Friday, December 20, 2019

Friday after Advent 3

Lord Jesus who risked all for the future of the world, let us be your good disciples.  In your name,  Amen

Psalm 40

Zecharaiah 7

Revelation 5:6-14

Matthew 25:14-30

The oracle of Zechariah recites the "normative" history of ancient Israel in two familiar stages.  First, Israel failed to obey the prophetic ethic of justice for the vulnerable.  The result was a scattering in exile and displacement.  But second, because of God's passionate love for Israel and for Jerusalem,  there will be wondrous, joyous restoration of well-being in Jerusalem.

In the reading from Revelation, this "normative" narrative of ancient Israel is seen to be reperformed in the life of Jesus.  It is Jesus who was slain, by whose death every "tribe and language and people and nation" is saved.  That "slaughtered" Lamb is now "worthy" to receive power, wealth, wisdom, ight, honor, glory, and blessing;  the words pile up in a doxological surplus of well-being and joy.  This rhetoric of "slain" and "worthy" bespeaks crucifixion and resurrection that is a reperformance of Israel's exile and restoration.  It is no wonder that all the saints praise the one who opens the scroll and enacts the future. 

So what about our future?  Shall we play it safe and hunker down in the status quo?  The parable of Jesus is a celebration of risk in obedience to the master who risked his life for the future of the world.  The parable is not about managing money or calculation of income or interest.  It is about life risks that reperform the risk of our own life that Jesus has willingly undertaken.  If risk is the order of the day,  then Advent consists of breaking out of business as usual in order to receive God's future.  The prophetic norm of mercy for the vulnerable (widows, orphans, immigrants, the poor) continues to be a starting point for the risk of glad obedience.

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