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| "John the Baptist preaching in the desert" JESUS MAFA is a response to the New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings. |
Lectionary: Year C, Advent 2
Texts:
Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 3:1-6
Introduction
“Are you
ready for Christmas?” is a common refrain heard every year as Thanksgiving
draws to a close and Christmas Day approaches. On its surface the question
seems to be asking if your holiday decorations are up, is your house cleaned
and tidy, is your Christmas tree up, have you prepared your cooking and baking,
and have you shopped for everyone on your Christmas list? You do have a
Christmas list, don’t you?
But perhaps
unspoken by the questioner is also an admission: I’m certainly not ready for
Christmas! Sure, I’ve started and I’m working on it, but there is just so much
to be done. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get it all done!
We go
through this tradition annually. We have tasks that are associated with
preparing for Christmas.
On this
Second Sunday of Advent, we have heard readings from Malachi 3 and Luke 3 where
prophets are calling on their respective audiences to prepare for the coming of
the Lord.
The question
that kept pressing into my mind this week about the theme of preparation is,
“Why do we prepare?” Or asked slightly differently, “What are we trying to
achieve through preparation?”
These texts
and the several commentaries and bible study helps I examined assume that
preparation is necessary, but I couldn’t find that would help me get closer to
figuring out the “why” of preparation.
A key reason
for asking the question is that a surface reading of Malachi and Luke texts
might lead the reader to think that preparation is a necessary step before judgment
and being accepted into the presence of God. And that could be taken as another
way of saying, salvation. But we Christians believe that salvation is something
God initiates through God’s grace and mercy, and that we can’t do anything to
earn or deserve it. That offers some insight into why I was perplexed when
reading these texts.
Connecting to the Exodus
In our
readings of the later prophetic texts, especially those that have been ascribed
to prophesy the coming Messiah, in our Christ-centric interpretations of these
texts, we can miss the deep connections to the Hebrew and Jewish traditions
that these texts would have invoked in the minds of the earliest hearers.
One of those
that is relevant to our readings today is the Exodus story. To briefly recap,
the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt. God, through Moses, delivers and releases
them from their oppressors. They travel to Mount Sinai. Here is the text from
Exodus 19 describing their arrival at the mountain:
1 On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of
the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of
Sinai. 2 They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered
the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in
front of the mountain. 3 Then Moses went up to God;
the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say
to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You
have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and
brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey
my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all
the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but
you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words
that you shall speak to the Israelites… When Moses had told the words of the
people to the Lord, 10 the Lord said
to Moses: “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them
wash their clothes 11 and prepare for the third
day, because on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount
Sinai in the sight of all the people.” (Exodus 19:1-6, 9b-11 NRSV)
Notice that
the Israelites have been called out to be a “priestly kingdom and a holy
nation.” The IVP Bible Background Commentary explains
“… the Israelites are identified as a ‘kingdom of priests,’
which identifies the nation as serving a priestly role among the nations, as
intermediary between the peoples and God. Additionally there is a well-attested
concept in the ancient Near East that a city or group of people may be freed
from being subject to a king and placed in direct subjection to a deity. So
Israel, freed from Egypt, is now given sacred status.”[1]
Israel was
called out to mediate and demonstrate to all the rest of the world what their
God was like and why their God was the most worthy of worshiping and serving.
Next note
that a time of preparation is commanded because God would be coming to the
people. But also note the order in which this early part of the Exodus story
plays out: first God delivers and frees from oppression and bondage; God
chooses a group to become God’s ambassadors and witness to the world; only then
does God announce that God will be coming to meet them and that they should
prepare for the event.
I believe this background is assumed in Malachi and John’s proclamations about the coming of the Lord. They are not stating that in order to be saved, you must prepare; but rather, because you are already delivered and God’s people, you ought to live as God’s ambassadors. But because you haven’t, preparations are necessary.
Individual vs. Collective
Another key sentence
in interpreting the “why” of preparation is found in Luke 3:6, “And all flesh shall
see the salvation of God.” The end goal of all the preparation is to have a
group of people exemplifying the character of God on earth so that when God appears
everyone on earth will recognize what a community and society of saved people
looks like.
There is
also another dynamic at work that can help us better understand what Malachi
and John is saying.
When we
prepare for, say Christmas, we think of it mostly in individual and private
terms. It is our homes, our gift lists, our entertaining. We prepare out of a
sense of personal obligation, because that’s simply what is done at this time
of year. We do it because we don’t want to be a Grinch. Some of it might be out
of sense of personal pride. We might want to be admired for it. And I suppose
there might be more than a few of you that really do enjoy Christmas
preparations.
But our
texts for this morning were written not to individualistic society, but to a
collective one – one where everything is steeped in gaining or losing honor,
and the avoidance of shame. A parable from Luke 11 can help us understand this
a little more.
5
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at
midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6
for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7
And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been
locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you
anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him
anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will
get up and give him whatever he needs. (Luke 11:5-8 NRSV)
We don’t
have time to go into detail, but the summary is this: a guest has arrived at
the community at a very late hour. The household where the guest arrived no
longer had their daily bread. Hospitality is among the highest of values, and
to not offer a minimum of bread to a guest would be highly offensive and
insulting to the guest, bring dishonor and shame to not just the household but
to the entire community. An actual friend in the same community would never act
as the one in this parable did, because he would recognize the honor and shame
potential. What he would do is immediately do what this “friend” in the parable
finally does – provide everything and more needed to offer proper hospitality
to the guest so that the guest will not be offended and insulted. Another
example of this kind of hospitality is found in the story of Abraham and the three
travelers.[2]
When we read
the texts about preparation and about repentance, we need to see them as being
spoken to the entire society. The continuation of today’s lection from Malachi reads,
5
Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness
against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely,
against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the
orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the
LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:5 NRSV)
Next week’s
continuation of the gospel reading in Luke 3 will have John the Baptist
identifying similar societal injustices that are among the obstacles that
should be cleared to make way for the Lord.
To be
unprepared or underprepared then, would be to offend and insult God. To be
practicing and condoning societal injustices while preparing for Christmas and
the Second Advent would be to offend and insult God. To remain silent while
witnessing oppression and injustice goes against the very prophetic nature of
the Advent season. Our preparations for Christmas and for welcoming Christ
again is to become the kind of people and society that is indistinguishable
from the kind of life Jesus led and the community he fostered.
Advent is a
little bit like the Exodus journey where we have already been delivered and
saved, but we still need reminders to practice what it means to live a saved
life among a saved community. Through annual Advent preparations for our
encounters with Christ each Christmas, we are given opportunities to examine
ourselves and our communities and find new valleys to fill, mountains and hills
to level, crooked to make straight, and rough ways to make smooth.
Advent is
not really about us, but about becoming the presence of Christ in the world.
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