Below are the Bible Readings, prayers, and a reflection based on the Bible Readings from the Third Sunday in Advent, 2024, prepared by Rev Canon Tim Hewitt.
Reflections on the Bible’s idea of being anointed: Head, heart and hands as the things that drive our attitudes in the life of the Church.
O Lord Jesus Christ, who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you: grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in your sight; for you are alive and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
The Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion – to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Isaiah 61. 1-4, 8-11
The Old Testament reading for the Third Sunday in Advent
A sermon from our Ministry Area Leader, Canon Tim Hewitt:
As I thought about the words of the Prophet Isaiah in today’s reading of the Old Testament, I thought back to last May when King Charles was crowned, because, during the Coronation Service, the King was anointed. As the Scriptures and our services talk about people being anointed, the Coronation Service has given people the opportunity to learn more about this. It’s a good idea for us to start thinking about the Coronation Service for a moment, because the King was anointed on the head, on the hands, and on the heart. No one could see the anointing ritual in itself, not only for the King to have a moment that was private, considering that he was anointed on his breast, but because of the significance of the ritual as well. The anointing of the head, heart and hands helps us to see how it is impossible for us to talk about one or two of them without thinking of the three together. Anointing is as old as time itself, but understanding the link between our thoughts and feelings and actions is as old as time itself also.
When we try to separate thoughts, feelings and actions from each other, we begin to divide ourselves as individuals and we begin to bring harm on ourselves. That’s why thinking seriously about how the head, heart and hands go together has become more important recently by recognising the need for us to consider everything in our lives and not just one part of the whole. For example, in the health world, people talk about the heart, namely, compassion, the head, namely, curiosity, and the hands, namely, collaboration, as the way that aims to treat people who are ill. In education, people talk about the head, namely, knowledge and understanding, the heart, namely, respect and resilience, the hands, namely ability and problem solving as the way for people to learn what they need to learn. In other areas of life, people talk about the head, namely, vision, the heart, namely, empowerment, the hands, namely, change, as the way that arrives at people and things being transformed.
I mention these things because thinking about the head and the heart and the hands helps us to know what drives our attitudes about our church life. Do we see all three – head and heart and hands – as things that are equal to each other, where if we forgot about one or ignored one, harm would follow, or do we honour all three of them in our way of doing things? Sometimes I feel as if we ignore the head, something that causes us to do or not do things due to the strength of our feelings without thinking about the consequences or without thinking about the reasons why something is being done. As we think about the problems we have as churches, people remain silent, not because they don’t know different solutions, but because their hearts aren’t willing to face and consider the different solutions in front of them. They are willing to use their hands for them to do the things that ignore what the head says because the heart speaks stronger.
No wonder this happens because the Great Commandments speak of something that belongs to the heart, namely, to love God with all our heart and to love God all our strength, that is to say, to use our hands. The Great Commandments then present another idea for us to consider as we think of ourselves as people, namely, the soul. What is the soul? That’s the question before us, and to tell the truth, there are different answers: The gift of life in ourselves, perhaps, and further, the thing in us as God’s gift that continues no matter what happens to us, after our minds, and hearts and hands have perished. We may be talking about the thing in us that reveals the nature of God in us, and here, we are talking about God’s first act in our world, namely, the light of God in us, that to say, the ability, not for us to do things with our hands, but the understanding that is in the mind that can form a vision for us to follow. Maybe that’s why Jesus added loving God with all our mind when he answered a question about the Great Commandments.
If it’s important for us to keep head and heart and hands together to avoid ultimate harm, the question arises about what ultimately happens when churches avoid or ignore the problems they have because they allow their hearts to rule the day in everything because they don’t like what the head tells them. Eventually there will be harm to someone in some way. That’s why there are seasons in the church year like Advent and Lent. During the Season of Lent we may tend to think about the past for the present to be different, but during the Season of Advent we think about what lies ahead of us from the perspective that believes that the future will be different from the present when God’s purposes are fulfilled. While, during the Season of Lent, we remember the damage that we have done in the past, during the Season of Advent, we try to think about how it is possible for us to live better in the present to ensure that we do not cause harm in the future. If we trust that the future will be better than the present, if our hearts speak so strongly to us that we are not willing to listen to what the head tells us, we are not living according to the truth of Christian hope.
That’s why, while the Great Commandments tell us that we should love our God with all our heart and neighbor as ourselves, in the same books that tell us these things, we read about people being anointed as God’s servants on their head in particular. Being anointed to do God’s work with our hands with love in our hearts starts with the head doing these things with understanding to make sure we understand what our work is and why this work is important and how to do this work well also. The servant described in the Book of Prophet Isaiah, whoever they are, whether an individual or whole community of faith, has not been anointed to ensure that things remain as they are because that is the hope of the heart. They have been anointed to ensure that people travel from oppression to freedom, from mourning to joy, from thinking all the time about weakness to rejoicing about strengths.
Anointing answers a question that is as old as time itself, namely, when so many things are so bad, where should we start? Think for the moment of the world and the life described in our reading from the Book of the Prophet of Isaiah: The words of our reading could describe many things today, and as we think about the problems we have as churches or the problems that surround us in the world. God anoints the one who speaks in order to remind the people that there is an eternal covenant between God and his chosen people. Remembering God’s promises begins in the head which is why the head is anointed in the pages of the Old Testament.
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