Numbers 12 OR 20:1-13 (14-21) 22-29
Psalm 106:(1) 7-18, 24-28 (43-48) (OR Psalm 95)
Luke 1:(57) 58-67 (68-79) 80
Hebrews 3:1-19
CALL TO WORSHIP
The LORD has raised up a horn for our salvation
in the house of his servant David!
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, for he has looked
with favor upon his people and redeemed them.
Praise the LORD, who has shown us great mercy.
Prepare the way for the LORD our God!
Let the Holy Spirit descend, we pray!
Let the spirit of prophecy make us partners with Christ.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us ...
to give light to those who sit in darkness, in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.
OPENING PRAYER
You, O God, are the builder of the all things, and Christ Jesus, your Son, the faithful builder of your house, even as he serves as its head and cornerstone. Help us, O Lord, as partners with Christ, to be the house in which you dwell, that we may hold firm to faith and hope until the end, with boldness and unwavering confidence in you. Show your holiness, O God, to this assembly, among this people where your glory abides, in Jesus' name.
CALL TO CONFESSION
When our ancestors sojourned in the wilderness, they tested the LORD and rebelled against him, so that the Spirit has said, "They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways," and that generation "will not enter my rest." Therefore, let not your hearts be hardened, by the deceitfulness of sin, as on the day of rebellion, but let us, with believing hearts, confess our sin, seeking the mercy of God with our first confidence and with the pride that belongs to hope.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
O LORD, you are good and your steadfast love endures forever! Yet, we confess that, though you have delivered us so many times, we are a disobedient and grumbling people, forgetful of your wonderful works, rebellious toward you, and by our own iniquity we are brought low. Nevertheless, O God, have regard for our distress. Remember your covenant of grace! Hear our cry, pity your captive people, show us your compassion, and deliver us from sin for your name's sake.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
The LORD has shown us the mercy he promised to our ancestors! He has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to Abraham, and fulfilled with the gift of a mighty savior, giving knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of our sins! Therefore, you who have been rescued and redeemed from your enemies and from the power of sin, are free to serve the LORD in holiness and without fear, and to walk with him all of your days.
3 comments:
The anger of God, the vengeance of God, the wrath of God-- never enter my rest, rot with leprosy, everyone dies in the wilderness, only Moses really pleases me-- what did these people have to give them hope?
Only the Lucan passage, where Zechariah recognizes God's amazing, wonderful kindness in reaching the day of Salvation, when he comes to know that his and Elizabeth's one and only child, their own son, born so late in Zechariah and Elizabeth's lives, is chosen to prepare the way of the Lord who is coming-- coming soon, coming at last, coming now,-- and perhaps Psalm 95, really offer hope of peace, on what is traditionally the task of the Second Sunday of Advent, Peace Sunday, and the message that Jesus brings us peace.
Or perhaps I am missing something?
I tried to give my email address for responses but this format apparently won't accept such, so here is my name and e-address.
Rev. Steve Allen
pastorsteve@kanokla.net
Pastor Steve:
The traditional themes of the specific Sundays in Advent (Hope, Peace, etc.) were not prominent in my thinking here, only the season as such and the need to include missing nativity texts. I've simply arranged those texts from the gospels, and started a semi-continuous series of unused epistle texts from Hebrews which reaches into the first Sundays of Ordinary Time/after Epiphany, this with the general hunch that the ministries of Zechariah and John might make for an interesting, creative tension with what we might learn of Jesus' High Priesthood from Hebrews.
The Psalms and OT lections stand in the background of the epistle reading, and are chosen for that (intertestamental, and to some extent typological) purpose. Certainly Ps 95 is bleak in many respects, but not hopeless. Likewise, Ps 106:7 reminds us that there is the LORD's abundance of steadfast love to be remembered, even if the reminder comes by way of the punishment of those who forget it; v. 8 reminds us that God saved the people anyway "for his name's sake, so that he might make known his mighty power." Many other saving acts of God are recalled in this psalm, even while the jealousy of some in Israel is mentioned in the psalm and that of her other leaders (Miriam and Aaron) in the readings from Number, while Moses himself blows it at Meribah (Num 20:9-13).
All of this, I would suggest, should serve to relativize all preceding ministries that lead up to Jesus, including that of Moses, such that the claim of the epistle rings through: "Jesus is worthy of more glory" (Heb 3:3). The same can be said, of course, for all subsequent ministries as well, unless you want to take up the tricky saying of Jn 14:12. But let's not go there.
I think the image of the priest Zechariah finding his speech restored for the praise of God and for the naming of Christ's precursor is a gracious image indeed. After all, when Hebrews says, "if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts," ... is this not precisely what Zechariah did?! Now, however, he is freed to he say with the author of Hebrews: "Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today'!" He, unlike the generation of Israel that fell in the desert, is able to enter, despite the temporary hardening that came over him due to unbelief (Heb 3:19).
These, at least, are some of the connections that this juxtaposition of texts sparked for me.
Blessings and peace to you,
TMS
P.S. Zechariah here is the picture of the penitent priest, is he not? Repentant of his unbelief, and at precisely the same moment, he recognizes God's grace in sending salvation and forgiveness by way of the tender mercy of the one for whom his son is to prepare the way. Is this not what reformation is all about? The reformation and revitalization of God's people that occurs when not just your run-of-the-mill sinners, but the professional ministers and priests, like Zechariah, or Nicodemus, or Luther, et al suddenly grasp the whole big picture anew ... and with faith!
TMS
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