First Sunday of Advent Year C 28th November 2021.
Lectionary readings: Jeremiah 33 v14-16; Psalm 25 v1-10; 1 Thessalonians 3 v9-13; Luke 21 v25-36.
Looking back and moving on.
The lectionary readings this week are a curious mix. They seem to be inviting us to look back to our roots, to ponder our blessings in the present and our hopes and aspirations for the future.
Our Christian faith is rooted in Jewish scripture. The Prophet Jeremiah was active in the years before the Babylonians conquered Judah (586 BC). Today’s reading contains a promise from God to his chosen people that he would not forsake them despite the troubles that would befall their country. The Lord said, “I promise that the time will come when I will appoint a king from the family of David, a king who will be honest and rule with justice”. (Jeremiah 33 v15).
As Christians we read this as a foretelling of Jesus as our Lord and King.
In Psalm 25, King David asks God, “Show me your paths and teach me to follow. Guide me by your truth and instruct me”. (v4). A request that Christians regard as fulfilled by the teachings of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul in his letter to the early followers of Jesus living in Thessalonica, encourages them to love one another as a sign to others of God’s indwelling spirit at work in them as it is in Paul and his companions. Paul writes, “May the Lord make your love for each other and for everyone else grow by leaps and bounds. That’s how our love for you has grown”. (1 Thessalonians 3 v12).
As Christians today we should also be gratefully aware of the love of our brothers and sisters in Christ, whose prayers, encouragement and support sustains our life as disciples of Christ.
In the passage from Luke’s gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples for a difficult time in the near future. (The years leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70). Jesus urges them not to be preoccupied by personal or domestic concerns, but to be active in doing the things that will bear fruit in terms of the Kingdom of God.
So, as we ponder an uncertain future for our planet and ourselves, we are challenged to keep in mind the promises that God has made to us, the gifts he has given to us, the trust he has placed in us and the love and hope he has instilled in us.
Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done, in whom the world rejoices;
who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
and keep us in his grace and guide us when perplexed
and free us from all ills in this world and the next.
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,
the Son and him who reigns with them in highest heaven,
the one eternal God, whom heaven and earth adore,
for thus it was, is now and shall be evermore.
From ‘Singing the Faith’ No 81. Written by Martin Rinkart and translated by Catherine Winkworth.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.