From the Lectionary for 22 December 2024 (Advent 4C)

Luke 1:39-45 (NRSV)

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

~

In James Alison's video homily for Advent 4C 2021 (link below) he links some of the crucial words and phrases in this text (eg. "with haste", "leaped in her womb", "exclaimed with a loud cry", "the child in my womb leaped for joy"), which are almost certainly deliberate references by the author of Luke to verses and passages in the Hebrew scriptures with which his intended audience would have been familiar.

Following are the concluding words of the homily:

"Well, I don't know whether this is Elizabeth talking about herself, or about Mary, or about both of them - “Blessed are the women who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” So it's Mary's fulfillment and it's Elizabeth's fulfillment. But what they are doing is just acting out major fulfillments, that's what's going on. It's not only the pregnancies, it's the fact that it's the final coming of the one who Malachi had prophesied, who Isaiah had prophesied, who David had been the predecessor of, [and also] the Levites. You see how this wonderful text is constructed so as to prepare us for what is the great birth, which is the moment when God gives birth in human form, through the virgin, to God."

- James Alison, from "Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent 2021" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4aDWAmlITk)

~

"Elizabeth carries the pre-natal John the Baptist who opens the way for God's Son. In Luke's story, John the Baptist, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, knows he is the forerunner of God's Messiah even before he is born and leaps for Joy three months prior to his birth when in Messiah's presence.

"There is a sense in which the pregnant Mary is like the true church. Like the true church, Christ is hidden in her body, active and growing within. Like the church, Mary has received God into herself and allowed herself to be a vehicle of blessing to all human-kind.

"Just as Mary took in God, we take in God today in receiving Communion. In eating the bread and drinking the wine we take into our bodies the very presence of the Holy. We become inhabited by the Eternal One; overwhelmed by his body broken for us, and profoundly nurtured by his blood of forgiveness poured out that we might drink it and live. In receiving communion we become inhabited by Pure Love.

"How blessed are we! We have been blessed beyond our wildest imagination. Our spirits leap with joy. We are discovering that the Lord has fulfilled his promises and new life does stretch out before us endlessly. Thanks be to God!"

- Thomas L. Truby, from reflection delivered on 20 December, 2015 (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Advent4-2015-Surprised-by-Joy.pdf)

~

Who are we, Lord God,
that you should come to us?
Yet you have visited your people
and redeemed us in your Son.
As we prepare to celebrate his birth,
make our hearts leap for joy at the sound of your Word,
and move us by your Spirit to bless your wonderful works.
We ask this through him whose coming is certain,
whose day draws near:
your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
Amen.

- Opening Prayer from Roman Catholic liturgy for Advent 4C

[Source of link to Tom Truby reflection, and for analysis and discussion on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/advent4c/]

From the Lectionary for 15 December 2024 (Advent 3C)

Luke 3:7-18 (NRSV)

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

~

"John's sharp words are compelling and these crowds of people respond, “What should we do?” They apparently receive his judgment and they agree with it. They're eager for it. The way they've been living and being isn't working anymore and they're ready for something new. They've already left the familiarity and certainty of their known worlds and come into this wild and alien wilderness seeking Good News, longing for a life-giving way.

"So they ask, “Tell us, John, what shall we do to bear fruit worthy of transformation? What fruit is appropriate for this new way of thinking and being?” I wonder what kind of a response they expected to get. After his fiery judgment, his answer is anticlimactic. “Go home. Go home and inhabit your lives. But instead of being stingy, be generous. Instead of being greedy, do the right thing. And instead of threats and violence, be satisfied with what you have.”

"This response seems tame following the wild opening words, but we cannot miss how profound it is. My sense is that we human beings often want answers that offer magical or miraculous solutions to our problems. But John isn't doing that. From this barren, uninhabited, unknown place, John is telling them to return to their domestic habitations, to return to the homes and work and communities they know. But instead of behaving like snakes, be children of God.

[...]

"Imagine a world where all people inhabited their lives bearing the fruits of God's Spirit. Imagine a world where everyone would inhabit their lives knowing they are God's offspring. The crowds of people listening to John could imagine. And they were so moved and inspired by it they were pretty sure John was the Messiah.

"I wonder what John would say to us if he spotted us in the crowds of people? My guess is that we wouldn't be singled out but are already included in these three messages. We want the same thing those crowds wanted. Our bodies and beings, deep in our flesh and bones, we want to see and experience God's salvation and healing and liberation not only in our lives, but blanketing the planet.

"John's words are for us, for us to prepare for all that is unknown and wild in our lives. In the face of all the broken systems of our time; all the unjust and violent and oppressive ways of thinking and functioning; all the worn out, slithery and slippery and unproductive ways our empire shapes and forms our children, I can hear John saying to us, “Go home. Bear fruit worthy of God's offspring.”"

- Suella Gerber, from a sermon delivered on December 13, 2015 (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Gerber-Advent3C-12-13-15.pdf)

~

"The people that heard John speak recognized that he was on to something. Somehow it felt right, and the people got excited and felt hopeful. “Filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah.” But John's way depends too heavily on human effort. It doesn't get at the heart. John does his best but he knows something more is needed. “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than I IS coming. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Jesus is the one Malachi described as “like a refiner's fire.” He has the power to refine us like gold and silver, and burn away what's useless. Could violence itself be the part that's useless?"

"Is The Coming One different from John the Baptist because he makes himself the chaff, and this is what changes people's hearts? He allows himself to be burned by our violence and then forgives us as we do it. Is this his refining fire? Is this how he gathers the wheat into his granary? Rather than inflicting violence and revenge, Jesus absorbs the violence we inflict on him. His forgiveness is the flame. This is how he changes our hearts and burns away our chaff. The good news is that this is coming and has already happened. Not even John can imagine it!"

"The Coming One turns us from violence. He changes even our desires. This Christmas, let your gentleness be known to everyone. Let your hearts be filled with expectation. Our Savior has come! He will renew us in his Love."

- Tom and Laura Truby, from a sermon delivered on December 16, 2012 (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Advent3-2012-Deep-Sorrow-Deep-Darkness-or-Disaster-No-More.doc)

~

"So here we have John, who still has a vindictive vision of God, a punishing vision of God, who's wrath he announces. And yet part of the good news that we know has come in - which led John himself later [Luke 7:18-35] to be concerned that something wasn't right - is that the coming in is not the vindictive God. There is no wrath in God. There is no cataclysm coming from God. This is something that Jesus will be bringing in, this is the good news that is really going to come for us, which Luke is so keen to bring out as we will see as we read his Gospel over this [liturgical] year."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent 2021" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEpsf3VWHkw)

[Source of links to Suella Gerber and Tom and Laura Truby sermons, and for analysis and discussion on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/advent3c/]

From the Lectionary for 8 December 2024 (Advent 2C)

Luke 3:1-6 (NRSV)

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
    and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
    and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

~

"John goes into the region around the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So the Word of God is coming in and is going to shake up the order of this world. This order of the world is apparently going to win on two occasions but in fact, it's going to be profoundly shaken from within so that it's not even going to know that its whole system of dominance has been destroyed from within by the word of God that is coming in. This God's promised coming in.

"He proclaims a baptism of repentance, he's saying get ready: this great big change is coming, allow your hearts to be opened and broken so that you can take part in the new thing that's coming in. That's the message which he's given. And the words he uses are the words of the prophet Isaiah. [...] We're used to this being sung rather beautifully to Handel's music through The Messiah and so we don't actually remember that this is the threatening  of, the destabilizing of, the order of everything that is: hills, mountains, of course, can refer to the geographical things but they can also refer to high places, places of importance like temples and places of sacrificial cult; and mountains can be the sort of things that empires are built on. [...]

"In other words, there's going to be a general shaking up of every form of human coexistence. And this shaking up is going to be necessary for a particular purpose: “and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”  Interesting, while we are in our normal topography of highs and lows, those who are raised up, those who are cast down. And incidentally the valleys to be filled: plērōthēsetai [means] to be filled up, it's a very human talk of fulfilment; and the being made low is humiliated or humbled. So although these are mountains or hills, the verbs do not only refer as it were to work being done by an excavator and a tractor, it refers to humiliation, things being brought low.

“All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” In other words, the one who is going to come in is going to come in at our level, at a human level. And any obstacles through being too high or through being too low are not going to be able to see him. It's only as we become level that it will become perfectly clear who our salvation is - the One who's coming in sideways, at our level, who will be known by us eventually, as the crucified and risen One. That is how God's promise is coming into the world.

[...]

"What's interesting is Luke starting this by giving a very concentrated account of the powers of this world, the Word of God coming in, the fact that it's going to be a massive shakeup, but “all flesh shall see the salvation” - afterwards the Word is going to go out to all nations, to the ends of the earth. And the whole work of Luke and Acts ends back in Rome, of course a different emperor by that time, but that's the whole path, if you like, that his Gospel takes.

"From this extraordinary breaking-in, in the midst of a very specific historical moment, under very specific circumstances of troubled rule - difficult, hostile powers - in the midst of this the Word of God comes, it's going to level, it's going to reveal who God is at the level of sibling-icity, at the fraternal level, and that is going to go to the ends of the world. So it's that that we are asked to prepare this Sunday."

- James Alison, from "Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent 2021" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj6J_rYPCZE)

~

"There has been a strong tendency in modern times to limit the significance of Christ and of the Christian faith to the realm of the private and the personal. Faith for many of us is a private and subjective activity but for Luke it is an event in the history of nations, of politics and of culture. I know this is difficult to believe, but it is the fullness of our faith. Whether we believe it or not, whether we understand it or not, God in Christ has caused something pivotal to happen in this world that has changed the nature of things forever, and has changed me too, whether I acknowledge it or not. For that reason we are confident and expect to find the traces of this event wherever and whenever we go. All of time is changed by it, all my life is changed by it. Faith in Christ is the way to make that universal event happen in my particular life.

[...]

"An essential, I mean absolutely essential, part of [Jesus's] coming were those who recognized and accepted him. There were those who accepted him after his work, on the basis of his life, death and resurrection, and they are primarily the apostles and secondarily each one of us. We are his disciples too and as such we are part of the event of his coming.

"But there are also those who acknowledged and accepted him before his self-disclosure to the world, and they were Mary his mother who was told by an angel, and John the Baptist who knew him through prophecy. The word of the Lord came to John in the wilderness in that marvelous year of AD 29, and the prophet Isaiah confirmed that word, and John embarked on a mission to prepare people to receive him. John and Mary are the dominant figures of Advent; they knew him beforehand and they prepare us to receive him, they warn us to be ready so that when the time comes we may acknowledge and accept him into our lives.

"The fact that Christ’s coming is an event of world history means that it is far, far greater in its breadth and depth than anything we can comprehend. Too often we try to make of the incarnation of God only a personal experience, as if the limits of my religious experience were the limits of God’s saving presence in the world, as if heaven and earth were not full of his glory. Christ is in each one of us, because he is incarnated in humanity as such. When we say he comes to us we really mean that he who is always already there with us causes his presence to be known in special ways and at special times.

"May this advent be a special time for you, when the God incarnate in the history of the world makes his presence known in the history of your life, in its trials and challenges and in its joy and gifts. May this time be a right time for you, and may you discover the life and joy hidden in the midst of your days, the God made flesh in you."

- Robert Hamerton-Kelly, from sermon delivered on December 10, 2000 (source no longer available online)

[Source of link (now obsolete) to Robert Hamerton-Kelly sermon, and for analysis and discussion on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/advent2c/]

From the Lectionary for 1 December 2024 (Advent 1C)

Luke 21:25-36 (NRSV Updated Edition)

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”

~

"One of the things that [Luke is] very keen to bring out, one of the things he downplays, or in fact removes, in his Gospel, time and time again, is any notion of vengeance. It's one of the extraordinary things that wherever you might expect vengeance, Luke takes it out. So here we have a speech [...] which in a more semitic Gospel [...] where those kind of signs of distress and so on will be attributed to God, here they are not. He's talking as if all that is over. If there were a day of vengeance [in Luke], it's already past with Jesus's death, which was actually presented in his Gospel, or will be presented in his Gospel, as the moment of the New Creation, when Jesus breathes out after the sun has gone down. [...] There is complete darkness at noon, and Jesus breathes out the Spirit which is going back therefore outside creation for the whole of creation to start again.

"So Luke does not use the threatening language of the prophets - he uses the images of the prophets but without the threatening language because he knows that there is no vengeance in God, that what he refers to here as “people will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken,” he's talking about what we would now call intermediary cosmic forces, the notion of angels - good angels and bad angels toughing it out in heaven - we would talk more about, I guess, shifts in human interaction that have worldwide consequences, how our attitudes towards each other, towards families, towards competition and so on, shifts over time - the in-between is constantly shifting and it produces enormous alterations in how we live together. That kind of thing of course was noticed at that time as well but now it's just noticed on a more global scale, but [Luke] takes out the divine causality of these things, in fact it's quite important that it not be divine causality - the divine causality has already come in terms of Jesus going to his death.

"So Jesus here is telling his disciples what it's going to be like after he's gone to his death, after he's actually made the great change, brought to an end any possible notion of vengeance, fulfilled everything. From that point onwards there is going to be a new time to be opened up and it's going to be a difficult time in which everything is going to be shaken up because what he has done will start to become visible - he will have made visible the innocence of the victim, which is the beginning of the undoing of all our systems of fooling ourselves about how good we are by blaming other people. It's going to become visible that that's what we're doing, we will know that it's wrong, and that actually loosens up all our systems of belonging, makes it more difficult, and that in itself makes us more tense and more inclined to more violent forms of belonging, which don't last for so long because we know they're fake, we know they're wrong. And so on, this constant human violence because we can't accept what the Son of Man has done for us.

"So Luke is very keen on talking about this intermediate time, which is the one in which we're still living and which is therefore what the first Sunday in Advent is about, it's saying this is the time you're living in and of course any of us who follow the news, “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken,” Well, it almost doesn't sound as though it was written two thousand years ago, apart from the phrase about the powers of the heavens being shaken, which is signs of an old cosmology, anyone looking around the world has a good deal of those in mind."

- James Alison, from "Homily for the First Sunday of Advent 2021" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I19KwYZFlbo)

~

"In this period of time, the time in which we live, many things will happen. These things have to happen for us to have any chance at finding our way out of our early Advent darkness toward the light we, as a species, often prefer to avoid. Will we find our way or will we destroy ourselves as a species? Will Jesus come because we have embraced his forgiving and merciful way or will he come to resurrect our destroyed bodies after we have incinerated ourselves? We don’t know. All we know is that “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will certainly not pass away.”

"In the meantime, while we wait, Jesus has some advice for us. Focus on the signs of spring, allowing those to energize you and keep you positive. Look for the good things happening in the world and contribute to them. Christmas is a wonderful time to support anything that looks like swelling buds soon to burst into life."

- Thomas L. Truby, from sermon delivered on November 29th, 2018 (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Truby-Advent1-2018-In-Advent-We-Await-Full-Humanity.pdf)

~

"One of the things I love about the liturgical life of the Church is the way that the Holy Spirit, quietly and gently, works on us. Through the texts and prayers set out for us each year in the lectionary the Spirit draws us ever more fully into the Presence. If we read the texts in a literalistic manner, it can sounds as though, week by week it is God who is undergoing change toward us. In fact, however, in the liturgy of the Presence it is we who are worked on through the scriptures and the prayers, we who get to be reconfigured and brought in to the life of the Changeless One.

"At Advent, it begins again: the cycle by which God breaks through the clutter of our lives to announce to us that the Presence is very near, irrupting into our midst, hauling us out of our myths, our half-truths and the ways we have settled for what is “religious” rather than what is holy, alive, and real. So, lest we be tempted to think that “Advent” is merely a religious warm up for “Christmas”, let us see if we can allow ourselves to be brought near the cold-water spigot whose splashes can chasten us into reality.

"Someone wants to speak to us. Someone who is not on the same level as us at all. The “oomph” behind the “isness” of everything that is wants to invite us into the fullness of a project. Can that One get through? Who are they? Will we be able to hear them? How trained are our ears? The assumption at the beginning of each liturgical year is that this is going to be difficult: that we are half asleep, our ears dulled, and the voice of One who loves us is too radiant bright to be picked up on our defensive antennae.

[...]

"And yet, as our imagination of the One who is coming undergoes its inevitable puncturing, so that we can be awakened to One whose criteria are not our criteria, the promise will be fulfilled. The One who is coming will not preside over us, but will teach us to want peace from within, and to learn the habits that make it possible. The One who loves us will come as one we despise, and crucify: The definitive puncturing of our god-fantasies, and yet the Presence of one who is powerfully determined not to let us remain wedded to our self-destruction."

- James Alison, "A Puncturing Fulfilment" (https://www.facebook.com/JesustheForgivingVictim/posts/2266645773387265)

[Source of link to Thomas Truby sermon, and for analysis and discussion on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/advent1c/]