Isaiah 61: 1-2; 10-11 (NRSV Updated Edition)
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
...
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my whole being shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.
~
John 1:6-8, 19-28 (NRSV Updated Edition)
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
...
This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but he confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ ”
as the prophet Isaiah said.
Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why, then, are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
~
"The Christmas story we all know and love gives witness to the centrality of Jesus, the Christ. Every year we put up the manger scene and combine aspects of the story taken from Matthew with dimensions from Luke and act them out in the Christmas pageant. In this way, we know Jesus is important and the Son of God because of how he came to be born.
"But in Year B we have a problem. Neither the Gospel of Mark nor the Gospel of John has a Christmas story. How do we come to know who Jesus is when we can’t use the Christmas story to show his specialness? Mark and John have no shepherds coming to see the child, no stars leading wise men from the east, no flight into Egypt to escape a jealous and ruthless ruler, no donkey carrying a pregnant teenage mother to a distant ancestral town, and no Joseph being turned away at the door of a crowded Inn.
"The Gospel of John has a different way of showing us who Jesus is. The writer begins with the witness of one man. I quote, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” In the Gospel of John, the first witness to Jesus is John the Baptist and “he came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.” Instead of a mysterious star moving through the heavens and coming to rest over a cradle containing a baby, here we have John the Baptist pointing to Jesus himself as the light. Two verses before this, in the prologue, using N.T. Wright’s translation, we read, “Life was in him, and this life was the light of the human race. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” What an Advent message of hope! “Life was in him, and this life was the light of the human race, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
"I believe every word of that compound sentence. Life was and is in him and this life was and is the light of the human race. He is the light because he shows us the very character of God. “God is light and in him is no darkness at all.” Contrary to much dark religion in many forms throughout the world, the God revealed by Jesus has no darkness at all. He is full of life and there is no death in him. None!"
- Thomas L. and Laura C. Truby, from a sermon delivered on December 11, 2011 (http://girardianlectionary.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Advent3b-2011-Pointing-to-the-Light.doc)
~
"So first of all the place: you remember last time he was in the desert and he was baptizing and here it gets more specific, he was in the place called Bethany on the other side of the Jordan. So that indicates that he put himself outside the Promised Land so as to create a new way into the Promised Land. ... [W]hat's being called to mind is the place where Joshua led the people over the [Jordan]... And it's no wonder therefore that what John the Baptist is doing is clearly creating some sort of new movement, that it's got the authorities rattled.
"Before the gospel tells us about the authorities [being] rattled, it specifies very exactly what John is, and the terms are more meaningful than they might seem: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness to the light.” In the prologue to St. John's gospel we hear about the light was before all things, who is coming into the world.
"Now please remember, the light was the first day of creation. The one who comes in bearing light is the Creator. So to bear witness to the light is very much standing outside if you like the normal historical form of witnessing. He's bearing witness to someone who has been coming in from Creation, the very Son of God, the promised Son of God, the firstborn of all creation, coming into the world. This is the light. So to bear witness to the light means something quite specific.
"Remember that in the Genesis account light and darkness were separated, but here it's light that comes before darkness and the darkness cannot hide it. So [John is] bearing witness to something that is from the beginning, that is from creation, so that all might believe through him. So, in other words, he's bearing witness to the creative light that's coming into the world, and everyone is going to be enlightened by it, or it should be possible for everyone to be enlightened by. He himself was not the light, he makes this quite clear, but he came to testify to the light.
...
"Now, I didn't realize this until recently, but [“I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.”] is apparently a reference to the Levirate law: if a married man died without having offspring his wife was married to his brother so that he could produce offspring for his brother via her. And if he refused to do so, the one who would take up the charge would untie the thong of his sandal. ... So what's John saying here? It's the one who's coming after me, although theoretically I get to marry the person first, it's the one who's coming after me who is the real bridegroom.
"In other words, this is a hidden reference to the coming in of the bridegroom, this bridegroom figure we will see, that it's the bridegroom and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. All is being set up to announce the coming in of the one who will open the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is, if you like, the central image of the one coming in that we are going to rejoice in, starting with the hidden birth, the silence surrounding all things before the light comes into the world."
- James Alison, from video "Homily for the Third Sunday in Advent Year B" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_6ED0MSuIo)
[Source of link to Thomas L. and Laura C. Truby sermon, and for discussion and resources on all of this week's lectionary texts, see: http://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/advent3b/]
No comments:
Post a Comment