Advent 2, Dec. 9, 2018 (full size gallery)
A busy week – Village Dinner on Wed. Dec. 5, The Port Royal Tree lighting on Dec. 7, Choir Retreat on Dec. 8 and tonight Dec. 9 there will be the Everett’s party.
We are completing collection today for the Heifer Project. Their goals are the eradication of hunger and poverty. The latter they do through education in sustainable farming methods, advancing the cause of women and promoting markets. They also give the gift of animals which people can raise for their own products to be used for their family and sell for income. A goat provides milk to drink and milk to sell in the market.
Some different things today. The readings were linked together with introductions. For Canticle 16 we had a dramatic reading with Zechariah, Gabriel and Elizabeth
We also celebrated 4 birthdays today!
Today’s readings affirm the coming of a deliverer, the Messiah—Jesus!
Baruch was secretary to the prophet Jeremiah, and claims to have been written during the exile in Babylon to the people who remained in Jerusalem (1:1-4) The book, which is addressed to a people in dispersion, has been dated anywhere from the Maccabean period, about 175 BCE, to the period after 60 BCE. He calls for the exiles to celebrate their return home. Jerusalem will be glorified and will receive a new name to mark her destiny. All God’s dispersed children will be gathered again, and the Lord will make a path for them.
Malachi (“meaning my messenger”) announces the approach of God’s messenger, who will refine like fire. Malachi is concerned for the purity of worship and worshipers at the temple and for the fulfillment of the responsibilities of the priesthood. He condemns the same moral and religious abuses that Ezra and Nehemiah reformed; hence he was probably active before their time, about 500–450 BCE.
The “messenger” (or ‘angel’) to be sent may refer to the Jerusalem priesthood or may be a way of speaking of God’s own appearance in human affairs. In the gospels this title is applied to John the Baptist, whose preaching uses the same images (Matthew 3:10-12). Malachi looks forward first to the purification of the temple priesthood and then to the transformation of the temple sacrifice.
Paul reminds us to wait for Jesus’ return in glory. In today’s gospel, John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus’ public ministry, calling his listeners to repentance.
John the Baptist was the last and greatest Old Testament prophets. “He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
John the Baptist spoke of repentance as a radical turning from sin that inevitably became manifest in the fruit of righteousness. John’s ministry was to call Israel to repentance in preparation for the coming of Messiah. His baptism did not produce repentance, but was its result (cf. Matt. 3:7, 8). Far more than a mere change of mind or remorse, repentance involves a turning from sin to God (cf. 1 Thess. 1:9), which results in righteous living. Genuine repentance is a work of God in the human heart (Acts 11:18). for the remission of sins.
John’s rite of baptism did not produce forgiveness of sin; it was only the outward confession and illustration of the true repentance that results in forgiveness (cf. Luke 24:47; Acts 3:19; 5:31; 2 Cor. 7:10).
Repentance and faith are inextricably linked in Scripture. Repentance means turning from one’s sin, and faith is turning to God (cf. 1 Thess. 1:9). They are like opposite sides of the same coin. That is why both are linked to conversion (Mark 1:15; Acts 3:19; 20:21). Note that the works John demanded to see were “fruits” of repentance. But repentance itself is no more a “work” than faith is.
The symbolism of John’s baptism likely had its roots in OT purification rituals (cf. Lev. 15:13). Baptism had also long been administered to Gentile proselytes coming into Judaism. The baptism of John thus powerfully and dramatically symbolized repentance. Jews accepting John’s baptism were admitting they had been as Gentiles and needed to become the people of God genuinely, inwardly (an amazing admission, given their hatred of Gentiles).
By comparing the Gospels we find John notes three types of baptism at this climactic moment:
1. with water unto repentance. John’s baptism symbolized cleansing;
2. with the Holy Spirit. All believers in Christ are Spirit-baptized (1 Cor. 12:13); 3. and with … fire. Because fire is used throughout this context as a means of judgment (Luke 3:10, 12, 16), this must speak of a baptism of judgment upon the unrepentant.
John, the forerunner of Jesus, came baptizing also. But this was not Christian Baptism, because—
1. John was the last Old Testament prophet, and not a New Testament apostle (Luke 1:17);
2. He did not baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;
3. His baptism was unto repentance, not into the faith of Christ;
4. He did not by baptism introduce men into the fellowship of the Christian Church, as the apostles did at Pentecost (Acts 2:41,47);
5. Those baptized by John were baptized over again by the apostles when they were admitted to the Christian Church (Acts 18:24–28; 19:1–5). As were the baptisms performed by his disciples previous to the crucifixion of the Lord (John 3:22; 4:1,2) like the baptism of John, they were a purifying rite, binding to repentance, and preparing the way for the coming kingdom.