Lecture 30 Outline - The Season of Advent
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- Acts 1:6-11
- 40 days after the resurrection: the ascension
- during his lifetime Christ lays down the pattern of life for the Christian
- at his ascension he sends the Holy Spirit to empower his disciples (1:8)
- See the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7, esp vv. 59-60 and the annotations
- But Kingdom that Israel longed for has not yet arrived (1:6-7, 11)
- Israel’s hopes are remain normative, so…
- …the Christian church still lives in expectation of their fulfillment
- Hearing Isaiah in the season of Advent (4 Sundays prior to Christmas)
- At the beginning of Advent we do not celebrate the first Advent of Christ on Christmas but prepare ourselves for his second Advent. So Seitz (Word Without End: The Old Testament as Abiding Theological Witness [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998], p.226): “What we see in the first three Sundays of Advent is Isaiah’s voice directed – not so much to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem – but to the second coming, the final consummation of promises uttered by the prophets of Old.”
- Mark 13:33-37: Watch and be alert for the second coming of Christ
- I Cor 1:3-9: We are waiting for the revelation of Jesus Christ (i.e. his second advent). In the interim Christ (through the medium of the Holy Spirit) will keep us firm until the end.
- Isaiah originally meant: Israel waiting in exile for her coming redemption.
- But Isaiah is now heard by the Church as addressing Israel and the Church as we both await the coming of our shared redemption. Again Seitz (Word Without End, p. 227): “But the larger point is that [eschatological] horizon of Isaiah in respect of royal promises is not a past fulfillment in Jesus that validates Christian hopes and invalidates those of the Jews. In Advent we do not just look back nostalgically on a perfect fit between the prophet’s longings and their absolute fulfillment in Christ: like arrows hitting a bull’s-eye. Instead, Isaiah’s horizon remains the final horizon for Jew and Christian and Gentile: Christ’s coming, Christ’s advent in glory and in judgment.”
The Advent Hymn: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go. Refrain
O come, thou Rod of Jesse, free
thine own from Satan's tyranny;
from depths of hell thy people save,
and give them victory over the grave. Refrain
O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death's dark shadows put to flight. Refrain
O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery. Refrain
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to thy tribes on Sinai's height
in ancient times once gave the law
in cloud and majesty and awe. Refrain
O come, thou Root of Jesse's tree,
an ensign of thy people be;
before thee rulers silent fall;
all peoples on thy mercy call. Refrain
O come, Desire of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind;
bid thou our sad divisions cease,
and be thyself our King of Peace. Refrain
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear. Refrain
Words: Latin, twelfth century;
trans. John Mason Neale (1818-1866), 1851
Copyright 2009,
by the Contributing Authors.
Cite/attribute Resource.
administrator. (2006, September 07). Lecture 30 Outline - The Season of Advent. Retrieved November 07, 2009, from Notre Dame OpenCourseWare Web site: http://ocw.nd.edu/theology/foundations-of-theology-biblical-and-historical/lectures/lecture-30-outline-the-season-of-advent.
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