The Collect for the Sunday before Advent
Stir up, we beseech You, O Lord, the wills of Your faithful people; that they, abundantly bringing forth the fruit of good works, may be abundantly rewarded by You; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
For the Epistle Jeremiah 23:5-8
5 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
and do what is just and right in the land.
6 In his days Judah will be saved
and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.”
7 “So then, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 8 but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”
The Holy Gospel of St John 6:5-14
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Bishop Ian’s Thoughts
Today’s Reading for the Epistle is taken from the Book of Jeremiah Chapter 23, Verses 5-8.
In this portion of his Book, written between 630 and 580 BC, the Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah foretells of the day when the Lord God would bring about an event that would be far greater than His Mighty Work of delivering His people from bondage in Egypt.
The delivery of God’s people from bondage in Egypt was one of the Great works of God in the passage of Israel’s history.
Through the Birth, Ministry, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ our Mighty God has wrought the Greatest Miracle in the history of mankind, the Holy Gospel.
Sin and Satan have been defeated by the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus.
The passage of all human history will culminate in the Great Judgement Day of God and the establishment of the Eternal Kingdom of The Lord Jesus Christ.
5 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
and do what is just and right in the land.
6 In his days Judah will be saved
and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.”
This prophecy of Jeremiah was aimed at King Zedekiah, who was a weak puppet king, appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, who conquered Judah in 597 BC.
Under King Zedekiah, God’s people suffered under the spiritual care of unholy shepherds, installed by Zedekiah. These evil shepherds had reversed the proper role of a shepherd.
The evil shepherds scattered the flock and did not provide care and protection for them.
A good shepherd gathered his sheep together, led them, and cherished them.
Jeremiah foretells of the time God will provide a great King for His people, descended from Line of King David, who will be known as The Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd will Love His sheep, provide for their needs and give His Life for them to deliver them from all sin and evil.
In this time to come all Judah and Israel, and ultimately all faithful believers will be saved eternally.
This Great, Good Shepherd will be called “The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.”
This Good Shepherd is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Righteous Saviour and Good Shepherd, so loves his flock that he laid down His life for them to deliver them from their greatest enemies, sin and death.
The Good Shepherd will be assisted in His work by His Disciples (the other good shepherds whom God will install), who will minister and care for the Lord Jesus’ people after He had arisen from the dead, and ascended back to His Father in Heaven.
The Lord Jesus spoke of Himself in The Holy Gospel of John 10:11-18:
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
Jeremiah concludes his prophecy by declaring that the Exodus of God’s people from Bondage in Egypt would fade in glory at the appearance of the Great Shepherd who will lead his people out of every nation where God had been scattered them.
7 “So then, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 8 but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”
The Good Shepherd will gather, his flock from all parts of the world where God had scattered them. The "land of the north" is a reference to the northern Kingdom Of Israel, which by the time of Jeremiah had been conquered by the Assyrians (722 BC) and was, by then, defunct.
The reference to "out of all the countries where He had banished them" refers to the Israelites who had fled to neighboring countries, to escape the Assyrian conquerors, together with people of Judah who had been scattered when the Babylonians conquered Judah in 597 AD, and took many captives back to Babylon as slaves.
Every Christian irrespective of their country of birth, or cultural background (the other sheep not of this sheep pen) will, through their faith in the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, become members of the true Israel of God.
As God’s Chosen People they will become God’s Adopted Children, and will be clothed in the Holy Righteousness of the Lord Jesus, through faith in the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus.
This Mighty Nation will be Justified, and Saved by Faith, and the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, will gather, lead, and cherish His Flock and they will dwell in safety in their own land, which is the Eternal Kingdom of God.
They will be the fulfillment of God’s ancient promise to Abraham, to make of his descendants a Mighty Nation.
As we prepare to remember, and celebrate, the Holy Birth of the Lord Jesus, which was the entry of the Lord God, by taking on human flesh, into the world of ordinary men and women, let us remember, with joy, the Prophecy of Jeremiah, made long ago, and now fulfilled.
We are blessed to have heard the prophecy of Jeremiah, and learned of the beginning of it’s fulfillment on the first Christmas Day. Let us now look forward with joy, and thankfulness to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus, the great Day of Judgement, and the beginning of Eternal Life in the Lord Jesus’ Great Kingdom. Amen.
Today’s Holy Gospel Reading is taken from the Holy Gospel of St John Chapter 6, Verses 5-14.
In this portion of the Holy Gospel of St John we learn of the miracle that the Lord Jesus performed, when he provided a meal for a crowd of five thousand men. There was probably many more people there, as women and children were not included in that number.
The Lord Jesus saw the Crowd approaching and asked Phillip (one of His Disciples) a question:
“5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.”
“7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
The Lord Jesus knew what he would do but wanted to impress on Phillip the magnitude of the impending miracle and the power of God to work any miracle.
Andrew (another of His Disciples) provides the means by which the Miracle is performed:
“8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
“10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.”
“12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.”
This is a different Miracle to the Miracle of the feeding of the four thousand recorded in the Holy Gospel of St Mark Chapter 8, Verses1-9:
8 During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 2 “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”
4 His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”
5 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied.
6 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so. 7 They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. 8 The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 9 About four thousand were present.
Although St Mark’s account of the Lord Jesus feeding a great crowd is a different Miracle, from that recorded by St John, the significance and theme of each Miracle, is exactly the same.
The meal is freely provided to all persons in the crowd irrespective of their race, or background.
Whether the crowd contained bad people as well as good people, no one was excluded. In a like manner today, the Lord God Blesses all kinds of people by giving them sunshine and rain to grow their crops and so provides them with a living and food for themselves and their families.
The Lord God provides pasture lands of rich grass for all peoples’ cattle to graze on, to provide meat, milk, and leather goods to increase the quality of all people’s lives.
When the meal, recorded by St John, had concluded there were twelve baskets of left-overs. These were available for the Lord Jesus, His Disciples, and close followers to enjoy and recoup their strength.
St John concludes his account of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand:
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
The people who made this declaration were describing the fulfillment of the prophecy foretold by Jeremiah, recorded in today’s Reading for the Epistle, which foretold the coming of the Messiah (God’s Mighty Deliverer).
The Messiah was, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Great Good Shepherd came, caring for, and nourishing his flock, both physically and spiritually, by giving His Holy, Pure, Life as payment for His people’s sins.
This is the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, the Prophet Isaiah, and the whole multitude of Old Testament prophets who looked for the fulfillment of the promise of God to their forefather Abraham, described in the Old Testament Book of Genesis Chapter 12, Verses 2-3:
1The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
This promise of God to Abraham mightily began to be fulfilled by God on the first Christmas Day, when the Lord Jesus was born, and God had truly come to His people.
On that first Christmas Day, the Lord Jesus came, initially, to the Jewish people, but when the Lord Jesus was Crucified and Rose from the dead He provided the gift of Eternal Life to all people of every race who faithfully believed in the Lord Jesus and His Mighty Work, the Holy Gospel.
Those who believe the Holy Gospel are clothed in the Holy Righteousness of The Lord Jesus, and are made most pleasing to God.
May God give us joy and peace as we celebrate the Advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and may we look forward with joy to His Second Coming. May we always be thankful for God’s Great Gift of the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus, and the Great Gift of the Lord Jesus’ Holy Righteousness, which will see us pronounced Righteous and Innocent, on the Day of God’s Great Judgement, making us God’s Adopted Children for evermore, and Heirs of His Eternal Kingdom. Amen.
Bishop Ian