Today in the Spirit: Advent 2C
In all three years of the lectionary cycle, at Advent 2, the Church moves us suddenly from the consideration of the second coming of Jesus to the first—and there we will stay throughout the remainder of the season leading into Christmas. We continue to worship out of the prophetic literature in the OT readings, the Psalms, and the Gospel readings, but now the content points to the beginning of the end (with the predicted birth of Jesus) rather than the completion of the end. We are meant all along to integrate this material in our minds and hearts as one saving ministry of the Father for all mankind through the coming of the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As is the case every year, the Gospel reading for Advent 2 features John the Baptist as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prediction of “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Is. 40:3ff). In the assigned Gospel reading for Year C, Luke 3:1-6, we hear an additional part of Isaiah 40, including “‘Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” (5-6).
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The assigned OT reading from Malachi 3:1-5 contains the prophet’s prediction, similar to Isaiah’s: “‘Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me’” (3:1). Here God speaks in the first person so that we hear Jesus announcing his own coming after the Baptist. The appointed Psalm 126 here (and in Advent 3B and Lent 5C) allows us to give voice in our worship to the hope that God will “overturn our captivity” (or “restore our fortunes,” NIV). The psalm alludes to a past restoration that has already come and a fuller restoration in the future, just as we who live in the interim period between the appearances of Jesus give thanks for his first coming and yearn for the second.
The selected NT reading from 1 Corinthians 4:[1-7]8-21 (also assigned at Epiphany 8A and in Pentecost at Proper 3A) is part of the first major section of the letter in which Paul rebukes the saints of the Corinthian church for their partisan divisions. Paul, characterizing himself as a spiritual “father” to this church he founded, states he would rather visit them “with love in a spirit of gentleness” rather than with “a rod.” In a season when we are asked to give special attention to the prophetic word of God, the assigned Collect is a prayer to God that we “hear [the Holy Scriptures], read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them” as a means to holding onto the eternal life gifted to us in Jesus Christ.
The Collect
Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Refiner and Purifier (Malachi 3:1-5)
2:17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. 5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.”
Malachi 2:17-3:5
The prophet is in a dialogue (beginning at 2:17) with the priests and people of Israel who, after many years since the temple’s rebuilding, have become hardened in their attitudes to one another and slack in their worship. The prophet declares that the people have “wearied” YHWH with their complaints about delayed justice against evildoers when they are conducting themselves badly. To this, the LORD replies he will send the “messenger of the covenant” (likely the Messiah–Jesus) to, yes, bring judgment against the profaners of the temple, but also to be “a refiner and purifier” to the worshiping community which is also living in disobedience.
Devotionally, in this Advent season, a message like this compels us to cease looking at the splinters in the eyes of others and attend to the log in ours. But how shall we remove the lumber for ourselves? We cannot. We need the atonement of Jesus on the cross and the power of his Spirit to purify us. His refining fire is a kinder form of judgment on the believing community than it is on non-believers. Nevertheless, we must never look past our own desperate need for cleansing from sin and console ourselves in “we are at least not as bad as that.”
Today, Holy Spirit, I receive the word from Malachi that you are wearied by my sin dressed up in religious pride and condescension toward others. Cleanse my heart by the purifying work of the Son of God, who we learn in this season comes with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Like Those Who Dream (Psalm 126)
1 When the Lord overturned the captivity of Zion, *
Psalm 126, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
then were we like those who dream.
2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter *
and our tongue with shouts of joy.
3 Then they said among the nations, *
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
4 Indeed, the Lord has done great things for us already, *
whereof we rejoice.
5 Overturn our captivity, O Lord, *
as when streams refresh the deserts of the south.
6 Those who sow in tears *
shall reap with songs of joy.
7 He who goes on his way weeping and bears good seed *
shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him.
“Like those who dream” (or “dreamed,” NIV). The Hebrew word here for “dream” (halam) is not the usual word to describe a vision from the Lord, but rather something more fanciful and human in origin. Jeremiah uses this word to mock the false prophets who say, “I have dreamed!” (Jeremiah 23:25ff, but see Genesis 41:1ff). The point is that our psalm may really be about the returning exiles’ shattered fancies about what a restored Jerusalem might become over against what has actually occurred. Disappointed and dejected as they may be, however, they put their hope in YHWH and see a new vision, one that is perhaps not so concrete and self-serving but hopeful in that it is based on a renewed covenant relationship with him: “He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (7).
Devotionally, we need to note what it means to put our hope in the Lord alone. We can and do “dream”—it is only human. But know this: not every favorable thing that comes our way is a sign of “blessing” (the fulfillment of our own dreams) to come. Not every new job will mean financial stability for a lifetime. Not every new relationship with one who appears to be a good catch will end in a good marriage. Not every new, promising young person who starts attending the church will take our ministry to new heights. We must learn from the people crying out to the Lord in the psalm to temper our dreams and hope only in the Lord. As Jesus makes clear to one disciple who was admiring the temple building (ironically, unlike the people in the psalm): “‘Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down’” (Mk. 13:2).
One part of a popular Spanish-language song we frequently sing in our church can be translated: “All of my dreams I deliver, all of my heart I surrender, all of my life I hand over. Help me fall in love with you, my Lord.”
Today, in the Spirit, hearing the movement in this psalm from disappointing “dreams” to joyful hope in your abundance, I wait on the Father to determine how the circumstances of my life will turn out for his purposes.
Shall I Come to You? (1 Corinthians 4:[1-7]8-21)
8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. 14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18 Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21 What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
1 Corinthians 4:8-21
In Chapter 4 of this letter, Paul gets down to brass tacks as to why the church in Corinth finds itself so divided: they have become prideful. Some of this language is bathed in sarcasm, like “We [Paul and his team] are weak, but you are strong” (10), but much of it portrays the truth about the difference between the life of the apostles and that of the settled church. While the apostles travel (“homeless”), preaching the gospel in places that have never heard it and establishing churches before moving on to a new place, the resident Christians stay put, finding standing in the community and (at least in the case of the Corinthians) prosperity because of their faith. They are proud of their positions, proud of the manifestations of the Spirit being exhibited in their church, and proud of their leaders (like “Apollos,” who was “a learned man,” Ac.18:24ff).
Devotionally, looking past the very different situation of churches in America today, we find there is good reason to take heed of the warning here against pride and arrogance in the local church. Even in churches with bishops, there is the temptation by some to feel the local church is an island to itself, accountable to no one. And if that attitude is found in the church’s leadership, bad things can happen. For the church in Corinth then and us today, Paul teaches that there is always accountability to the “power” of Jesus Christ, who is the real head of the church. Out of love for his body, the Lord will bring correction to any spirit of pride in the leadership of the church–by gentleness preferably, “with a rod” if necessary.
Today, in the Spirit, in this Advent season, we take heed to the Lord’s coming to his church, his first coming in the past, his second coming in the future, and his smaller comings with power to bring consolation and redirection as needed.
The Word of God Came (Luke 3:1-6)
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
Luke 3:1-6
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough places shall become level ways,
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
“The word of God came to John” (2). “Word of God” here could refer simply to the individual command of God to John the Baptist to preach (like “the call of God came on John”), but the connection this Gospel makes with the prophecy to follow suggests Luke has something far bigger in mind. Only Luke extends the quotation from Isaiah out to the verses that include the effect of the movement that John’s preaching starts: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain shall be made low…and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (5-6). It is not through the Baptist but through Jesus of Nazareth that salvation comes to “all flesh.” But, significantly for Luke, the Baptist, as the forerunner of the Messiah, is the first spark that lights the fire of “the word of God,” the gospel movement to all the world. Luke sees this moment in history, John’s coming onto the stage, on these terms.
Devotionally, this insight gives us liberty to place ourselves also in the timeline of the universal gospel movement. Jesus Christ–his ministry, death, resurrection, and Ascension–is, of course, the linchpin of the movement. But if, as Luke declares, John is the igniter of the Jesus of Nazareth fire, we are the spreading flame.
In fact, The Spreading Flame is the title given by F. F. Bruce to a little book he wrote on the history of early Christianity almost seventy years ago. He reaches a conclusion in the book: “The picture that emerges is of the Church as an unquenchable spiritual force organized for tribulation, whose spiritual resources are never more unlimited than in times of seeming disaster.” John was a highly successful preacher and then was executed in prison. Like John, we are part of the word of God coming into the world in our successes and failures, in our accomplishments and our sufferings.
Today, Holy Spirit, help me to locate myself and ourselves in the local church, in the sweep of the word of God coming into the world.
Today in the Spirit
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