Adv2B23.     Isaiah 40:1-5; 9-11.    The Hebrews are being led out of slavery by a loving, comforting, caring God.  He is the almighty, awesome, all-powerful God.  “Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm.” “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock.”

Mark 1:8.  John the Baptist was preparing the way for the Lord to enter into the hearts and minds of his people by “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Speaking of the coming Messiah, John said, “I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  Advent is that special time when we ask the Holy Spirit to make us holy as he is holy so that the new born Messiah will feel comfortable within us.

2 Peter 3:8-14.  In preparing for the second coming of the Lord Peter exhorts the followers of Christ to prepare themselves by “conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion.”  When Jesus comes the second time all the physical things that are so precious to us vanish and dissolve.  The only thing that is truly precious and dear is having the Lord within us.

Adv2B20.    Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11.   “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.”  Because the Hebrews had in effect disowned their God by their acts of disobedience to God, God allowed the Babylonians to ravage and enslave Jerusalem and Judah (what remained of Israel).  The Hebrews were punished “double for their sins.”  However, God promises restoration after the captivity.  “Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.”  “Jerusalem, herald of good news” will proclaim, “Here is your God!”  “Here is his reward with him.”  “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs.”  God restores Jerusalem.  This scripture points us to our restoration and redemption from sin with the arrival of our savior, the baby Jesus.  Psalm 85 says that God “proclaims peace to his people.” “The Lord himself will give his benefits.”

Mark 1:1-8.    The prophecy announces the coming of a messenger from God to proclaim the coming of the Lord. He is John the Baptist who proclaims “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  Baptism is at once the purification from sin so to be enabled or readied to develop and grow as a holy person, reborn in Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter 3:8-14.  Once again the scriptures warn us to be ready to be judged by the Lord at any moment.  However, this time Peter warns of Jesus’ second Coming when “the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements (all physical things) will be dissolved by fire.”  Nevertheless “according to his (Jesus’) promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwell.”  To ready ourselves for that end time that waits for us Peter encourages us to think about “what sort of persons ought you to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion.”

Adv2B17.   Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11.  The Lord God is the good shepherd leading his flock, his Chosen People, out captivity in Babylon back to Jerusalem.  He speaks comfortingly to his flock, assuring them that they have made due reparation for their sins.   In his glory and might he has made the road easy and welcoming for them, as a loving embrace for his chosen ones.

Mark 1:1-8.  This reading is a parallel to the first one from Isaiah.  John the Baptist is appointed by God to prepare the way for the Messiah by heralding his arrival.  John prepares the way for Jesus by “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  With the forgiveness of our sins the Messiah can dwell in our hearts as King over us who now truly belong to him.  John needs to make it clear that he is not the Messiah because he presents himself as such a strong, outstanding figure that might well be mistaken for the Messiah himself.  John baptizes with water as the symbol of purification from our sins but Jesus will baptize with God the Holy Spirit who is the one of the Holy Trinity who is attributed with the work of purification from sins and the consequent sanctification of souls. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:5: “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”  Paul writes in Titus 3:5: “he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior.”

2 Peter 3:8-14.  Peter writes that Jesus’ Second Coming happens when “the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire.”  In other words, place your life in the hands of the one who is forever and not in the here today and gone tomorrow. Peter continues, “Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” Further on, he writes, “be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.”  It is God the Holy Spirit who has the power to sanctify us in preparation for the coming of Christ.  Let us live daily in his power within us.

Adv1B23.   This Sunday’s theme continues the subject of looking forward to Jesus’ coming the second time, even though this is the season of Advent.  After Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, the early Christian community was taken with their looking forward to Jesus’ coming the second time soon.  Only when they realized that Jesus was not about to return soon did the Christian community reflect on the happenings of Jesus’ first coming, his birth.  For this reason the Scriptures written regarding his birth and life prior to his public ministry are relatively short and concise.  They are more of an afterthought.   Luke 1-2.  Matthew 1-2.

Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7.  “O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are the work of your hands.” The potter works the wet clay until he gets it to what he wants it to be.  Our job is to be good clay, always ready and available to be shaped to the will of our loving Father.

Mark 13:33-37.  “Be watchful!  Be alert!  You do not know when the time will come.”  Jesus was calling upon is followers to live their lives ready to be called to make an accounting to their heavenly Father.   We must live our ‘now’ as a way of constructing our ‘forever’.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9.  Paul wrote, “I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way.”  God is like the potter who pours into us his goodness all through our lifetime so we are formed daily more and more into his image and likeness.

Adv1B20.    Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7.  The Hebrews had wandered from God’s ways, so much so that God let them be punished by being taken away into captivity by the Babylonians.  Our reading has the Hebrews crying out to God, “Behold you are angry, and we are sinful.”  “You have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our guilt.  Yet, O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are the work of your hands.”  As with clay we cannot make ourselves into anything on our own without God.  We will just remain a clod.  However we are a ‘clay’ that must cooperate with the potter.  Our choice is to reject the work of our potter or to unite ourselves to the work of God our potter so that we may be a person who is the work of God’s hands.  What will it be?

Mark 13:33-37.    We think of Advent as a time to prepare for Christmas, Jesus’ first coming.  However, this first Sunday of Advent this Gospel calls upon us to “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” Jesus tells his disciples and us to be prepared to be called from this life at any moment.  The way to prepare for both Christmas and our departure from this life is to grow in holiness through the power of the Holy Spirit in us.  Jesus became human to lead us to his Father in heaven.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9.   “God will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”   The expression “the day of the Lord” in New Testament means the day when the Lord will come the second time.  The tempting ways of this world, the devil and our own human nature to do as we will can lure us into losing our rootedness and stability in the Lord so that we will not be prepared to meet him when he comes the second time as the king of the universe.  We came to belong to Jesus by the grace given to us who enriched us in every way.  “God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  God is the rock on whom we must build our foundation.  Day by day He is giving us eternal victory, as we draw life from him who accompanies us as our daily companion.

Adv1B17.   Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7.  The Hebrews all too often departed from the Lord’s ways.  “Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?”  Isaiah appeals to Yahweh to once again make his presence felt so that he occupies his proper place over his people.  “No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.”  To live with God as the God of one’s life leads to great rewards; to live without him, to great destruction.  “Yes, O Lord, you are our father; we the clay and you the potter: we are the work of your hands.”  As in Jeremiah 18:4-6, Isaiah is asking God to remake his people according to his will.  Come be present and active and no longer hide your face from your people.

Mark 13:33-37.  “Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful!  Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.”  “May he not come finding you sleeping.”  To be asleep to the work of our salvation putting that work off to another time leaves us vulnerable to be called unprepared and therefore lost.  Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:5-6: “For all of you are children of the light and children of the day.  We are not of the night or of darkness.  Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.”  To be children of the light and day is to be the father’s children who live daily in the light of his Son’s goodness.  A bit further Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:23: “May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Corinthians 1:3-9.  I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way,” “so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.”  The Corinthians were spiritually rich in Christ and so are we so that because we live in him now we shall live in him forever.  “He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  His faithfulness is endless toward those who keep faith in him.  As we live in fellowship with Jesus now, we will live with him forever in heaven.

 

 

34KingA23.    Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17.  The Hebrew People have been released from captivity in Babylonia.  The Lord God cares for his people as a shepherd cares for his flock, especially the neediest.  They are often the scattered, injured and sick.  However the Lord God will destroy those who try to be so strong that they not only feel no need of God but try to compete with him.

Matthew 25:31-46.  On this Sunday we look to the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, who “comes in his glory, and all the angels with him.” “He will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him.”  Then he calls to all whom he created to be his children: “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  However to receive the inheritance due to us as children of the Father we need to have lived as his children in his image and likeness, to have been as loving as he is loving.  Because God is our Father he identifies himself with us.  As our Father he is a part of us; as his children, we are a part of him. So love of God and love of one another are of the same fabric.   When we show love for one another we show love for our Father who is a part of each one of us out of his love for us.  On the other hand, when we fail to love one another, we fail to love the Father who out of love for us is part of us.

1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28.   Jesus, by his ultimate act of love for us through the sacrifice of surrendering himself to the Father‘s will on the cross, destroys death that was created by the sin of the man Adam. “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life.”  God the Father has made Jesus the King who makes all subject to him. “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”

34KingA20.   Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17.  “I myself will look after and tend my sheep.” “I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark.”  After expressing such deep concern and caring for his sheep as the God who loves us dearly, God says, “I will judge between one sheep and another.” We as his sheep are responsible for our behavior.  Some of us obediently follow our shepherd but some do not.  Judgement will separate those who followed our God loyally from those went their own way.

Matthew 25:31-46.  At his first coming to earth, Jesus came as a helpless baby.  When he comes the second time, he will come the king “in his glory, and all the angels with him.”  “He will sit upon his glorious throne and all the nations will be assembled before him.  And he will separate them one from another,” the good from the bad.  He will send the unrighteous or unjustified “to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life.”   Neither the righteous nor the unrighteous recognized Jesus in the lowliest and neediest of people. However, the righteous were compassionate to those who were in need; whereas the unrighteous were not.  To be righteous or just means to be at one with the mind of God or to think and act as God thinks and acts and would have us also do.  The leper in Mark 1:40-41 knelt before Jesus and pleaded to Jesus to make him clean. Jesus “moved with pity, stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.”

In this Sunday’s parable the king said, “Whatever you did for one the least brothers of mine, you did for me.”  The least or the lowliest of humanity seek God’s help because they are without any resources to help themselves.  God fills their helplessness with his pity and compassion.  God is there in them because of his love for them.

1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28.   “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life: Christ the firstfruits; then at his coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power.  For he must reign.”  As Adam, our forefather in the flesh, died, we human beings must also die in the flesh.  However, Jesus, our brother in the flesh with the power of his divine origin, resurrects us from earthly death so to give us, who belong to him, eternal life.  At his second coming Jesus reigns as the king who destroys all other claims to authority and power, even death itself.  With all challengers to God’s authority laid waste, it will be clear that God is “all in all.”  God is everything.  All that is not of God, in union with him, will be worthless.  God’s plan in the fullness of times was “to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.” (Ephesians 1:10)  God put all things beneath Jesus feet “and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.” (Ephesians 1:22)

34A/King17.   Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17.  Yahweh is greatly distressed at how badly their leaders have led the Hebrew peoples.  Through Ezekiel the prophet (Ezekiel 34: 20b-21), Yahweh says, “Now will I judge between the fat and lean sheep.  Because you push with side and shoulder, and butt all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them out.”  In today’s reading it is the sleek and the strong who have taken advantage of the lost, the strays and the sick.  Yahweh comes as judge to straighten out what had become crooked, to empower those who were powerless, to strip naked those who overpowered the weak.

Matthew 25:31-46.  “When the Son of Man comes in his glory” “upon his throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him.” He will judge them as a king judges his people.  As David was king and a shepherd, like the Son of Man takes on the image of shepherd as well as king.  Continuing in this same line of imagery, the king tends his people as a shepherd his flock of sheep and goats. The sheep are portrayed as the obedient ones who meekly follow the commands of the shepherd, whereas the goats are the impetuous ones who do as they wish and not as the shepherd wishes.  To the sheep, the king says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father.  Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  To the goats he says, “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Then he says what the sheep did that made them sheep and the goats that made them goats.  The king says of himself, “when I was hungry,” which is to say that he himself was the one who was without food. Those designated as either sheep or goats are puzzled because neither saw the king being hungry. So they ask, “When did we see you hungry?”   The king replies, “Whatever you did for the least brothers of mine, you did for me.”  He identifies himself with those in need.  God is love.  His love unites him to those who are in need of his help.  We do not have a God who is distant from us.  Because of his very nature as an all-loving God, he is together with us in our need.  Our deepest need is to be with him in heaven.  Jesus said in John 5:44-45a, “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly father.”  God’s love extends to all.  When we refuse to love anyone as God loves them, we are refusing to love God himself.  “If anyone says ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:20-21)

1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28.  “For since death came through man; the resurrection of the dead came also through man.  For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life.”  The sin of Adam and our sins divorce us from God and his love that is true life.  Jesus’ love for us on the cross overwhelms sin and its fruit, death.  At the Second Coming, “when everything is subjected to him, the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.”  God the Father is God over all with his Son at his right hand.

 

33A23.    Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31.  This husband’s wife “is far beyond pearls.”  She was always occupied making their house a home, and making God’s life, her family’s life.  “Give her a reward for her labors.”

Matthew 25:14-30.  The Master, God, is demanding.  He entrusts each of us with talents or capabilities “to each according to his ability.”  He is a task master who demands that we not waste our life time running off in self-serving worldly directions but that we accomplish what our gift of a life time requires of us, to live toward the goal of our eternal life time.  Wasting our God-given life time will be treated severely.  “Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

1 Thessalonians 5:1-6.   This world can easily anesthetize us into living for this life and ignore eternal life.  We can readily live to be at peace and secure for the present moment without a thought for eternal life.  Living in reality is not living in a present-day dreamlike restfulness and avoiding taking on the challenge of living for the ‘forever’.  To choose the fullness of the realities of the life that God has given us is to take on the responsibilities that often can make life quite demanding.