🐮 Advent 3 👑
Reflection
Good morning and welcome to the fourth Sunday in advent. This is brother Logan, Isaac broadcasting from Albany, Oregon. This morning's readings come to us from Micah five. Psalm 80 and Luke one. And the micro reading is reminder of the promise of God to bring a ruler from Bethlehem, just like David. Um, Micah is writing after the time of David and recalling. David's reputation and mythic status in Israel. To say there will be another and Bethlehem of Ephrata. Um, as a little clan of Judah, it's like a house within. Judah. Um, you know, like the seat of Jesse or Jesse himself, they're likely. Within the tribe of Judah, but the house of Ephrata. And this is speculative.
This is one of those things in the Bible that we don't have. You know, additional kind of hints as to. But one thing geographically to think about is that Bethlehem is one of the Northern most towns in Judah. And if you like me are interested in the dualism between the monarchy or the. The impulse to centralize power and the impulse to decentralized power. And how that plays out in the Bible. And specifically between Judah, the Royal clan and David, and then the. The minor clans, like the. The tribes of Joseph F a frame Manasseh and Benjamin. Um, Then you'll notice that Bethlehem is as, as far as Joseph and his family were willing to go into Judah. Into the tribal allotment of Judah. Joseph who doesn't appear chronologically until Matthew and Luke until the nineties. Saul and mark don't mention any, any dad. Of of, uh, the Messiah. Um, but Matthew and Luke kind of illustrate and draw upon Israel's narrative history. Two. Associate the Messiah with the Royal clan of Judah through an adopted father, Joseph. And Judah whose tribal allotment is in the south and includes Jerusalem. Bethlehem is a Northern town.
So. One of the interpretations that. Uh, would be legitimate and that I hold. Is that, you know, if your, uh, uh, from one of these smaller clans and you're a little. Perturbed at the, the, the veneer or the showmanship of royalty. If you have to go back for a census, if you have to associate with Judah. You're going to go there and get it done and come back. And Bethlehem serves that purpose because the city of David and Bethlehem. Is right. It's like a suburb of Jerusalem. And you go there, you, you get counted by this census and then you go back home to Nazareth in the town, in this, in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. Um, but more importantly as we, um, you know, look at Mary. Um, who does make an appearance all mentions Jesus's mother, but doesn't mention it by name.
Mark mentions her by name. Um, Mary is magnific caught, um, uh, my soul magnifies the Lord in chip it. The prayer beginning in what? 40? Nope. 46. Um, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God. My savior. And in some texts, it might include a footnote. But she is coming very, very closely. To Isaiah 61 verse 10. And 61 is the same script that Jesus chooses to read from when he gives his, his own inaugural many years later in Nazareth, where they try and kick them out of town.
So Isaiah 61. Is important for the inauguration of both the ministry and the function of Mary. As well as her son, the Messiah Joshua. And verse 10. And, uh, her son uses verses one and 2 61, 1 and two. But Mary uses 10, I will greatly rejoice. Or the Greek is Dialysis. In your way. Uh, my , my soul shall be joyful in my God. Um, the. Pursuit Gaye and Kanuma the soul or the spirit are synonymous, but they are distinct, but you can hear in verse 10 of Isaiah 61. A very eerie similarity.
And this is the first line that she makes my soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my savior. Um, and we're, Mary goes on to say, he's looked, God has looked well upon my humble estate. Surely from now on all generations will call me. Bless it. In Isaiah, it continues for, he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with a Garland and. Bride adorned herself with drew Joel's blah, blah, blah. It's about clothing. And there's a very important association with the divine warrior and the armor of God, Isaiah 61. Um, follows on Isaiah 59 17, where we get some of the strongest imagery. Of the, not only the divine word, but the armor of God and clothing of righteousness, these garments. That we put ourselves. Into that God uses in spiritual warfare. Um, and I think that's important because as her inaugural kind of address. Just as with Jesus's or Joshua's inaugural address. They're drawing on the symbolism of the divine warrior and the armor of God. And that's not a mistake. Um, it's probably purposeful if it really happened. Or if Luke is just kind of remembering or assigning it. Isaiah 59 and Isaiah 61 are about God coming to earth after having seen all the earth being unjust and nobody to have. Their savior. So, what does he do?
He puts on. Uh, the, the breastplate of righteousness. And. The garments of wrath or the, the cloak of wrath. So the, the clothing is almost always these, you know, it's armor. It's military attire. And so Mary's inaugural and her son's inaugural many chapters later. Um, or at least many years later, Are both calls to battle. They are drawing on language and symbolism from the Hebrew Bible that would have been associated with a, a rallying cry.
Come to me, Israel. We're about to. You know, make the mountains low and the valley shall be brought up. And it's non-violent, uh, Mary doesn't use violence. Joshua doesn't use violence. Um, her son, Joshua doesn't use violence. Um, And that's important because this, the physical battle belongs to God. Um, you know, leave vengeance for God. To God. Um, but that is not to say that we are not to engage in spiritual battle. Uh, battle of the wills.
If you want to call it that or. Nonviolent direct action. It is something that we are called to as Christians it's right there at the very beginning of our faith. Not only the Messiah, but the Messiah's human mother is saying. Like ya'll way, who is a man of war Exodus, 15 three. Um, I am. Undertaking a spiritual battle. Come join me. That is what Isaiah 59 and 61 is about.
It is about a God who restores Israel from an oppressed state. And Jesus or Joshua. Is like the judge of all judges and a judge and in Israel. Was this charismatic figure. Uh, it was not a title that you earned or it could take from someone it's just something that was put on you. Like the profits, the Navi. Or the Navin. Um, It doesn't appear as a pronoun or a proper noun or a title.
It's just a verb. The those who judged those who were judging Deborah Gideon. Um, and so it is not a kind of power. That can be passed from person to person or, or that was supposed to be passed from person to person Gideon. His approach saying, Hey, you'd be our king. And Gideon says, no, I will not rule over you.
Only. The only Yourway will rule over you. Um, Uh, priests and high priests were kind of a satire of Kings. Oh, you want hereditary power and all these fancy places. The high priest goes into the holy of Holies once a year. And, um, it's a, it's a calling to service. And our king only has, or our kingly clan only has cities.
They don't have land. And we go to them when we need something. When we need. Judgment. That includes capital crimes, right? You go to city of refuge. If you've killed someone. Uh, by accident and you want to, to interrupt. The eye for an eye tooth for a tooth, you go to a city of refuge and you have a priest oversee the, the judgment. Judges were like magistrates.
Like some, many of them engage in military campaigns. To free the people from oppression, but not all of them. Um, and Jesus or the Messiah is more in line with. The office or the function of a judge in Israel, then he was a king it king in Torah. Was a foreign concept. You think an Abraham and Moses. Uh, Torah ends, right as Joshua begins.
Joshua is the fifth, the sixth book of the Bible. So. They encountered Kings, but they didn't have them until the book of judges, judges nine at Ben. Molech the father of Kings. One of Gideon sons tries to take Israel up on the offer of ruling over them and the father of Kings. Abimelech murders 70 of his siblings. Um, any, he takes power.
He successfully is the first king of Israel. Um, and so Kings are not something that God is interested in. Re inscribing, uh, in the human imagination through Israel. If anything. David represents the absolute best that you could hope for in a king. If you want to king look at David. He is not hyper-masculine.
He is not above reproach. He acknowledges his sins. Like that is the best that you can hope for. In a monarchial system, you know, a benevolent ruler. Um, but what Israel was made for and their political system was much more decentralized and it, it empowered, charismatic. Figures. Specifically called to free the people from oppression. And it varied.
Samson was a judge and he killed a bunch of Philistines. Uh, and he was kind of a douchebag he's kind of a cautionary tale. But Debra. Um, Was a Miller. Uh, commanded Barak. Who also came from the lands of Sebela. Milan Naphtali, specifically Naphtali. And the glory went not to Deborah or to Brock, but to jail.
Whose name means mountain goat, who kills the enemy commander? Using trickery. Um, so if you're trying to get a nice clean moral system out of Torah to apply to every instance in your life, like it's not going to happen. The political aspirations of Israel could only ever amount. To a, a, an instance. Of a charismatic figure who saved the people from their own sins, which was expressed through being oppressed. You knew that you had fucked up. Because you are getting fucked up.
And that is because he pissed off God. That is the way the ancient Israelites understood their political lot. When things are bad. We've done something wrong. And we need someone who can lead us out of this thing in order to get rest for a period of time. So when to bring it back to Mary and to the Messiah. They call on military imagery because that is what they do.
The military is, you know, we in America, we kind of pump it full of hot air and I get really tired and pissed off about it. Um, but if we were to normalize military service, it would look something like we call it up when we need it. And when we don't, we have rest. And then as we screw up, we see. Um, broken and corrupt systems that then turn on us.
We need a savior. God provides one that saved your steps aside. We have rests. It's a cyclical thing. But if you want to do it without the military, you're going to have to look outside the Hebrew Bible. Because the Hebrew Bible is really clear. Uh, that violence or I'll say military service. Is not. It's not for violence, military service. Is about ordering and reordering these disordered relationships that we have with one another. And that we have with our neighbor. And sometimes our neighbor, we are called to. Um, You know, rest and judgment for, uh, in military sense. And sometimes our neighbor, our enemies. Are the ones that God uses to judge us.
So if you think that. You know, being a Christian or being, uh, adhering to the Hebrew Bible is all about what we can get out of it for us. Um, I'm sorry. That's not what the Bible. That's not what the Bible says. And as we await this coming Messiah and advent, We have to remember that this isn't a king, like the world has Kings. At the very best, it looks like David, but even better than David. And Jesus did not use violence because violence is not always necessary. And if violence is our only tool. Then of course we'll use it, but that places outside the witness. Of the Christ. And the witness of the Hebrew Bible.
