Advent - Week 3 - Joy

Scriptures

Isaiah 35:1-10

Luke 1:46-55

James 5:7-10

Matthew 11:2-11

In the third week of Advent we focus on the joy of the return of the Lord. The passages this week continue with the idea of Christ coming as a judge, yet we as the faithful take joy in that idea that when he comes, the world will be the one of justice we should be striving for today.

Isaiah and Luke both give us examples of celebration. In Isaiah we hear of the earth, the natural creation, celebrating God’s presence. Mary’s ecstatic response to being chosen fills the verses in Luke. I can only imagine how transformed we would be if we could celebrated with the joy that brings a desert into celebration and a young girl into song. As Christians we have reason to celebrate with such exuberance.

Our worship services, even the most dynamic contemporary services, are so scripted and routine that we find it quite comfortable to slip into the routine.  The gift we have through Christ, though, should cause us to worship in true celebratory fashion. Our social norms do not accept such ecstatic worship as we see in Isaiah and Luke; however, when we encounter God personally, we will find it impossible not to rejoice with our entire being.

Easter - Resurrection of the Lord

Today’s Scriptures: Lectionary selections from the Revised Common Lectionary Year C Acts 10:34-43 Isaiah 65:17-25 Psalm 118 1 Corinthians 15:19-26 John 20:1-18 Luke 24:1-12

Today’s Reflection: He is risen. He is risen indeed! Today we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and the final victory over death. As important as this is for us, the scriptures today help us to see the full meaning of a resurrected Lord and the beauty that comes from a restored creation. On Easter Sunday we find it very easy to focus on the rising, but the day is truly about so much more: what comes after the resurrection is what matters! Isaiah first mentions the new order of things to come. The new heaven and new earth come with a new set of rules which sound much like the original rules of creation before sin interrupted natural order of the world: all of creation functioning in harmony with the rest of creation. Acts and Corinthians reaffirm those ideas and extend the salvation to all mankind. We sometimes forget that in the garden, God created mankind as a companion. It was only after sin separated mankind from God that some were separated from him. The birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ restored that connection between humanity and God. Overcoming death and sin restored the vision God had for his creation in its entirety. The resurrection means much more than Christ overcoming death. It brought us back together with God. It gives us the vision of what is to come. God’s plan is for the perfect balance of all creation. Easter moves us toward that more perfect world. Today we remember the resurrection and look forward to the promises it makes possible.

Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts. www.commontexts.org

Sixth Sunday in Lent - Palm Sunday

Today’s Scriptures: Lectionary selections from the Revised Common Lectionary Year C Psalm 118 Luke 19:28-40

Today’s Reflection: Palm Sunday has always baffled me. So much celebration fills the day. In the days that follow we remember the deepest despair in the church: our Savior is executed. After 2000 years we know the outcome and that despair does not dig nearly so deep into our souls as it must have for the apostles and the other followers of Jesus, yet as we consider the events, we do experience some degree of the overwhelming sorrow those believers must have felt. In the context of the day, the one verse that stands out most for me in the Psalm is twenty-four, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” The rejoicing bit can be a challenge. Every day we are flooded with the not-so-good news of the world around us and challenges faced by friends and family. Nevertheless, the Lord gives us reason to rejoice through the good things he has given us as named throughout the Psalm and other passages. Rejoicing may challenge us, but it when we do it right, it turns around those otherwise dreary times. Growing up on a farm, I know well the perils of riding an unbroken colt. For that reason, this passage in Luke has always been one of my favorites. The history, Psalms, and prophets all contain tales of God’s power over nature, but few of them are such common man-v-beast tales as Jesus sending for, and then riding a never-before-ridden colt. Even more amazing is that the colt remained calm as the crowds shouted praise, and waved cloaks and palm fronds in the path of the approaching Jesus. Even a well-trained horse could prove skittish in such a circumstance. All this celebration, of course, disturbed the Pharisees. Jesus’s answer that the stones would take up the cry if the disciples stopped did not make them any happier. That power over nature that Jesus, as God, had reminds us on this Sunday, just what was involved in the coming week. On this day when Jesus was riding his popularity with the crowds, the events that end the week seem impossible. When we see a Jesus who commands nature, even inanimate objects, to do his will, we begin to understand just how much of a sacrifice it was for Christ to let himself be taken, tortured, and crucified. The events in Jesus’s last week did not happen by accident or without purpose. Everything led up to the climactic overcoming death and becoming the New Covenant. Events like the triumphal entry into Jerusalem show us just how much the crucifixion later in the week was a gift to us all – one that we cannot afford to underestimate or overlook on our way to Easter. We need to rejoice today, mourn Friday and Saturday, so we can truly rejoice knowing that we need do nothing more than believe to enter into our ministry with him.

Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts. www.commontexts.org