Please feel free to use the following Advent post (and those that will follow, hopefully daily) for you and your family and share as you see fit.
Advent
Year A
“Advent”
comes from the Latin word adventus,
which means coming.
Since at least medieval times, the four Sundays before Christmas have
been used to direct the Church's attention to the coming of Christ in
three different senses: (1) with reference to Jesus' birth; (2) in
the sense of the coming of Christ to our hearts daily, in multiple
private/devotional ways; and (3) in his return to Earth, the
so-called “second coming.” Often times readings are assembled
from various sources to the tell the Christmas story with which we
are now (mostly) familiar.
Some
of us now understand the drama of Scripture to unfold in a way that
makes the traditional practice, or at least the way readings are
assembled and presented, difficult to engage with much authenticity.
For example, those of us who read the Bible with a narrative
historical framework realize so
much of the original intent of the infancy narratives is missing and
even distorted by the “traditional” story telling now en
vogue. For us, the traditional
sense of “second coming” is more nebulous as we read much of what
others understand as 'End-Time' prophecy to be apocalyptic
descriptions of the Jewish War (and, in Paul, the conversion of the
Roman Empire).
The
following is a devotional experiment our family is going to be using.
I plan to engage the infancy narratives in isolation from each other
in succeeding years. The goal is to reacquaint ourselves with the
author's original meaning for each of the narratives. My experience
is this often makes the text more foreign than what we are used to in
our reading of Scripture. Suddenly the two thousand year old ancient
oriental culture seems bizarre and disorienting. I believe this is
good—we have become too comfortable with our anachronisms,
especially those tainting our Christmas traditions.
This
first year of readings will start with the account from Matthew. This
account was written in the last quarter of the 1st
century ce.
For context, this is after Nero and the destruction of the 2nd
Temple in Jerusalem, and after the encompassing seven year war (the
Jewish War with Rome). It was written to Greek-speaking Jews
(probably in Syria) who increasingly felt the tension and developing
distinction between synagogue
and church. The Gospel
according to Matthew (hereafter referred to as simply Matthew)
begins with a genealogy that is divided into three sections: (1) from
Abraham to David; (2) from David to the Exile (of the souther kingdom
of Judah to Babylon); (3) from the Exile to the birth of the messiah.
This division frames the subsequent infancy narrative and introduces
the themes and images the author will develop later in his account of
Jesus' life. I follow this pattern for this first year of Advent
(Year A). As noted above, this is a diversion from the traditional
divisions based on characters and themes for each week.
The
First Sunday of Advent
Matthew
begins with a genealogy that is structured to give both a sense of
context to his story about Jesus (by summarizing his ancestral
history) and to provide a structure for how he develops the story.
The genealogy begins with Abram, who is the patriarch of the Hebrews
and the father of a son born by unnatural means. In the following
reading, Abram is promised an heir whose descendants will inherit the
modern day Palestine region.
Genesis
15 (Bible readings adapted from the New International Version)
After
these things Yhwh's message came to Abram in a vision,
“Fear
not, Abram,
I
am your shield;
your
very great reward.”
But
Abram said, “O Lord Yhwh, what will you give me, for I continue
childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And
Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in
my house (Ishmael) is to be my heir.”
But
Yhwh's message came to him, “This man (Ishmael) shall not be your
heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” Yhwh
brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the
stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So
shall your descendants be.” And he believed Yhwh; and Yhwh “did
the math” and counted his faith as righteousness.
Then
he said to him, “I am Yhwh
who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to
possess.” But he said, “O Lord Yhwh,
how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring
me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram
three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him
all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the
other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey
came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
As
the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and
terrifying darkness descended upon him. Then Yhwh
said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your descendants shall
be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there,
and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring
judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come
out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your
ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they
shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of
the Amorites is not yet complete.”
When
the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a
flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day Yhwh
made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give
this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river
Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the
Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Discussion
Questions
- The author of Matthew starts his story about Jesus with a reference to the original patriarch—Abram. In the part of Abram's story above, what did Yhwh promise Abram?
- The author of the story from Genesis also has Yhwh predict what will happen to his descendants. What is the name we know this story by?
- Yhwh makes an interesting aside: “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” It appears Yhwh has planned his intention(s) for Abram's descendants at least partially around (with consideration of) the histories of the peoples with whom they are or will be interacting (i.e., the will not immediately inherit the land because it is occupied by others with whom there is not yet just cause to kick them out). Occupying the land promised is an important theme from then until now. Why was it important for Abram to have a child?
- What does the fact that the child born to Abram and Sarai (his wife) had to be a son say about that culture?
- The ritual in which the animals are halved is no longer performed. What do you think about this practice? What was it's primary purpose in the story?
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