🐮 Advent 2 👑
Reflection
Good morning and welcome to the second Sunday of advent. This is brother Logan, Isaac. Broadcasting from Albany, Oregon. This morning's readings come to us from Malakai three. Philippians one and Luke three. Um, anybody listening for any amount of time knows that Philippians is my favorite Pauline letter Pauline epistle. Um, the community at Phillip pie. Is associated with and loves Paul, but here he says, I think my God. Uh, my Lord, right. Um, because he knows that there's a slight distinction. They've been. Worshiping or expected to worship Caesar. But Saul, who they call Paul. Uh, his Imperial name. Um, he knows he's an outsider. Not only is he not Roman, he's also not a soldier. Or military dependent and Philippa. Most of them were, were military dependents or descendants of military families. Because of the way the Roman empire worked at the time. And you can look up more in the training room, on the city of Philippi and the community Philippines. And especially Lydia and Dez, the jailer of, uh, Phillip PI. Uh, after his name, Desmos, lilacs. The jailer, um, and Saul here in Philippians when he talks to a military community. He uses language. That's going to like prick in their sides. In verse eight, he says for God, is my witness. And here the Greek word is for God is my marcher. God bears witness to me. And. What he's doing here is he's saying, look, I'm, I'm swearing by God as God is my witness. Oh, God will tell you. That I long for you with tender affection of Joshua. Which is his English that the Messiah's name in English. Um, the, the Mo the Messiah, the Christ, the smeared one. Masi off means anointing. Um, it's what you do with oil on your leather shield in the Roman army to keep it supple and ready for battle. Um, and I say that because. After 2000 years of symbolism being filtered through an Imperial lens, which by which I mean, Latin. We have all these ideas in our head, what Christ or Messiah means, but the he break understanding Masih off means to smear. To too dirty to solely with oil and oil is weird because it's, it's often it's not sterile, but it's safe to put on wounds. Um, And it's what, as I said, you used on your shield to defend yourself. And so the, the Messiah. And then elsewhere in our reading, say we hear of the mess, a savior. I think that was in Malakai. Um, But the Lord saves the Lord defends you from. Eval like a shield. The Messiah, the smeared one is your shield. And in a Hebraic. You know, imagine I construct. Only God, the divine warrior gets to yield. Or wield the sword of truth only, only Christ will cut down your enemies using essentially. You know, mightier in word than they in arms, which is this line from John Milton's paradise. Lost. Um, And when we, when we think about advent and the coming of the Messiah, this Salid one. The guy with dirt under his fingernails, um, who, when he refers to himself in the gender pronoun of son of man, It's actually Ben Altima or Ben Adom, which means a child of the earth. Right. Uh, a child of everything. A simple human and every man and every woman. Um, and any person can be a savior. In the earliest political kind of construct of Israel with the judges. They weren't Kings and Queens. They didn't. You know, Keep there. Power within their family. Hereditarily. Uh, the judges didn't even have a title. You didn't like go up to Deborah and like, say, Hey, you're on or Deborah or judge Deborah. It was just Deborah who judged. It's always used as a verb, not as a noun. Same thing with the profits. They are the spokespeople of God. Uh, none of the profits in their own time were said, oh, hi, prophet, Isaiah, prophet Malakai, no Malakai. The prophet. Uh, it's something that they do, the, the spokesperson Malakai to spokesperson. And in Malakai, we hear this messenger. A spokesperson. Somebody is bringing a message from God, a prophet. Um, and what they do is they prepare the way they make smooth, the paths. The Hebrew word for atonement. The day of atonement is key far. And key far is like tar or asphalt. It goes on the ground and you smash it down to make it smooth. The mountains are smashed down to become level with the valleys. As you smashed the mountains down, they fill the valleys until it's even the road between God and humanity. Is becoming more accessible. You could eat. Yeah. Accessible is a great word because not everybody has the same ability, but the smoother, the path, the easier it is for everybody. We should think when Martin Luther king talked about. You know, you can only pick up my neighbor. Along the road to Jericho. So many times before I look up the road and figure out. Why is it? Why is it not safe? Why isn't there any lighting? Why isn't the road smooth and paved? Like, this is what God is doing in making all things right. The day of atonement is when the high priest goes into the, the dwelling place of God. Uh, and makes things right. By taking the blood of the sacrifice goat, smearing it on another goat and letting that goat free. Um, this is what is meant when we talk about atonement. Um, and to get there, um, in Malakai talks about the refiner's fire. I have. I have a certain disdain for Christians who were, um, all light and no heat. You know, they make us feel good, but they don't remind us when we've done something wrong. That's. It's called the false prophet in the old Testament. Um, Jeremiah. You know, famously went into, I don't think it was never And I think it was just CYA either. Um, has it kind of, I can't remember. Jeremiah goes in with this wooden, um, Uh, Not plow, but, uh, the oxens Bo you know, the, the thing that you put on oxygen. I can't remember what the heck it's called now. Um, and this false prophet Hannah Naya. Breaks it cause it's just wood, right? And Jeremiah, you know, embarrassed probably is like, well, okay. You don't want to take the wooden. Thingy. God will come with an iron one and sure enough, the Jerusalemites, uh, were eventually slaughtered by the Babylonians in 5 87 in Jeremiah had to watch. Um, but in these readings, in the, in the old Testament as a whole, we should notice. These the spectrum. Did the duality. And the balancing act between the descendants of Levi and the descendants of Judah. And then there's a third pillar. The youngest and the weakest that are usually called upon by God. And that would be Benjamin. The youngest child of Jacobs favored, wife, Leah, and then the two half tribes of Joseph Manasseh and Efraim. So I'm going to ask that a frame Benjamin are the three. Littlest youngest. Weakest tribes. And yet Levi, the priestly cast. And Judah the monarchial or the Royal cast. They're always existing in intention with one another. Judah. Is not pleasing to the Lord right now. The descendants of Levi need to be refined like gold and silver. And we rarely hear when Manasseh frame and Benjamin come into the chopping block, but they do, they fuck up also. Um, and we can't quite see that if we're not, if we cannot turn. Are like. And our guest or anti-imperialist lens on the Bible itself. We can't be honest about what Judah represents to a poor. Rural. Bastard child. Who was born into the daughters and sons of Aaron through Mary. Um, but whose father. Who doesn't appear until the, you know, the Matthew and Luke's gospel. Um, that's the only descendant that we get of Judah that brings us to. Jesus. Who's English name is Joshua. Um, So when we think of advent, We do not get a kin to you. SERP Kings. We get a savior like a judge. Um, who fulfills the need for order and salvation, not through violence, but through sacrifice. It would have been. OD. I don't want to say offensive because I'm not entirely sure. But it would have been really weird for the, the Roman military families and descendants and Philippi to be told by Saul. This Backwoods, indigenous. You know, guy with a big ego. To say, Fort God for the Lord is my martyr. God will die for me, or God will bear witness to the truth that I am telling you. With the attender afflict affection of his son, the solid one, whose name is Joshua. Um, it would've been. Weird. I, again, I don't want to say offensive. But it, it tweaks with the human assumptions about power. The idea that God might suffer. Might be subjected to the passions to use some of the classical language for God to be a martyr. For God to suffer death. This is precisely what the Messiah does. And yet in, you know, you take a look like anthropology, most cultures, gods had all this power. They were almost immortal if not immortal, but like Yourway is. Immortal and yet chooses. Somehow to be mortal in the pursuit of salvation and the pursuit of right relationship in pursuit of a level and accessible path between divinity and humanity. That is the good news that we. Anticipate in advent, not at king. That's a foreign concept to engine Israel. But a savior who saves by sacrificing. His own ego. So that even the worst of us don't get consumed ultimately, but rather are leveled down with the rest of us. There's a lot going on in advent. Um, Dealing with our own baggage with political anxieties. Which I don't doubt are very similar right now, as they may have felt centuries and millennia ago when there are unjust rulers who have, or are gaining power. Um, so we have to get our own symbolism, our own imagery, our language, right. Or we will follow a false Messiah. We will follow. The best intentioned idiot. Into the lake of fire. If we cannot tell the difference between a savior. And a charlatan. That's how difficult it is. I mean that the devil will take on the clothes of light. And in fact, You know, and a lot of literature, uh, he break literature. The devil was once a normal angel. So he knows all their ways. Um, and so if we have an enemy, it's not the personified. People who are seeking the power unjustly. It is the power by which they go about acquiring that power. It is the things in their heart that. Draw them not. Into temptation to obstruct and do battle with temptation. But to swallow it whole and in the process, swallow the world with it. The Hebrew word for war is l'Homme. Um, or I'm sorry. Um, and it traces its roots back to this. Verb. which is not only to fight or to do battle, but to devour. Um, It to be Is to be overfed to not know when to stop. Consuming the thing that you want, whether that's social media. Whether that's tick tocks. Whether that's sex, whether that's money, it doesn't matter. The fight is not against other human beings. It's about it's against our own unchecked appetite. And figuring out who the other people are, who can not check their own appetite. And that's what advent is about recognizing our own. Humanity. And within that humanity, the promise of salvation. With the support of, and through the actions of a savior, like. Joshua the Christ.
