s two volumes, the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, tales of activities of Peter and Paul, is set by Marcus Borg at about 110 CE. Scholars agree the texts by Luke show skilled Greek writing and maturity of perspective in presentation. Both books are intentionally formed by their author with the powerful purpose of transmitting the God’s Spirit across the growing world of Christianity.
GOSPEL FOCUS FOR YEAR C:
From Advent until Easter, because Luke is long and beautifully complex, the WDRG Study will tackle interesting aspects lurking, sometimes unnoticed. This document is a good “read”, and one you will want to read more than once aloud in full before Easter. Because of the depth of what it is trying to communicate, Luke’s writing is best reviewed in small doses, left to simmer in thoughts, carried to discussions with others, and then placed into joyful life action..
This week, set the context for Year C into place by fully reading Luke chapters 1 and 2 aloud. In your 20 minute reading, familiar Advent anticipation stories are recounted and human responses of wonder and delight are exclaimed. Luke is telling us about empowerment of the Holy Spirit. At the beginning of Luke, you will say, or sing of the glorious deeds the Lord has done.
While the thickness of the Bible may seem intimidating to get to comprehend, by listening to Luke’s gifted writing, the fullness of our lives can come into focus. Begin reading aloud. As the Angel Gabriel says, “Do not be afraid.” For your life and the whole world, “nothing will be impossible with God.”
This Annunciation painting was done in 2000 by American artist John Collier for St. Gabriel’s Church in McKinney, TexasNovember 23, 2015: The First Sunday of Advent (Year C)
The world events swirling around us suggest we live in apocalyptic time. Even voices of some U.S. Presidential candidates seem to be prophets of doom, as they scream at us with 24/7 news media, talking heads, tweets, and urgent texts. Talk, talk, talk…tosses us into the semi-known, leaving a residue of misunderstood meaning and fear, frightening fear. Apocalyptic time…what is it, what does it mean for us, how will it evolve?
DEFINITON:
Apocalypse comes to us from an Old English word, by way of Old French and ecclesiastical Latin, from the Greek word meaning to uncover or reveal. It can mean the final destruction of the world or, as used currently, to describe events with damage on a massive, horrific scale, destroying both human life and the human spirit.
Apocalypse, also, is the name of the last book of the Bible: Apocalypse means Revelation. It means to expose and to uncover. Apocalyptic is a style of writing found in later OT Bible books, the final NT Book, and in a smattering of other NT writings. Because it is a mystical view of looking at reality, it can be misused and abused by readers who want something more dramatic than the simple, pure Christian message that God loves each and every one of us.
In this transition time moving toward Christmas, our Sunday readings take on an apocalyptical bent. For the gospel on the First Sunday of Advent, we begin near the end of Luke with a passage that is apocalyptic in nature. (Luke 21:25-36) With the unrest of the described world, portents foreshadow the entry of Our Lord Jesus Christ into human existence.
Advent, translated from the Latin, has an active sense of movement pushing forward from the literal meaning “to come.”. What is coming? Only a true revelation from God can rescue a world gone mad. As Advent starts the Year C, focus on Luke’s good news; we begin a time of preparation for the coming of the presence of God into our world and lives.
ILLUSTRATION:
Along with writers, artists across the centuries have used the beauty of their talents to give us ways we can rethink our preparation for God’s active, human presence in our lives. Written apocalyptical signs become visual symbols leading us to connect more fully with the content of our Bible.
The stories of Advent and Christmas are favorites of artists. Uncovering what is found in each of the books of the Bible or carefully examining a work of art reveals unexpected meaning.
During Advent, ponder the Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece from the workshop of Robert Campin (Netherlandish ca. 1375-1444, Tournai) that is in The Cloisters Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. (Enlarge details on your screen.)
www.metmuseum.org/ In Search the Collection, type: Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)
Be open to the unexpected symbols in Advent and Christmas waiting to be uncovered. You will hear them in words, see them in pictures, and encounter them in people. What you will discover is that God works miracles.
Mary, in our Christian Bible story, receives the presence of the Word of God from the Angel Gabriel, who is a busy messenger angel for God. This same Angel Gabriel carried the text of the Koran from Allah to Muhammad. Listen for the Angel Gabriel.
We live in God’s time, apocalyptic time that is being uncovered and revealed. The unexpected symbol to remind us of that is the candle in the very center of the center Annunciation panel. It is snuffed: Notice the puff of smoke! Why is this? It is because with God comes the eternal light in the presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ?
Light your Advent candles. Let them remind you to carry God’s light and love to a world needing the true Apocalypse of the Bible. God is present with us! Alleluia!