·
1 Charles de Foucauld, Hermit in the Sahara, 1916
·
3 Francis Xavier, Jesuit Missionary, Apostle of the Indies, 1552
·
4 John of Damascus, Monk,
Teacher of the Faith, c.749 "the golden
speaker") was a Syrian monk and priest. Born and raised
in Damascus c. 675 or
676, he died at his monastery, Mar Saba, near Jerusalem on 4 December 749.[1]
·
4 Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little
Gidding Community, 1637
·
6 Nicholas, Bishop of Myra,
c.326 was an early Christian bishop of the ancient Greek city of Myra in Asia Minor(modern-day Demre, Turkey) during
the time of the Roman Empire.[7] He is revered
by many Christians as a saint.[8] Because of
the many miraclesattributed to his intercession, he is also known
as Nicholas the Wonderworker.[c] Saint
Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors,
merchants, archers, repentant
thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, and students in
various cities and countries around Europe.
·
7 Ambrose, Bishop
of Milan, Teacher of the Faith, 397
OLD TESTAMENT Jeremiah 33: 14 - 16 (RCL, Roman Catholic)
Jere 33:14 (NRSV)
The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I
made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at
that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall
execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be
saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will
be called "The LORD is our righteousness."
PSALM 25: 1 - 10
(RCL)
Psalm 25: 1 - 4, 8 -
10, 14 (Roman Catholic)
Psal 25:1 (NRSV)
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you
I trust;
do not let me be
put to shame;
do not let my
enemies exult over me.
3 Do not let those
who wait for you be put to shame;
let them be
ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4 Make me to know
your ways, O LORD;
teach me your
paths.
5 Lead me in your
truth, and teach me,
for you are the
God of my salvation;
for you I wait all
day long.
6 Be mindful of
your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love,
for they have been
from of old.
7 Do not remember
the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your
steadfast love remember me,
for your goodness'
sake, O LORD!
8 Good and upright
is the LORD;
therefore he
instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the
humble in what is right,
and teaches the
humble his way.
10 All the paths
of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep
his covenant and his decrees.
14 The friendship
of the LORD is for those who fear him,
and he makes his
covenant known to them.
Note: Verse numbering
may differ in your Psalter.
25 Ad te, Domine,
levavi (ECUSA BCP)
1 To
you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
my God, I put my
trust in you; *
let
me not be humiliated,
nor
let my enemies triumph over me.
2 Let
none who look to you be put to shame; *
let
the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.
3 Show
me your ways, O Lord, *
and
teach me your paths.
4 Lead
me in your truth and teach me, *
for
you are the God of my salvation;
in
you have I trusted all the day long.
5 Remember,
O Lord, your compassion and love,
*
for
they are from everlasting.
6 Remember
not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; *
remember
me according to your love
and
for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.
7 Gracious
and upright is the Lord; *
therefore
he teaches sinners in his way.
8 He
guides the humble in doing right *
and
teaches his way to the lowly.
9 All
the paths of the Lord are love and
faithfulness *
to
those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
NEW TESTAMENT 1 Thessalonians 3: 9 - 13 (RCL)
1The 3:9 (NRSV)
How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel
before our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we
may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.
11 Now may our God
and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. 12 And may the
Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as
we abound in love for you. 13 And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness
that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord
Jesus with all his saints.
Paul predicted, when he
was in Thessalonika, that some Christians there would be persecuted. This has
now happened; he has sent Timothy to “strengthen and encourage you for the sake
of your faith, so no one would be shaken by these persecutions” (vv. 2-3).
Timothy has now returned to Paul in Athens, and has conveyed to him “the good
news of your faith and love” (v. 6).
Indeed, their faith has encouraged Paul in facing persecution himself.
Now he considers their
prayer for him to be a debt to be repaid (“in return”, v. 9).
Even though he lives continually in gratitude to, and dependence on, God
(“before our God”; “Night and day”, v. 10),
“all the joy” (v. 9)
their faith brings to him is hard to repay, but he does give thanks. He also
prays that he may visit them (“see you face to face”, v. 10)
to “restore” (or make good) lacks in their knowledge of the faith,
to give them further instruction in specific areas (likely what will happen
when Jesus comes again: see v. 13).
In vv. 11-13,
he prays, intercedes with God, on their behalf:
·
that he may visit them again (“direct ...”, v. 11);
·
that they may have a superabundance of love for their fellow Christians
and for others (“all”, v. 12),
as Paul, Timothy and Silvanus (“we”) have for them; and
·
that their very beings (“hearts”, v. 13)
may become so God-like (“holiness”) that they may be totally free of sin
(“blameless”) when Christ comes again with all those who belong to God (“his
saints”) at the end of time.
At that time, says 4:13-17,
Christ will bring the faithful dead with him; they will rise to be with God
first; then those who are still alive will join them in heaven forever.
Verse 1: “Athens”: For Paul’s visit to Athens,
see Acts 17:16-34.
[ CAB]
Verse 5:
“the tempter”: As Satan has prevented Paul from visiting the Christian
community at Thessalonika (see 2:18),
he fears that the devil may have caused members of it to fall away from the faith.
For Satan as the adversary of God’s kingly rule, see Matthew 4:1 (Jesus’
temptation in the wilderness); Romans 16:20;
2 Corinthians 11:14;
1 Timothy 1:20.
“The tempter” and Satan are names for evil conceived as a personal will
actively hostile to God. [NOAB] See
also 2 Corinthians 2:11.
[ CAB]
Verse 5:
“labour”: The Greek word, kopos, is almost a technical term to
describe apostolic activity (also found in 1:3; 2:9;
1 Corinthians 3:8;
2 Corinthians 6:5)
– which ought not be to without fruit, not in vain (see 2:1 and
Philippians 2:16)
. [ NJBC]
Verse 7:
“our distress and persecution”: See Acts 18:6, 12 (Paul
in Corinth). [ NOAB] See also
Acts 16:11-17:15 (at
Philippi). 1 Thessalonians 2:14 indicates
that the Christians at Thessalonika suffered at the hands of both Jews and
Gentiles. [ CAB] But is Paul
talking about earthly distress and persecution? To NJBC, the accumulation of terms is
typical of apocalyptic language.
Verse 8:
“stand firm”: Paul frequently writes about standing firm in
the faith: see also 1 Corinthians 16:13;
Galatians 5:1;
Philippians 1:27.
[ NJBC]
Verses 9-10: “before our God ... Night and day”: For the continual nature of
Paul’s relationship with God, see also 1:2; 2:13; 5:17.
See also 2 Thessalonians 1:3, 11; 2:13;
Luke 18:1 (“Jesus
told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart”). [NJBC]
Verse 10: “pray”: This prayer was answered some years later: Acts 20:1-2 tells
us: “Paul sent for the disciples; and after ... saying farewell, he left for
Macedonia. When he had gone through those regions ... he came to Greece, where
he stayed for three months”. Thessalonika was the capital of the Roman province
of Macedonia. [ NOAB]
Verse 10: “whatever is lacking in your faith”: Chapters 4 and 5 make
up for this in writing, perhaps partly. [ NJBC]
Verses 11-13: The ancient style of writing did not permit including a prayer
in a letter, so Paul couches his prayer in the form of a blessing. [ NJBC]
Verse 11: This petition is addressed to “our God and Father himself and
our Lord Jesus”. The verb is in the singular, as if the Father and Jesus are to
act as one. [ NJBC]
Verse 12: This petition is addressed to Christ, the risen and eschatological “Lord”.
For Paul and his co-workers (“co-worker for God”, v. 2)
see also 1:5-6 (“...
you became imitators of us and of the Lord ...”). [ NJBC]
Verse 13: “coming”: The Greek word is parousia, literally
meaning presence. It is a technical term used by Paul (in 2:19 and 4:15)
and in some later New Testament writings (2 Thessalonians 2:1, 8, 9;
Matthew 24:3, 27, 37, 39;
James 5:7, 8;
2 Peter 1:16).
[ NJBC]
Verse 13: “hearts”: In Paul’s day the heart was considered to be the
controlling centre of personality, not the organ of feeling and emotion as it
is today. [ NOAB]
Verse 13: “holiness ... blameless”: Both are qualities of fully realized
eschatological existence. [ NJBC]
Verse 13: “saints”: or holy ones, those who belong to God. See
also 4:17 and
the Septuaginttranslation
of Zechariah 14:5.
[ NJBC]
Timothy was a co-worker on whom Paul relied heavily at times: see
also 1 Corinthians 4:17; 16:10;
Philippians 2:19-22.
Per Acts 16:1,
Timothy was the son of a Jewish Christian woman and a Gentile father from
Lystra, and evidently became a Christian under Paul’s influence (1
Corinthians 4:17).
He is joint sender of 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, 2 Corinthians, Philemon,
Colossians and 2 Thessalonians. Church tradition says that he became Bishop of
Ephesus.
GOSPEL Luke 21: 25 - 36 (RCL)
Luke 21: 25 - 28, 34 -
36 (Roman Catholic)
Luke 21:25 (NRSV)
"There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth
distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26
People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see "the
Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. 28 Now when these
things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption
is drawing near."
29 Then he told
them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as
they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already
near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the
kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away
until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my
words will not pass away.
34 "Be on
guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness
and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a
trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be
alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these
things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."
Now Jesus foretells unnatural events (“signs ...”, v. 25)
and the resulting confusion among nations and people, not knowing what will
happen next. But the “Son of Man” (v. 27),
the ideal human, Christ, will come from heaven (“in a cloud”, a symbol of
divine presence, as at the Transfiguration) with power to control events. Then
“redemption” (v. 28),
God’s acts of freeing his chosen people, will be near. Just as the leafing of
trees shows that “summer is ... near” (v. 30),
so the occurrence of all these events will show that “the kingdom of God is
near” (v. 31):
this time will be evident to the faithful. The signs will be as striking as is
seen in fig trees: in winter, they look dead but in spring they sprout. In
spite of the delay, the era will end before all those alive now have died
(v. 32).
Jesus’ “words” (v. 33)
are even more eternal than creation (“heaven and earth”). Finally, he advises
vigilance: do not be so “weighed down” (v. 34)
with day-to-day earthy matters that you are unprepared for the final call (“that
day”). It will be for all those who survive all disasters (v. 35).
Pray that God may give you the strength to resist all evils, so that you may
“stand before” (v. 36)
Christ, be deemed worthy by him.
© 1996-2018
Chris Haslam
Verses 5-38: This section opens up two windows:
- Through one, the reader may look back on 19:47-21:4 and
see the consequences of the religious leaders’ rejection of Jesus and his
teaching in the Temple.
- Through the other window, the reader looks beyond the
events of Luke 22-23 and
sees God’s vindication of the rejected Son of Man and Jesus’ strengthening
of his disciples, who will be rejected because of their allegiance to him.
[ NJBC]
Many of the events to
occur at the end of the age are to be found in 2 Esdras, but 2 Esdras is
probably partly Jewish and partly Christian, and parts may have been written
after Jesus spoke these words.
Verse 5: “adorned with beautiful stones”: The second
Temple was begun after the return from exile (c. 520 BC), and was modest. Herod
began construction of the third Temple in 20 BC; it was finished in 63 AD, and
destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD at the end of the Jewish revolt. It was still
under construction in Jesus’ day. The stones were some 11 m (35 feet) long x
5.5 m (18 feet) wide x 3.6 m (12 feet) high. The Temple was begun by Herod the
Great. [NOAB] [ CAB]
Jesus’ prediction of its
destruction is also found in Mark 14:57-58; 15:29;
Matthew 26:61;
Luke 19:43-44;
John 2:19;
Acts 6:14.
[ NOAB] Jesus stands in the
tradition of Old Testament prophets who had predicted this event: see
Micah 3:12 and
Jeremiah 26:18.
However, in that other events mentioned in this passage seem to be meant
symbolically, so may this event. [ NJBC]
Micah 3:12 says:
“... Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height”. Jeremiah 26:18 quotes
Micah with one variant. Early Christians saw the destruction of the Temple as
fulfilling Jesus’ prediction. [NJBC]
Note that Jerusalem was completely flattened in the 130s AD.
Verse 7: See also 17:20 (where
the Pharisees ask this question) and Acts 1:6 (“Lord,
is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”). [ NOAB]
Verse 8: In 17:23,
Jesus warns: “They will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Do not go, do
not set off in pursuit”. See also John 8:24.
[ NOAB]
Verse 8: “I am he!”: This alludes to the Old Testament
revelation formula: see Exodus 3:14(to
Moses); Deuteronomy 32:39;
Isaiah 41:4; 43:10.
See Mark 13:21-23 and
1 John 2:18 for
prediction of false christs/messiahs.
Verse 9: “the end will not follow immediately”: For
descriptions of the end time, see Daniel 8:17; 9:25; 11:35, 40; 12:4, 9, 13.
[ JBC]
Verse 10: “kingdom against kingdom”: See also
Isaiah 19:2;
Ezra 5:12;
1QM (*Qumran War Scroll) 1:2. Similar language is found in 2 Chronicles 15:6.
[ NOAB]
1QM 1:2 says: “The sons
of Levi, the sons of Judah and the sons of Benjamin, the exiled of the desert,
will wage war against them.” [ Martinez]
Verse 11: “great earthquakes”: Joel 2:10 says
that on the day of Yahweh there will be earthquakes and other signs. See also
Revelation 6:12.
Verse 12: “hand you over”: The Greek verb is paradidomi ,
a term used later of Jesus’ betrayal. The mention of the sufferings of Jesus’
disciples looks forward to Jesus’ own sufferings. [ NJBC] In John 16:2,
Jesus foretells: “They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is
coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering
worship to God”. [ NOAB]
Verse 12: “kings and governors”: Pilate and Herod
Antipas would be good examples. [NJBC]
See also Acts 25:24 (Festus
consults Agrippa about Paul). [ NOAB]
Verse 13: In Philippians 1:12-13,
Paul says “I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has
actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout
the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for
Christ”. [ NOAB]
Verse 15: “words and a wisdom”: 12:11-12 ascribes
this inspiration to the Holy Spirit; [NOAB]
John 16:13-15 enlarges
on the same thought.
Verse 16: “You will be betrayed even by parents and
brothers ...”: The idea of the end-times as a time of personal divisions was
commonplace in Jewish apocalyptic writings:
see 2 Esdras 5:9; 6:24; Jubilees 23:19; 2 Baruch 70:3. [ NJBC] See 12:52-53:
there Jesus gives a similar prediction. [ NOAB]
Verse 17: In John 15:18-21,
Jesus says: “... they will do all these things to you [i.e. hate you and
persecute you] on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
[NOAB]
Verse 19: “gain your souls”: In Matthew 10:22,
Jesus says “the one who endures to the end will be saved”. See also
Revelation 2:7.
[ NOAB]
Verses 20-21: The destruction of the city is predicted in
Daniel 9:27; 12:11;
1 Maccabees 1:57.
[ JBC]
Verses 20,25: “surrounded by armies ... signs in the sun,
...”: See also Zephaniah 1:15.
The “armies” are Roman legions. [ NOAB]
Verse 22: “vengeance”: This is God’s vengeance. It is
the same vengeance that produces the vindication of God’s faithfulness at the
expense of an unfaithful people. It also produces the vindication of the people
called in God’s name in the presence of the Gentiles. For an example of the
theological pattern involved here, see Deuteronomy 32:20, 35, 36, 39.
[NJBC]
Verse 24: “until the times of the Gentiles are
fulfilled”: In Matthew 20:16,
Jesus says: “‘the last will be first, and the first will be last’”. See also
Romans 11:25.
[ NOAB] We can only guess at
what is meant here. One possibility is: the spiritual opportunity God had
previously given to Jews is now extended to non-Jews. See also Mark 13:10.
Verses 25-26: Images of cosmic signs, and of the Son of Man
are 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;
Jeremiah 4:23-26;
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] See also 2 Esdras 7:39 and
Revelation 6:12-13.
[ NOAB]
Verse 25: Darkness day and night was considered a sign
of the coming of divine judgement: see Isaiah 13:10.
[ JBC]
Verse 25: “roaring of the sea”: See the Septuagint translation of
Psalm 64:8.
[ BlkLk]
Verses 26,29: “the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ...
the fig tree”: See also Revelation 6:13.
The fig tree is a symbol of life out of death.
Verse 27: “they will see ‘the Son of Man coming ...’”:
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 Mark 8:38;
Matthew 10:23;
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
[ NOAB] Whether Jesus spoke of
himself as “the Son of Man” is debated, but see Mark 14:61-62.
[ NJBC] See also Micah 1:3ff.
Verse 28: “redemption”: The Greek word is apolytrosis .
It is also used in 2:38;
Ephesians 1:7, 14; 4:30;
Romans 3:24; 8:23;
1 Corinthians 1:30;
Colossians 1:14. Apolytrosis literally
means buying back, but it is rooted in the Old Testament idea of
redemption, God’s powerful act of freeing his chosen people in need. [ JBC]
Verse 29: “fig tree”: Joel 2:22 uses
the image of fig tree’s blossoming to signify divine blessing. No tree looks as
dead as a fig tree in the Palestinian winter. [ JBC]
Verse 32: The delay of Christ’s second coming troubled
early Christians, because::
- Matthew 10:23 says
that the Son of Man will come before the Twelve have finished their
initial preaching.
- From Mark 9:1; 13:30,
we gather that at least some of Jesus’ contemporaries should have lived to
see Christ’s second coming.
- John 21:20-23 (part
of the appendix to the gospel) awkwardly tries to account
for the fact that, contrary to expectation, the “beloved disciple” did die
before Christ’s coming.
As time progressed, many
Christians died and people doubted whether the resurrection of the dead would
really happen: see 1 Corinthians 15:12-19.
Paul explained that Christ was the “first fruits” of the resurrection and at
his second coming the dead would be made alive: see 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 and
1 Thessalonians 3:13.
2 Peter proposes several
reasons for the apparent delay (see 3:3-9),
but insists that the Day of the Lord may still come at any time: see 3:10.
See also Ezekiel 12:21-28.
The writer of Revelation
likewise believed and promised that Jesus would come “soon”: see, for
example, 1:1, 3; 22:6-7, 10, 20.
No New Testament passage
refers to Jesus’ second coming as such. In John 14:3,
Jesus says he will come again, and the writer of Hebrews ( 9:28)
says that Christ will appear a second time. Usually, however, the reference is
simply to the coming of the Son of Man or Christ as Lord which, like the coming
of the Kingdom of God, the Day of Judgement, and the resurrection of the dead,
was expected in the not too far distant future, at the end of the present era.
Verse 32: “all things”: i.e. the whole process of
salvation history.
Verse 33: See also 16:17.
Jesus, to meet a violent death in Jerusalem, utters words of eternal
significance.
Verses 34-36: For parallels to these exhortations, see 8:11-15 (the
explanation of the Parable of the Sower); 11:5-8; 12:22-31, 45; 18:1-8 (the
Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge). [ NJBC] The terminology is so akin
to Paul’s that perhaps Luke is using a fragment from some lost epistle written
by Paul or one of his disciples: for v. 34,
see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3;
for v. 34a,
see 1 Thessalonians 5:7;
for v. 36,
see 1 Thessalonians 5:8-10, 18.
Even the rare Greek word agrypneo appears here and in 1
Thessalonians.
Verse 36: See also Matthew 7:21-23;
Mark 13:33 (“‘Beware,
keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come’”); 2 Corinthians 5:10 (“...
all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may
receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil”).
[ NOAB]
No comments:
Post a Comment