Pastor John Wright

Advent continues rushing by as we move into the third Sunday. This Sunday we have our multicongregational Christmas – placing our multicongregational calendar above the usual rhythms of our worship. In the meantime, distributions have increased another 20% from last month; we will have a record movement through the building this week – take some mangos home with you after bible study so that they don’t spoil! If you haven’t heard, it is my understanding that we will be the backdrop tonight on a CBS news story featuring “Feeding America” food bank, the group that supplies much of the food that we distribute (look for Cody Ellis in the background!). The next weeks look demanding – we had a shortage of hands Tuesday night at the Salvation Army; a series of rain storms are coming and the need for the distribution will continue to increase as the recession/depression deepens. God has called us to be the church in this time between the times of Christ’s coming and we have little choice but to be made adequate to the task.

Which is to say that these Scriptures for this week are important. The passage from Isaiah helps us look to the end, the goal, the coming reality that we witness to now; the Gospel reading helps us see the beginning, the ground of this coming reality and our call; and the Epistle reading helps us to see what will take for us to be made ready for this coming reality.

Isaiah 65:17-25

Isaiah 65 uses language that John the elder picks up and uses at the end of the Apocalypse. How is it that the “new heavens” and “new earth” will come to pass? Why does it call for rejoicing? How does this language relate this coming reality to our current reality?

Within the framework of the Scriptures, Jerusalem/the Holy Mountain in the OT has often been read as a type for the church. Read Revelation 21:1-22:5. How does it relate to the Isaiah 65 passage?

John 3:23-30

First, trivia: here is the one instance in the NT that gives evidence that Jesus baptized!

Second, the question of purification involves access to the Temple and its economy of goods that it provided. Baptism was a means of qualification for entry into the Temple. Note that the group doesn’t even know Jesus’ name; John is much more “famous” at the time. For those who want to set John in competition with Jesus, what is John’s response? Why must John decrease? Why does this decrease fulfill John’s joy? What is coming in Jesus and the purification (baptism) that he offers?

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians looks to the end described in Isa 65, the end that has its beginning described by John in wedding imagery in John 3. The epistle reading takes place that gives teaching for living in this time in between, how to “actively wait.” Go through the exhortations one by one and explain how this helps us to “wait actively” from Jesus’ coming to Jesus’ coming. Why is “rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, giving thanks in all circumstances” God’s will in Christ for us? How do these character attributes related to the “beginning” and the “end”?

Now, read the blessing with which Paul concludes the letter. Why does he pray for our entire sanctification? How does being made holy prepare one for the end described in Isa 65? How does it relate to the exhortations that Paul gives right before? Who actually sanctifies us? How are we made holy? Is it our accomplishment? Can sanctification take place without an entire commitment of our selves, our past, our present, our future, to God, that we must decrease while Christ increases?

How does the content of the end in Isaiah 65 relate to the exhortations in 1 Thessalonians to our entire sanctification? How is our entire sanctification, as our participation in the end manifested in the world today?
Have a wonderful evening!