1st Sunday in Advent
Cycle C 2018
Jeremiah 33:14-16
1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
As we enter into the Season of Advent, we need to look at our scriptures through a different lens, a different way of looking at and understanding the texts we read during this time of year. Advent is a time of preparation, of anticipation, of looking forward to an event that will change our lives. We look forward to the birth of Jesus and all that it entails, the joy, the sadness, the anticipation of what will happen to Him, His family, His followers and even us today.
During this new liturgical cycle, we will listen to the evangelist Luke write to his community of followers, the Gentiles, and tell them what he has learned by his own investigation of Jesus and what it means for them. We will find there is a lot of material in his gospel that can be found in Mark and Matthew, who wrote for different communities of followers, mostly Jews who were being converted. We, again, will see the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures as Israel continued to look for the Messiah who was going to set them free from those who ruled over them.
Jeremiah spent 23 years as a prophet and we can see where he was both pessimistic and optimistic for the people of Israel. While he was consistent with other prophets about condemning the people for not following God and the covenant He established with the people, he also raised awareness of the people so that they could see how crimes they committed against one another were crimes against God.
Jeremiah went into hiding around 604 BC and dictated to Baruch, his secretary, all of the things he had just spent the last 23 years telling the people about. The King had his manuscript burned, and so Jeremiah and Baruch rewrote it again. This cycle continued a couple of times as the Kings of Israel became angry at what he was writing.
The editors of Jeremiah’s prophecies grouped material together that had to do with the prophet’s predictions, of hope and for the future of Judah. This section of scripture is subtitled Jeremiah and the New Covenant. These are found in chapters 30 – 33. Chapter 33 from our reading today is about Jeremiah giving the people of Jerusalem hope for the future while it was under siege and he was in prison.
He writes that there will be a shoot from David that will be raised up and that he will do what is right and just. We know understand why it is so important to trace Jesus origins back through David and why it is a critical part of scripture. The foundation of Israel rests upon a firm foundation of a new covenant and a new David.
Our reading from 1 Thessalonians today picks up in the middle of a reflection and a prayer that Paul is writing. The first part, which we don’t read today, is a rhetorical question which he is he saying it is impossible to express the thanks to God for the joy he has received because of the presence of the Thessalonians in his life.
His prayer is also in two parts, the first is a petition where Paul is asking God the Father and the Lord Jesus that he be able to visit without further delay. This invocation is the first recorded in Christian literature showing the relationship of Jesus to His Father.
The second part of his prayer/petition is where our reading picks up. In another first, Paul addresses Jesus alone. He prays that their capacity to love will be increased, not only for each other, but for everyone, just like Paul’s love for them. He is asking them to be an imitator of himself.
Luke is writing about the end time and last judgement in our gospel today. Jesus is telling the people how he will be returning and he borrows on the language of the prophets to help explain the anguish that will be experienced upon His return. New things are rarely brought to life in subtle manner, but usually with a big bang.
Jesus is also exhorting the people to be alert to that day. They need to be not be anxious about daily life, they need stop spending time carousing and being drunk and they should not be surprised when He does return. He ends with telling us to be vigilant, to pray for the strength to withstand the coming tribulations when we stand before the Son of Man.