For Advent 2, the prayer book lectionary puts together two readings that might at first glance seem disconnected from each other. The epistle reading is Romans 15:4-13, a celebration of the power of the Scriptures (which for Paul means the Old Testament) to bring comfort and hope to believers because when we read the Old Testament promises of deliverance, we know that they were fulfilled in Jesus. The Gospel is Luke 21:25-33, Jesus’ discussion of his return in glory at the end of days amidst signs in the sun, moon, and stars. For those of you in a church that follows the Revised Common Lectionary, this was essentially last week’s Gospel reading, although the RCL reading tacks on an extra three verses at the end. What do these discussions of the Old Testament prophecies of Christ’s first coming and Christ’s own prophecy of his return in glory have to do with each other? The key is found in the very last sentence of the Gospel reading: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
For what these two readings teach us is how to live in the time between Christ’s first coming in the manger and his return in glory, what to cling to amidst a world that is passing away. The Canadian churchman Robert Crouse, in his characteristically penetrating analysis of the Advent readings, describes the theme for Advent 2 as “the Passing World and the Enduring Word.” Indeed: the Word is the answer to the problem of where to find hope, stability, comfort amidst all the changes and chances of this fleeting life. For the Spirit uses the written Word of God as the means of establishing communion between human beings and God. The Bible is not merely as a record of information about God and his dealings throughout history – much less only a record of people’s experiences or ideas about God – but a means of salvation, which the Holy Spirit uses to work faith when and where it wills (Augsburg Confession Art. 5, referring specifically to the preaching of the Word). It is an instrument of that second of the three advents of Christ I discussed last week – the coming of Christ into our hearts and souls.
But how is it that the Bible is to be read? These readings give us an important hint: as about our hope in Christ Jesus. That is, they suggest to us that the subject of the Scriptures, Old and New Testament alike, is Jesus. We see Paul here reading various Old Testament passages as about Christ – indeed, as promises fulfilled by Christ. As our Articles of Religion put it, “The Old Testament is not contrary to the New, for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ” (Article 7). And how it that these passages teach us to think about Jesus? They don’t introduce him to us first and foremost as a moral exemplar calling us to a new and different way of living. Rather, they set him before us as our hope, the source of joy and peace when we believe in him, someone whose words are trustworthy and true. They bring to mind Martin Luther’s brilliant 1521 treatise “What to Look for and Expect in the Gospels,” the preface to his Wartburg Postil. In it, Luther says that before we can have Christ as a model of moral living, we must first receive him as pure gift.
He's worth quoting at length:
The chief article and foundation of the gospel is that before you take Christ as an example, you accept and recognize him as a gift, as a present that God has given you and that is your own. This means that when you see or hear of Christ doing or suffering something, you do not doubt that Christ himself, with his deeds and suffering, belongs to you. On this you may depend as surely as if you had done it yourself; indeed as if you were Christ himself. See, this is what it means to have a proper grasp of the gospel, that is, of the overwhelming goodness of God...This is the great fire of the love of God for us, whereby the heart and conscience become happy, secure, and content. This is what preaching the Christian faith means.
To be sure, there are moral exhortations and commands throughout Scripture; Luther knew this as well as you and I. But he was committed – and I think rightly so – to an understanding of Scripture as most basically about God’s free grace to us in Christ Jesus. As Paul says in this week’s reading, the office of Scripture is one of comfort. When Jesus promises that all who believe in him will have eternal life, when he promises that his blood is shed and his body given for us, for the forgiveness of sins – to these promises, Jesus’ words in our Gospel reading apply: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
So if these readings point us to the Word of God as our source of hope and strength in this world between Jesus’ first and final advents, how do we let that Word do its work of comforting us with the good news of Jesus that we might have hope, joy, and peace? Here I think turning to the Collect, a collect which was Cranmer’s own composition, is helpful.
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
We are, Cranmer teaches us, to hear, read, mark, inwardly digest the Scriptures – we are to ruminate on them, ponder them, meditate on them, make them as much a part of us as the food we eat becomes part of our substance. He makes a similar point in “A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture,” the first homily in the First Book of Homilies and, along with the homily on salvation, one of the most beautiful. Again, I quote:
Let us night and day muse and have meditation and contemplation in them; let us ruminate and, as it were, chew the cud, that we may have the sweet juice, spiritual effect, marrow, honey, kernel, taste, comfort and consolation of them.
This Advent, as we prepare to commemorate Christ’s first coming while looking for his coming in glory, I pray that the Spirit will indeed use the Scriptures to do his saving work, to knit us ever deeper into communion with Christ so that we may live in him and he in us. May the Word of God ever be our anchor and our comfort in this fleeting world, by pointing us always to Jesus our hope.