Advent Week Four: Isaiah, Christ, and the Spiritual Power Struggle

We are in the midst of a power struggle between the world and God, between the sacred and secular. In Matthew 1:18-25, the Gospel reading for the fourth Sunday of advent, the author quotes a prophecy out of Isaiah that presents a sign to the wavering King Ahaz that God is all powerful; a child will be born, called Immanuel meaning God with us, and before he is old enough to understand right and wrong the two kingdoms that Ahaz feared would be destroyed. Many believe that though this prophecy was aimed at Isaiah’s immediate context, it also serves as a foreshadowing of Christ. What’s so striking is that in the same way that Christ’s birth accents the power struggle between God and the world, the situation in which Isaiah made the prophecy also shows the struggle between the vulnerable power of God and the macho, strutting power of the world.

Isaiah 7:10-16 (New International Version)
10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.”
13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you[a] a sign: The virgin[b] will conceive and give birth to a son, and[c] will call him Immanuel.[d] 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

Ahaz claimed that he did not want to test the Lord, yet his blatant hypocrisy proved more offensive to God than asking for a sign. He said that he wouldn’t test the Lord because he was afraid that God would not be able to produce a sign. He didn’t believe that God could protect his nation from the other nations who were bent on destroying them. Instead he decided to place his faith in another nation, and he was destroyed.
Do we sometimes face the temptation to place our faith in another power? Maybe we’re not so sure that God will come through for us? In 1 Kings, the prophet Elijah ran for his life from Jezebel because she wanted to exact retribution against him for murdering the prophets of Ba’al. While running, God appeared to Elijah and spoke to him, but it was not in a way that we would typically expect God to appear.

1 Kings 19:9-14
9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.
And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

God’s voice did not come in an earthquake or a great fire; it came in a small whisper. God could have addressed Elijah in a great manner similar to the way he sent fire to light the altar, but instead God’s sign to Him came in the quiet.

God sometimes made a great show of His signs, usually in an exasperated attempt to catch the attention of an unconcerned audience. Yet, when it came to His greatest personal appearance and revealing on Earth, He chose to come in the most unlikely of figures, a child. His power was revealed in the vulnerability of a child, which ultimately is more powerful than the military might, financial prosperity, and prideful fame that world offers.

Streaming Towards Zion: Lectionary Use as a Form of Global Christian Unity

{Isaiah 2:1-5}
1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: 2 In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. 3 Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. 5 Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD .

What is a lectionary, and why should we use it? Is it something manmade that bears all of the marks and makings of the Roman Catholic Church, is it meant only for congregations who light candles and do responsive readings, and should the Mennonite Church and Anabaptist tradition even approach it?
Isaiah 2:1-5, the Old Testament lectionary reading for November 28th, sheds light on some of these questions. In the passage, Isaiah sees a vision of all nations streaming towards Zion, that mountain of the Lord. I find this verbal indicator so interesting; the nations were not “heading” nor were they “traveling” or “walking”, they were streaming. This description emphasizes constant, rapid flow and movement. It gives the visual of a massive body of people, not a small scattering. There is purpose, there is destination, and everyone is involved. Toward what end were the people streaming?
Isaiah gives us a picture of unity and solidarity in which all nations are seeking God and His teachings for our lives; this is an image that is so difficult to subscribe to these days when we are surrounded by so many divisions within the church and divisions between the church and the world.
Yet in recent years there has been a trend towards a more ecumenical movement (meaning a unified and worldwide Christian church) between congregations and denominations, including even the Catholic Church. And the Revised Common Lectionary emerged from that movement.
But before we address the Revised Common Lectionary, we have to ask, what is a lectionary? Marlene Kropf, associate professor at AMBS writes that the lectionary is “An ordered system of selected Bible readings” which “provides four texts for every Sunday over a three-year period. The four readings are drawn respectively from the Old Testament and the Psalms, the Epistles (and Revelation), and the Gospels.” She continues that “The purpose is to provide a witness to the unity of the Old and New Testaments and to proclaim the whole story of salvation. God’s plan for redemption is announced and initiated in the Old Testament and reaches its fulfillment in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through the witness of the church, the gospel is proclaimed to all generations.” (Kropf “About the Lectionary”)
The lectionary is divided up into three years, A, B, and C, with the primary Gospel text being different in each year. Year A focuses mostly on Matthew, year B on Mark, and year C centers on Luke, with the Gospel of John being used sporadically throughout the other years, especially during holidays like Easter and Christmas. The Old Testament readings also follow a pattern along with the years, with year A exploring Israel’s early history, year B looking at Davidic texts and wisdom literature as well as Ruth, and year C delving into the prophetic literature.
The readings are specially arranged for the Church year and develop specific themes around certain times of the holiday. Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and so on all have specific texts that help us to center on the Biblical event and discover our place in the continuing implications of those occasions. During the time after Pentecost and before Advent, called “Ordinary Time”, the different readings are not coordinated together, but instead are meant to be read or preached sequentially, which Dr. Horace T. Allen Jr., Co-Chair of the English Language Liturgical Consultation, which had a heavy hand in the Revised Common Lectionary, notes “is borrowed directly from the synagogue’s use of the Torah and the subsequent practice of the churches of the first several centuries.” He continues by explaining that “the public reading of the scriptures was never originally conceived simply as source texts for preaching, but rather as the only possible way (emphasis added) to acquaint the congregation with as much of the scriptures as possible.”
Nowadays, when we discuss the lectionary we may think of the Catholic or Anglican Church, not realizing that the idea of reading certain sets of scripture during certain times of year has been in existence since before the early church. However, in the second half of the last century, many Christians from numerous denominations and backgrounds worked very hard to develop an ecumenical lectionary, one that could break the boundaries of being labeled as “Catholic.” And so this cycle of Scripture can and is being used by a variety of churches, including now Oak Grove.
This year, we will be exploring scripture through the lens of the lectionary, which in some capacity serves as a present day fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. And there is an amazing significance to this. As Dr. Allen points out, by using the lectionary, many of the churches that separated from each other during the Reformation are now worshipping together again in spirit because they are reading from the same scripture every Sunday. And the Mennonite church, which was historically ostracized and martyred by both the Catholic Church and the Reformed Churches, now has an opportunity to offer forgiveness and join their Christian brothers and sisters across the world in hearing the Word together. And so, all nations, America and Canada, France and Korea, Germany and Brazil, can share in the Holy act of discovering Scripture together. And all Christians, Mennonite and Baptist, Lutheran and Episcopalian, Protestant and Catholic, can stream towards Zion and lay prostrate at the feet of God, praising His name and absorbing His teachings.

My first 13 hour day...

As Erin and I sit in the mission house after our incredibly long day, I cannot help but marvel at how much we've experienced so far. This weekend, the interns and Mission Indy staff along with a few others went to Camp Allendale for a retreat. Throughout the weekend, a miraculous transformation occurred in which relative strangers managed to share their lives together and overcome great obstacles. Specifically, we went through a "low ropes course" and conquered the wall, which, if you don't know, is a thirteen foot wall in which every member of the team needs to get over by using their own strength and bodies. There are no ropes, ladders, or footholds; we had to rely on the strength of one another. Erin also helped to coordinate a prayer labyrinth, in which we prayed for various components of the summer. This really helped me to regain my focus for the mission at hand. Fast forward to today, our first training day. Today was instrumental for us learning more about Mission Indy and about the plight of the inner city. There are really too many experiences to recount, but let me leave you with this. We were all assigned various businesses to go into and interview about their services. These businesses tended to be on the "shady" side, and in fact served to extort people who live here. Some in the group compared grocery prices between convenience stores and chain stores, since many residents do not drive and shop locally. Some explored the seedy underbelly of pawn shops, while others interviewed an employee at the local Rent-A-Center. Abby and I went to learn more about the check cashing/cash advance stores. If you want to really understand how shady these places are, we were turned down by two different stores before we finally went to someone who was willing to answer a few simple questions. At the first store, we were routed around a bit until we finally spoke with a lady who looked incredibly uncomfortable the entire time, continued to refer us to corporate, and eventually told us that she couldn't answer any questions. All I wanted to know was how they worked. At the second store, the guy told us he was too busy: there was nobody else there! Finally, we were able to speak to somebody, and it was somewhat revealing. The tie that bound all of these places, though, was this: each of these businesses serves to keep poor people poor. We talk so much about how everyone has an opportunity to pick themselves up and blah blah blah. Let me tell you this: you cannot pick yourself up very easily in a system designed to hold you down. If you live in a neighborhood with no jobs, no banks, no affordable grocery stores, no affordable housing or places to buy appliances, and every business that is in the area is going to charge you outrageous fees or interest or prices in order to obtain the basic necessities, and you don't have a car to go anywhere else, you are being held down by the system. You do not have the same opportunity as someone living outside of that neighborhood. And it has nothing to do with money; if money were the issue, you would just live with less. But if everyone is stealing the little money that you have, than there is a problem. I'm not saying that urban folk are innocent victims; however, I am challenging the belief that they are simply making poor choices. Rather, they are making the same poor choices that we make, but they are not given the choice or freedom to live with even the convenience of fairly cashing their checks without somebody taking a percentage.
I shall end with this thought: we speak so much of justice in this country. We believe that we should have the right to enforce our brand of justice on other nations. We believe that we should receive the utmost justice, so we sue everyone. Yet the greatest injustices are happening all around us, when we allow for legal businesses to oppress those who cannot afford or do not have the opportunity to turn elsewhere. And that is just wrong.

Not so culture-shock

So, I am back in Indianapolis. After only a few short months, I have returned, and to be honest, not much has changed. Homeless people, prostitutes, drug runners, and children without much of a future still roam the streets. I have experienced all of this before. In fact, I have done this twice now. For the past two years I have spent my spring breaks up here with Erin and some friends from Milligan experiencing the plight of the inner city and learning how to serve as Christ would have us to. And yet, I still felt a little bit of "not so culture-shock" as I entered the city. There are homeless people and drug issues in Johnson City, TN, but the liquor store/check cashing store that was still open as I cruised into the city late Wednesday night hailed a different kind of despair than what is present down south. As I consider the warning to stay inside of our house after dark, I wonder how much I really understand the fear and violence that this environment contains for the people living here every day. After all, I've never been held up at gun or knife point. I've never had my car or house broken into and my things stolen. This summer is going to be different, but its going to be good. And I pray that God opens my eyes and heart to what I believe he calls me and the church in general to do, and that is to love and serve others as ourselves, which includes the businessman and the heroine addict. I pray that I am challenged, stretched, and that I go from here and use what I have been taught.