Son of man – A Preacher’s Ponderings

A grain of wheat

Fifth Sunday in Lent; 17 March 2024; Lent 4B (RCL); Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-13; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33.

I believe this is one of the central passages of John’s Gospel, and key to interpreting the whole. John loves the device I call parenthesis. He opens the device with a parenthesis (like Jesus addressing the plural you telling us that we will see visions of angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man) and then keeps us in suspense until he closes it (with Mary’s vision of angels in the empty tomb). Here, John open the parenthesis with the mention of “certain Greeks,” and then leaves us in suspense, and never closes it.

Last days?

First Sunday of Advent; 3 December 2023; Advent 1B (RCL); Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37.

Always on the First Sunday of Advent, we have readings suggestive of ‘last days’ or the ‘Second Coming’ of Christ. In the Corinthians passage, Paul expresses his confidence that God will hold the Corinthians blameless until “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the passage from Mark, Jesus begins with the phrase “in those days, and after that suffering,” and then refers to the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds with great power and glory. And the author if Isaiah prays passionately and eloquently that God would tear open the heavens and come down. What, exactly, are we expecting?