Revised Common Lectionary - Year C: First And Second Sundays In Advent

Revised Common Lectionary – Year C

First Sunday of Advent: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36

Every spiritual blessing - in Christ: Come to Him and receive His blessing.

‘I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against Me... Then this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise, and honour before all nations on earth...’(Jeremiah 33:7-9). What great blessing lay ahead of God’s people! God was pointing His people to the place of blessing: Jesus Christ - ‘the righteous Branch from David’s line’(Jeremiah 33:15-16). ‘In Christ’, we have ‘every spiritual blessing’: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him’(Ephesians 1:3; 1 Corinthians 2:9). God has so much blessing to give to us. Come to Him and receive His blessing: ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you; I will show you wonderful and marvellous things that you know nothing about’(Jeremiah 33:3).

We put no confidence in the flesh. Our confidence is in the Lord. He is the God of our salvation.

‘Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me, for Thou art the God of my salvation’(Psalm 25:5). We can pray this prayer with confidence. God has given His promise: ‘He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble His way’(Psalm 25:9). Our confidence is in the Lord. We ‘put no confidence in the flesh’(Philippians 3:3). Jesus teaches us that God hides Himself from the proud and reveals Himself to the humble: ‘…Father…Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to babes’(Matthew 11:25). In the life of faith, the most important thing is the right attitude - not the ‘best education’! The proud may concern themselves with impressing ‘the right people’. For the humble, there is something more important - pleasing God. His opinion is the one that really matters!

Our love is to be holy. Our holiness is to be loving.

We need both ‘love’ and ‘holiness’(1 Thessalonians 3:12-13). Our love is to be holy. Our holiness is to be loving. Getting the right balance between love and holiness is like walking a tightrope. You can easily lose your balance and fall off. We can be too soft - all love and no holiness. We can be too hard - all holiness and no love. Love doesn’t mean ‘anything goes ’ - ‘I don’t care how you live’. That’s not love. That’s indifference, a ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude. Holiness doesn’t mean looking down your nose at other people - ‘You’ve sinned and I will never let you forget it’. Don’t be like ‘the Pharisees’. They wanted to ‘stone the woman caught in adultery’. We must not ‘stone’ people with our ‘hot tongue and cold shoulder’! Be like Jesus. Show love - ‘I don’t condemn you’ - and holiness - ‘Do not sin again’(John 8:3-11).

True giving is our response to God’s grace. Let us give ourselves to Him.

The ‘poor widow’ gave her ‘all’ to the Lord (Luke 21:1-4). True giving is a response to ‘the grace of God’. Learning to appreciate ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’, we will learn to give with ‘abundance of joy’ and ‘wealth of liberality’ (2 Corinthians 8:1-2, 9). Let us give ourselves to our Lord. True Christian living will not be easy (12; 2 Timothy 3:12). The Lord will be with us in all our difficulties (Luke 21:15, 18-19). Christ will return ‘with power and great glory’(Luke 21:27). For some this will be a time of ‘distress... perplexity... fear... foreboding’(Luke 21:25-26). For others, it will be the Day of ‘redemption’(Luke 21:28). To all, there is the warning: ‘Take heed to yourselves... watch at all times’(Luke 21:34-36). Let us restore Him to His rightful place in our lives - ‘...all the people came to Him...’(Luke 21:38).

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Second Sunday of Advent: Malachi 3:1-4; Psalm 27 (or Luke 1:68-79); Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6

We come to the Lord’s House so that we might offer our heartfelt worship to the Lord.

‘One thing have I asked of the Lord…that I may dwell in the House of the Lord…’(Psalm 27:4). What are we doing when we gather in the Lord’s House for worship? This is what we are doing - ‘Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage’(Psalm 27:14). Where does our strength come from? It comes from God: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation… The Lord is the stronghold of my life’. Strong in Him, we say, ‘My heart will not fear… I will be confident’(Psalm 27:1, 3).

We come to the Lord’s House so that we might receive encouragement from the Lord and be changed by the Lord.

Do you feel like you can`t go on? Do you feel like giving up? Here`s God`s Word of encouragement for you: ‘He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the Day of Jesus Christ’(Philippians 1:6). God finishes what He starts - ‘He didn`t bring us this far to leave us. He didn`t teach us to swim to let us drown. He didn`t build His home in us to move away. He didn`t lift us up to let us down’. In all the changes of life, we must remember this: God is faithful. His love is unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable. We don`t keep going because we are strong. We are ‘kept by the power of God’(1 Peter 1:5). Called to live ‘to the glory and praise of God’(Philippians 1:11), let us remember that God is “the refiner’s fire” (Malachi 3:2). He is “the “purifier of silver” (Malachi 3:3). May our “faith – of greater worth than gold” be “refined by fire.” May our “faith … be proved genuine.” May our “faith … result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7). We have been “called” to “be holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16). As we seek to walk with God in holiness, let us never forget this – “you were redeemed … with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

We come to the Lord’s House so that we might receive strength from the Lord and be sent out to proclaim the Word of the Lord.

We sing our song of praise to the Lord – “Blessed be the Lord God …” (Luke 1:68). May we grow “strong” in the Lord (Luke 1:80). John's message came from ‘God’(Luke 3:2). He did not begin with love. He preached about sin and divine judgment, warning his hearers to ‘flee from the wrath to come’(Luke 3:7). He called for ‘repentance’(Luke 3:3, 8). This was not what people wanted to hear. Before we can rejoice in the Good News concerning salvation, we must recognize our sin and our need of salvation. John prepared the way for Jesus. ‘All have sinned’, ‘The wages of sin is death’ - This is the ‘bad news; which prepares us to receive, with joyful thanksgiving, ‘the Good News’: ‘the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’(Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23).