NEW TESTAMENT Philippians 1: 3 - 11 (RCL)
Philippians 1: 4 - 6, 8 - 11 (Roman Catholic)

Phil 1:3 (NRSV) I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.


Notes

h/t montreal Anglican

Christians are “saints” in that they constitute “in Christ” God’s holy people.

“praying with joy” (v. 4, a pervasive quality of the book), because of their participation (“sharing”, v. 5) in spreading the good news, “from the first day”, since their conversion.

Paul is in prison for the faith, and not for a crime. Paul being in chains is a special grace rather than an evil:

his prayer for them: may they grow in love of God through knowing more of the Christian reality, marked by keen awareness of its meaning (“insight”), that they may discern the difference being Christians makes (“best”), so that when Christ comes again, they may be ready - having achieved a right relationship with God (“harvest of righteousness”






GOSPEL Luke 3: 1 - 6 (all)

Luke 3:1 (NRSV) In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tibe'rius, when Pon'tius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Her'od was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Iturae'a and Trachoni'tis, and Lysa'nias ruler of Abile'ne, 2 during the high priesthood of An'nas and Ca'iaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechari'ah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isai'ah,
"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"


Notes

h/t montreal Anglican

Luke places an event (John’s ministry) in the context of rulers

o Luke, “all flesh” (v. 6), all people, not only Jews, will have the opportunity to be rescued from sin.

Various groups, including the Qumran Community, expressed their unhappiness with the Jewish religious authorities by moving out into the wild country around Jerusalem. Members of the Qumran community applied Isaiah 40:3 (quoted in v. 4) to themselves, as they prepared the Lord’s way by living in the desert and by separating themselves from outsiders

It is interesting that the proportions of the ruins at Qumran are the same as those of the Temple; they saw themselves as the true Judaism. The “wilderness” (desert) was also where God led Israel and formed a covenant marriage with them:

“baptism”: At the time, per the Mishnah, it was the practice to baptise converts to Judaism, but John’s call was to Israelites. Ceremonial purification by water has deep biblical roots: