Isaiah 63: 16b – 17, 19b, 64:2 – 7
We begin Year B in the Sunday Liturgical Calendar this Sunday. The Gospel featured this year is Mark; the oldest Gospel and the shortest. And, as we do in year A, we will hear for the next three weeks from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. This Sunday, it is from the chapters that are often called Trito-Isaiah (56 – 66) and most scripture scholars assign to the time after the people have been allowed to return to Jerusalem. But, as we can well imagine, they met with resistance from those living there and were often more concerned about taking care of their own homes and farms than rebuilding the temple.
Before we examine the passage we will hear on Sunday, let’s look at the first 15 verses of chapter 63 (review these verses for historical context). As you will see in your footnotes, beginning with verse 3, we hear a lament of the community in exile. It begins with God lamenting the fact that he had to overcome the Edomites alone since the returning Israelites did not engage them in battle. As we begin to read from 63:1, let’s also read Rev. 19:11-14; it appears that the prophet’s words will find their fulfillment at the end of the age.
Beginning with verse 7, the prophet shifts his mood as he prays for the restoration of Jerusalem. Continuing his lament, he calls upon the people to recall all that God has done for them, including the great deeds he accomplished through Moses. In verse 15, the prophet turns to God and begs for his mercy, reminding him, in 16a, that “you are our father.” Thus, we have the introduction for the verses we will hear on Sunday:
16b You, Lord, are our Father, our redeemer you are named forever.
You, Lord, are our Father: we may too often take this for granted – after all, we begin our Lord’s Prayer with “Our Father,” but, in doing so, we miss the profound implications of this declaration. Isaiah says, “You, Lord, are our father.” That says as much about the people of Israel as it does about God. We focus on the fact that, through Jesus, we come to understand God not as a distant creator but as a loving Father. But, it’s important to realize that this statement altered everything the people Israel would think about themselves as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This redefined them as something other than related clans, or the nation Moses led out of Egypt. When Isaiah declared that God was their father, he defined them as a people united by a spiritual bond that originated in God and God alone. Whether or not they were related by tribe, whether or not they could call themselves a nation with territory or governance, whether or not they shared a common language, the very core of their identity came from God’s relationship to them as their father. They were who they were because of their shared relationship to the God who gave them being, who guided their life together and called them to be his people.
Our redeemer: This title called to mind the myriad of times that God rescued this chosen people from Egypt and from other enemies throughout their history. We just read about how God rescued them from the Edomites and, even before that, from the Egyptians.
17 Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we do not fear you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.
Why do you let us wander: Isaiah laments that God had allowed this people to wander — not the wandering of the desert, that long, learning period that prepared them to enter the holy land, but wandering away from God. Calling on God as their redeemer reminds them that God, and only God, can be trusted. They know this from their history. As redeemer, God and God alone can rescue them from what they have brought on themselves. The gist of this part of the prayer begs God to act like the God they know. Their hearts have become hardened, but God can break through that, just as he broke through the hardened heart of pharaoh.
18 Why have the wicked invaded your holy place, why have our enemies trampled your sanctuary?
Why have the wicked invaded your holy place: beginning with the Babylonians who breached the walls of Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s magnificent temple, and continuing with the pillaging by others when Jerusalem was abandoned, God’s enemies have destroyed his sanctuary.
19a Too long have we been like those you do not rule, on whom your name is not invoked.
19b Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you,
rend the heavens…with the mountains quaking before you: cf. Ex 19: 1-3, 16; Ps. 144:5; and Mk 1:10 for other theophanies. This is a way of saying “Remind us of who you are! Instill in us again the fear of the Lord that trembles at your greatness. Make us your people!”
64
1 As when brushwood is set ablaze, or fire makes the water boil! Then your name would be made known to your enemies and the nations would tremble before you,
2 While you worked awesome deeds we could not hope for,
3 such as had not been heard of from of old. No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you working such deeds for those who wait for him.
No ear has ever heard: No other God known to them was so kind and beneficent to his people. The prophet is trying move God to compassion and forgiveness to, once again, save his people.
4 Would that you might meet us doing right, that we might be mindful of you in our ways! Indeed, you are angry; we have sinned, we have acted wickedly.
5 We have all become like something unclean, all our just deeds are like polluted rags;
We have all withered like leaves, and our crimes carry us away like the wind.
6 There are none who call upon your name, none who rouse themselves to take hold of you; For you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our crimes.
A FINAL PLEA
7 Yet, LORD, you are our father; we are the clay and you our potter: we are all the work of your hand.
you are our father: again, we hear God called “our father,” as Jesus would later teach us.
we are all the work of your hand: Just as Moses reminded God that the people he was about to destroy were his own, (cf. Ex 32:7 – 14), the prophet Isaiah is reminding God that we are the work of his hands.
As we begin Advent, Isaiah invites us to join him in lament, to recognize our own communal wandering from God. He reminds us that when we avoid being mindful of God, even what we think of as our good deeds end up being like “polluted rags,” a sham rather than the works of a humble and sincere heart. Isaiah speaks this entire prayer/poem in the first person plural. As he prays, he identifies with his own people in all their sin and all their potential. He invites us to do the same, to take responsibility for who we are as a people and a Church, to admit the ways in which we are wandering far from God’s ways and to ask for God’s grace and an awareness of God’s presence.
Mark 13: 33 – 37
Let’s review the “who, what, when, where and to whom” of Mark’s Gospel. You will recall that Mark’s audience was Gentile and most scholars would put the writing of this gospel either just before or just after the destruction of the temple (cf. footnote for Mk 3:1-2). As you will see in Mk 3:1-5, Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the temple provoked questions that the four disciples, Peter, James, John and Andrew, put to him in private regarding the time and the sign when all these things are about to come to an end. The response to their questions was Jesus’ eschatological discourse prior to his imminent death. It contains instruction and consolation exhorting the disciples and the Church to faith and obedience through the trials that would confront them (Mk 13:5 –13). The sign is the presence of the desolating abomination (Mk 13:14; see Dn 9:27), i.e., of the Roman power profaning the temple. Jesus urges flight from Jerusalem rather than defense of the city through misguided messianic hope (Mk 13:14 – 23). He declares that intervention will occur only after destruction (Mk 13:24 – 27), which will happen before the end of the first Christian generation (Mk 13:28 – 31). No one but the Father knows the precise time, or that of the parousia (Mk 13:32); hence the necessity of constant vigilance (Mk 13:33–37), which is the point of the passage that we will hear on Sunday.
33 Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.
34 It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
It is like a man traveling abroad: remember the gospel from Matthew (25:14 – 30) that we heard just two weeks ago – the parable of the talents, when the wealthy man divides his wealth among some of his servants.
35 Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning the times he mentioned were the precise hours when important events of Jesus’ passion took place. The evening was the time of the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples. It was night when Jesus prayed and the disciples slept until his arrest. Cockcrow was most famously the time of Peter’s test of faithfulness. The early morning was the time of the meeting of the council that handed Jesus over; two days later, early morning was the time of the women’s journey to the empty tomb. Each of these hours represents a crucial moment in the disciples’ relationship with Jesus.
In Jesus’ own life, each of these moments was revelatory. Each of them focused on his ministry and the meaning of his life. In the evening, he revealed himself as the one given for his disciples; at night, he exposed his frail humanity and need for solidarity; at cockcrow he was misjudged and mistreated by people in authority and betrayed by his own. Finally, presenting both his trial and the discovery of his resurrection as events that happened in the early morning, the Gospel hints at the immense disparity between the human and divine verdicts on Jesus. Evening, midnight, cockcrow and morning were key moments for understanding who Jesus was and how he hoped his disciples would respond to him.
36 May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping: As we begin Advent, the Gospel calls us to be alert and watchful. When Jesus told the disciples that they needed to be as aware in their time off as during their working hours, he let them know that serious discipleship will refocus their entire life. Disciples who want to be ready for the master, who want to notice the signs of God’s presence in the world need to imitate parents who cultivate an ongoing awareness of their little ones. Parents and those who care for the frail and elderly don’t have to dote unceasingly on the person they are caring for, but they do have to keep one ear constantly attuned for any call that demands a response. And so, we hear our Lord call us:
37 What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”
1 Corinthians 1:3 – 9
St. Paul’s first letter to the Christian community in Corinth gives us more insight into the life of the early Christians than any other New Testament text. Paul’s letter writing was a very different activity from tweeting or texting. While it may have been electric in its power, it was much more serious than email. To understand the composition of his letters, we should remember his historical context. Not everyone had the ability to write or even to read. Paul, like other writers, generally had a scribe taking dictation from him and the polish of his phrases and thoughts suggest that what he put in writing had been through a long process of thought and preaching before it was committed to parchment. Unlike our omnipresent paper, the parchment he used was expensive, as was the ink made from a combination of carbon, water and gum arabic, which is also a sweetener — this adding to the sense of the word of God being like honey.
Writing was serious business. What Paul put in his letters had surely already been tried out in preaching and discussions. His expressions had been honed through repetition until they were ready to commit to writing. Thus, while his ideas may not have been new to his readers, writing things down reminded the communities of what they had heard from him and preserved a permanent record of his advice, preaching and admonitions.
Although we will hear only beginning with verse three of the first chapter, let’s begin with the first verse to hear Paul’s greeting in its entirety.
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2 to the church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace: Paul’s greeting “Grace,” (charis) imitated and transformed the normal letter salutation of the day, which was simply, “Hail” (chairein). It implied: “This is an unusual letter, and it has theological importance.” For Paul, grace was synonymous with God’s gift of salvation. Peace was the result of that gift. In a world in which the emperor claimed to be the people’s savior and the bringer of peace, Paul’s greeting was subversive. He proclaimed that humanity could know the fullness of life only through a loving relationship with God.
Paul gave such care to his writing that every word had been carefully chosen, and the salutation of a letter was as much a theological statement as it was an address. When Paul opened his letter to the Corinthians saying, “Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” he gave us words we frequently use in the liturgy and to which we not may have given great consideration. By starting his letter this way, Paul summed up everything he wanted to tell the community. The rest of the letter simply filled out the details.
4 I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
5 that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge,
6 as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
8 He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus [Christ].
9 God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Advent is a time of waiting and watching. But, it is not a passive time. Rather, we eagerly await the coming of the only one who can save us. And, we are willing to change whatever in our lives keeps us from being able to be close to him when he comes.