Tuesday, December 3, 2019

advent Sunday School



 Sunday School: Advent and Coming

Our adventure in life is the long, slow, difficult process of discovering and becoming our True Self in communion with Jesus Christ. We are made in the Image of God, but that image is distorted by a False Self. Our union with God makes us adopted children of God as He “becomes” human in us and we “share” in His life. If the Divine Son emptied Himself and took on our nature by becoming human, so we must also empty ourselves of the false self and fallen nature to receive the life of God. The Greek word for self-emptying is ‘kenosis.’ It is manifest in obedience and praise. It ultimately encompasses dying, which is at the heart of true love.

In the West, Christians often prefer juridical concepts—Jesus dies in our place so God imputes His righteousness onto us—or accounting images—Jesus pays our unpayable debt for sin. That achieved, we can go to heaven, which is understood as a good place, rather than the more biblical idea of the wedding union we find in both Testaments. This subtly makes our happiness the focus, which ironically reinforces “the passions.” Fulfilling my desires does make me happy, temporarily, and the passions center on my desires, not God. In spiritual marriage, the unitive process finds happiness in pleasing God (“not my will, but They will be done”). Through kenosis and theosis the passions are transformed and our will is conformed.

The Church Seasons bring us to focus upon our salvation. Advent, which means “coming,” is a translation of Parousia, a Greek word meaning coming or presence, and was a technical term for the appearance of an Imperial figure amidst the people to distribute justice. The center of Advent is Jesus.

Three Streams of Advent 

First, it begins with themes centered on the second coming of Christ and the consummation of all things, often in apocalyptic writings. We must maintain an awareness of the incompleteness of salvation. The final victory is not in question,  but the powers of this age are not completely vanquished. “Why do bad things happen?” is both a philosophical and an existential question. Darkness still prevails and the perfection/completeness of Kingdom mercy, healing and sanctification still awaits.

Second, we remember the reality of the incarnation. The birth of Jesus initiated the End Times. He has changed world history and revealed salvation history. The incarnation is vital for understanding theosis, and the historical ministry of Jesus is the model for church ministry.

Advent also reminds us that Christ is come among us (through the Spirit) in the church, in the Word and in the sacraments. He has come and gone, and He will come again, but He is present among us in a very real, though incomplete way. The Church is the Body of Christ, but faith must “activate” the potential power of God in our midst.

 Apocalyptic Writings

The written prophets, like Isaiah or Jeremiah, spoke God’s message to Israel. Let’s take a brief look at Isaiah 1:1-3 to discern the symbolic nature of language.

1.     Isaiah anthropomorphizes heaven and earth, asking them to“hear/listen.” It is an obvious metaphor to declare the import of the message, but it also reveals the binary cosmology, which invites all manner of reflection.

2.     Ox and ass—this negative comparison, a metaphor for rebellious Israel, has long been a staple of Christmas mangers, demonstrating how symbolic interpretations can unveil (or impose) a deeper meaning on a text.

3.     Isaiah continues using evocative language to describe Israel’s unbelief/infidelity and the consequences which produce hardships.

In the post exilic period we see a shift

Ezekiel  

While much of his prophecy is similarly “straightforward” as the prophets of old, there are increasing elements of a more radically symbolic nature at the beginning of the book. Four creatures in a storm wind. Figures like humans with four wings and four faces (human, lion, ox, eagle). There are multiple similes, trying to ground the incomprehensible in terrestrial reality. A symbol of Genesis 2? Ox+lion=earth, eagle=heaven, human=the bridge (Son saves by becoming human)

Daniel

Chapter 7 (written in Aramaic, not Hebrew) has a great sea with beasts emerging, once again composite creatures and once more burning wheels. In chapter 8 there are rams with horns.

Revelation of John

This apocalyptic works borrows very heavily from the Jewish Bible, including the latter two prophets. Images of Heaven reflect the earthly temple in Kings. References are colorful and oftentimes baffling. The number seven figures very heavily in the text (as do 12’s and 10’s and their multiples), each having its symbolic meaning.

Revelation—"God’s Word came to me”—the unveiling of the mystery

God comes to us in time and space. The Eternal is poured into the temporal—human experience can never capture God, human language can never exhaust God’s Word—so there are hidden depths which become clear later. In the early church, historical events were called “partial” or “incomplete” fulfillment. The Greek word  πληρόω plēróō  (To make full, to fill up, to fill to the full; to complete; to consummate; to bring into effect; to accomplish, to bring into effect, to realize) is often used of events in reference to Scriptures. However, the Bible is more than mere predictions, rather it is a revelation of the Divine pattern of salvation and is applicable in different times and places. 
In Isaiah 7, the exasperated prophet tells the king “the young woman (Hebrew almah) is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Emmanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings [Resin of Aram and Pekah of Israel who were threatening to invade Judah] you are in dread will be deserted.” Isaiah says to Ahaz—God is faithful, the threats of your enemy “will not stand” and “shall not come to pass.” Mt 2, quoting the Septuagint, connects this event to the Virgin Mary “Look the virgin (Parthenos) shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means God is with us. Matthew makes no reference to the rest of the Isaiah account, but He say that this fills up the word spoken by the Lord through the prophet. The birth of Jesus is to be seen in light of a prophecy to “the House of David” and Jesus’ status as a Son of David (Mt 1:1, 20) In addition, Isaiah announces salvation, a repeated pattern in the Bible: Israel sins, Israel is threatened, God saves. Jesus (Mt 1:21 “you shall name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sin) is the perfection and fullness of this salvation pattern present not just in Isaiah 7, but in all the Jewish Bible. Jesus “fully fills-up” the whole of Scripture, a message of God’s promise to save His people.

Symbolism and patterns

The “Salvation Narrative” is writ large in the history of the nations and small in the lives of individuals. For example, death and resurrection—see the man Joseph in Genesis, or the Hebrew nation in Exodus, or Israel in the exile—of which Jesus is the Grand Archetype. Biblical patterns are found in human literature and history. Jesus tells us that we must carry our cross, because that is reality—death before resurrection. It is true of the grain of wheat, and it is true for each of us. Salvation is a process of suffering, dying and rising. The Advent readings are not simply about past history or a yet to be realized apocalypse—it is also a model to understand our daily lives, here and now, under the authority of God’s word. It is not a code book to figure out the end of the world, it is actually the code for understanding the “end of [every] the age.”

Advent is incarnational. It is a time to hone the skills of watching and waiting and learn to “suffer in hope.” “How long, Oh Lord?" the Scriptures repeat over and over. In our age, Advent has been obliterated by Christmas, which now begins in late October. What was once a penitential season of conversion has devolved into endless weeks of “Christmas parties” and unfettered consumption. We cannot feel the emptiness because we are satiated, which dulls the mind. We cannot contemplate in the darkness because we inundated with the twinkling lights.

On Sunday our lectionary is Year A and sections of Isaiah and Matthew will be read each week. The Daily Office, Year 2 (even), offer Amos, Haggai and Zechariah for three weeks. The second reading will be Peter, Jude and then the Apocalypse. The Gospel will be Matthew. In the Fourth Week, as the focus shifts to the birth of the Messiah, we read Luke’s account and Paul’s letter to Titus. There are different Old Testament readings chosen for their connection to the Gospel. The purpose of the readings is to connect us to the three streams: the end of things and the birth of the Messiah, and the mystery of the presence of Jesus with us in the in-between time.

During the holidays we are warned of the physical cost of too much festive food and drink, but there is a spiritual threat as well. Both prophetic and apocalyptic unmask the human institutions which set themselves up as sufficient without God. They reveal a pattern which is manifest not only in our church and society, not only in the nations of the world, but also in the depth of each heart. The world provides its own value system and social forces are in place to ensure compliance. The demons whisper their temptations and blasphemies. Our human bodies demand that we provide for their desires. Our unhealed wounds provoke us to anger, despair and unfaithfulness. Jesus warns that a “DESOLATING SACRILEGE” will be set up in the Temple. Since we are the temple of God, then our personal desolating sacrilege is the False Self which supplants Jesus as the Image of God within us.

Advent is a time to do the work of faithful preparation for the Lord who has come and will come again, by engaging Him who is already among us. Enjoy the holiday season, yes, but not at the cost of all that Advent can offer.

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