Readings: Proper 28, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
THE COLLECT PRINTED above, which I love for its language, is Proper 28 of the Book of Common Prayer. It is the prayer appointed for the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost (aka “The Sunday closest to Nov. 16.”
This year, in addition, it’s the second to last Sunday of the Church Year (that date moves along with that of Easter).
Usually, reflecting the pretty widely spread belief through the ages that things were going to get way worse before they got eternally better, we’re warned that many trials and tribulations are coming to test the faith of Christians.
And so the reading for this part of the year (“Ordinary Time” or, more usually, “the Green Sundays” before Christ the King and then Advent, with its rich blues, tend to the very grim. Jeremiah, who must have been dyspeptic, features heavily at this time of the year with his doom and gloom, and woes here and woes there. It was positively fresh to read the lessons from the first track, with a text from my favorite prophet, Isaiah: “Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy, / for the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.” And before that, “Surely, it is God who saves me; / I will trust in him and not be afraid. // For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense, / and he will be my Savior.”
How’s that for a nice cheerful reading? But look at Malachi, the other Hebrew Scripture assigned for this day: “See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.”
Well, it’s definitely good news that some of us will be redeemed, I suppose.
Still, it is a bit grumpier than the reading from Isaiah. (Did I mention that I love and adore Isaiah? I’m pretty sure I did.)
And it’s a pretty good plan to have these happier lessons at this time of the year, because if the readings are desolate and the weather outside is frightful, it’s just plain hard to keep on going.
And very, very soon, there’s going to be so much to do.
It’s so busy, sometimes, that it puts Advent, that wonderful season of hope and light, in danger of being forgotten. Of course it’s a bit early, but maybe you should get the Christmas shopping done in the next two weeks before you get all bogged down. I know I do!
But still, I do love this proper and its readings. It just keeps going and going!
Still, Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians gets down to the nitty-gritty:
For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate.
Paul’s busy pointing out (with a certain amount of self-righteousness) that when he was there, he was busy and he was there and he was working hard. Bully for you, Paul. Let’s face it, Paul can get, frankly, a bit tiresome from time to time (especially when he goes all formal on you using his rhetorical skills. Believe you me, it can all be a bit too much.)
Jesus gets a little heavy-handed as well. Yes, he’s heading towards Jerusalem and towards his death, so he goes all apocalyptic on us: he’s all end times and hard times and tough times, but I suppose that’s not a bad thing for us to hear in our current political situation. (The last time I wrote like this, it was the Democrats moaning; now it’s the Republicans.) And it’s all of us, regardless of party or affiliation, who live in a divided world. After all, “when you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.”
Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.”
Oh, dear. I’m simply not up for all that bother.
Meanwhile, though, the world goes on in its paces, trotting along, while we are called to wait.
But sometimes we need to hear Jesus’ final assurance, “But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
We need to hear that and we need to spread that word. Oh, and don’t forget, feed the hungry, visit the sick, comfort the dying. That’s still our job. It’s always our job.
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Previously a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, Dr. Keith Dorwick is a lay person continuing his walk with God who has just joined the community at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Port Angeles. He’s also the executive director of Spiritual Directions of PA (https://spiritual-directions-pa.org), his next holy adventure.
