Sunday, November 28 begins our year-long reading through the Gospel of Matthew. The lectionary (as Ray Webster likes to say, the “batting order” of Scripture lessons that we read each Sunday) consists of a three-year cycle of readings: A, B, and C. We use a lectionary called the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL, for short). It was created by the Roman Catholic Church in the 1980’s, but is based on the traditional pattern of seasonal and yearly readings that most liturgical churches were already accustomed to using. In fact, the first complete lectionaries of Christian Scripture date back to the seventh century! Today almost all Roman Catholic and Mainline Protestant denominations (Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc.) follow the RCL.
All of last year we read from the Gospel of Luke in year C. This Advent we begin again in year A with the Gospel of Matthew (you guessed it – Mark is read in year B!). During various seasons of the year, notably Christmas, Lent, and Easter, we will read from the Gospel of John. To summarize, here’s how the Gospel readings in our lectionary work: beginning with Advent each year, we read Matthew in year A; Mark in year B; and Luke in year C. John does not have its own year, but is read on important days (Christmas Day) or during important seasons (Lent) every year. We will say more about how John differs from the first three Gospels when we begin to engage readings from that book in the Christmas season.
You may have noticed in church that our Old Testament readings over the last few weeks have been more hopeful. Look back at Jeremiah 23:1-6, where God promises that good leaders will “shepherd” God’s people. Or, read this upcoming Sunday’s lesson from Isaiah 2:1-5: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” All of the sorrowful and war-like images painted for us over the course of the summer and fall are resolving into images of a renewed and peaceful creation.
At the same time, however, our Gospel readings have taken a darker turn. A few weeks ago Jesus forecast the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and last week we witnessed his crucifixion. This upcoming Sunday’s reading is Matthew 24:36-44, a passage of Scripture whose theme is the necessity for watchfulness. Here are some things to think about as you read the Gospel lesson from Matthew:
Apocalyptic: When you think about “the coming of the Son of Man,” or “the day your Lord is coming,” there are probably some cultural images that rise to the surface for you. A term that comes to mind is “apocalyptic.” In everyday speech, apocalyptic describes books and stories like On the Beach, The Road, “By the Waters of Babylon” or movies like “28 Days Later” and “Quiet Earth.” In biblical studies, apocalyptic is a genre of speech or writing that is vividly descriptive or revelatory – in fact, the word apocalypse means to reveal or to uncover something. Apocalyptic language is meant to tear down our everyday ways of thinking about things so we can see things in a different way. Or, as Paul implies in this upcoming Sunday’s epistle, apocalyptic language uncovers for us a reality that we may not perceive: “the night is far gone, the day is near” (Romans 13:12).
Jesus’ language in this passage from Matthew is apocalyptic. The reality that he is seeking to uncover is the immediacy of the Kingdom of God. Some of the images he presents sound a little bit like cultural apocalyptic (“two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left”); yet he himself admits, “about that day and hour no one knows” (Matt. 24:36). If the words that Jesus uses to describe the arrival of God’s kingdom are not scientifically precise, then what can we know?
The Kingdom of God: We can know something about what God’s kingdom looks like. This is where the rest of our lectionary readings come into play this week. Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122, and Romans 13:11-14 contain messages of peace, unity, and light. There is an end to war, people who have lived in fear worship together, and others are given strength to live honorably, as though all of their thoughts and deeds could be laid bare in the light of day. This world is the one that Jesus is “apocalypsing” to his hearers. It is a world about which the psalmist can say, “Peace be within your walls/ and quietness within your towers.” However, Jesus does indicate that the arrival of this reign of peace and light will disrupt something about the world as we know it. I don’t think that there will be a day when the person sitting in the office next to you is whisked away. I do think that Jesus may be trying to tell us that not every person buys into this vision of the Kingdom of God. It takes a lot of courage – and grace – to believe that the biblical dream of unity and peace is what is “really real,” but it is our job to be watchful, and to search our own hearts and the world around us for signs of it.
What better time to be searching than in Advent?
(The Rev. Danielle Thompson)
(The Rev. Danielle Thompson)
