John Shearman's
 Liberal Lectionary Analysis

Rev. John Shearman

 INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

[A more complete analysis follows this brief summary for church bulletins.]

A new year begins on the calendar of Christian worship. Advent is the time when we make our spiritual preparations for the coming of Christ by thinking first about his return in glory as promised throughout the New Testament.

JEREMIAH 33:14-16. Jeremiah lived seven centuries before Christ was born. Yet he spoke with intense hope of a time when an anointed king of David's line would come to bring righteousness and justice to Israel and so give the nation the security it so desperately needed and earnestly desired.

PSALM 25:1-10. The special relationship between God and Israel as well as the personal faith of the individual Israelite form the central theme of this instructional psalm. In Hebrew, each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew language. This was done for easier memorization.

1 THESSALONIANS 3:9-13. The two letters of Paul to the Thessalonians were probably the first part of the whole New Testament to have been written, possibly no more that twenty years after the resurrection of Christ. Prominent throughout these two short letters is the expectation that Christ would soon return to establish his eternal reign of justice, peace and love. Here Paul urges that continued spiritual growth and warm personal relationships be maintained by these early Christians until that glorious day.

LUKE 21:25-36. The expectation of Christ's return dominated early Christian thought. Bible scholars debate whether these teachings came from Jesus himself or the early apostolic church. Many of the concepts and images are drawn from typical Jewish apocalyptic writing found in the Hebrew scriptures and similar writings of the period between the two parts of our Bible.

JEREMIAH 33:14-16. Jeremiah lived seven centuries before Christ was born. His ministry spanned four decades from about 627 to 586 BCE. Two great crises occurred during this time. The break-up of the Assyrian empire and the rise of the Babylonian empire changed the political environment for the kingdom of Judah. The resurgence of religious nationalism during the reign of King Josiah created a new moral and spiritual environment. Jeremiah may well have been greatly involved in that revival as the narrative parts of the book describe.

As the Book of Jeremiah comes to us now, it is a composite work of several different types of literature drawn from several sources and dealing with several themes. But like most pre-exilic prophets, Jeremiah was primarily a preacher, not an author. So the book that bears his name must be regarded as only partially his. The lectionary passage comes from a so-called "book of consolation" (chs. 30, 31 and 33) into which is inserted an incident from Jeremiah's life illustrating this hopeful theme (32). These oracles are probably of varied origin that offer hope beyond national disaster. They also show the influence of the earlier prophet Hosea and close links with Deutero-Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55). Some of the material is undoubtedly that of Jeremiah himself as well as from Baruch, the scribe. (See Robert Davidson's article "The Book of Jeremiah," in The Oxford Companion to the Bible, 343ff) Baruch may have been responsible for writing down some of the prophecies attributed to Jeremiah.

This passage speaks with intense hope of a time when an anointed king (Heb: masiah) of David's line would come to bring righteousness and justice to Israel and so give the nation the security it so desperately needed and earnestly desired. It emphasizes the prophetic faith that the nation's fate will not be not decided by the Babylonians, but by Yahweh. This faith in Yahweh as Lord of history is found throughout the Old Testament, but especially in the oracles of the great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It presents a hopeful faith for difficult times such as our own.

Our problem today is to recognize and accept this biblical faith that God does indeed have a providential purpose to be fulfilled through the actual events of human history. This faith implies an interventionist God, but is also open to misinterpretation found so often in some narrow theological views that God is really on our side and against our enemies. Such views have frequently led to civil, international and interfaith warfare. The mediaeval Crusades and the Irish Troubles of the past thirty years occurred because of such disastrous religious prejudices. The great danger of the present moment is to see the extremist Islamists' jihad and the American invasion of Iraq in a similar light.

It also has to be recognized that such a narrow view is evident in the scriptures themselves. After the global wars of the 20th century, one is tempted to reject all theological interpretations of history. How could we ever conceive of a God in control of such tragic events when millions of innocent civilians died because they belonged to an "enemy" nation or a particular race or ethnic group? It is at this point that the vision of Jeremiah of the Messiah "executing righteousness and justice" becomes relevant to our own time. Without these qualities dominant in human character and practiced in personal, national and international relations, history will continue to be a record of human failure to do as God wills.

PSALM 25:1-10. The special relationship between Yahweh and Israel as well as the personal faith of the individual Israelite form the central theme of this psalm which is both instructional and liturgical. It has the appearance of a supplication for Yahweh's intervention in some personal problem and as such was useful to anyone seeking divine help in distress.

The psalm has the form of an acrostic, however. In Hebrew, each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew language. This was done for easier memorization. It also contains similarities to Wisdom literature, e.g. vss. 4-5; 12-14. As such, its superscription "Of David" is an anachronism attached to the psalm to give it liturgical authority. This type of psalm appeared only in the late post-exilic period when the worship of temple was highly structured by the Levitical priesthood. It may have come from a collection of psalms of varying age and authorship attributed to but certainly not composed by David.

While the implications of vss. 1-2 indicate an external human enemy whose treachery the psalmist feared, there is no reason why this could not also refer to an inner, spiritual enemy. The habit of personifying the impersonal can be found quite commonly in Hebrew literature. Mediaeval art and some modern literary images depicting various forms of temptation as evil angels (e.g. C.S.Lewis Screwtape Letters) followed the same pattern.

The psalmist had found that obedience to the way of Yahweh led to moral uprightness and spiritual strength when confronted by life's vicissitudes. Dependence on the mercy and steadfast love of Yahweh yielded the power to overcome (vss. 6-10). A note of sincere humility crept into the prayer as the psalmist openly confessed his youthful transgressions and personal guilt (vss. 7 & 11). He also had concern for others, that they would reverently seek to be taught by Yahweh and reap the reward of prosperity through keeping the covenant (vss. 12-15). Vss. 16-21 return to the original petition. The psalm ends with a brief reference to the need for Israel's redemption from troubles which are never disclosed. The personal and national distress to which the psalm gave expression can best be understood in the light of the covenant relationship between Yahweh and Israel. Each Israelite, as a "son of the covenant," felt a deep sense of personal identification with what happened to the whole community. Today, we can see this in the way our Jewish neighbors feel about and defend Israel whenever they perceive some incident as threatening to that modern state.

1 THESSALONIANS 3:9-13. The two letters of Paul to the Thessalonians were probably the first part of the whole New Testament to have been written, possibly no more that twenty years after the resurrection of Christ and relatively early in Paul's ministry. Prominent throughout these two short letters is the expectation that Christ would soon return to establish his eternal reign of justice, love and peace. Paul shared this viewpoint with the whole church of the Apostolic Age. It greatly influenced the oral transmission of Jesus' teachings and the writing of the earlier Gospels.

Paul's intimate relationship with some of his early European converts comes to the fore in this passage. The immediately preceding verses (3:1-5) describe his considerable anxiety for them as they struggled to live their recently acquired faith in very difficult circumstances. They were Gentiles experiencing strong persecution from non-believers of their own community not unlike the opposition confronting Jewish Christians in Judea (2:14). Accordingly, Paul had sent his colleague Timothy to encourage them (3:2). Timothy had returned with good news (vs. 6). So Paul was writing this first letter in response to what Timothy had told him.

Thanksgiving and intercessory prayer for the Thessalonians highlight Paul's very personal concern. He earnestly wanted to return to see them and strengthen their faith. In the meantime, he urged that they continue to grow and maintain warm personal relationships within their fellowship until that glorious day when Christ returns. He did not elaborate on the details of the apostolic expectation of Christ's second coming.

In general, all NT writers concentrated on the purpose rather than the manner of this anticipated event. It was as if they felt that Jesus' work of establishing God's kingdom had been left unfinished by the crucifixion and resurrection. In all honesty, the world still seemed - then and now - as if the reign of God had not yet come. The promise of Christ's coming again offered hope that what had gone before had not been in vain. The love of God in Christ would triumph in the end and those who refused to believe and follow his way would be rejected in the final judgment.

The phrase "strengthen your hearts in holiness" in 3:13 offers a very appropriate Advent text. Instead of rushing around in consumer panic, we need these four weeks before Christmas to prepare spiritually for Christ's coming. Holiness in daily life is best expressed in love for God and neighbor. It is not just happenstance that charities make their strongest appeal for public support during the last few weeks before Christmas. The problem most of us face is how to share our resources, material and well as spiritual, in this particular season when so demands are placed upon us. Childhood Christmases during the Great Depression of the 1930s showed me personally how it is that while material resources may be limited, spiritual resources for this season can be truly unlimited.

LUKE 21:25-36. The expectation of Christ's return dominated early Christian thought. Bible scholars debate whether Jesus himself or the early apostolic church taught in such terms. Uniformly, the gospels and Acts attribute this teaching to Jesus, although in John's Gospel there is some ambiguity whether certain sayings of Jesus referred to his resurrection rather than an eschatological Parousia. Many of the concepts and images were drawn from standard Jewish apocalyptic writing found in the Hebrew scriptures and similar eschatalogical literature of the intertestamental period.

The prophets much earlier had declared their faith in a future historical event, the Day of the Lord, when God's rule of righteousness, peace, justice and prosperity would become permanent for Israel. The earliest gospel statement in Mark 1:15 set the ministry of Jesus as the dawning of this new age. Matthew and Luke shared this belief. But the moment had not yet come by the eighth or ninth decade of lst century CE when Luke's Gospel was composed. Later New Testament writers, notably the author of the Pastoral Epistles, dealt with the delayed expectation of the church.

Nor has that hope yet been fulfilled twenty centuries later in the traditional manner in which it has been declared. In the meantime, the church's faith in the Second Coming has been variously interpreted, depending on the approach to scripture taken by the interpreter. Is it specific prediction? Or more general prophecy of God's intention? Or is the descriptive Second Coming more of a symbol of God's ultimate triumph? Or are we merely discussing the personal identification of the individual with Christ? Or has it already taken place - at Pentecost? Stephen H. Travis, of St. John's College, Nottingham, England, writes: "In any case, it is possible to affirm the basic structure of Christian hope, with its emphasis on the second coming as the goal and fulfillment of God's past work in Christ, without committing oneself to any precise view about its nature or when it will be." (The Oxford Companion to the Bible, p. 686.)

That may not be a satisfactory approach for some, but it does give us a continuing hope and a commission to carry on the ministry of God's love for the world so fully expressed in Jesus Christ. How each person fulfills that commission is to be realized in the choices and priorities one makes in the myriad human relationships which engage one's energies day by day. For some it may mean quiet prayer and contemplation. For others it may mean active participation in ministries that seek justice for all. For still others it may have extensive economic and/or political ramifications. One form or expression of hope does not fit all situations. To some extent, there was truth in what former US President George H. W. Bush advocated when he spoke of "a thousands points of light." It would be a grave mistake, however, to regard any specific political or military events occurring at this or any other moment in history, no matter who may perpetrate them, as signs that the end times have begun. The Day of the Lord envisioned by the prophets of Israel is always here and now.