Sunday Readings Preview December 9, 2007

Reading 1, Isaiah 11:1-10 When I was a child there was a box elder tree on the property line with our next-door neighbor. We cut it down, but a small grove of new shoots grew up from the roots. We cut those shoots back every spring. Years after I had left home, a couple of those shoots grew into 30 ft. trees again. Olive trees, the most popular variety in the Holy Land, grow from new sprouts in the same way. Jesse was the father of King David. All the generations of kings of Judah had grown from Jesse’s “stump”. Isaiah envisions a time when a new king will come from that same root and stump to usher in a messianic era of peace.

Reading II, Romans 15:4-9 Singing in harmony is different from singing in unison. Multiple melodies, even different lyrics, are sung at the same time, blending together and enhancing one another. So it is when people “think” in harmony. It doesn’t require that people think alike but that they respect and support one another. One of the biggest challenges in St. Paul’s ministry was the joining of people from Jewish and Gentile backgrounds. From his strict Pharisaic Jewish background, Paul became the “Apostle to the Gentiles” in every community he founded. He presented their cause before the other apostles at the Council of Jerusalem.

Matthew 3:1-12 Raised in a village outside Jerusalem, John was raised by a devout mother (Elizabeth) and a priest-father (Zechariah) who knew God would call their son to a special mission some day. His early formation included prayer and an in-depth understanding of the scriptures. Eventually he left home and went to live in the desert of Judea. The lay monastic community of Qumran was situated in that desert near the Dead Sea. This same community later put their library in large pottery jars and stored them in caves in the hills above their community center during the Jewish war for independence (c. 66-70 A.D.). When all died in the war, no one returned to Qumran, and their scrolls remained forgotten in the caves for 19 centuries before being discovered in 1947. The community had a great devotion to the prophets, a heavily eschatological interpretation of scripture, and a practice of frequent baptism as a sign of repentance. Since John the Baptist had these things in common with that community, it is possible that he lived there or had contact with the community during the years prior to the beginning of his public ministry. For reference to his outfit of camel’s hair and a leather belt, see 2 Kings 1:8. Such was the outfit of Elijah handed down to Elisha. By wearing it, John identified himself as a prophet in the same line.