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The Second Sunday of Advent

Populus Zion

Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Your only-begotten Son, that by His coming we may be enabled to serve You with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Tryptich crucifixion resurrection last judgment.jpg

An Overview

Last week, we began Advent by riding into Jerusalem with Jesus in preparation for Holy Week. As we go backward in the story, we do not find angels or shepherds or a pregnant woman, instead we receive prophecies about the end of the world. This is the true preparation for Christmas: not with nostalgia and roasted chestnuts, but with cursed fig trees and hearts that flee from dissipation and drunkenness. 

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Artwork: The Crucifixion, Francesco Granacci (Francesco di Andrea di Marco) Italian, ca. 1510.  On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 609. This richly detailed triptych was intended for private devotion; an old inventory label on the back indicates that it once belonged to the Stiozzi Ridolfi family. When closed, it could be easily transported. When opened, it offered three scenes for meditation relating to death, resurrection, and the Last Judgment; note how one of the resurrected figures in the Last Judgment looks directly at the viewer. Although the figure scale is inconsistent, the northern-inspired landscape is continuous in all three panels. The superscription at the top of the cross, reading “Jesus Christ King of the Jews,” is rendered in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin letters

 

The Old Testament

Malachi 4:1-6

  • v 1: With a shockingly "non" Christmas-y opening line, we hear that we are firmly dealing with the end days and the judgment of God. Throughout Scripture is the refrain that whereas God once destroyed the earth with water, He will destroy it again with fire. And indeed all will be burned and neither root nor branch will be left. But...

  • v. 2: The one's who fear God's name ("fear, love, and trust in God above all things) will not be burnt, but quite the opposite. They will find healing when the Sun (that is, the bright thing in the sky. See below) of righteousness will rise. Believers will not run in fear as they burn up, but will bounce around like baby cows.

  • v. 3: When the believers calm down from their calf-like bouncing, they will find that the wicked will be nothing more than ashes on their pathways.

  • v. 4: There is no faith without faithfulness. Preparing for the last days includes remembering the law of Moses and keeping the commandments in light of Christ.

  • vv. 5-6: The prophecy ends with a curious statement: "I will send you Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord comes." Mark this in your brain as it will come to fruition in part next week (Advent 3) and the following (Advent 4) when we learn the identity of this Elijah who will prepare the way of the Lord.

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Translation Notes

  • v. 1 & 3: "Lord of Hosts." Hebrew YHVH Sabaoth. The same title ascribed to God in the pre-Communion song called the Sanctus.

  • v. 2: We may get excited about the play on words "Sun (Son) of righteousness." This only works in English and is nothing more than a curiosity. Sun (Shemesh) is a feminine noun, so the "its wings" can only be translated as "its" or "her." Sorry!

  • v. 24: "utter destruction." Hebrew Charam, same root as the Arabic Haram meaning unclean, impure, set aside for destruction. The Lord here is not saying He will destroy the land with, say, fire and brimstone. It will be with unclean, impure, unthinkable things.

The Epistle

Romans 15:4-13

  • v. 4: Paul makes it clear that the Bible (whatever was written in former days) was to teach us so that we might find encouragement, and finding encouragement we might have hope.

  • vv. 5-7: The God who encourages toward endurance will grant Christians harmony, living with one another through shared faith in Christ Jesus.

  • vv. 8-12: Paul shows that he believes his own words -- what was written in former days was written for our instruction, thus he launches into a rapid-fire citation of Scripture passages

    • Psalm 18:49; 2 Samuel 22:50; Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalm 117; Isaiah 11:10.​

    • These passages all point to God providing endurance and hope to the believers who wish to live in harmony with one another.

  • v. 13: In the closing verse of this section, Paul invokes again two of the three theological virtues: faith ("believing) and hope. By leaving out "love" (which endures forever), he is nodding at the fact that we are to understand his rapid fire scripture citations as things that apply to historical, earthly, events, as opposed to eternal events. That is to say, all the prophecies concerning the coming of Christ have already been fulfilled.

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Translation Notes

  • vv. 1 & 5: "endurance." The idea of enduring or remaining is also spoken of by Christ in John 15:4.

  • v. 1 & 5: "Encouragement." Greek -- this word can also mean "comfort" (see "the comforter/advocate" in John 14:16).

  • One has to wonder if Paul has just read John's Last Supper discourse when writing his epistle to the Romans!

The Holy Gospel

Luke 21:25-36

  • v. 25-26: After a brief respite in the gentle words of Paul, we return with Malachi and Christ to the end of the world. This is not a gentle and peaceful end, but the same fiery Great and Awesome Day of the Lord spoken of by Malachi. The burning oven now looks like signs in the sun and moon and stars, distress of nations, perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves (global warming?) people fainting with fear and foreboding of what is coming, and even the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

  • v. 27: After these things occur (after the burning oven has begun to blaze) the Son of Man will come with great power.

  • v. 28: We return again to the time before the Son of Man returns. We are to live in joyful expectation of Christ's return, we lift up our heads because we know (through faith) that our redemption is close at hand.

  • vv. 29-33: Jesus, as He often does, repeats what He just said by way of a parable. Just as the budding fig tree signals that spring is on its way, so also the signs in the heavens and earth signal the end of the world.

  • v. 34: Expounding on verse 28 above, Christ make it clear that those who wish to avoid being turned to Malachi's stubble, must live a life in accord with Scripture. There is no faith without faithfulness. Here, we see Paul's words find a deeper meaning: What was written in former days was written for our instruction and our encouragement. We do not keep the law of God out of fear of punishment, but out of love for our Father who has shown us His love in Christ Jesus. When we pray for strength to withstand and escape all these terrifying things, we know that God will hear and answer the prayers of His faithful people.  As Christ said on the night He was betrayed, "While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled." (John 17:12). Christ has not lost one of us. Nor will He ever.
     

Translation Notes

  • v. 25: "perplexity." Greek aporia. Aporia is also an English word, though its meaning seems to almost mock the original Greek intention. (Merriam Webster)

    • 1 : an expression of real or pretended doubt or uncertainty especially for rhetorical effect

    • 2: a logical impasse or contradiction especially : a radical contradiction in the import of a text or theory that is seen in deconstruction as inevitable.

      • Work this into your everyday speech to sound fancy.​​​

Poetry Used in the Liturgy of Populus Zion

  • The Introit- The Church blends together Psalm 80, Isaiah 62, and Isaiah 30 to create a patchwork quilt of Old Testament passages that speak of the coming of Zion's salvation. We learn that that the Shepherd of Israel is enthroned upon the cherubin and the short song ends with words that joyfully anticipate Christ: But let the hand be on the man of Your right hand / the son of man whom You have made strong for yourself.

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  • Psalm 50: One of the seven "Penitential Psalms." Appropriate not only for Advent, but especially for this Sunday on which we meditate on the end of the world, we should learn to write this psalm on our hearts to pray when we feel weighed down by sin.​​​​​​

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  • ​Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending - a beautifully arranged hymn. The tune is cheerful and bouncing, even though the content is about the judgment that occurs at the end times. Compare this with The Clouds of Judgment Gather. For the Christian, the days leading up to judgment are not filled with fear, but with the same reserved excitedness that we experience in Advent as we wait for Christmas.

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Artwork:  The Prophet Malachi, from "Prophets and Sibyls." Anonymous, Circle of Francesco Rosselli. Italian, 1480–90. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This print is part of a series comprised of twenty-four Prophets and twelve Sibyls, modeled after the series of the same subject by Baccio Baldini (TIB 2403.052-.089). Rosselli's engravings are executed in the Broad Manner and Italianate in style, whereas Baldini's are in the Fine Manner and mostly Germanic in style. Rosselli's prints vary from faithful ciopies of Baldini's prints to loose adapations. This print is closely related to Baccio Baldini's Prophet Malachi (TIB 2403.073) with the exception of the crown, rather than the hood, that Malachi wears.

Malachi.jpg
Last Judgment.jpg

Further Reading & Listening

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Artwork: The Last Judgment, Joos van Cleve. Netherlandish, ca. 1525–30. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 636. This majestic scene is divided into heavenly and earthly zones, which are linked by two hovering angels blowing trumpets. Christ appears at the moment of judgment in a burst of light and color, surrounded by clouds and putti and flanked by the apostles. He blesses the saved, shown at lower left, while Saint Michael shepherds the damned into hell burning in the distance at the right. The nudes in the foreground reflect the artist’s study of prints after Raphael’s designs, and the figure of Christ seems to be inspired by the famous ancient sculpture of the Laocoön.

St. John's Lutheran Church
 

1-307-548-7127

stjohnslovell@gmail.com

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On the Corner of 5th and Montana

Lovell, Wyoming 82431

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