30 Saint Andrew the Apostle

December

    1 Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, 1637
    2 Channing Moore Williams, Missionary Bishop in China and Japan, 1910
    3 Francis Xavier, Missionary to the Far East, 1552
    4 John of Damascus, Priest, c. 760 was a Syrian monk and priest. Born and raised in Damascus, he died at his monastery, Mar Saba, near Jerusalem.[1]
    5 Clement of Alexandria, Priest, c. 210 known as Clement of Alexandria to distinguish him from the earlier Clement of Rome, was a Christian theologian who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria.
    6 Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c. 342.



OLD TESTAMENT:  Isaiah 64: 1 - 9  (RCL)
                                    Isaiah 63: 16b - 17, 64: 1, 3 - 8  (Roman Catholic)

Isai 63:16 (NRSV)
[Y]ou, O LORD, are our father;
our Redeemer from of old is your name.
17 Why, O LORD, do you make us stray from your ways
and harden our heart, so that we do not fear you?
Turn back for the sake of your servants,
for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage.

64:1 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence-
2 as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil-
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
5 You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD,
and do not remember iniquity forever.
Now consider, we are all your people.

Note: Verse numbering in Roman Catholic Bibles is different from the above


PSALM 80: 1 - 7, 17 - 19   (RCL)
               80: 1 - 2, 14 - 15, 17 - 18   (Roman Catholic)

Psal 80:1 (NRSV) Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
2 before E'phraim and Benjamin and Manas'seh.
Stir up your might,
and come to save us!
3 Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.
4 O LORD God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people's prayers?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears,
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
6 You make us the scorn of our neighbors;
our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches;
11 it sent out its branches to the sea,
and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, O God of hosts;
look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
15 the stock that your right hand planted.
16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
the one whom you made strong for yourself.
18 Then we will never turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call on your name.
19 Restore us, O LORD God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.

Note: Verse numbering in Roman Catholic Bibles differs slightly from the above.
Verse numbering in your Psalter may also differ from the above.


80   Qui regis Israel  (ECUSA BCP)

1      Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; *
 shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.

2      In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, *
 stir up your strength and come to help us.

3      Restore us, O God of hosts; *
 show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

4      O Lord God of hosts, *
 how long will you be angered
 despite the prayers of your people?

5      You have fed them with the bread of tears; *
 you have given them bowls of tears to drink.

6      You have made us the derision of our neighbors, *
 and our enemies laugh us to scorn.

7  Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.
 

16  Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, *
 and son of man you have made so strong for yourself.

17  And so will we never turn away from you; *
 give us life, that we may call upon your Name.

18  Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; *
 show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.


NEW TESTAMENT:  1 Corinthians 1: 3 - 9   (RCL, Roman Catholic)

1Cor 1:3 (NRSV) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind-- 6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you-- 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

h/t Montreal Anglican

Paul greets his readers: he wishes them “grace” (God’s freely given gift of love) and “peace” (the total state of well-being to which we are admitted through Christ): both come from the Father (as source) and the Son (as means or agent). In later chapters, Paul cautions his readers against misuse of spiritual gifts (v. 7), so in v. 5 he may be damning them with faint praise. He praises their eloquence (“speech”) and understanding (“knowledge”) but not (as in other letters) their faith, hope and love for each other and for Christ. In v. 6, “testimony” is bearing witness: God has strengthened them through their telling of the good news. They are indeed richly blessed (v. 7), but (as mentioned later), they tend to dwell on the excitement of the present rather than looking forward to “the revealing of ... Christ”, his second coming. God will help them prepare for that day, so that they may be among those judged worthy of eternal life (“blameless”, v. 8). God is “faithful” (v. 9): he will not abandon what he has begun. He has called them into “fellowship”, union with other believers which is union with Christ.

Verse 1: “Sosthenes”: He may be the “official of the synagogue” who was beaten: see Acts 18:17. [ NOAB] The absence of Timothy’s name probably indicates that he is already on the way to Corinth. He is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1:1 (a letter probably written, in part, before this one).

Verse 1: “an apostle”: For Paul’s call, see Galatians 1:15-16; 2 Corinthians 4:5-6; Acts 9:1-9; 22:6-11. Paul sees apostleship as being wider than the Twelve: see 15:5, 7.

Verse 2: “saints”: Those set apart for God’s work. [ CAB]

Verse 2: “together with all those ...”: Probably a reminder that Paul’s readers are not the only Christians. In 11:16, Paul writes: “But if anyone is disposed to be contentious – we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God” and in 2 Corinthians 1:1 “To the church of God that is in Corinth, including all the saints throughout Achaia”. [ NJBC]

Verse 5: Gifts mentioned in other letters are missing from this introductory section:
Faith, hope and caritas (fraternal love)     1 Thessalonians 1:3
Faith     Romans 1:8
Partnership in the gospel     Philippians 1:5 [ NJBC]

Verse 7: “spiritual gift”: For rules for using them, see chapters 12-14.

Comments: (as mentioned later): Dwelling on the excitement of the present rather than looking forward to “the revealing of ... Christ”, his second coming, is the essence of the argument Paul will make in chapters 12-14. There Paul is saying first that:
there is excessive pride in the exercise of each one's spiritual gifts, to the point of arrogantly insisting that one's own gifts are normative for the whole community, and
they are getting carried away in worship time with their prophecies and speaking in tongues.

The gifts with which they are blessed must be put into perspective. True perspective comes from love (chapter 13), maturity and humility. [Alan T Perry]

Verse 7: “as you wait”: A reminder that the fullness of God’s revelation is in the future, probably necessary because of the Corinthian Christians excitement over what they already experience. [ NJBC]

Verse 8: “He will also strengthen you”: In 10:13 Paul writes: “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength ...”.

Verse 8: “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ”: A Christian adaptation of the Day of Yahweh: see Amos 5:18 and Joel 3:14; Acts 2:20. See also 1 Corinthians 3:13; 4:3. [ NJBC]

Verse 9: “God is faithful”: See also 10:13 and 1 Thessalonians 5:24. [ NJBC]

Verse 9: “you were called”: In the Greek, hoi kletoi , the called ones. See also 2:2, 24; Romans 1:6, 7; 8:28. Implicit in the call to salvation ( 7:15, 22; Galatians 1:6; 5:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:7) is the call to glory (Romans 8:28-30; Philippians 3:14; 1 Thessalonians 2:12), whose author is always God (Galatians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:24). [ NJBC]

Verse 9: “called into the fellowship”: The Greek word is koinonia. To Paul, it is the vital union of believers among themselves, which is their union with Christ. Their shared existence as members of his body (see 12:12-27) is highlighted in the Eucharist (see 10:16-17). [ NJBC]


GOSPEL  Mark 13: 24 - 37  (RCL)
                  Mark 13: 33 - 37   (Roman Catholic)

Mark 13:24 (NRSV) "But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
25 and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
26 Then they will see "the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory. 27 Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
28 "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
32 "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35 Therefore, keep awake--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36 or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake."

In v. 2, Jesus has prophesied the destruction of the Temple to the disciples. Then Peter, James, John and Andrew (the first four he called) have asked him: “when will this be ... ?” (v. 4). How will we know when “these things” are about to happen? He has told them of persecution, of strange natural phenomena, of societal breakdown, of the fate of the disciples. The portents will be wars, earthquakes and famines (vv. 7-8). The end will come suddenly; people will suffer greatly. It is only because God, in his mercy, has “cut short those days” (v. 20) that the elect, the godly, will be saved. Even they will be tempted by other messiahs.

Now we come to our reading. “In those days” (v. 24) there will be darkness: a sign of the coming of divine judgement (as in Isaiah 13:10). The elect will see “the Son of Man”, a superhuman person with heavenly power and glory, coming to inherit his kingdom (v. 26, as prophesied Daniel 7:13). He will bring the godly together (as in Isaiah 11:11) from all over the world. (Winds were thought to originate at the four corners of the earth.) By implication, the “Son of Man” (v. 26) is the true Messiah, Christ come the second time. Jesus admonishes his followers to “keep alert” (v. 33) for this coming. The leafing of the “fig tree” (v. 28) is a sure harbinger of summer; similarly, when they see “these things”, the End is near, very near (v. 29), but when is the Father’s prerogative. The images are those of apocalyptic (vision of the future) literature, popular in Jesus’ day.

The parallels to this chapter are Matthew 24:1-36 and Luke 21:5-36.

Verse 1: The construction of the third Temple, started by Herod the Great, was still underway in Jesus’ day. Most of the “large stones” were some 11 metres (34 feet) long by 6 metres (19 feet) wide by 4 metres (13 feet) thick. [ NOAB]

Verse 2: This Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Jesus’ prediction of its destruction is also found in 14:57-58; 15:29 (on the Cross); Matthew 26:61 (Jesus before the High Priest); Luke 19:43-44 (Jesus weeps over Jerusalem); John 2:19 (Jesus cleanses the Temple); Acts 6:14 (the arrest of Stephen). [ NOAB] Jesus stands in the tradition of Old Testament prophets who had predicted this event: see Micah 3:12 (“... Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins ...”) and Jeremiah 26:18. However, in that other events mentioned in this passage seem to be meant symbolically, so may this event. [ NJBC]

Verse 3: “on the Mount of Olives”: Zechariah 14:4 prophesies a day when God will intervene in human affairs, standing on the Mount of Olives, so the scene for Jesus’ eschatological discourse is highly appropriate. See also 11:1. [ NJBC]

Verse 4: In Luke 17:20, Jesus says: “‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you’”. [ NOAB]

Verses 5-14: To NOAB, the audience was wider than the first four disciples, named in v. 13.

Verse 6: In John 8:24, Jesus tells some Jews “‘I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he’”. 1 John 2:18 warns: “As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come”. [ NOAB]

Verse 6: “will come in my name”: More than Jewish messianic pretenders (e.g. Theudas and Judas the Galilean, in Acts 5:36-37) seem to be in view here, for they will come in Christ’s name. See also vv. 21-23. [ NJBC]

Verse 6: “I am he!”: This phrase must allude to the Old Testament revelation formula (see Exodus 3:14, God tells Moses “‘I AM WHO I AM’”; Deuteronomy 32:39, “See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god beside me”; Isaiah 41:4, “I, the Lord, am first, and will be with the last”) applied to Yahweh, thus contributing the implicit christological message of the text. [ NJBC]

Verse 8: “birthpangs”: At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, he said that the new era “has come near” (see 1:15 and Matthew 4:17); however, per v. 10, it will arrive only after a time of witness to his message. [ NOAB] As pain precedes (and portends) birth of a child, so suffering will precede the arrival of the new era.

Verses 9-13: See also Matthew 10:17-22. [ NOAB]

Verse 9: “hand you over”: The persecution of the disciples points forward to Jesus’ sufferings. The verb, paradidomi, is the same one found in Jesus’ prediction of his Passion in 10:33. [ NJBC]

Verse 9: “councils”: The Greek word, synedria, refers to local Jewish courts empowered to punish Jewish offenders. [ NJBC]

Verse 10: V. 11 naturally flows from v. 9, so NJBC’s observation that the vocabulary is typically Marcan suggests that this verse is an insertion by the author. Further, if Jesus was so explicit about the mission to Gentiles, why was there a debate in the early Church over this mission? See Galatians 2 and Acts 15 (the Council of Jerusalem).

Verse 11: In John 14:26, Jesus says: “‘... the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you”. See also John 16:7-11 and Luke 12:11-12. [ NOAB]

Verse 12: “Brother will betray brother”: The idea of the end-times as a time of societal breakdown is common in contemporary Jewish apocalyptic writings: see, for example, 2 Esdras 5:9; 6:24; Jubilees 23:19; 2 Baruch 70:3. [ NJBC]

Verse 13: See also John 15:18-21 (“If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you ...”) [ NOAB]

Verse 13: “the one who endures to the end will be saved”: There is a message of patient endurance throughout the passage. [ NJBC]

Verses 14-23: By foretelling the events described in these verses, Jesus prepares his followers for what they will encounter. [ NJBC]

Verse 14: “the desolating sacrilege”: This would remind Jesus’ hearers of the desecration of the Temple: in 168 BC, Antiochus IV Epiphanes set up a statue of Olympian Zeus in the Temple; indeed, he tried to wipe out Judaism. Jesus’ inclusion of reference to a second such sacrilege leads me to think that the other signs of the end of the era should not be taken literally. Jesus is probably speaking symbolically of the elevation of the Roman emperor to being a god and the destruction of the Temple (and with it, the termination of the Judaic sacrificial system) or of general desertion of God’s ways. Note also that the Roman governor Caligula gave a similar order in 40 AD for a statue of himself as Jupiter to be placed in the Temple. [ CAB] See 1 Maccabees 1:54 (“they [the agents of Antiochus] erected a desolating sacrifice on the altar of burnt offering”); 1:59 (“... they offered sacrifice on the altar that was on top of the altar of burnt offering”); Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11.

When this happens, the faithful must flee to the countryside immediately.

Verse 14: “(let the reader understand)”: This comment may refer to the events leading up to the destruction of the Temple or of Caligula’s abortive plan. Perhaps the phrase is a code intended to avoid Roman hostility.

Verse 17: In Luke 23:29, Jesus says “For the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed’”. [ NOAB]

Verse 18: The cold and rainy winters in Palestine would make rural tracks almost impassable. There would be no crops then from which the refugees might be fed. [ NJBC]

Verse 19: “suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation”: So Jesus speaks not of warfare, but of something much more serious. This alludes to Daniel 12:1: “There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence.” [ NJBC]

Verse 20: “if the Lord had not cut short those days”: Daniel 12:7 suggests that God has established a time schedule for the coming of the Kingdom. For the idea of shortening the time, see two contemporary apocalyptic books: 1 Enoch 80:2; 2 Baruch 20:1-2; 83:1, 6. [ NJBC]

Verse 22: In Matthew 7:15, Jesus warns: “‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves’”. See also John 4:48. [ NOAB]

Verse 23: “I have already told you everything”: NJBC offers I have foretold to you all these things.

Verses 24-27: The images of cosmic signs, the Son of Man, and the gathering of the chosen are all found in the Old Testament, but here they are brought together, with the second coming of Jesus, “the Son of Man”, as the key event. His glorious arrival will be the final proof of God’s victory over the forces of evil. The Old Testament texts echoed are Isaiah 13:10; 34:4; Ezekiel 32:7; Amos 8:9; Joel 2:10, 31; 3:15; Haggai 2:6, 21, but in no instance does such an image precede the coming of the Son of Man. The list of portents is a way of saying that all creation will signal his coming. [ NJBC]

Verse 26: “they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’”: Daniel 7:13 says “As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him.” An NRSV footnote says that “human being” is son of man in the Aramaic original. See also 8:38; Matthew 10:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. [ NOAB] To Mark, “the Son of Man” is clearly Jesus, not the human figure in angelic form of Daniel 7:13. Whether Jesus spoke of himself as “the Son of Man” is debated, but see 14:61-62. [ NJBC]

Verse 27: “he will ... gather his elect from the four winds”: In Zechariah 2:6, Yahweh disperses the chosen. God’s gathering of the chosen is found in Deuteronomy 30:4; Isaiah 11:11, 16; 27:12; Ezekiel 39:27 and elsewhere in the Old Testament and in contemporary Jewish writings. [ NJBC]

Verse 30: “this generation”: The normal meaning of this phrase would be the people of our time, and the words would refer to the next twenty to thirty years; however, what Jesus meant is uncertain. In 9:1, Jesus says: “‘Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power’”. [ NOAB] V. 32 should be noted: only the Father knows when the end-times will be. [ NJBC]

Verse 31: Jesus emphasizes the divine authority of his teaching in the language of Isaiah 51:6 and 40:8. [ NJBC] See also Matthew 5:18 and Luke 16:17. [ NOAB]

Verse 32: In Acts 1:6-7, the disciples ask Jesus: “‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’”. He replies: “‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority’”. [ NOAB]

Verse 33: Ephesians 6:18 says “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints”. See also Colossians 4:2. [ NOAB]

Verse 34: See also Matthew 25:14-30 (the Parable of the Talents). [ NOAB]

Verse 35: See also Luke 12:35-40 (“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit ...”). In Palestine, the night was divided into four parts. [ NOAB]