Clergy and Educators

Advent Preaching Colloquium

From these Stones, True Children of Abraham
The Rev. Thomas E. Breidenthal, D.Phil.
General Theological Seminary, New York

Introduction

This year's Advent Preaching Colloquium, held at Wood-brook Baptist Church in Baltimore on November 13, 2000 and led by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Breidenthal, focused on the themes of "Promise and Fulfillment" by exploring the gospel readings for the second, third, and fourth Sun-days of Advent.

Second Sunday in Advent
Common Lectionary: Luke 3:1-6
Roman Catholic Lectionary: Luke 3:1-6

Third Sunday in Advent
Common Lectionary: Luke 3:7-18
Roman Catholic Lectionary: Luke 3:10-18

Fourth Sunday in Advent
Common Lectionary: Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)
Roman Catholic Lectionary: Luke 1:39-45

The gospel texts for the second and third Sundays center on John the Baptist's fiery warning that God can "raise up children to Abraham from these stones."

On the fourth Sunday, we read in Luke 1 of Mary's visit to Elizabeth and her hymn of praise (the Magnificat).

In the liturgical context of anticipating the Feast of the Incarnation, what are we to make of these readings? How are we to preach them? Is it possible to interpret them in a non-supersessionist, non-triumphalistic way? What might that look like?

Political Theology and Supersessionism

Rev. Breidenthal notes that the ways in which Christians read their sacred scriptures shape the ways that they live in the world. The inclination to claim the Gospel at the expense of the people Israel is difficult to resist during the season of Advent. Breidenthal insists, how-ever, that a supersessionist rendering of the Advent story is the stepchild of a political theology that seeks power and privilege over other people, and he calls Christian preachers to avoid this betrayal of the Gospel. These texts demonstrate that the good news is not about privilege, not about annexing the other, but about being open to the other. Since the stranger bears God's image, to deny the stranger is to deny something of God. Only by considering ourselves without privilege do we open ourselves to fellowship.

A non-supersessionist notion of fellowship, a fellowship stripped of privilege so that the other is recognized and affirmed as "other," is what Christians can bring to the public realm for the common good. Developing a theology of the public realm requires steering a careful course between two extreme positions: On the one hand, we must not drain the scandalous particularity out of our faith traditions in order to have universal appeal; and on the other hand, we must shun a distinctiveness that seeks to trump every other faith claim. Our ability to frame a theology of the public realm that does not compromise either our own faith tradition or that of the stranger is directly proportional to our ability to guard against supersessionism.

Reading the Texts in Different Contexts

Rev. Breidenthal guided the participants in the Preaching Colloquium in reading the texts in Luke 1 and 3 in two different contexts: the lectionary context, which pre-sents Luke 3 before Luke 1; and the context of Luke's gospel, putting chapters 1 and 3 back in their natural order. (It was suggested also to read these texts in the context of Luke-Acts.)

In small and large group discussions, the participants discovered that reading these texts in the order deter-mined by the lectionary lures the reader into thinking of the reversals of the Magnificat in terms of what John the Baptist says about raising up children to Abraham from stones. A long history of Christian supersessionist inter-pretation makes it very hard not to hear in this warning a prophecy that the Gentiles are about to replace the Jews as the true children of Abraham. Warrant for this interpretation is further intensified by John's saying that any tree that does not bear good fruit will be axed down and thrown away. There is a danger in the ordering of the lectionary. Reading Luke 1 and 2 through the lens of Luke 3 easily leads to a Christian assault on Jewish privilege that simply clears the way for the establish-ment of Gentile privilege.

Participants then sought -- and found -- ways to read and preach Luke 3:1-18 that would be consonant with other prophetic proclamations in the Bible. Here are some of the fruits of their labor:

• Reading the text in terms of Jewish ethics reveals the Baptist's intent: To be a son of the covenant does not bestow privilege that absolves one from responsible action in the world. If being a son of the covenant were all that God desired, God could raise up innumerable children from stones. God wants faithful sons and daughters who will do what God desires. Thus John advocates a pattern of behavior that stands in continuity with the long tradition of Hebrew prophecy. (It would be interesting to juxtapose a text from Amos with the Lukan text.)



• Changing John's words in the text to read, "Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Jesus as our brother’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up siblings to Jesus," presents a challenge to contemporary Christians that matches the challenge that John presented to those who came to be baptized by him.



• The harrowing images in Luke 3:15-18 may be read as a message of purification and thus a message of grace, in keeping with the claim in 3:18 that John proclaimed "good news" to the people.



• Luke 3:15 speaks of a people filled with expectation. Why did these people come out to hear John? The same sort of question about expectation is a good one to ask at the beginning of Advent: What are the people in the pews expecting at Christmas? This text serves as a warning that they should not be expecting a sense of privilege that they can be assured of receiving, because God can raise up children to Abraham. That is, God is free to do whatever God wants to do.



• The text in Luke 3 is a text of radical uncertainty that stands in tension with the assurance of faith promised in baptism. Perhaps Christians can only discern the good news of Christmas when they have been disoriented by an unexpected challenge. Perhaps the story can only deliver promise to those who are willing to be unsettled.

Luke 1:39-55

Following the discussion of Luke 3:1-18, participants turned their attention to the first chapter of Luke's Gos-pel, seeking ways of preaching the text that avoid the supersessionist trap set in the lectionary by reading Luke 3 before Luke 1.

As the group grappled with its task, it generated as many questions as it did answers:

• Luke has patterned the Magnificat on Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2 and so he speaks of God's "help[ing] his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever." Whose ancestors are spoken of here -- the ancestors of Jews or the ancestors of Gentiles?



• What is the place of the Jewish people in this text?



• Are Christians in this text, and, if not, is it still good news for us?



• Is Luke co-opting this text for Christians as the "new Israel"?



• The Magnificat is a text about reversals, but reversal is not replacement. Reversal, not replacement, is at the heart of God's way with Israel and with the Gentiles. How might this notion play out in Christian ways of talking about other people who are not Christians?



• What kind of reversals does God call us to, and are we open to them?



• For whom is a text about reversals really good news? Whom is this text apt to strike as bad news? In America, most Christians may find themselves on the side of the equation that will lose entitlements and privileges in the great reversal.



• Whatever else we may read out of the Magnificat, it is most assuredly a text that demonstrates the pattern of God's fidelity to Israel. Only in the recognition that God keeps God's promises to the Jewish people can Christians have confidence in God's fidelity to them.



• Luke 1 shows God acting in one's life in a way that is transforming. Luke 3 offers the challenge of responding to that transformation in a way that bears fruit befitting repentance. These two chapters taken together lift up call and claim, generosity and obligation, mercy and justice.

Advent and Incarnation

The first chapter of the Gospel of Luke is preparation for birth, for the Incarnation. In the Christian imagination, as well as in Christian art, the Incarnation is the birth of a child who has nothing, but, because he is divine, is destined to become something. If we read Advent texts in a way that strips them of a sense of privilege, we would read them as a kenosis -- a taking on of no priv-ilege, and we would cling to the child who has nothing.

The joy, peace, and newness of Christmas

Rev. Breidenthal left the Colloquium participants with an exciting way to view Christmas themes of joy, peace, and newness. He explained that joy is not triumph, peace is not the submersion of all difference between people, and newness is renewal and reaffirmation, but not a rejection of the old.

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