Third Sunday of Advent
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VIII, Cycle B
Revised Common
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Roman Catholic
Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Episcopal
Isaiah 65:1-25
1 Thessalonians 5:(12-15) 16-28
John 1:6-8, 19-28 or John 3:23-30
Theme For The Day
In Advent we welcome Jesus, a stranger among us.
Old Testament Lesson
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Good News ... And Justice
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me," announces Isaiah. The Lord is sending him "to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor ..." (Isaiah 61:1-2a). These words are doubly familiar to us, because they are the same words Jesus will quote, centuries later, as he begins his ministry in the Nazareth synagogue. In the second portion of this reading, the prophet speaks for God: "I, the Lord, love justice ..." (v. 8). Good news and justice are intertwined, inseparable -- in Advent, or at any other time.
New Testament Lesson
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Rejoice Always ... Be Sanctified Entirely
Paul concludes many of his letters with a "mixed bag" of closing advice and admonitions, and this passage is an example of that sort of collection. It's difficult to deal with this assortment of disparate sayings as a unified whole; each piece of advice is more or less distinct. Two excerpts, however, lend themselves to consideration during Advent: either one may explain why the lectionary editors chose this passage for this week. Verse 16 (one of the shortest verses in the Bible) says, "Rejoice always" -- always an appropriate thought for Advent. Verse 23 says, "May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Note that God -- and not the believer -- is the principal actor here. Sanctification is never a human accomplishment, but is wholly the result of God's gracious intervention.
The Gospel
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Among You Stands One Whom You Do Not Know
The lectionary returns us once again to John the Baptist's testimony (see last week's resource for reflections on the parallel passage in Mark). Two differences in this Johannine version are verse 8's assessment of John: "He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light" (providing an opportunity to address the theme of light); and John's words in verse 26, "Among you stands one whom you do not know." When John first spoke these words, he was alluding to the fact that Jesus had not, as yet, stepped forward as a public figure. Yet there is another, ironic sense in which these words may speak to us today: for is it not true that, even for us who profess to be his disciples, Jesus remains in some respect "one whom we do not know"? Every time we allow ourselves to be distracted from the true meaning of Christmas, we demonstrate that, to one degree or another, we still do not fully know him.
Alternate Gospel Lesson
Luke 1:47-55
The World Turned Upside Down
Preachers who have already spoken about John the Baptist the previous week may want to go with the alternate psalm for this Sunday, the Magnificat of Mary, instead. This stunning poem bears witness to the world-changing nature of the Messiah's coming. In entering the world in human form, God has brought down the powerful from the thrones and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. It's a divine reversal of the usual order of things -- as revolutionary today as it was in biblical times.
Preaching Possibilities
All the passages, this week, touch in one way or another on the strangeness of the incarnation. It may sound odd to describe such a central doctrine of Christianity in this way, but in fact it is an event so utterly unique in human history that it continues to defy description. The fact that God became one of us changed everything, and continues to do so.
This is a counter-cultural message: because this time of year, whether in the church or outside it, just about everyone wants to claim the Christ-child in one way or another. Meditating on the sweet image of "the little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay," it's hard to do anything but imagine embracing the child; yet all of today's passages remind us that Jesus is both one of us and not one of us. The doctrine of the incarnation teaches that he is fully human, yes, but also fully God -- and that in that divine aspect of his being, he is always strangely remote from us in his holiness. Try as we may to confine him in our Christmas creches, he will not remain there, smiling beatifically. This child will grow to become the "one whom we do not know" (John 1:26), the one who will cast down the powerful from their thrones and raise up the lowly (Luke 1:52). He is the one to whom we will sooner or later look, to do for us what we could never do for ourselves: to "sanctify us entirely, spirit, soul and body" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). He will lead us in doing what we, left to our own devices, are so seldom capable of: bringing good news to the oppressed, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives (Isaiah 61:1). At the last day, he will complete this work of justice through the last judgment.
There is reason to be suspicious of a domesticated Jesus, especially at Christmas time. The purpose of God becoming human is not to confirm us in our fallen humanity, but rather to transform us by grace. The herald angels who sing "Glory to the newborn king" are not rosy-faced choristers spreading Christmas cheer, but rather the vanguard of God's heavenly host (literally, God's army). Their songs are not carols, but military marching songs. The stable in Bethlehem is not so much the rustic, lantern-lit domestic tableau of many a Christmas card, as it is the beachhead of God's invasion forces, breaking into the world to do battle with sin. Yes, there is everything to celebrate about this birth: but not for the reasons the world typically expects. In celebrating the coming of the God-man, Jesus Christ, we acknowledge that our own lives -- and indeed the future of the entire world -- will never be the same again.
Prayer For The Day
We praise you and thank you, O God, that you care so deeply about this world as to be present in it: through the birth of your Son, Jesus, the incarnate word. May we never take this, your greatest gift, for granted. Amen.
To Illustrate
He comes to us as one unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside. He came to those who knew him not. He speaks to us. He speaks the same word: Follow me! and sets us to the tasks which he has to fulfill for our time.
He commands, and to those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself, in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who he is.
-- Albert Schweitzer, from The Quest for the Historical Jesus (New York, New York: Macmillan, 1968)
***
In a famous and still-controversial poem, "Holy Sonnet XIV: Batter My Heart, Three-Person'd God," the Elizabethan poet John Donne employs a highly unusual image to speak of God. He describes God as an assailant, who breaks into his heart by force -- but who, precisely because of the desperate nature of that assault, brings new life:
Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee, and bend
Your force, to breake, blow, burn and make me new.
Donne ends his poem by exclaiming,
Divorce mee, untie, or breake that knot againe,
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.
***
Mary did you know that your baby boy would someday walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kissed your little baby, then you kissed the face of God.
-- Mark Lowry, "Mary, Did You Know?"; words by Mark Lowry,
music by Buddy Green, (Nashville: Word Music, 2000)
***
Since the evangelical century of the 1800s, America's Protestant majority has gravitated toward a Mister Rogers Jesus, a neighborly fellow they could know and love and imitate. The country's megachurches got that way in part because they stopped preaching fire and brimstone and the blood of the Lamb. Their parishioners are sinners in the hands of an amiable God. Their Jesus is a loving friendÉ.
-- Stephen Prothero, "The Personal Jesus," New York Times magazine, February 29, 2004
***
If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party. The world says, "Mind your own business," and Jesus says, "There is no such thing as your own business." The world says, "Follow the wisest course and be a success," and Jesus says, "Follow me and be crucified." The world says, "Drive carefully -- the life you save may be your own" and Jesus says, "Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." The world says, "Law and order," and Jesus says, "Love." The world says, "Get" and Jesus says, "Give." In terms of the world's sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.
-- Frederick Buechner, from Listening To Your Life (New York: HarperCollins, 1992)
***
According to a story from the 1930s, when anti-Jewish pogroms were ravaging the villages of Eastern Europe, there was a Jewish grave-digger who saved many lives by hiding refugees in his freshly dug graves. One night, as a young woman and her family were hiding in just such a grave, the woman gave birth. "This," the grave digger cried, "is surely the Messiah -- for who else would be born in a grave?"
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Roman Catholic
Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Episcopal
Isaiah 65:1-25
1 Thessalonians 5:(12-15) 16-28
John 1:6-8, 19-28 or John 3:23-30
Theme For The Day
In Advent we welcome Jesus, a stranger among us.
Old Testament Lesson
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Good News ... And Justice
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me," announces Isaiah. The Lord is sending him "to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor ..." (Isaiah 61:1-2a). These words are doubly familiar to us, because they are the same words Jesus will quote, centuries later, as he begins his ministry in the Nazareth synagogue. In the second portion of this reading, the prophet speaks for God: "I, the Lord, love justice ..." (v. 8). Good news and justice are intertwined, inseparable -- in Advent, or at any other time.
New Testament Lesson
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Rejoice Always ... Be Sanctified Entirely
Paul concludes many of his letters with a "mixed bag" of closing advice and admonitions, and this passage is an example of that sort of collection. It's difficult to deal with this assortment of disparate sayings as a unified whole; each piece of advice is more or less distinct. Two excerpts, however, lend themselves to consideration during Advent: either one may explain why the lectionary editors chose this passage for this week. Verse 16 (one of the shortest verses in the Bible) says, "Rejoice always" -- always an appropriate thought for Advent. Verse 23 says, "May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Note that God -- and not the believer -- is the principal actor here. Sanctification is never a human accomplishment, but is wholly the result of God's gracious intervention.
The Gospel
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Among You Stands One Whom You Do Not Know
The lectionary returns us once again to John the Baptist's testimony (see last week's resource for reflections on the parallel passage in Mark). Two differences in this Johannine version are verse 8's assessment of John: "He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light" (providing an opportunity to address the theme of light); and John's words in verse 26, "Among you stands one whom you do not know." When John first spoke these words, he was alluding to the fact that Jesus had not, as yet, stepped forward as a public figure. Yet there is another, ironic sense in which these words may speak to us today: for is it not true that, even for us who profess to be his disciples, Jesus remains in some respect "one whom we do not know"? Every time we allow ourselves to be distracted from the true meaning of Christmas, we demonstrate that, to one degree or another, we still do not fully know him.
Alternate Gospel Lesson
Luke 1:47-55
The World Turned Upside Down
Preachers who have already spoken about John the Baptist the previous week may want to go with the alternate psalm for this Sunday, the Magnificat of Mary, instead. This stunning poem bears witness to the world-changing nature of the Messiah's coming. In entering the world in human form, God has brought down the powerful from the thrones and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. It's a divine reversal of the usual order of things -- as revolutionary today as it was in biblical times.
Preaching Possibilities
All the passages, this week, touch in one way or another on the strangeness of the incarnation. It may sound odd to describe such a central doctrine of Christianity in this way, but in fact it is an event so utterly unique in human history that it continues to defy description. The fact that God became one of us changed everything, and continues to do so.
This is a counter-cultural message: because this time of year, whether in the church or outside it, just about everyone wants to claim the Christ-child in one way or another. Meditating on the sweet image of "the little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay," it's hard to do anything but imagine embracing the child; yet all of today's passages remind us that Jesus is both one of us and not one of us. The doctrine of the incarnation teaches that he is fully human, yes, but also fully God -- and that in that divine aspect of his being, he is always strangely remote from us in his holiness. Try as we may to confine him in our Christmas creches, he will not remain there, smiling beatifically. This child will grow to become the "one whom we do not know" (John 1:26), the one who will cast down the powerful from their thrones and raise up the lowly (Luke 1:52). He is the one to whom we will sooner or later look, to do for us what we could never do for ourselves: to "sanctify us entirely, spirit, soul and body" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). He will lead us in doing what we, left to our own devices, are so seldom capable of: bringing good news to the oppressed, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives (Isaiah 61:1). At the last day, he will complete this work of justice through the last judgment.
There is reason to be suspicious of a domesticated Jesus, especially at Christmas time. The purpose of God becoming human is not to confirm us in our fallen humanity, but rather to transform us by grace. The herald angels who sing "Glory to the newborn king" are not rosy-faced choristers spreading Christmas cheer, but rather the vanguard of God's heavenly host (literally, God's army). Their songs are not carols, but military marching songs. The stable in Bethlehem is not so much the rustic, lantern-lit domestic tableau of many a Christmas card, as it is the beachhead of God's invasion forces, breaking into the world to do battle with sin. Yes, there is everything to celebrate about this birth: but not for the reasons the world typically expects. In celebrating the coming of the God-man, Jesus Christ, we acknowledge that our own lives -- and indeed the future of the entire world -- will never be the same again.
Prayer For The Day
We praise you and thank you, O God, that you care so deeply about this world as to be present in it: through the birth of your Son, Jesus, the incarnate word. May we never take this, your greatest gift, for granted. Amen.
To Illustrate
He comes to us as one unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside. He came to those who knew him not. He speaks to us. He speaks the same word: Follow me! and sets us to the tasks which he has to fulfill for our time.
He commands, and to those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself, in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who he is.
-- Albert Schweitzer, from The Quest for the Historical Jesus (New York, New York: Macmillan, 1968)
***
In a famous and still-controversial poem, "Holy Sonnet XIV: Batter My Heart, Three-Person'd God," the Elizabethan poet John Donne employs a highly unusual image to speak of God. He describes God as an assailant, who breaks into his heart by force -- but who, precisely because of the desperate nature of that assault, brings new life:
Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee, and bend
Your force, to breake, blow, burn and make me new.
Donne ends his poem by exclaiming,
Divorce mee, untie, or breake that knot againe,
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.
***
Mary did you know that your baby boy would someday walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kissed your little baby, then you kissed the face of God.
-- Mark Lowry, "Mary, Did You Know?"; words by Mark Lowry,
music by Buddy Green, (Nashville: Word Music, 2000)
***
Since the evangelical century of the 1800s, America's Protestant majority has gravitated toward a Mister Rogers Jesus, a neighborly fellow they could know and love and imitate. The country's megachurches got that way in part because they stopped preaching fire and brimstone and the blood of the Lamb. Their parishioners are sinners in the hands of an amiable God. Their Jesus is a loving friendÉ.
-- Stephen Prothero, "The Personal Jesus," New York Times magazine, February 29, 2004
***
If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party. The world says, "Mind your own business," and Jesus says, "There is no such thing as your own business." The world says, "Follow the wisest course and be a success," and Jesus says, "Follow me and be crucified." The world says, "Drive carefully -- the life you save may be your own" and Jesus says, "Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." The world says, "Law and order," and Jesus says, "Love." The world says, "Get" and Jesus says, "Give." In terms of the world's sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.
-- Frederick Buechner, from Listening To Your Life (New York: HarperCollins, 1992)
***
According to a story from the 1930s, when anti-Jewish pogroms were ravaging the villages of Eastern Europe, there was a Jewish grave-digger who saved many lives by hiding refugees in his freshly dug graves. One night, as a young woman and her family were hiding in just such a grave, the woman gave birth. "This," the grave digger cried, "is surely the Messiah -- for who else would be born in a grave?"
