Who are you?

Third Sunday of Advent; 17 December 2023; Advent 3B (RCL); Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8; 19-28.

Before John’s Gospel can move on to the question of who Jesus is (a question at play throughout the entire Gospel), it must settle the question of who John the Baptist is. The Evangelist uses the device of having the Pharisees question the Baptist (the rabbis would have been successors to the Pharisees, and it was to the rabbis that the Evangelist’s community had to make its defense). The Baptist begins by telling us who he is not, in emphatic terms, using the ego eimi formula (with a negative) that Jesus will use in the great I AM statements.

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In it together

Third Sunday of Advent; 13 December 2020; Advent 3B (RCL); Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28.

A good friend of mine spent six months in Lui, South Sudan as a missioner for the Diocese of Missouri. She was there during the long, dry season, when people stood in line for hours at the water hole to get a little water for the day. She watched the store of grain begin to dwindle, while the people waited anxiously for the rainy season.

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A new thing

17 December 2017
Third Sunday of Advent
Advent 3B (RCL)

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

The last part of the book of Isaiah (Chapters 40-65) has often been treated as a work entirely separate from the first part in time, location and occasion. Sometimes, it is even broken down into two parts of its own: DeuteroIsaiah (40-55) and TritoIsaiah (56-66). While it is clear that Chapters 1-39 deal with circumstances before the fall of Jerusalem in 539 BCE, and the last half deals with circumstances during Exile and after the return, yet it also seems clear that Chapters 40-66 have always circulated with the rest of the book, and in fact serve as a reflection on and interpretation of the prophecies of the first half viewed in new circumstances. Continue reading “A new thing”