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

14 Epiphany of the Lord/Years A, B, and C
ongoing Israel. Indeed, Israel is Wisdom’s inheritance, that is, the community
that would embody Wisdom’s teaching (Sir. 24:8). Wisdom will
be omnipresent as representative of God (24:9). Wisdom is a priest of God
(24:10–12). Those who partake of Wisdom “will hunger for more” and
those who obey Wisdom and work with her “will not be put to shame”
and “will not sin” (24:21–22).
The description of personified wisdom in Sirach is a model for understanding
Jesus in John 1:1–18 and throughout the Fourth Gospel. Both
Wisdom and Jesus existed in heaven before the creation of the world and
served as God’s agents in creation. Indeed, by the time of John some Jewish
writers identified Wisdom and Word (Logos) (John 1:1–4). God sent both
Jesus and Wisdom to “tent” and to reveal God’s purposes (John 1:14, 18).
Epiphany of the Lord/Years A, B, and C
Isaiah 60:1–6
Isaiah 60 continues two themes that began to develop in chapter 56:1–8
(Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany/Year A): the ingathering of scattered
Israel and the inclusion of foreigners in the Israelite community. The theological
theme is God’s hesed, God’s steadfast faithfulness to the people of
God. The ingathering is a major emphasis in Third Isaiah’s stress on the
salvation of Israel. The other major theme is the all-inclusiveness of the
Isaianic vision of salvation.
Third Isaiah’s vision of the return of the exiles is a point on which Second
Isaiah, in his insistence that the exiles find the courage to risk returning
to a desolated land, was eloquent. The change in Third Isaiah is that
the group of exiles to which he was speaking has already returned to Judea.
His audience was composed of them and of those who had never left, and
they were anxious to know that the promises would be fulfilled. Life in
Jerusalem was hardly a matter of the peace and prosperity they had been
led to expect. Also, the reality was different from our usual assumption
that the exiles returned from Babylon en masse. In fact, many did not
return, and the Jewish community in Babylon flourished for a long time,
eventually producing the Babylonian Talmud. Those who did return were
more a trickle than a mighty stream. They awaited the fulfillment of Second
Isaiah’s prophecies, including the return of the rest of the exiles.
Isaiah 60 is addressed to a people in crisis. Attempts to rebuild the Temple
had come to naught because of strife within the community; the economy
of Judea and Jerusalem was in dire straits because of the devastation