• Advent
  
• Christmas
  
• Epiphany
  

Mark B Gospels
The seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany focus on the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The tendency is to divide them into three different seasons, when in fact each in turn prepares for the incarnation, celebrates the incarnation, and manifests the incarnation. The feast of Christmas is the heart of its cycle, preceded by Advent as preparation and followed by Epiphany as the continued elaboration of the birth of the Christ child in Christmas.

Understanding three seasons as part of one Christmas cycle suggests that any plan for preaching during the first part of the church year seeks to discover the centrality of the Incarnate One within the liturgical lessons for each Sunday. This will allow each of these seasons to develop the full portrait of the church's life centered in Christ, present among us and coming again in glory. A complete picture of the Christian's daily struggle of living in the flesh and yet by faith is made possible by the church's allowing the Christian to prepare for the Incarnate One's coming, birth, and manifestation. The seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany proclaim the tension of what God has already done in Jesus and what God will still do in Him. This is the dialectic of the now and not yet. Every Christian sees this tension expressed in his own life as saint/sinner, or as Luther put it, simul iustus et peccator. This life he lives under the cross in which he sees himself condemned and redeemed. This tension is resolved in the Incarnate Christ, crucified and now risen for the life of the world. Thus the church offers the preacher liturgical lessons that allow him to embrace that tension and proclaim this resolution in Jesus Christ whose presence is realized in the bread and wine.

Each Gospel lesson for Series B specifies the theme for the day, announcing the perspective the portrait of the Incarnate One will take for each Sunday. Preparing for preaching during the church year requires seeing each Sunday as part of the whole and taking a panoramic view of the liturgical lessons for the season. It is one thing to be adept at considering the context of the Gospel lesson, both within the Gospel itself and within the general character of the church year, but it is another matter to see the pericope within the liturgical context of all the lessons for this particular season. Such a general approach has the added advantage of avoiding dissipating the preacher's efforts over many Sundays and combining them into a unity.

The Markan Gospels predominate the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany with a few exceptions from the other evangelists. There is an internal rhythm between these texts that encourages the preacher to place his preaching within the context of what went before and in anticipation of what is coming. If the pastor wants to assist his congregation to "understand" the liturgy, then he must give his people a longer vision, showing how each Gospel is part of the season's sweeping statement about the incarnation, and how that statement fits into a Biblical theology developed by the liturgical lessons from Advent I to the Sunday of Fulfillment. The purpose of these worship notes is to look at the Gospels for Series B by season, but within "the big picture" of Advent/Christmas/Epiphany. Brief comments will be made about all thirteen Gospel lessons, although the task of a detailed exegesis is left to other resources available in the standard commentaries. For Mark, a recent commentary by C. S. Mann for Anchor Bible from Doubleday is a worthwhile investment.

The First Sunday in Advent is intensely focused on end of all things and continues a focus that began on All Saints Day. The Gospels for last three Sundays of the church year are taken from the apocalyptic chapters of Matthew 24 and 25, culminating on the Sunday of Fulfillment with either the parable of the ten virgins (Mt 25:1-13) or the parable of the final judgment (Mt 25:31-46). The church year's conclusion is a natural bridge to Advent. The lessons for the last three Sundays of the church year and the first Sundays in Advent demonstrate how the church has harmonized the seasons of nature with the seasons of the church year. As nature experiences its yearly death in the fall and winter of the year, the church year focuses on judgment, the ultimate death of the world as we know it. This is not a forced connection but demonstrates how the redemption presupposes the order and rhythm of creation. The transition to Advent is natural as the church now prepares for the coming of God's holy Child who, in his birth, tolls the death of the old world and the resurrection of the new one. Already in his birth he is the resurrection of all life. When the sun reaches the point of death at the winter solstice and begins to rise again, the church celebrates the birth of the new world: "The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings." (Malachi 4:2)

The appointed Gospel lessons support this theme of death and resurrection by showing this continuity between the Old Testament and the New in the appearance of John the Baptist, the last prophet of the old age. He closes the old age and inaugurates the new one by baptizing Jesus, the long awaited Messiah. The Advent I Gospel of Mark 13:33-37 looks back on the apocalypticism of the last three Sundays of the church year and calls for the church to be vigilant as she waits for the Lord's second coming, not knowing when it will come. Fear is mixed with hope. The coming one is our Lord (kuvrio" - Mk 13:35), the householder, and we are members of his house (th'" oijkiva" - Mk 13:35). The Advent II Gospel of Mark 1:1-8 calls for the church to prepare the way of the Lord through John the Baptist's preaching of a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Mk 1:4). Baptism is placed along side of the Lord's Supper in anticipation of His coming. Preparation for the birth of Christ through repentance and forgiveness is also preparation for His second coming. The call for conversion continues the focus on judgment by showing the church the best way to prepare is to receive Christ as He comes to us through Word and Sacrament. John 1:6-8, 19-28, the Gospel for Advent III or Gaudete (rejoice), continues the theme of preparation but adds a new dimension. The third Sunday in Advent has traditionally been the transitional Sunday that anticipates Christmas joy and narrows the focus upon the incarnation. John functions as presursor is "to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him" (Jn 1:7). John renounces any claims to being the Christ, but points to Jesus as the Christ who ushers in the Messianic Age with signs announced by Isaiah 61 (the Old Testament lesson for Advent III). The Pharisees will soon see the signs of this Messiah, of whom John says, "among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie" (Jn 1:26-7). The Advent IV Gospel of Luke 1:26-38 senses the church's nearness to the celebration of the nativity and therefore offers an invitation to the feast by announcing to the church the coming birth of Jesus through the words of the angel to the humble virgin. The annunciation intensifies the incarnational focus. The portrait of the Messiah becomes more complete. He is conceived by the Holy Ghost; He will be Great; He will be called the Son of the Most High; He will be given the throne of His father David; He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever in an unending kingdom; He will be called holy, the Son of God. Thus, with these messianic pronouncements, the church is ready for the birth of the Christ child.

The church gathers together in this holy season to proclaim that God's will for the world is fulfilled in the birth of God's Son. Christmas is the time when all the ages come crashing down upon us. It is the time when past becomes present and future becomes present. It is the time when we celebrate that in Christ the kingdom of God came in Bethelehem. It comes to us right now in this place, and it will come again in glory. One cannot worship the Christ child in this holy season of Christmas without recognizing that the birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ are power-laden events through which the world is changed forever.

Remarkable about this season is that God's power is unleashed in humility. God cloaks His power in humble images. The Christmas Gospel of Luke 2:1-20 shows that it is the sleepy village of Bethlehem, not Rome, where the Savior is born. Shepherds, not Pharisees, come to worship the child. A manger, not a palace, is the place of birth. God use's His power, not for the glory of man, but for the saving of man. God's powerful kingdom comes through abject humility. In humility and weakness God's power is released. This understanding unlocks the mysteries of the birth of God in Bethlehem and the death of God on Calvary. The Christmas I Gospel of Luke 2:25-40 continues the theme of humility as the infant Jesus is proclaimed to be the Christ through the humble eyes of faith by two of Israel's aging saints. The little child in the temple will be rejected because the scandal of His cross "is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel" (Lk 2:34). The Christmas II Gospel of John 1:1-18 allows the church one last and lofty meditation upon the incarnation through the majesty of John's prologue. The celebration of the incarnation now moves towards the continuing manifestation of the Christ in Epiphany.

The Epiphany Gospel of Matthew 2:1-12 signifies that this child is not only for Israel, but for the world, as not Jews come to worship Him but the Magi from the east. The Epiphany season itself is framed by the proclamation of the Father: "Thou are my beloved Son; with Thee I am well pleased" (Mk 1:11 and 9:7). The Baptism of Jesus (Mk 1:4-11) and His Transfiguration (Mk 9:2-9) show us that the Incarnate One has received the Spirit's anointing and the Father's affirmation to take mankind's place as substitute for the world's sins. Trinitarian baptism finds its origin in this baptism. Before Jesus sets His face for Jerusalem, the apostles see the glory that will come through suffering and death, as Moses and Elijah act as witnesses from the Old Testament in testimony to Jesus' incarnate purpose of the world's salvation. As in His baptism, Jesus receives the Father's approval.

Between the Baptism of Jesus and the Transfiguration the preacher has four opportunities to demonstrate that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah sent to save the world through the signs that He now works in the world. The Epiphany II Gospel of John 1:43-51 allows the church, in the call of Philip and Nathanael, to hear Nathanael's confession that Jesus is "the Son of God . . . the King of Israel!" (Jh 1:49). The heavens that were opened in the baptism of Jesus now remain open as God's invasion our hostile world manifests itself in the life and work of Jesus. From now on, the apostles "will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (Jn 1:51). The next three Sundays are a continuous reading of Mark 1:14-39 describing the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Galilee. All three pericopes are governed by Mark 1:14: "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." Epiphany III calls disciples to join the Incarnate One in the proclamation of the kingdom. Epiphany IV shows both the content of the Incarnate One's teaching of the kingdom and the power of the Incarnate Word over the unclean spirits who testify that Jesus is "the Holy One of God". Epiphany V reinforces the theme that the Incarnate One's ministry is one of teaching, healing, and casting out demons. As Jesus himself says: "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out" (Mk 1:38) Thus the four Sundays between Jesus' Baptism and Transfiguration show that the Incarnate One is the Messiah with Trinitarian power and authority to save. Jesus claimed by God the Father as His Son by the coming of the Spirit in His baptism is the Son offered up by God for sins. In His resurrection, God claims him again as His Son who commands His apostles to baptize the world for which He died in the name of His Father and in the power of the Spirit. The incarnational thrust of Advent and Christmas has continued into Epiphany and found fulfillment in the ministry of Jesus.