BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 38 [PCUSA: 50]
Evening Psalm(s): PM Psalm 119:25-48 [PCUSA: 53]
Old Testament: Isa. 6:1-13
Epistle: 2 Thess. 1:1-12
Gospel: John 7:53-8:11
Presbyterian Readings with Biblical Text for the Current Day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
John Bright describes Isaiah’s “Inaugural Vision” (Peake’s Commentary):
The setting is the Temple, probably on some festal occasion . . . As the service progressed and the songs of massed choirs rang through the sanctuary, Isaiah, gazing toward the portals of the Debir [Holy of Holies], where stood Yahweh’s throne, seized with emotion, saw the visible scene replaced by a vision of Yahweh the king. There he was enthroned, with the seraph attendants about him hiding their faces that they might not behold his glory. The swirling incense-smoke which filled the Temple became the train of Yahweh’s robes, the antiphonal shouts of the choirs and the voices of the seraphim praising the God who is thrice holy, exalted, utterly unapproachable, whose glory fills all the earth. Isaiah was seized with terror at what he saw. A sinful man of a sinful people, he had penetrated the heavenly court and gazed on God face to face–a thing no man could do and live (Exod. 33:20). He cannot join the song of praise, nor have his people a right to do so. But then one of the seraphs flew to him, not to kill him but to touch his lips with a hot coal taken from the altar, thereby symbolically purging his sin. Thus purified, he could stand in the divine presence without fear. And as he stood on the outskirts of the heavenly company, he heard the voice of God himself speaking: Who will go for us and take our word to this people? And Isaiah in simple, unquestioning obedience, said, ‘Here am I; send me.’ With that he became a prophet, a messenger of God’s heavenly council to men (cf. Jer. 23:18, 22).
How can I improve on that?
Paul gives thanks for the Thessalonians’ “steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring” (2 Thess. 1:4). But mention of their persecutions and afflictions leads him to say “the righteous judgment of God,” referring to their persecutions, “make[s] you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering” (v. 5). But God will “repay with affliction those who afflict you (v. 6), “give relief to the afflicted” (v. 7), but judgment “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (v. 8). This judgment is “the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his might” (v. 9), but Paul expects the Thessalonian believers, “all who have believed; because our testimony to you was believed” (v. 10), to share in “the coming (parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him” (2:1).
The story of how Jesus dealt with the Woman Caught in Adultery (Jn. 7:53-8:11), though “omitted in many ancient manuscripts, appears to be an authentic incident in Jesus’ ministry, though not belonging originally to John’s Gospel” (Donald G. Miller and Bruce M. Metzger, NOAB). She was “caught in the very act” (Jn. 8:4), which “is significant . . . eyewitnesses were necessary if punishment was to be inflicted” ( C. K. Barrett, Peake’s Commentary). But the Mosaic Law about adultery calls for the death of both the man and the woman (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22). If the woman is engaged, and both are guilty, they are to be stoned (Deut. 22:23-24). But if he forces her (v. 25), “then only the man who lay with her shall die.” “According to the Mishnah, stoning is the punishment when the woman is betrothed, strangling when she is married” (Barrett). So the accusers present a very one-sided case, and Jesus will not pass judgment on the woman, but instead challenges the accusers. “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn. 8:7). When they quietly slink away–that’s the word, isn’t it?–Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again” (v. 11).
Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.