Psalm 126 or Luke 1:46b-55 • Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 • 1 Thessalonians 5:16 • John 1:6-8, 19-28
Psalm 126 is part of a collection of songs of ascent (Psalm 120-134). These short songs that likely intended for memorization as an oral practice for those making a pilgrimage back to Jerusalem. Psalm 126 situates Israel in interstitial space. These are a people who have experienced destruction, displacement, and loss. Communities and families have been divided. The present seems weighty and the future is unclear.
However, Israel remembers the power of God’s deliverance. They recall that throughout their past God has shown up for them. As a result, even in the midst of anguish they hold on to hope. Hope is their act of resistance. Hope is the thing that can not be taken away from us in the midst of life’s darkest moments. Hope leaves room for our dreams, our laughter and our joy.
Joy is the dominant emotion in this text. The Hebrew word, ranah, is the word often used in the Hebrew Bible as the emotion attached not only to the return from exile but also to name the emotion for approaching the temple. So in this season of so much despair, let us continue to have hope and find joy for this is the way that we honor God in difficult seasons.
This advent, we sit in yet another season where we are surrounded by
our anxiety and despair. The future of our nation and our world seem
so unclear. We are situated in so much loss—those who we’ve lost
to COVID-19, those who we’ve lost to racism, greed, xenophobia and
apathy. It is easy to lose sight of your presence in these moments. Yet, we
pray for the courage to continue to seek you, to search for you, to live in
the anticipation of how you might show up in this world.
The Rev. Yolanda Norton
The Crump Visiting Professor and Black Religious Scholars Group Scholar-in-Residence
Seminary of the Southwest
The Rev. Yolanda Norton is the Crump Visiting Professor and Black Religious Scholars Group Scholar-in-Residence for the 2020-2021 academic year at Seminary of the Southwest. Norton will be the third visiting scholar as part of the five-year partnership between Southwest and BRSG.
Norton is a Ph.D. candidate in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel and Theology and Practice Fellow at Vanderbilt University. Her current research interests include womanist interpretation, narrative and literary criticism, and the Persian period. In particular, her work focuses on the books of Genesis and Ruth, and how each text treats foreign women, and considers the ways in which insider-outsider paradigms in Scripture influence constructions of identity and facilitate the vilification and/or oppression of women of color who encounter the biblical canon in the modern world.
Currently, Norton is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible and H. Eugene Farlough Chair of Black Church Studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary, a Visiting Instructor at Moravian Theological Seminary, and adjunct faculty at Wesley Theological Seminary. She is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and has served in various ministerial capacities in the Washington, D.C. area and Nashville, TN.
Norton is also creator/curator of the notable Beyoncé Mass, which evolved out of a chapel service developed by students in Norton’s class “Beyoncé and the Hebrew Bible” at San Francisco Theological Seminary. The class explored female-centric interpretations of the Bible and how Scripture reflects Black female identity. Like the worship service, the class explored how Beyoncé’s personal life, career trajectory, music and public persona reflects aspects of Black women’s stories.
The Advent Meditations and Prayers are a gift to our seminary community and are made possible through gifts to our Annual Fund. Seminary of the Southwest appreciates the support of its friends, alumni, and the communities around the world that its graduates serve for the glory of God. This support ensures that Southwest, as an institution made of individuals dedicated to service to God and their fellow members of the body of Christ, can continue doing its part to build the body of Christ.
