Advent III / Ember Saturday in Advent
Hymn: Ode 13 / Benedictus (BCP Pg. 14)
Psalm 104 (Pg. 11-13)
OT Malachi 3:1-6
Magnificat / Song of Mary (Pg. 26)
NT Heb. 4:14-5:10
Psalm 103 (Pg 29)
Collects: Advent III (Pg. 93), Ember Saturday (Red BCP Pg. 330-332 Second, Third, Fourth Collects)
Lesson from Advent III in Devotional.
Pericopes for discussion:
- Baruch 3:26-4:3
- John 1:1-18
Discussion Emphases:
- Four Hundred Years of Prophecy: Baruch to John
- The Benedictus defies the four-year-silence theory, which Anglicans sing & pray every morning prayer. ("Your prophets which have been since the world began")
- God's icons walking in the Garden
- Christ forms Adam in His image as a living icon to defy pagan idols, which were spiritless / dead images of pretender gods.
- Christ walks in Paradise: Incarnate in eternity, always envisioned as coming to dwell with humanity in the presence of God.
- Christ the Giantkiller
- Undoing the devil's defiance in the Garden.
- Giants / Nephilim are the inversion of Christ's incarnation, born from unholy mingling of wicked spirits and wicked women to birth wicked 'divine kings' (false "Eves" who birthed false christs/antichrists).
- Christ as Wisdom-made-Flesh
- Prophet Baruch & Apostle John share the same vision of Christ coming to earth to converse with men as the Word of God.
