The consistent theme of hope, encouragement, righteousness, repentance, and redemption appears in the three readings spanning the Old and New Testaments and Gospel. “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord”
Isaiah uses botanical terms to link the future to the past. He notes that a tree stump will blossom forth to bring us a new and great Messiah. The kingdom that he rules will have justice, peace, and the root of Jesse will attract all the nations. He uses a metaphor that animals known as adversarial predators and/or prey (wolf, lamb)"will romp together" to describe peace and harmony.
“The earth will be filled with knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Paul's message in Romans is much into unity in the body of faith; William Barkley noted that what Paul was encouraging was that although people may have different thoughts and causes, there is only one Christ and the bond of unity is a loyalty to Christ. Paul uses the Old Testament to validate that God’s plan for salvation is for everyone, not just the Jews: Psalm 18 vs 50; Deuteronomy 32, vs 43; Psalm 117, vs 1; Isaiah 11 vs 10. Paul cites hope, joy, peace, and power as great elements of Christian Faith. In our time and place, are these elements relative to our Faith?
The Gospel lesson is the exciting and dramatic story of John the Baptist railing against the religious and political powers, as well, as the religious apathy of the general public. John was a very interesting and controversial individual; his dress (camel’s hair) food preference (insects & honey) made him a stand out. He did not come to Jerusalem to preach and prophesize, he was on the Jordan River bank, in the out back doing his ministry. The people came to John in large numbers, why? Approximately five centuries had passed since the last OT Prophet; hence people were thirsty for God’s words. John condemned all evil. It was not pleasant to be in John’s presence if you were a back slider. However, John had a solution for the offender; he rebuked the evil doer, told them to repent and summoned them to the right road. He told the gathered crowd to get out and make a straight pathway to prepare for the Lord's coming. The message is strong, but also provides a way to repent and get right with God.
Take time to Enjoy Advent: do some reading and prayer on how to prepare yourself for Christmas. I found the William Barkley commentary interesting and valuable to better understand this Gospel reading (Vol 1, pp. 43-58, this series is in the church library and PDF file is available).
Submitted by Walt Jaap
No comments:
Post a Comment