000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

Second Sunday of Advent/Year C 213
will forever live in the immediate presence of God (5:1). They will “put on
the robe of righteousness,” that is, live in a community in which all things
take place rightly according to God’s purposes (5:2). The community will
live in regenerated splendor as a witness to all other peoples of the power
and possibilities that come with the God of Israel (5:3). Indeed, God will
name the restored community “Righteous Peace, Godly Glory” (5:4).
The writer looks forward to the people of Israel coming from east and
west, ending the Diaspora and regathering the community in Jerusalem
(Bar. 5:5). God will carry the people home as if on a throne (5:6) and will
transform nature by lowering the mountains, raising the valleys, and creating
shade (5:7–8). In such ways God will be faithful to the covenant that
God made with Israel (5:9). This future is one for which the community
should want to live faithfully in the present.
This text is paired with Luke 3:1–6, the preaching of John the Baptist.
While Luke makes no direct use of this passage from Baruch, John does
anticipate the coming of a new age that is similar to the hope Baruch
speaks in today’s lesson. However, by assigning Malachi 3:1–4 (commentary
below) as the alternate reading for today, the lectionary misses a significant
opportunity to show how a tradition was interpreted in different
settings for similar purposes but nuanced for different contexts. Luke
3:3b–6 quotes Isaiah 40:3–5 in the mouth of John the Baptist. The context
of Luke’s quote is Isaiah 40:1–11, which in turn is a rich resource for
the author of Baruch who incorporates imagery from that passage into
Baruch’s consolation of Zion (4:1–5:9). A preacher might craft a lesson in
hermeneutics as a sermon that moves from Isaiah to Baruch to Luke.
Malachi 3:1–4 (Alternate)
A postexilic prophet who worked in Jerusalem in the mid-fifth century,
like Zechariah and Haggai, addressed a despondent and suffering people
for whom the wonderful promises of Second Isaiah about returning to a
land of peace and plenty had not come true. They had great difficulty
trusting in and relying on the Lord and had come to doubt that the Lord
loved them: “I have loved you, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have you
loved us?’” (1:2). Verses 1:2–5 are a dialogue between the Lord and the
people over this very question. The Lord had chosen Jacob over Esau, yet
the Babylonians had ravaged Jacob (Israel), and Esau (Edom) had abetted
the Babylonians and benefited from Israel’s destruction. In 1:2–5 the Lord
expresses anger at Edom and claims to “have made his hill country a desolation
and his heritage a desert for jackals.”