Advent has arrived. The beginning of a new liturgical year and season. Just as the calendar year comes to a close.

We welcome Advent this year by focusing on the Isaiah passages in the Revised Common Lectionary for Year A.

Isaiah 2:1-5

The matter that Isaiah son of Amoz envisioned concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

² In future days, the mountain of the house of The Living God
will be established at the head of the mountains
and will be lifted up above the hills.
All the nations will flow to it like a river.

³ Many peoples will come and say:
“Come, let us ascend to the mountain of The Living God
to the house of the God of Jacob.
Then, God may instruct us in divine ways
that we may walk in divine paths.”
For out of Zion instruction will venture forth,
the word of The Living God from Jerusalem.

⁴ The Living God will maintain justice among nations,
and mediate for many peoples.
And they will crush their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning knives.
A nation will not lift up a sword against a nation;
and they will not learn again war.

⁵ House of Jacob, Come, let us walk in the light of The Living God.

A Contemporary Jewish Reading

Jewish Biblical scholar Tikva Frymer-Kensky has offered a recent Jewish reading of Isaiah 2:2–4. (Tikva Frymer-Kensky, “A Jewish Look at Isaiah 2:2–4,” Criterion (Autumn 2002): 20–25.) She begins by noting that Isaiah 2 is not part of a haftarah reading (a selection from the Prophets, Joshua-Malachi, read weekly after the Torah selection in the synagogue). However, the phrase “For the Torah comes from Zion, the word of God from Jerusalem,” from Isaiah 2 is sung as the Torah scrolls are removed from the ark each week in synagogue to be read. At the end of the reading, the congregation sings, “This is the Torah that Moses placed before Israel.” Frymer-Kensky notes the beautiful tension between these two statements. The first one claims that Torah originates in Zion, a notion typical with the eighth-century prophets such as Isaiah and Amos. For them, Jerusalem is the central theological location. They do not know about—or at least they do not speak about—the Torah coming from Sinai. The second statement picks up the traditions of Exodus that Torah originated at Sinai with Moses. Frymer-Kensky says, “The bringing of Sinai and Zion together encompasses the whole history of Israel’s receptivity to the once, always, and future divine instruction. Given this semiotics of Torah, it makes wonderful liturgical sense for memories of Sinai and Zion to bracket the public reading of the Torah.” (page 22) Her comments remind Christians of the two great locales of Torah and Judaism—Sinai and Zion.

Additionally, she reminds us that Zion is, in fact, a major theme of the book of Isaiah, an idea that is often unknown to or forgotten by Christians: “Their [Christians’] traditional reading of the Book of Isaiah never noticed that it is centered around Isaiah’s love of Zion, which he believes will become an entirely holy city (4), one in which no one will ever be ill or guilty (33).” (page 23) When we read Isaiah through a Christological lens, we neglect key theological topics such as Zion/Jerusalem because they do not contribute readily to our (Christian) understanding. It is crucial that we attend to the theological issues that are important to a biblical book in addition to the ones that are central to our identity.

Reading Isaiah 2 During Advent

Reading Isaiah 2:1–5 during Advent draws attention to the future orientation of the passage. As Christians look forward during Advent to the coming of Christ, Isaiah 2 looks forward to the coming of nations to Jerusalem, to instruction by God, to peace among nations. Advent and Isaiah 2 intersect insofar as they both anticipate a bright tomorrow.

This lectionary reading from Isaiah, however, was selected for the First Sunday of Advent to complement another Advent theme: the apocalypse or the end of time. Advent’s intriguing tension between the First Coming of Jesus as a babe and the Second Coming of Jesus as a culminating figure means that New Testament passages with an apocalyptic flare are read during the first Sunday of Advent. The end of the world then becomes the opening theme for Advent every year. For example, on the same Sunday as we read this passage from Isaiah 2—First Sunday of Advent, Year A—we read a portion of the eschatological discourse in Matthew 24. Furthermore, the First Sunday of Advent, Year B, assigns Mark 13:24–37, which speaks of “the Son of Man coming in clouds,” while the First Sunday of Advent, Year C, selects Luke 21:25–36, a passage also concerning the Son of Man coming in a cloud. Within this context, the Isaiah 2 passage then serves as an additional, optimistic way to envision the end of the world.

Yet, Isaiah 2 helps us think about the critical distinction between future time and end time. We contend that Isaiah 2 does not envision the end of the world. It does not belong to the set of eschatological or apocalyptic texts of the Hebrew Bible. Instead, we find in Isaiah 2 a vision for the future that is grounded in a particular place and an unspecified time. Of course, the space is idealized, and the dreams are grand—world peace and the intermingling of diverse nations—but they are dreams shared by contemporary folks today as well. Indeed, the passage claims boldly that world peace does not have to wait until the end of the world but can be established with divine assistance and judgment. Isaiah 2 helps turn our attention to the present work needed to make such a grand dream possible instead of assuming that it may take place only at the world’s end.

Reading with the Revised Common Lectionary: Matthew 24:36–44

It is difficult to find areas of theological and conceptual overlap between Isaiah 2 and the Gospel reading for this Sunday. Matthew 24:36–44 is concerned with the unexpected nature of the coming of the Son of Man figure. Its apocalyptic overtones would fit in with an apocalyptic reading of Isaiah 2, but, as we argue above, such a reading of Isaiah 2 is difficult. Nevertheless, a comparison and contrast between Matthew 24’s end-time expectations and Isaiah 2’s future time expectations prove fruitful. Both passages demonstrate the human need for meaning-making about the future even as they differ on the details and timetable.

New Lyrics

O come, O come, Immanuel
And bless each place your people dwell.
Melt ev’ry weapon crafted for war,
Bring peace upon the earth forever more.
Rejoice, rejoice! Take heart and do not fear,
God’s chosen one, Immanuel, draws near.
— Revised text by Rev. Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad, “O Come, O Come Immanuel (Year A Verses).”

A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)

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