Wednesday December 14 Advent 3
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Psalm 119 Part 3
Psalm 119 is a meditation on responding to God’s call to justice. Each of the 176 verses is a variation on the theme of what it means to follow God’s call to justice, using terms such as “command”,”law”, “word”, “statute”, and the like. The psalm is arranged in 22 groups of eight verses—one group for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Within a group, each of the eight verses starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the groups are in Hebrew alphabetical order. So the first group of eight verses all start with A, the second group all start with B and so on. The first seven verses mirror the seven days of creation, with the eighth sometimes pointing to the next group. This very careful construction mirrors God’s creating the universe by overcoming chaos with order.
In the human world, justice, dignity and fulfilment – the outcomes of justice—are the human expressions of order. Thus the human world and the rest of creation are united in the same foundation. Today’s three sections begin with the letters Z, H, and Th (in Hebrew alphabetical order). As you read them, imagine the effect of each line in today’s first section beginning with “Z” and so on.
Isaiah 9: 8-17 What’s Isaiah about?
Nobody is taking God’s warnings seriously—they interpret God’s warnings as accidents from which to build success. Isaiah insults the prophets by calling them the tail of an animal (implying a more vulgar epithet). Isaiah is saying that leading people in faith isn’t a way of getting ahead and those who provide such leadership are causing the downfall of the people and should be considered dung. This is strong language.
How often our culture assumes the normalcy of commending greed as the way to a full society. And so the disaster arrives inevitably. Isaiah is pulling no punches in challenging the norms of society.
Mark 1: 1-8 What’s Mark about?
Mark interprets John the baptist by quoting a passage from Isaiah about preparing the way for God’s new kingdom. The imminent arrival of God’s kingdom—God’s fulfilled society—is the major them in Mark’s gospel. In Mark, Jesus arrives not as a baby but as a full adult. What might the adult consequences be of Jesus’ immanent adult arrival among us?
This week’s collect:
God of power and mercy,
you call us once again
to celebrate the coming of your Son.
Remove those things which hinder love of you,
that when he comes,
he may find us waiting in awe and wonder
for him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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