The following material was written by the Rev. John Shearman (jlss@sympatico.ca) of the United Church of Canada. John normally structures his offerings so that the first portion can be used as a bulletin insert, while the second portion provides a more in depth 'introduction to the scripture'.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
New Year's Day - Year B
ECCLESIASTES 3:1-13 This time honoured passage
effectively declares the great variety of human experience as we all pass
through this mortal life. Yet there is a deep sense of pessimism in its
poetry despite the naming of God as the initiator of all things. The
author seems to be saying, “Be happy with your lot, whatever it may be.”
PSALM 8 This majestic psalm sets humanity
in a noble and yet dangerous position within the divinely created
universe. It appears to place us at the pinnacle of creation with
dominion of all other creatures. In recent centuries this great honour
has been ingloriously misused to sanction the destruction of the
environment. Yet as the concluding verse proclaims, we are still subject
to divine sovereignty.
REVELATION 21:1-6A Contradicting the pessimism of “The
Preacher” of Ecclesiastes, John the Visionary sees all things made new
because God is in the midst of life here and now. Because God is the
Initiator and the Completion of all things, we can trust God implicitly
“in life and in life beyond death.”
MATTHEW 25:31-46 The parable of the sheep and goats
is not just a story of what will happen at the end time when the Sovereign
Lord Jesus will decide to whom he will grant admission to the Kingdom and
who will be denied. It also defines the common ethical issues that each
one of us faces daily in this present time. What better moment to
consider this question of utmost significance that on the first day of a
new year?
A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS
ECCLESIASTES 3:1-13 During the Christian Year we don’t often read from
this book of Wisdom literature. This time honoured passage effectively
declares the great variety of human experience as we all pass through this
mortal life. Yet there is a deep sense of pessimism in its poetry despite
the naming of God as the initiator of all things. The author seems to be
saying, “Be happy with your lot, whatever it may be.”
Attributed to Solomon but probably written in the 3rd century BCE, the book
has a philosophical rather than a religious theme. It wrestles with two
fundamental questions: Is there any meaning to life (chs. 1-6)? And how
should one live as a result? (chs. 7-12). However, beginning with the
thesis that “all is vanity” (1:2) everything that follows is essentially
qualified by this pessimism. All things are in flux and eventually end
where they began. This order has been fixed by God presumably, but seem
quite arbitrary to humans. Scholars have failed to discern exactly why it
was included in the Hebrew canon. Professor R.B.Y Scott stated in his
*The Way of Wisdom* (Macmillan, 1971) that it was strongly opposed by the
school of Rabbi Shammai but in the end granted sacred and authoritative
recognition.
The poem in this passage expresses the main theme of the book. The author
was no atheist, Qoheleth, or the Teacher or Preacher, as his Hebrew
designation appears in the title (1:1). Everything happens at the
appropriate time as God has ordered it: “He has made everything suitable
for its time” (3:11). Whatever happens is determined by God, but man is
left in the dark about what God is doing and why. This view of life,
however, stands in stark contrast to the rest of the Hebrew scriptures,
let alone the Gospel expressed in the victory of God over sin and death
through Jesus Christ.
Any preacher designing a sermon on this text should have on file this
brief excerpt from a poem, The Gate of the Year, by Minnie Louise Harkins
1875-1957. King George VI of Britain included it in his Christmas 1939
broadcast shortly after the start of World War II:
“I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, ‘Give me a light
that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he said to me, ‘Go out into
the darkness, put you hand into the hand of God. That shall be better
than a light, safer than a known way.’ ”
PSALM 8 This majestic psalm praises God as Creator and sets humanity in
a noble and yet dangerous position within the divinely created universe.
It appears to place us at the pinnacle of creation with dominion of all
other creatures. In recent centuries this great honour has been
ingloriously misused to sanction the destruction of the environment. Yet
as the concluding verse proclaims, we are still subject to divine
sovereignty.
One can easily imagine the psalmist standing beneath the starry sky
marveling at its splendour though understanding nothing about what he is
beholding. Knowing only the myths of his ancient culture, he does not ask
any of the questions a modern person might ask about how this multitude of
heavenly lights came to be. He attributes the whole of what he sees to
the handiwork of God. Insignificant as he may feel at this moment, he
also realizes that he and his tribe are no accident in the divine economy.
He has been created for a purpose: to have dominion over the creatures of
the earth. He is God’s vice-regent, a concept borrowed from the poetic
traditions of Gen. 1:26 and 2:19-20. Lest he should be too self-centred
in his contemplation of his own greatness, he ends his praise by repeating
the doxology wit which he began.
REVELATION 21:1-6A Contradicting the pessimism of “The Preacher” of
Ecclesiastes, John the Visionary sees all things made new because God is
in the midst of life here and now. Because God is the Initiator and the
Completion of all things, we can trust God implicitly “in life and in life
beyond death.”
If Jerusalem was the site where Yahweh’s covenant with Israel was
celebrated, the New Jerusalem come down from heaven is the site where that
covenant with the whole of creation will be fulfilled. Even more
surprising is the Seer’s statement that “the home of God is with mortals.”
It is on earth, within creation, and not in heaven, he insists that the
denouement of all history will occur.
John here recalls an important element of Old Testament theology and its
fulfillment in the Gospel. During the Exodus, the wanderings in the
wilderness and the earlier years of their residence in the Promised Land,
the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant served as the symbol of divine
presence with Israel, the holy people of God. The temple in Jerusalem
replaced the ancient tabernacle; but in the New Jerusalem, there will be
no temple, as John subsequently states (21:22). As the Fourth Gospel also
put it, in Jesus Christ, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld his glory. God’s dwelling and its eternal establishment with
humanity has taken place in the Incarnation.
The eternal presence of God, John further declared, has another
concomitant: Death will be no more and all mourning will be forever
removed. Not only the Incarnation but the Resurrection has brought about
the promised fulfillment of the ancient covenant first made at Sinai
renewed in repeated promises of the prophets (Hosea 1:23; Jer. 30:22;
Ezek. 36:28; Zech. 8:8); and realized in the new covenant of Christ (Rom.
9:25; 1 Pet. 2:10). Nothing can ever separate us from God and God’s
loving purpose to create and redeem. The birth, life, death and
resurrection of Jesus have indeed made all things new. As John said at
the beginning of his visions, he is both the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end of all things.
MATTHEW 25:31-46 (Repeated from Year A – Reign of Christ.) This parable
tells us that the reign of Christ will begin with a final judgment. But
it is a parable, a story told to persuade people on how to live as they
prepare for that inevitable experience, not a description of what the
event will be like. The story also has an eschatological and a messianic
emphasis set in place by its very first clause, "When the Son of Man comes
in his glory and all his angels with him ...." That is a typical
description from the apocalyptic tradition derived from Jewish literature
of the centuries BCE greatly influenced by forerunners in both the
prophetic and possibly the wisdom traditions. (See Ezekiel 38-39; Isaiah
24-27; Zechariah 12-14.) Its stock-in-trade was revelation through
visionary experience; and this parable contains some very vivid images of
that kind.
In vss. 31 and 32 there are two images of the judgment which may seem to
be unusually juxtaposed. The first envisages a typical a royal court
where the monarch is surrounded by courtiers and the whole populace is
gathered before the throne waiting for a critical decision. The second
describes the much humbler scene of a shepherd at the end if a day
separating sheep from goats as they enter the fold for the night. The
task was an easy one, for in the Middle East sheep are generally white and
goats black. The monarch's task might not be so easy, for the character
of human beings is much more complex.
The story does simplify the basis on which the judgment is made. It has
to do with how each person responds to everyday opportunities to help
others in need. The length and detail with which this poignant emphasis
is described assures even the hasty reader that this is what the story
means. The reign of Christ and God's eternal judgment are going on right
now with each decision and action we take. How we live today has eternal
consequences. We are to witness to the reign of Christ in the way we
serve him in faithfulness, kindness and love to our neighbors in need.
Yet this parable is not a simple story offering polite moral counsel to
create a kinder, gentler, self-satisfied society. Coming as it does
immediately before the Passion story, this parable connects our time in
history and the time of Jesus as an historical person with the reality of
eschatological judgment at the end of time. The way this parable
describes how the faithful are to live is the way Jesus lived "as one that
served." His actions constantly affirmed his messianic character. Matthew
constantly reminded his audience of this in his choice of names by which
he referred to Jesus of Nazareth, in this instance the OT messianic figure
of the Son of Man. As he turned to the all important conclusion of his
gospel, Matthew was saying that in Jesus the Messiah the divine judgment
which Israel has anticipated for so long had arrived. The gospel speaks
across the millennia with the same clarion call of judgment to our own
time and place: the crucified and risen Jesus, the ever present 'God with
us,' is now deciding who will have a part in the eternal reign of love
fulfilled in God's creation.
copyright - Comments by Rev. John Shearman and page by Richard J. Fairchild, 2006
please acknowledge the appropriate author if citing these resources.
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