BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 148, 149, 150 [PCUSA: 24]
Evening Psalm(s): PM Psalm 114, 115 [PCUSA: 25]
Old Testament: Isa. 5:1-7
Epistle: 2 Pet. 3:11-18
Gospel: Luke 7:28-35
Second Sunday in Advent
-- See the index (link given above) for special readings.
Presbyterian Readings with Biblical Text for the Current Day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
Jesus’ Parable of the Vineyard, one of the readings for last Tuesday (Nov. 30), stands in the Gospels as a strong indictment of Jewish leaders. But when we remember Isaiah’s Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard (Isa. 5:1-7), and other uses of this image by Hebrew Prophets, we can appreciate how Jesus assumes the role of a prophet to his own people–from within Judaism, we can say–and is in anguish when he sees Jerusalem’s fate (Lk. 19:41-42).
Israel is a luxuriant vine
that yields its fruit.
The more his fruit increased
the more altars [to other gods] he built;
as his country improved,
he improved his pillars. (Hosea 10:1)
Yet I planted you as a choice vine,
from the purest stock.
How then did you turn degenerate
and become a wild vine? (Jeremiah 2:21)
Isaiah’s Song of the Vineyard refers to Israel as God’s “beloved” and describes its favorable situation “on a very fertile hill” (Isa. 5:1). The LORD provide proper cultivation , “planted it with choice vines,” protected it with “a watchtower,” and provide for its production, “a wine vat” (v. 2). But the outcome is described with a rather harsh play on words:
he [God] expected it [Israel] to yield grapes (`anavim),
but it yielded wild grapes (be’ushim, literally “stinking things”). (Isa. 5:2)
And from the interpretation:
he [the LORD] expected justice (mishpat),
but saw bloodshed (mishpach);
righteousness (tsedaqah),
but heard a cry (tse`aqah)! (Isa. 5:7)
In the Song, the LORD announces judgment:
I will remove its [the vineyard’s] hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down. (Isa. 5:5).
It’s good to know that Isaiah has a more promising view of Israel as the vineyard later:
A pleasant vineyard, sing about it!
I, the LORD, am its keeper;
every moment I water it. (Isa. 27:2-3)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In days to come Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots,
and fill the whole world with fruit. (Isa. 27:6)
Having reminded scoffers that “the promise of his coming,” that is, the Lord’s return, though apparently delayed, will take place (“the day of the Lord will come like a thief,” 2 Pet. 3:10), Peter draws conclusions, asking “what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God . . .” (vv. 11-12)? “The heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire” (v. 12). “But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home” (v. 13). In the meantime, the readers, or better, those hearing it read, are advised to “strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish” (v. 14), to “regard the patience of our Lord,” the delay in his coming? “as salvation” (v. 15), and not to be “carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of or Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (vv. 17-18).
After John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus asking about his mission, and returned with Jesus’ answer (Lk. 7:18-24a), Jesus speaks about John with high praise to the crowds. He was “more than a prophet” (v. 26), the “messenger” promised in Malachi 3:1 (v. 27) who prepares the way, the greatest of those “born of women . . . yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (v. 28). Luke, as narrator, says that “all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism. But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves” (vv. 29-30). Jesus speaks with regret about the rejection of John’s message, and the rejection of his own.
We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not weep. (Lk. 7:32; Mt. 11:17 with “mourn” for “weep”)
Whether the message was musical and joyful, or the wailing of the professional mourner, there was no response, not to the austere John the Baptist, “eating no bread and drinking no wine” (v. 33), nor to Jesus, “the Son of Man” who “has come eating and drinking” (v. 34). They say John “has a demon” (v. 33) and Jesus is “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (v. 34). The reference to “wisdom” and “her children” in verse 35 compares Jesus’ teaching and the earlier preaching of John to the teaching of Hebrew sages.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Prov. 1:7)
Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.