Messengers of Advent

In the four weeks of Advent the Prophet Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary of Nazareth are messengers from God.  Isaiah is one of the first voices we hear. His voice is constant in our readings for Advent.

Isaiah was a priest in the temple of Jerusalem in the eighth century– the worst of times, when the powerful armies of Assyria were ravaging the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. God came to Isaiah in a vision in the temple’s Holy of Holies (Isaiah 6) and he’s overwhelmed by a Presence more powerful than all the mighty armies and their clever leaders. God is “Emmanuel,” “God with us.” no matter how bad the times.

That was Isaiah’s message then, and it’s his message for us today. He always seems unreal, as he must have seemed to those who saw Assyrian armies wasting their land.  All nations streaming toward the mountain of the Lord’s house, laying down arms of war?  All peoples, nations and races living in harmony and peace?

Today, the prophet’s promise still seems an impossible dream in our splintered world.  But Advent is about such a hope. It’s not just a personal hope for ourselves and those dear to us, but hope for the whole world. The peaceable kingdom, a seemingly impossible achievement , is not impossible achievement for God.

God is with us. Emmanuel.

Prophets like Isaiah  tell us not to be satisfied with anything less than the Kingdom of God. We become satisfied with what we see and hear, our immediate goals and achievements, our daily projects.  The prophets remind us these are stepping stones to something more. It’s all preliminary to what’s hidden in God’s plan.

Like the bread and wine we bring to the altar, there’s more than we see.  There’s  something more.

The Presentation of Mary in the Temple

November 21

Some are uncomfortable with the story of the presentation of Mary in the temple, because it’s not found in scripture, but rather in the apocryphal gospel of James. According to that source, Mary was born in Jerusalem; her father Joachim provided lambs for sacrifice in the temple. He and his wife Ann were childless until, at the promise of an angel, they are blessed with a daughter. When she is three years old, they present Mary in the temple where she is raised among virgins.

A tradition related to that story says that the ancient church of St. Ann in Jerusalem, almost adjacent to the temple, marks the place where Mary was born. That’s not the only tradition about her birthplace, of course, Nazareth and a city nearby, Sepphoris, also make that claim.

Our feast originates in the church of Jerusalem, where it was celebrated from early times. If you look at the substance of the story–which I tend to do– it says basically that Mary was closely connected to the temple in Jerusalem, a claim Luke’s gospel seems to support in some degree. He says that Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was married to Zechariah, a temple priest. So, couldn’t Mary’s family be connected there too?

Luke links Mary to the temple a number of times. She and Joseph go there “when the days were completed for their purification,” (Luke 2,22) 40 days after Jesus is born, to present him to God. It wasn’t necessary for them to go to the temple for that purpose, but they do.

Luke also says Mary and Joseph customarily brought Jesus from childhood to the temple to celebrate the feasts. I don’t think the temple was a dark place of seclusion for her. It must have been  familiar to her from the time she was a little girl. She believed God was present there, and so it was important to bring her Child to this place. It was a place of spiritual teaching; prophets spoke in its courtyard and the world was welcome there. The old man Simeon spoke to her there and Israel’s beliefs were expressed there.

In words constantly repeated in the psalms:   

“The Lord is in his holy temple,

The Lord’s throne is in heaven.” (Psalm 11)

So later, when her Son spoke of his “father’s house,”  can we hear Mary’s voice introducing him to this holy place.  He would engage its teachers and speak about his own mission as he celebrated its feasts. He cleansed this place in a dramatic, symbolic action. He celebrated his last supper nearby and he would die as the lambs from the temple were being sacrificed.

Jesus became the new temple.

We will be beginning the advent season soon, when we’ll hear the voices of the prophets promising the One to come as the savior of his people and calling all nations to climb the mountain of the Lord and enter his holy temple. This feast reminds us of Mary’s part in his coming and the vital role she played.

Lamp for a Dark Place

The sky over the boardwalk at Spring Lake sometimes gets swept with colors before nightfall, but soon the only light will come  from a lamp that shines through the night.

Here’s a reading from Augustine,  a beautiful commentary on the lamp burning in the dark, till the great Sun shines again. It’s a prophetic light, he says, lit till the time when “lamps will no longer be needed. When that day is at hand, the prophet will not be read to us, the book of the Apostle will not be opened, we shall not require the testimony of John, we shall have no need of the Gospel itself. Therefore all Scriptures will be taken away from us, those Scriptures which in the night of this world burned like lamps so that we might not remain in darkness.”

Life’s darkness is temporary; we are meant for the light.

“I implore you to love with me and, by believing, to run with me; let us long for our heavenly country, let us sigh for our heavenly home, let us truly feel that here we are strangers. What shall we then see? Let the gospel tell us: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. You will come to the fountain, with whose dew you have already been sprinkled.

Instead of the ray of light which was sent through slanting and winding ways into the heart of your darkness, you will see the light itself in all its purity and brightness. It is to see and experience this light that you are now being cleansed. Dearly beloved, John himself says, we are the sons of God, and it has not yet been disclosed what we shall be; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

I feel that your spirits are being raised up with mine to the heavens above; but the body which is corruptible weighs down the soul, and this earthly tent burdens the thoughtful mind. I am about to lay aside this book, and you are soon going away, each to his own business. It has been good for us to share the common light, good to have enjoyed ourselves, good to have been glad together. When we part from one another, let us not depart from him.”

The Word Made Flesh

Questions about Jesus Christ didn’t end with Mary and Joseph, who brought him into the world and raised him in Nazareth. They continued. The birth of Jesus has enormous consequences that cannot be dealt with in a day.

You can hear some of the questions in the readings of the Christmas cycle that follows the feast, especially in the daily office of readings. 

For example, in the readings for December 30th,  Hippolytus, a 3rd Roman theologian, deals with questions his society was asking about Jesus Christ– similar in many ways to what  our society asks today.

Why pay attention to Jesus Christ at all?

In Hippolytus’ day some denied divine revelation altogether– God was unknowable, they said–but the majority of his contemporaries believed strongly in a divine presence in the world. 

In fact, many believed in numerous revelations of God, a pantheon of divine beings, a supermarket of beliefs, all acceptably true. The Roman empire itself tolerated the many beliefs and systems held by its peoples, as long as they did not threaten the empire and its institutions.

Hippolytus strongly affirmed that Jesus Christ is the unique Word of God. “He is the Word through whom you made the universe, the Savior you sent to redeem us,” as our 2nd Eucharistic Prayer says–a prayer originally authored by Hippolytus.

Speaking to the Jews, the Roman theologian claimed  that the prophets spoke “dimly” about God’s Word. Now the Word made flesh speaks clearly through his humanity, and so we must listen to Jesus Christ.

Hippolytus also spoke to the gentile world about the Word, Creator and Redeemer. Yet, like our society today, his world was awash in various philosophies and beliefs. How could it hear his message among so many?  

Today we turn away quickly from the Christmas story, too quickly, to return to the “real world.”  Practical concerns have to be dealt with, like the economy. Yet, we must keep in mind the great, fundamental truths that anchor everything.

I think we need more to speak like Hippolytus today, even if they are not heard. Truth must be told, the great truths, and told insistently.