God of inexorable purpose, help us to old more closely to your good-will, that our lives our practices and our policies may fully reflect our love for you. In his name, Amen.
Psalm 31
Haggai 1:1-15
Revelations 2:18-29
Matthew 23:27-39
The severe rhetoric of these readings surely reflects various times when the community was in danger and profoundly at risk. The readings reflect a stern theology of quid pro quo in which disobedience results in negative outcomes from God, while obedience yields well-being. The same calculus pertains to each reading.
In Haggai, severe drought has come on the community because it has been preoccupied with its own well-being to the neglect of the things of God. In Revelation, the church in Thyatira is under judgment because it has "tolerated that woman, Jezebel," that is, the church has made "compromises with a popular culture that results from idolatry and thereby compromises the distinctiveness of life and outlook" that concern the writer.* The result is "great distress." In Matthew, Jesus indicts religious leadership that "kills the prophets" with the result that "your house is left to you, desolate."
In each case, the reading urges repentance and renewed faith: (a) In Haggai, this is expressed as temple building. (b) People in Thyatira are urged to "hold fast" because "your last works are greater than the first." (c) From Jesus, the charge is to live in hope until the messiah comes.
This quid pro quo theology of stern sanctions is not in vogue among us. But the summons and warnings of Advent largely operate in the sphere of this theology. We may reflect on the ways in which it is true that our actions produce our futures in direct ways. Then it follows that different actions - of generous, hope-filled obedience - may indeed yield different futures among us.
* Christopher C. Rowland, "Revelations," in New Interpreter's Bible, vol 12 Hebrew-Revelation (Nashville: Abington Press 1998,) 581.
Walter Brueggemann: Gift and Task
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