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Weekly Bible Notes

Advent Sunday 2,

Year C, Purple

Click here to see a copy of our Advent Wreath lighting ceremony

Introduction

Opening Verse of Scripture— Luke Chapter 3
'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'


Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray

God of holiness, your promises stand unshaken through all generations and you lift up all who are burdened and brought low: renew our hope in you, as we wait for the coming in glory of Jesus Christ, our Judge and Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, on God, world without end. Amen.

First Bible Reading  Malachi Chapter 3:1-4

 
"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years. (This is the word of the Lord -- Thanks be to God)
 

Second Reading  Philippians Chapter 1:3-11

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God. (This is the word of the Lord -- Thanks be to God)

Gospel Reading   Luke Chapter 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar--when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene--during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God's salvation.'"  (This is the Gospel of Christ - Praise to Christ our Lord)

Post Communion Prayer

Father in heaven, who sent your Son to redeem the world and will send him again to be our judge: give us grace so to imitate him in the humility and purity of his first coming that, when he comes again, we may be ready to greet him with joyful love and firm faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Commentary: Advent 2

We live in a world which in many ways is characterised by deceit and corruption. Only this week two domestic power suppliers have been fined for preventing customers freely moving from one supplier to another, although the level of fine does seem rather derisory at c.£250k, in comparison with overall expenditure. Politically, we only need to recall the Hutton enquiry into the apparent suicide of a government advisor on the weapons which Iraq may or may not have had. There is also the whole debate as to whether we were actually told the truth with regards to Iraq in the first place. Something else which concerns most of us is the appearance that many people who commit crimes go unpunished, or at least they do not receive the punishment which many think they deserve. A rapist receives a relatively short sentence, a reckless driver who kills someone only imprisoned for a few months. When we think about the current Ian Huntley trial, we wonder what sort of sentence he will receive if found guilty.
So when we look at a passage such as this, we see that the people of the Old Testament were just as much concerned with justice and truth as we are today. We hear the cry of the people in Mal 2:17 "Where is the God of justice?" In fact this cry from the people for God to come and put things right would have been unnecessary if they had been living by God’s laws and decrees in the first place. However, they have constantly failed to live by God’s rule of life for them, "to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God" Micah 6:8. The prophet Malachi reveals to the people that they have consistently failed to live up to God’s decrees. God’s repeated call to obedience and compassion, to be honest and truthful has been neglected and corrupted.

For the people that Malachi was preaching to, the answer lay in God sending his messenger to prepare the people for the terrible Day of the Lord, a day of judgement and retribution, a day of justice and reconciliation. When the Lord himself comes, He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap, burning or washing away all impurities, eliminating all dirt and grime, all that is wrong and dishonest in the way people live. It is a wonderful, yet terrible image. This picture of God coming as a refiner’s fire asks questions of us today, in terms of what we need to change about the way we live our lives, let alone changes in society, government, or the Church. For Malachi, the implication of his prophecy lay in that those who do not honour Yahweh, God, in the living of their lives, would be punished. Today we need to ask ourselves if we honour God in the living of our lives, and if not, what are we going to do about it? One place to begin is to ask ourselves "by what ‘Rule of Life’ do I live?" Neil Bramble-Chapman

 

Meditation

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ‘
The quotation is from Isaiah 40:3-5, where the prophet is calling people to prepare for the Lord's visitation. If a king were planning to travel, work crews would be dispatched to repair the roads. Ideally, the roads for the king's journey would be straight, level, and smooth. John calls people to repent as a way of preparing their hearts and lives for the Lord's visit. A smooth road means nothing to God, but a repentant heart means a great deal. In our churches, we must take care lest we give people the impression that the most important work of the church is meeting a budget, constructing a building, or developing a successful program. Those are all worthy goals, and there is no reason not to pursue them. The truly important goal, however, is preparing hearts to receive the Lord. It is a difficult goal to measure, and we cannot draft charts that track souls saved per hours preached. Nevertheless, as we build buildings and implement programs, we must remember that the really important work of the church happens at some other, less visible, less measurable, level. It is the work of the Spirit. Our most important contribution to this most important work is prayer and the development of our own devotional life. If we have prepared our hearts to receive the Lord's visit, we are ready to help others to do the same. taken from www.lectionary.org

Hymns

 Long Ago.. 83 Hymns and Psalms
O come, O come 85 H&Ps
You are the king of glory 790 MP
From heaven you came 162 MP
Hail to the Lord's anointed 204 MP

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

O God, our Heavenly Father, give us a vision of our world as your love would make it:
A world where the weak are protected and none go hungry or poor;
A world where the benefits of civilised life are shared, and everyone can enjoy them;
A world where different races, nations and cultures live in tolerance and mutual respect;
A world where peace is built with justice, and justice is guided by love;
And give us the inspiration and courage to build it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
St Martin-in-the-Fields prayer for the world

Saint Benedict : Prayer for Guidance
O gracious and holy Father, Give us wisdom to perceive you,
intelligence to understand you, diligence to seek you,
patience to wait for you, eyes to see you,
a heart to meditate on you, and a life to proclaim you,
through the power of the spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord.
 

God of the day and of the night,
in me there is darkness, but with you there is light.
I am alone, but you will not leave me.
I am weak, but you will come to my help.
I am restless, but you are my peace.
I am in haste, but you are the God of infinite patience.
I am confused and lost, but you are eternal wisdom and you direct my path; now and for ever. Amen
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906-1945

The Sacred heart of Jesus. Whilst not to the taste of everybody, the image of the sacred heart has inspired centuries of devotion to Jesus
Love of the heart of Jesus, inflame my heart
Charity of the heart of Jesus, flow into my heart
Strength of the heart of Jesus, support my heart
Mercy of the heart of Jesus, pardon my heart
Patience of the heart of Jesus, grow not weary of my heart
Kingdom of the heart of Jesus, be in my heart
Wisdom of the heart of Jesus, teach my heart
Will of the heart of Jesus, guide my heart
Zeal of the heart of Jesus, consume my heart
Immaculate Virgin Mary, pray for me to the heart of Jesus
From a Walsingham prayer book

Additional Resources

Meditation

Walk softly, as you go through Christmas, That each step may bring you down the starlit path, to the manger bed. Talk quietly, as you Speak of Christmas that you shall not drown out the glorious song of angels . Kneel reverently as you pause for Christmas, That you may feel again the Spirit of the Nativity, rekindled in your soul. Rise eagerly, after you have trod the Christmas Path, That you may serve more fully, the one whose birth we hail.

"In Praise and Thanksgiving," "In a world that assumes the status is quo, that things have to be the way they are and that we must not assume too much about improving them, the doxologies of God's people are fundamental indicators that wonders have not ceased, that possibilities not yet dreamt of will happen, and that hope is an authentic stance." Patrick D. Miller, Jr.

Commentary

The prophecy of Malachi is one of the shortest of the prophecies in the Old Testament but it contains one of the very well known passages of the Bible (thanks in part to Mr Handel and ‘The Messiah.’)

It is a book which certainly has resonance with today —the people of Israel appear to be living in a period of reasonable prosperity after their return from exile, but their society continues to exhibit social problems. Men are accused of divorcing their wives so as to take younger partners, for example. Malachi couches his prophecy in the form of a dialogue between the people and God, in which the people make statements or ask questions and Malachi replies on behalf of God.

Chapter 1:2 begins, An oracle: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi."I have loved you," says the LORD. "But you ask, 'How have you loved us?' The passage today is a response to that comment that the people have wearied God with their talk, by saying all evil doers are good in the eyes of the lord and asking where is the God of justice. When evil seems to prosper without restraint, when pious people find no reality in worship and are content to offer less than their best to God, the reality of God’s judgement is called into question. God either does not see the abuses or does not care. And the cry that God and his angels are asleep has been repeated many times over the ages. And so the reply is couched in terms of temple worship—the lord will come, preceded by his messenger, traditionally identified as Jesus, who will cleanse and refine, making all pure.

One of the traditional pictures of the relationship of people to God is that of the difficulty experienced by imperfect, sinful people unable to cope with the purity of the divine and so the refining, the purifying which the Gospel promises is a way of making it possible for people to exist in the presence of God. So Malachi offers us a picture of hope, but a picture of challenge. carrying on as we are will not do. In a rather different way, but no less challenging, another messenger brings an equally forthright message in the Gospel. John proclaims the need for repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

A little later we read him using such words as ’vipers brood’ and reminding people it is not sufficient to mouth the words if they do not reflect the state of the heart. Jesus also reminds people a little later in the same Gospel that many will say ’Lord, Lord,’ and will not be recognised for the same reasons. However the picture is not all bleak. Luke takes his readers back to Isaiah’s great promise that ‘all humankind shall see God’s deliverance.’ For those who in his day would listen, he reminds them that the coming of the Messiah will be preceded by prophecy, something which had been missing from the life of Israel for four centuries.

It is all too easy as we get carried away by the rituals of Christmas, and the joy of the Christ child, to forget the sharper side of the Gospel. God’s promises embodied in the life and death of that baby are for all men and women—but they demand a response from us even if it has to be couched in the words of that worried father ‘Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.’ perhaps a further reminder comes with the fact that this Sunday is Human Rights Sunday. If human rights are to become a reality for everybody, then this will place demands upon our lives. We are equipped to respond by the Holy Spirit of that God who refines and makes the rugged ways smooth, and shows his deliverance to all people. John Stubbs

Prayers for Sunday

God, when we pray for peace, show us again and again that there can be no peace without justice and the renewal of integrity. When we are tempted to retreat into sentimental peace of mind, stir within us the passion of justice which Amos had, the social vision of Isaiah, the internal courage of Jeremiah and the personality of Hosea. The God, within the struggle for righteousness and equality, for wholeness and honesty, come to us with a special greeting which you alone can provide, dispelling our fears, cancelling our guilt, refreshing our spirits; the welcome, the peace, of your son Jesus Christ our Risen God.

Out of meaninglessness, God calls us Our of brokenness, God calls us to wholeness Out of division, God calls us to community Out of tears, God calls us to laughter Out of self-centredness, God calls us to love Out of death, God calls us to life….

O God, who did prepare of old the minds and hearts of people for the coming of your Son, and whose Spirit ever works to illumine our darkened lives with the light of the Gospel, prepare now our minds and hearts that Christ may dwell in us and ever reign in our thoughts and affections as the King of love and the very Prince of Peace. Grant this, we pray for his sake. Amen.

Hymns for Sunday

O come, O come Emmanuel 85, How lovely on the mountains (on notices), The holly and the ivy 88, Jesus the saviour comes (on notices), Come thou long expected Jesus 81.

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