The beginning of Advent marks the new year in the Church liturgical calendar so what better time to begin a new thing, a blog that shares some of my thoughts about the upcoming lectionary texts and allows others to share their thoughts and questions? Hopefully this will allow you to be involved in the sermon even before you hear it on Sunday and thereby give you a more full experience as you hear and respond to the biblical texts. Hopefully it will allow me to respond to your thoughts and questions in crafting a sermon for Sunday and thereby make me a better preacher. Who knows, maybe you'll provide me with great material for my sermon, though I would not identify the source of anything shared here without the writer's approval. I'm always on the look out for wisdom and insight. So here goes.
At no time does the Church seem more out of kilter with the world than during Advent. Everyone around us begins celebrating Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving (sometimes before), while the Church begins celebrating Christmas on Christmas Day (sometimes Christmas Eve) and throughout the two weeks of Christmastide. By the time we start celebrating Christmas, the culture around us has stopped and moved on (usually about Dec. 26).
Case in point: Our lectionary texts for last Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, were all apocalyptic in theme. Who wants to hear "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 Luke 21)" or sing O Come, O Come, Emanuel when one has been shopping among Santa Claus and Christmas trees while listening to White Christmas? And this Sunday we'll still not get to the main characters of the birth story like shepherds or even Joseph and Mary, but rather we get prophets, plenty of prophets. The shepherds are so harmless and cuddly, but no, we get the refiner's fire spoken of by Malachi (even his name is scary) and that wild-haired cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist.
In your Bible, read Malachi 3:1-4 (I tied to paste the text here but haven't figured out how to do that yet). Then read Luke 3:1-6.
What are you initial reactions to these readings? Do they seem incongruous with the "holiday" season? Do they disturb you or encourage you?
More on these texts tomorrow. Have a great, or perhaps I should say penitential, week!
