Text: Jeremiah 23:5-8 & John 6:5-14.
One of the more noticeable differences between the older one-year lectionary and the more modern three-year lectionary is the transition between Epiphanytide and Lent. In the newer calendar, Epiphanytide lasts three weeks longer, and we jump right from Epiphanytide to Ash Wednesday. In the older calendar, like we use here at All Saints, we have three weeks of “Pre-Lent,” starting with Septuagesima, as a transition between Epiphanytide and Lent. Unlike Lent, Pre-Lent isn’t marked by fasting, nor is it quite as penitential as Lent. However, we do start using the violet vestments, we put away the Alleluias, and we begin to prepare for the focused disciplines of Lent. After a decade or so of using the older calendar and older Prayer Book, I certainly see the wisdom in having transitions between major seasons. It’s helpful to have an intentional time of preparation as a community. It’s helpful to be able to dip our toes into Lenten disciplines and Lenten mindsets so that we may prepare ourselves to go into the desert with our Lord.
This week is a similar transition week, though in this case it’s a transition between Trinitytide and Advent. For the modern liturgies, this week is usually considered “Christ the King Sunday.” But for us, it is the Sunday Next Before Advent, our transition week. Our Collect, For-the-Epistle, and Gospel all give us hints of the Advent season, though we’re not quite there yet. Indeed, when we have an extra-long Trinitytide, like this year, the borrowed extra readings from the end of Epiphany add to that “Pre-Advent” feel.
Notice, first of all, our Collect, with its famous opening that has given this week the nickname of “Stir-up Sunday”:
Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing for the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Trinitytide is our season of growth as we learn to walk in the ways of the Lord. This Collect gives a proper capstone to that growth, as we ask God to stir up, to quicken and excite, our wills so that we might channel all that growth into good works that yield good and faithful fruit. Part of that fruit are the final rewards promised by the Lord to his faithful people. This is the transition into Advent, our season in which we focus less on our Lord’s first coming, than on his second coming and the “four last things” (we’ll talk more about that next week, of course). The connection between Stir Up Sunday and Advent is so strong, that newer liturgies tend to add a “Stir up” introduction to one of the Advent Collects in their revisions.
Less spiritually significant, but still an important Advent connection is the folk tradition of Stir-Up Sunday functioning as a reminder to begin preparing the Christmas Pudding, by stirring up all the ingredients so that it can have good, long time to ferment!
When we move on to our “For the Epistle” text, we find one of the few times throughout the year when we have an Old Testament text in lieu of the Epistle. As a suitable preparation for Advent, this Old Testament reading is one of the Prophecies about the Messiah. In our reading, Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet” who both foretold and lived through the destruction of the Jerusalem along with the Temple and the Nation, foretells a coming King who will bring blessings and greatness to God’s people, despite those national tragedies.
In our Gospel, we have St. John’s account of the Feeding of the 5,000. This is the second time in the Church Year that this text has been our Gospel; the first was on the Sunday of Refreshment on the Fourth Sunday in Lent. We also had St. Mark’s account of the Feeding of the 4,000 back on Trinity 7. Our Gospel connects to the Epistle in that we see the promised King at work, and we see the promised blessings in action, both physically and spiritually.
As we noted earlier, modern calendars have this last Sunday of Trinitytide as Christ the King Sunday. When the Feast of Christ the King was introduced by the Pope in the 1920’s, it was largely a response to growing secularism and ultra-nationalism. And it was originally celebrated in October rather than right before Advent. Yet, our older “Pre-Advent” readings also focus on the kingship of Christ. After all, the Messianic hope as presented in the Old Testament is primarily framed as God saving his people through a restoration of King David’s dynasty. Advent is a time of royal expectation. In our For-the-Epistle reading, this theme is clear. Jeremiah 23:5:
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
The name “Branch” is one of the more fascinating Messianic titles. Whenever it’s used in Old Testament prophecy, it’s a metaphor for growth, future hope, or new beginnings. Just as a branch can sprout up from a root or a stump, so God will bring an heir to David’s line, despite that line having been cut down to the ground.
In the Hebrew we have two words that are translated into English as “Branch”: צֶ֣מַח, used here in Jeremiah, and נֵצֶר, used in Isaiah. Most Hebrew lexicons have an identical definition for both words. They also get translated into the same single word in New Testament Greek. That is, the two Hebrew words are completely synonymous. The reason this is important is a fascinating and often confusing verse from Matthew 2:23, “And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’” However, the word “Nazarene” never shows up in the Old Testament! Yet, as St. Jerome pointed out centuries ago, “Nazarene” sounds a lot like one of those Hebrew words for “Branch.” That is, St. Matthew is using a common Jewish interpretative technique based on wordplay to make a point that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Netzer, Messianic Branch.
In our Gospel, the greater context is where this theme of Jesus as the fulfillment of those Royal Prophecies comes into play. In Luke’s account of this miracle, we’re told that Jesus had been preaching about the Kingdom of God. And though this week’s text doesn’t speak of Jesus’ Kingship, the very next verse tells us that the crowds’ response to the miracle was recognition of his Kingship. But they were going about it the wrong way. John 6:15: “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.”
So, why does the feeding of the 5,000 lead to an attempt to force Jesus to be crowned as king? Because of Old Testament prophecies like our Jeremiah text, the typical first century Jewish expectation of the Messiah was that he would be a conquering king. They expected the Messiah to boot out the Romans, who were just the latest nation to make Israel its vassal, and to restore the golden age of David and Solomon. The Pax Romana would be replaced with a Pax Judaica.
But more importantly, he would bring peace, safety, and unity to a people that had been suffering some form of exile for 600 years, and suffering internal strife and national schism for even longer. As an example, just look at the rest of our for-the-Epistle text:
In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whether I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
Judah and Israel will be reunited! The lost sheep will be gathered in! Rather than brutal pagan conquerors occupying the Promised Land, it will be governed by a righteous King who bears the very Name of YHWH! Israel will once again be a united people in the Promised Land, with David’s heir as their king, living in prosperity, peace, and safety. Even the Exodus, the greatest event in Israel’s history, would be overshadowed by this new deliverance. What incredible blessings! And if Jesus can feed the multitudes, if he can provide for their basic needs with such an extravagant miracle, then he can surely raise up and feed an army!
And it’s true that the Scriptures say that the Messiah, the Christ, will indeed rule over the world and conquer the enemies of righteousness. “And he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.” Looking forward to this Second Advent is the main point of our observance of the liturgical season of Advent.
But it doesn’t happen the way the Jewish multitudes in John 6 expected. The first enemy to be conquered isn’t Rome; it’s sin, death, and the devil. Our King must first give his life as a ransom, a sin offering, and then rise again having taken the keys to death and hades.
So, looking back on Jeremiah’s prophecy, we see that in many ways, it’s much smaller than the fulfillment. It’s not just about reuniting the divided peoples of Israel and Judah; it’s not just about gathering the lost sheep of Israel from the north. No, this greater Exodus is the gathering of people from all nations to be adopted into God’s family and incorporated in the Commonwealth of Israel. The greater Exodus is salvation not from Egyptian slavery or Babylonian Exile or Roman Occupation, but from slavery to sin, from occupation and exile by the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Our King and our God rules not only over the garden temple in Eden, or Jerusalem and the Promised Land, but over the whole world. All of earth will be his Temple and his Kingdom. And we who are united to him by faith and baptism will be co-heirs with him.
In Jeremiah, the Branch is called, “The Lord our Righteousness.” A few chapters later, that same title is applied to the Holy City of Jerusalem. As the King is, so are the people. Our Lord gives us of his righteousness so that we may also be righteous. This is the promise of Advent. If we continue on in John 6, we see how he stirs up our righteousness: by feeding us with himself. In the Feeding of the 5,000, the Lord provides for all who followed him into the dessert, with twelve large baskets of leftovers. Remembering that 12 is the symbolic number of Israel and the Church (twelve tribes, twelve apostles), we see that this is an extravagant miracle, symbolizing his provision over all his people. Later in the Chapter, Jesus tells us that he is the bread of life, and we are to feed on him. The Eucharist is the sacrament of this feeding. It is the sign of the Lord spiritually providing for and nourishing us by giving of himself.
And we then take this provision and go out into the world to spread his Kingdom. This is also our lesson as we move into Advent. The King has come, and the King will return, so let us take and eat, and bring others to do so. We have been fed of and by the Righteous King, so let us be stirred up to righteousness towards our neighbor. The Messianic Branch is also the Vine from which we become his branches. I leave you with a reflection by my favorite 19th century commentator on our Lectionary, the Rev. Melville Scott:
Christ has fed us for yet another year, and we are to gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost; we are to ask what results all the teaching which we have received has exercised upon our characters and lives. Those who have used the past best are the most likely to benefit from what is yet to come.
May we use the Lord’s gifts of himself and his Word, as we are stirred up for our growth and his Glory.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
