Advent 1-👑
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Readings: Psalm 90; Numbers 17:1-11; 2 Peter 3:1-18.
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Moooo!
Year B (Mark 🦁)
Sunday Readings: Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37.
TRNG Room Links:
Reflection
Hello and welcome to First Forward, my early feed of revised Common Lectionary readings for anybody who follows the RCL, who leads military members in their congregation, or who's just interested in thinking through the Sunday readings through the eyes of soldiers and veterans. This is the first, first forward of the new liturgical year where I'll be trying to do this every week ahead of time.
I will make these first formations, I'm sorry, first forwards private for a week for subscribers only, and then hopefully release them publicly the day of. My hope in that is that anybody who works on sermon prep can get some insight into what maybe to say or to not say or to, or themes to focus on if you have soldiers, veterans, or military dependents in your congregation.
But also for anybody who may want to keep their pastor in check make sure that they're getting decent theology that doesn't dehumanize soldiers, veterans, and military family members. So today's first forward is Advent 1 for Year B under the Revised Common Lectionary, and our readings are will come from Isaiah 64, Psalm 80, 1 Corinthians, 1 and Mark 13.
In the first two readings, in Isaiah and the Psalm you see a lot of anger. God is angry at the Israelites. In that, I, I often think of this line that I got when I was young in the church and, you know, interested. That God doesn't change. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And that's a That can be a misleading statement because the fact is God has and continues to experience emotions to change God's mind.
The most notable one was the flood. After he flooded, or before he flooded, , the, the whole world, he was angry at creation for the violence that it had filled the earth with. Then after the flood, God made a promise to never do it again. So clearly God is not only experiencing emotions but adapting God's behavior based on that experience of emotions.
And I say that particularly because for veterans, I'll speak for myself but I, I've heard other veterans say it frequently and that is that anger is one of the few emotions that when expressed are done so in a very vulnerable state for the veteran. Angry veterans are a trope, and a lot of us do everything we can to avoid the perception of anger because it makes civilians nervous.
And so if there's a veteran who is expressing anger to you, chances are that veteran trusts you. Chances are that veteran trusts that you won't call 9 1 1 and report them for having PTSD or, like, use it against them in the future. I know that I've done that as a veteran sometimes and been burned.
That people have used my experience of emotions against me. And here, I think that we sometimes do that to God within Christianity when we think, when we have this idea of God as being like the most presentable version of ourselves or something. God is, as the Bible describes God, is quite, Frequently in the dirt with us and not always happily.
God violates the, the boundaries, the strictures that we put on God. We think of the, the instructions for building the tabernacle in, Exodus the poles that the priests carry the ark by when they're moving always stick out from behind from within the Holy of Holies. They stick out past that first curtain and you can always see the rods as a kind of way of remembering that, look, We can't contain God.
God is breaking out of our systems of understanding and our, our stereotypes, our caricatures about God. So anger is a very important issue to look at head on when you're, when you are in ministry with soldiers and veterans, and you all are. Many soldiers and veterans don't identify, they don't want to, they'd rather pass as civilians.
And I think it's an important thing to kind of wrestle through as the church. The fact that the experience of emotions is something that God endures, and that same experience in humanity is passed on. Should be acceptable. We should be able to witness and bear bear witness to other people's frustrations, anxieties, fears, and we often don't.
And when we don't, we create boundaries, stumbling blocks that prevent them from A, experiencing those emotions, and B, processing the experiences that cause those emotions and learning from them. So, don't be afraid to dig into God's anger and wrath as a legitimate you know, kind of subject from the pulpit.
Then we move on into 1 Corinthians 1. I don't have much to say in 1 Corinthians 1. It's mostly introductory material verses 3 through 19. I mean, it's, he's still just basically saying hello. anD then finally in Mark 13, Verse 34 stuck out to me. And part of that is the political assumptions within what Jesus is saying.
hE talks about a man going on a journey. And when that man leaves home, he puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. And it's the point, the overt point is clear. Keep awake, it's said in verse 35. But the political assumptions underlying that is that Jesus is not talking to the poor here.
Jesus audience seems to be, in this moment, the affluent. In the ancient world and for most of the developed world through maybe two generations ago, every able bodied male was expected to perform some kind of defense work. Work, um, all in, in Rome, Judea, it's different, but not too much. If you were able-bodied and you had a penis you were expected to stand up and, and, you know, assemble as a people to defend from enemies.
Most of the way that the ancient world, the ancient developed world acquired slaves was through warfare. The Hebrews in the Old Testament. It centers, at least in the literature, in scripture, centers more on labor, you know, somebody falling into debt and then being purchased as a A debt worker for lack of a better term than others, or where it's, it's not coming to me right now.
But slavery is often through economic means and then you have the Jubilee, they're all supposed to be released, etc. But in ancient worlds historically, it's mostly been through slavery acquisition has been through warfare. And so not only is Jesus addressing an affluent audience, He's also addressing, and I only say this to a modern audience that is not largely military service.
In the ancient world, to be a man was also to be a woman. Someone who could expect to serve militarily. anD so this creates a kind of divide in our modern American mind. Jesus is no longer talking to the average American male or person because the average American doesn't serve. But in, in mentioning slavery, in, in talking to an audience that assumes it has slaves, like Cornelius in Acts 10 like the centurion of great faith in Matthew 8, Luke 7, and John 4, these soldiers have slaves because that's how they got them.
Philemon. When Paul writes to Philemon about his slave, Onesimus, he uses this military language, Sustradiotus, which means battle buddy he talks about another friend, Timothy, as being a soldier of Christ and being worthy in, in Philippians, being worthy of that title because he was being, he was willing to die, not necessarily because he was willing to kill.
Timothy wasn't a veteran and so Paul using this language is weird. And so in the ancient world. People like Paul who didn't serve in the military at all were the exception that proved the rule. So for you to hear Jesus words directed at the affluent members of a society, I think it's important to remember that that included military service, that included the potential benefit of acquiring slaves and therefore free labor.
And so in this section in Mark, When he's telling these rich affluent members of society to keep awake, those members of that society would have been, for lack of a better word, something like veterans. They may not have seen combat, they may not have slaves, but if they did have slaves, and if they were a member of some, you know, what we would call a nation or an empire, They would have had experience in the military.
And so those are the four readings for Advent 1, Year B. Also known as December 3rd, 2023. First. First Forward, as I said earlier, is this subscriber feed that will be available only to those who subscribe, and then on the day of, I'll make them go live. But it's really a way, not necessarily to experience scripture itself, as with the weekday readings, where I read the scripture and I reflect a little bit more, like, pastorally on them.
First Forward is about just pointing out pieces of the text that are worth your attention. Whether you. So whether you give sermons, whether you write them professionally, whether you are just interested in what the Sunday lectionary readings say and how they intersect with service, that's who First Forward is.
I'd like to thank any of my subscribers for subscribing. I hope it's been helpful. And I'm slowly, as you can tell, kind of getting back into the, the pattern, the rhythm, of releasing First Formation regularly, as well as this new edition First Forward, which you can uh, subscribe to for a pretty modest sum.
And with First Forward, I won't have You know, as I, in this episode, I'm not going to do the, the reading and the soft music in the background. This is just wham, bam. Thank you, ma'am. And if there's links as with my last first forward, which is a couple of weeks ago, I talked about Deborah Lappidote as well as the armor of God, which is really important subject helps us understand the qualities of God a lot more.
But this is what first forward is about. These early episodes are going to be a little less polished as I find that kind of. Rhythm, protocol, structure for these specific daily readings but you can always listen for free every weekday to First Formation right here at the same exact feed.
You'll just have to subscribe if you want to get these Sunday readings in advance, which I hope you will.
