The Advent Antiphons are said or sung before and after the Magnificat at Vespers each evening of the week immediately prior to Christmas. Each one speaks of an aspect of the One who is to come, Israel’s hope and a Light to the Gentiles.
This set of reflections juxtaposes each of the Antiphons with one of the seven ‘I AM’ sayings of Jesus Christ, the embodied Hope of all Creation – the Word made flesh.
In this video, the Dominican brothers of Blackfriars Oxford sing the Magnificat Antiphon, O Rex Gentium
O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.
O King of the Gentiles, and the Desired of all,
you are the cornerstone that binds two into one.
Come and save poor humanity,
whom you fashioned out of clay.
(Translation from Benedictine Daily Prayer: Liturgical Press)
To most of us the titles ‘Good Shepherd’, and ‘King of the Nations’ sound poles apart. Shepherds are not Kings and Kings are not Shepherds. The Nativity of Jesus seems only to enforce this, as Shepherds come to worship whilst Kings seek to kill and destroy pretenders to their power.
Yet deep in the memory of Israel – the One who is to Come is at once both King And Shepherd, for instance in Psalm 23. Yahweh, Israel’s God and true King, is my Shepherd.
But Israel’s desire for a King had been so that they might be like all the other nations and so Kingly Rule in Israel followed the path it did and the Kings from David down were not a source of blessing and life, but curse and eventual desolation and exile as graphically prophesied and recounted in the Fifth Gospel, the book of Isaiah.
Jesus declaration ‘I Am the Good Shepherd’ takes us straight back to the vision of the Psalm – indeed its imagery of being led by still waters, of the restoration of the soul, of tables being laid for His flock are found all through the gospels.
The One who is also the Gate, is declared to be the Good Shepherd who enters by the gate, whose sheep know his voice and follow Him. The One who does not expect his flock to lay down their lives for him, as human kings do, but rather lays down his life for his sheep – thus exposing the mythical necessity of laying down ones life for the ‘king’. The True King of Israel, the ‘One born King of the Jews’ whose star rises suddenly and without explanation, has come. The Shepherd is amongst his flock.
Yet He goes further – this Shepherd has sheep of ‘other folds’. Israel’s true King is also King of the Nations – the One before whom every knee in heaven and earth and under the earth shall bow, Saving All who hear his voice and Like Lazarus come forth and follow Him.
The Advent Antiphons are said or sung before and after the Magnificat at Vespers each evening of the week immediately prior to Christmas. Each one speaks of an aspect of the One who is to come, Israel’s hope and a Light to the Gentiles.
This set of reflections juxtaposes each of the Antiphons with one of the seven ‘I AM’ sayings of Jesus Christ, the embodied Hope of all Creation – the Word made flesh.
In this video, the Dominican brothers of Blackfriars Oxford sing the Magnificat Antiphon, O Oriens
O Oriens,
splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae:
veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.
O Rising Dawn,
Radiance of the Light eternal and Sun of Justice:
Come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness, and the shadow of death.
(Translation from Benedictine Daily Prayer: Liturgical Press)
Those of us who live in higher latitudes, especially in the summer months *, have perhaps little sense of the sudden change from day to night of those lands closer to the equator, such as the land of Palestine. Here night falls, and day breaks. There is not much by way of dawn or dusk. This suddenness of the Rising Dawn in the East in this Antiphon – draws us to the words of the prophet : ‘the LORD whom you seek will come to his temple’ So as the one who watches for the dawn has only the briefest of opportunities to announce it, the Light of the World does not slowly dawn on our consciousness, rousing us gently from slumber . . . thus we are commanded to Keep Awake! through Advent. To remain alert and attentive, for the signs of his presence remind us that He Is Near.
And a more sure and certain light we could not hope for.
The Psalmist describes the Word of God as a light to our paths and a Lamp to our feet. Often the world may seem a very dark place – often it seems that we know not what we should do, yet He Is Near. Jesus tells us that He is the sure light, the Light of the World. Which way should we go? ‘Follow me!’ he at once invites and commands us. ‘Whoever followsme will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness’. He is Near, Always Near! If we have lost sight of Him it is because we have fallen prey to the distractions of the World.
The World promises much to us which glitters and glistens, which suggests security and salvation but they deceive.
On some mornings I am graced to see the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean *. Where I live it is particularly intense, but it is never certain. When we look for other lights, they fail. ‘Put not your trust in princes or in any child of man’. They fail, they are flawed. Put not your trust in the abundance of your possessions for they will perish. Rather put your trust in the one who is the World’s true light.
Advent like all of the seasons of the Church is given to sharpen the essentials of our faith. In Advent we renew our sleep threatened attentiveness – the continual practice of waiting upon the Lord, ‘as the eye of a maid looks to the hand of her mistress’
This Antiphon of the Rising Sun, reminds us that the time draws very near. Wake! Watch! Pray! For your Lord comes! Suddenly! Light!
* This blog is written in Southern New Zealand where it is at once Advent and the days are at their longest
The Advent Antiphons are said or sung before and after the Magnificat at Vespers each evening of the week immediately prior to Christmas. Each one speaks of an aspect of the One who is to come, Israel’s hope and a Light to the Gentiles.
This set of reflections juxtaposes each of the Antiphons with one of the seven ‘I AM’ sayings of Jesus Christ, the embodied Hope of all Creation – the Word made flesh.
In this video, the Dominican brothers of Blackfriars Oxford sing the Magnificat Antiphon, O Clavis David
O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel;
qui aperis, et nemo claudit;
claudis, et nemo aperit:
veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,
sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.
O Key of David, and Sceptre of the house of Israel;
you open and no-one closes;
you close and no-one opens:
Come and deliver from the chains of prison
those who sit in darkness, and the shadow of death.
(Translation from Benedictine Daily Prayer: Liturgical Press)
Perhaps the most obscure of the seven ‘I Am’ sayings of Jesus is ‘I Am the gate for the sheep’ – the most obscure but in one sense perhaps the most clear in focussing us upon the very person of Jesus?
At the heart of the Christmas message is the category shattering pronouncement ‘and the Word became Flesh’. That which might to John’s Greek speaking listeners have been taken for the organisational principle of Reality, not merely ‘puts on’ flesh, but Becomes Flesh. This is the most powerful Move away from Abstraction, to the Concrete. And a very particular Concrete, that is the man Jesus of Nazareth.
We have spoken of the need to Contemplate – to Abide in Him. And that need remains as Life giving and urgent as ever, for we are wont to make of the gospel a set of principles, or a story, or a system of salvation, or a set of morals, veering as we do into a self referenced Deism, with plenty of room for us as the Centre of all things for apart from the concrete reality of Jesus, there is noThing to fill the void of ideas and principles.
The Word becomes flesh and invades our Space. And the language of The Gate moves us on from the Davidic gate keeper of the Antiphon. Jesus does not merely stand watch over the gate, He IS the Gate. We can only enter in and through Him in his concrete existence. Indeed any attempt to reduce Him to principles or morals, or words, (even ‘good’ words such as ‘Grace’) – marks us out as vagabonds and thieves, trying to steal in a different way – to take a course more suited to our own desires, rather than the way of the Cross, the Way into which we are baptised at the outset.
One of the perils of our age, which is beyond all that have gone before it ‘wordy‘ (and I am not unaware of the irony of pointing it out here), is that The Word becomes just that, a collection, a seemingly perpetually expanding collection of words, innumerable abstractions, propositions and principles. And so the Challenging Simplicity of faith in Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary, the eternally begotten Son of the Father, is lost.[Indeed all attempts to move away from the Trinitarian Name as our means of addressing God does just this]
Ours is a Sacramental Faith and necessarily so. Through the Water of Baptism, we enter the Jordan with Jesus in His baptism, we are immersed in the death of His Body, and raised to New Life. In our encounters with one another we are presented constantly with opportunities to Love Him. And in the Eucharist – we feed on Him, who is our Life.
Contemplation and Deep abiding in Him are Advent practices which focus on the person of Jesus of Nazareth – the one in whom all Ideas become Flesh and blood Reality. In whom there is No abstraction, and through whom we might enter and be saved, and throughwhom we may go in and out and find safe pasture.
The Advent Antiphons are said or sung before and after the Magnificat at Vespers each evening of the week immediately prior to Christmas. Each one speaks of an aspect of the One who is to come, Israel’s hope and a Light to the Gentiles.
This set of reflections juxtaposes each of the Antiphons with one of the seven ‘I AM’ sayings of Jesus Christ, the embodied Hope of all Creation – the Word made flesh.
In this video, the Dominican brothers of Blackfriars Oxford sing the Magnificat Antiphon, O Adonai
O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
O Adonai, and Ruler of the house of Israel,
you appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush,
and on Mount Sinai gave him your law:
Come, and with an outstretched arm redeem us
(Translation from Benedictine Daily Prayer: Liturgical Press)
To be in a Christian is to be in a War. As we are baptised into the life of Christ, the people of our new family, the church exhort us to
‘Fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ against sin, the world and the devil, and remain faithful to Christ to the end of your life’ We had thought that being called into the body of the Church was to than discover ourselves emerging into a place of unadulterated peace, we discover we’ve been thrown into the front line of a conflict we never knew existed. We encounter Christ and find ourselves conscripted in His army and posted back to the place from which we came. We Die, and are made Alive in the same place.
We thought faith was no more than a set of ideas – we discover that it is a Life – moreover one in which the Reality of the World’s ongoing resistance to its Lord is revealed and not just ‘out there’, that it runs like a scarlet thread through every aspect of our own lives.
And so our new home community, the church blesses us with tools to engage in this ongoing War – not least that of the seasons of Lent and Advent. Over and again as we follow the church Calendar, we come to stations of refreshment, training camps along the way, where we sharpen those aspects of our faith walk which have become dulled. In Advent, we are called to Wake Up! We hadn’t realised that we were fallen asleep, but sin and death have worked their narcotic effect and we need rousing. And at once we realise the conflict – for Advent readings call us Awake in a season which the world has captured for its own, and filled with a myriad of distractions which simply MUST be obeyed. There is no gentle winsomeness in this call. It is Imperatival – Commanding and Imperious. Buy! Buy NOW! Rush! Hurry! Get Ready! Don’t forget all those traditions your family demands at this time of year! There is SO much to do!!
Yet this is the culture of Death – it is an overwhelming with thorns and weeds and we must ‘flee to the hills’, with the Abbas and Ammas of old, roused from the sleep which sweeps us away, we make haste for the Desert. And Wait. Wait on that world that raises us from the dead, and that casts us back into the conflict in the strength of The Holy One of Israel.
In the days of Christendom, the church having lost sense of its head Ruled with a rod of iron and prescribed the ‘How’ of Advent , under Law, not under gentle yet infinitely winsome Grace. We were Told to Fast and Pray. Perhaps thus, cultural memory being the deep unconscious current which we often swim all too readily with, it is not surprising that we choose not to now, but if we are attentive to the Word, then we will gladly abandon All Things for Him, the Pearl Without Price. Seeking above all, indeed Only to hear His Voice, to See His Fire, to Desire His Life. That somewhat hidden under the mantle of coercion, there was a voice, the Voice of love, like that of many waters, calling us to fast and pray ‘that we enter not into temptation’.
The Voice which calls Lazarus from the grave, calls us too. The Fire which captivated Moses on Sinai seeks a home amongst His people. The Life known in and through ‘the glorious battle’ is held out to us all.
Let us abandon distractions. Let us Go with Him, Let us go too Him, the one who frees us from our many shroud like captivities. The One who sends us back into Egypt, back to the place of captivity that we might be His instruments of release for others.
Sermon for Sunday December 15
Isaiah 35:1-10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
It is said that when the Bhudda was on his deathbed, he told his followers not to remember him, but to remember his teaching. Given the number of statues one sees around the world of the Bhudda, it seems that perhaps that counsel was not heeded.
Jesus on the other hand was quite specific, that in the night before he died, he took bread and when he had blessed it, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘Take! Eat! This is my body which is given for you. Do this to remember me’ There is at once a teaching, a Command indeed – Jesus Commands us to take the bread and eat it – but the teaching has one purpose, ‘to remember Him’, which goes some way to explain the somewhat cryptic response that Jesus gives to John’s question “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”.
For Jesus sends John’s disciples with the prophetic words of Isaiah ringing in their ears – and indeed with a demonstration of those words ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.’ Note that Jesus does NOT tell them – go and tell him what you see me doing – rather go and tell him what is happening in my presence. Where Jesus turns up Creation is healed in the most dramatic way – this is happening all around him. These are the promised signs of God’s arrival, God’s Kingdom breaking in. They are SIGNS revealing the presence of the Kingdom . . . and then Jesus adds these words of his own – ‘and blessed is the one who takes no offense at me’ For it is in Jesus, the Messiah, that the Kingdom is breaking in – he is not so much the agent of the Kingdom, he is its very embodiment – that in Jesus these things are coming to pass. His Presence is healing and transformation. His actions reveal his Being.
And yet it seems the church, as God’s people in the past, often misses the point. That the focus of our faith is Not the miracles of Jesus, it is not the teaching of Jesus, it is Christ himself. That without him there are no healings, and without him his teaching becomes but another set of dust dry lifeless morals, or as the society in which we live puts it, Values.
Jesus Over and over again calls his disciples and those with ears to hear Not to put their faith in the miracles – but in Him. Not in his power to Heal, but in Him, not in his words, but in Him. We long for the healing that he brings, we long for a world where his teaching is obeyed – but we do not long for HIM. We ask Jesus to make his world perfect, FOR US. However much we may say otherwise, deep down We are the centre of our faith, and thus frail uncertain creatures that we are we doubt – for who would believe in Us?
And missing this we fall prey to lives not of faith, but of doubt. Lives indeed where in our hubristic superiority we elevate doubt to a moral virtue, and perversely for some a signifier of authentic faith, mistaking as we do the centre of our faith faith for mental assent to a set of propositions about reality, as opposed to the one through whom all things are created and in whom all things hold together. This is not to say that Jesus’ words and works are of no value – far from it, but without Him they are nothing! The transformation of the world will not come about, as some romantically suppose because the world will come to its senses and everyone will come to follow the teaching of Jesus – the world will only transformed through faith In Jesus Himself. But failing to recognise this we put our faith in ourselves and above all our immensely limited power of reason, the greatest thing known to us – that which we exalt far above all gods. And thus we doubt.
At the beginning of the C19 a German theologian by the name of Frederich Schleiermacher set out to try and make such a faith ‘reasonable’ to what were termed the cultured despisers of his age – those who elevated their own powers of reason above everything. But now it seems we live in an age when the cultured despisers are live and well within the church – demanding Doubt as the only genuine authentication of faith.
And John’s question is paraded about as an example of doubt – yet it is far from it, it is THE question of faith. Here he is – languishing in the depths of Herod’s prison – unknown to him only days from his death at an executioners sword for slighting Herodias, reminding the King that his marriage was unlawful. Those in authority rarely respond well to being confronted with unwanted truth. But John’s question has one and only one doubt, one which counter intuitively reveals his Deep and abiding faith. For his question reveals that he KNOWS that one Is to come who will redeem Israel – his question is, ‘Are you the one?’ It is the question of one who believes – If you’re not, then we shall go on as a people, patiently waiting, for we Know that God WILL redeem his people. Although it had been 400 years, there was no question in John’s mind that God Would send One to save his people – we have waited 400 years, if you are not the Messiah, then we have learned patience – we can wait, we will wait – He Will come..
He KNOWS that one IS to come – his only question is “Are you the one?” He like the disciples of Jesus remains unsure, but he is in NO doubt that God Will come and redeem his people. He is one of The great examples of the Advent posture towards the world – that resolutely, and quietly and with infinite patience Waits, for the one who IS to come – except he is just a shadow of the person of faith . . .
It is I must admit rather hard to imagine John as a shadowy character – isn’t he surely the most Full On individual we meet, Jesus aside in the whole of Scripture? With his powerful and merciless denunciations of the Pharisees and Sadducees, coming for Baptism for heavens sake!! – ‘you brood of Vipers!’ As always, fearfully trying to get it right – to get on the right side of God, and John lambasts them ‘Who warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come?!’ And Jesus indeed picks up on this theme as John’s disciples return with the Good News to their master – Jesus turns then to the crowds and vindicates John and his ministry.
‘Tell John what you see’, Jesus tells John’s disciples – but then asks the crowds ‘What did you go out in the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind??’ It is hard to think of any less appropriate metaphor for John – you can see the smile on the faces of the crowds at Jesus’ joke. John’s ministry has been anything but like a frail reed moved around by the gentlest of breezes – rather he is utterly steely. His question of Jesus reveals that steel – even in the depths of the darkness of prison he is the same – interrogating Jesus – ‘Are you the one? Or do we wait for another?’
So quite clearly they haven’t gone to look at yet another reed flopping around in the wind. ‘What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes?’ Again the crowd enjoy the joke, the hair shirted baptist has probably never felt the softness of fine cloth, and his diet was hardly the cuisine of the wealthy. ‘Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.’ What then did you go out into the wilderness to see? A prophet?’ The crowd nod back at him – there was no doubt in their minds about what John was – but Jesus now takes them further – ‘Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’’
John is more than a Prophet – he is THE prophet, the Prophet who is preparing the Way of the Lord – the Royal Highway of which it was said – ‘it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.’ The one who prepares the way of the Redeemed, of the Ransomed of the Lord upon the heads of whom shall be everlasting joy, the ones who will know the departure of sin and sorrow. ‘If you are willing to accept it, if you have ears to hear’, Jesus says, ‘He is Elijah who is to come’ John is the prophet of the end of the age.
And the crowd must have been brought from knowing smiles to almost stunned silence by those words – into which Jesus speaks words which radically calls into question All that his hearers have understood about God’s plans for his people. Surely after all, who can be greater than the one who announces the culmination of the history of Israel . . .
Jesus said you are right, and you are wrong – ‘Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist’ – ‘John’, he tells the crowd, a crowd which at this point is all too ready to believe him, ‘John is the greatest man who has ever lived’ but then as he keeps on doing, he demolishes all our categories of understanding – ‘yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he’.
John is just a shadow of the person of faith – John belongs to the age that is passing away – and up to the coming of Jesus, No one is greater than John the Baptist, which in itself undoes some of our categories, in that this wild man of the wilderness is the greatest of those born amongst women – but let us not be deflected – John is the last of the age that is passing away – he is the herald of the age that is to come, and as John embodied the line of the Prophets, bringing it to an end, so, indeed more so, infinitely more so, Jesus Embodies the age that is to come. He IS the age that is to come.
In the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, the age that is passing away comes under the judgement of God, and the age that is to come is revealed, and those who are In Christ are already beginning to participate in the fulness of the reign of God, something which even John could not do, ‘for as yet the Spirit had not been given, for Jesus had as yet not been glorified’
The Resurrection of Jesus releases the Life of God into the world – the Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of the risen one, making Christ present in all who welcome him, to all who believe in him . . . ‘But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.’
John, the shadow of the person of faith, yet what a shadow! For in his faith we see so much of what it means to be faithful people – resolutely and quietly with Infinite patience Waits in Advent Faith – Waiting for? Well waiting for God’s work in Jesus to come to fruition amongst his people – waiting for the Seed of the Life of the Risen one to bear fruit, 30? 60? 100 fold? However much fruit, waiting in faith for an Abundance of Fruit.
Just this week I was speaking with Andrew Scott as he spoke about this seed bearing fruit in Brockville, about how all of a sudden people are asking to become Christians, are seeking to be baptised – the Life of Jesus bursting forth, after 8 years of patient work and watching the field and waiting.
As James reminds us 7Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8You also must be patient.
And next week we turn our attention to Mary the Mother of God, who is the first to know this Life of Jesus within her and so who exemplifies for us the Waiting of those who belong to the age He has ushered in.
But for now, let us KNOW his presence amongst us – let us Take – let us Eat – let us Feed on Him, by faith and with Great Thanksgiving.
‘Peter and Andrew left their nets and followed our Redeemer. They had not seen him work one miracle, or heard any mention of an eternal reward, yet one word from The Lord was enough to make them forget all their possessions” St Gregory the Great 40th homily in Evangelia
‘Read, Mark, Learn and Inwardly digest’
And so to the final lap! Here are the readings which complete our journey through the Bible in a Year
Of course if you have not yet made a start, there no reason why you can’t join in at any point. Please contact church if you would like copies of the earlier schedule of readings. The full scheme will be available at the end of the year in a simplified form
Just a couple of tips – if you miss a day, do not worry, or try to catch up, this will just turn it into a chore! Start again with the reading set for the day. And if something grabs your attention, then stop, turn to God in prayer or praise or lament or in whatever way seems appropriate.
This scheme has taken us through the whole Bible in a year and twice through some parts. It is adapted from a scheme supplied by the Christian Medical Fellowship, the one change being that the Psalms are not read as part of the stream for the Old Testament, but as is the practise of the church, read in a continuous cycle. At then end of the year, you will have read not only through the whole Old Testament, but also twice through much of the New and accompanied your readings with three opportunities ot pray through the Psalms
Of course you do not have to read All of the readings, you could perhaps just follow the Old Testament track, or the new – or just read a Psalm a day as set – all of it is a profitable discipline
My attempts to provide a reflection each day have I regret foundered – but I do hope to make up the full set before too long.
Checkback at theelvesareheadingwest.com.
May God bless us all in our studies
Eric
November 1 Eze 11-12; John 16; Psalm 81-82
November 2 Eze 13-14; John 17; Psalm 83
November 3 Eze 15; John 18; Psalm 84
November 4 Eze 16; John 19; Psalm 85
November 5 Eze 17; John 20; Psalm 86
November 6 Eze 18; John 21; Psalm 87-88
November 7 Eze 19; Heb 1-2; Psalm 89:1-18
November 8 Eze 20; Heb 3-4; Psalm 89:19-end
November 9 Eze 21; Heb 5-6; Psalm 90
November 10 Eze 22; Heb 7-8; Psalm 91
November 11 Eze 23; Heb 9; Psalm 92-93
November 12 Eze 24; Heb 10; Psalm 94
November 13 Eze 25; Heb 11; Psalm 95-96
November 14 Eze 26; Heb 12-13; Psalm 97-98
November 15 Eze 27; Jas 1 ; Psalm 99-100
November 16 Eze 28; Jas 2-3: Psalm 101
November 17 Eze 29; Jas 4-5; Psalm 102
November 18 Eze 30; 1 Pet 1 Psalm 103
November 19 Eze 31; 1 Pet 2-3; Psalm 104
November 20 Eze 32; 1 Pet 4-5; Psalm 105:1-25
November 21 Eze 33; 2 Pet 1; Psalm 105:26-end
November 22 Eze 34; 2 Pet 2-3; Psalm 106:1-23
November 23 Eze 35; 1 Jn 1; Psalm 106:24-end
November 24 Eze 36; 1 Jn 2; Psalm 107:1-22
November 25 Eze 37; 1 Jn 3; Psalm 107:23-end
November 26 Eze 38; 1 Jn 4-5; Psalm 108
November 27 Eze 39; 2&3 Jn; Psalm 109
November 28 Eze 40; Jude ; Psalm 110
November 29 Eze 41; Luke 1:1-38; Psalm 111
November 30 Eze 42-43 Luke 1:39-end ; Psalm 112
December 1 Eze 44; Luk 2:1-21; Psalm 113-114
December 2 Eze 45-46; Luk 2:22-end; Psalm 115
December 3 Eze 47; Luk 3; Psalm 116
December 4 Eze 48; Luk 4; Psalm 117-118
December 5 Dan 1-2; Luk 5; Psalm 119:1-16
December 6 Dan 3; Luk 6; Psalm 119:17-32
December 7 Dan 4; Luk 7; Psalm 119: 33-48
December 8 Dan 5-6; Luk 8:1-25; Psalm 119 : 49-64
December 9 Dan 7 ; Luk 8:26-end; Psalm 119:65-80
December 10 Dan 8; Luk 9:1-36; Psalm 119:81-96
December 11 Dan 9-10; Luk:9:37-end; Psalm 119:97-112
December 12 Dan 11-12; Luk 10; Psalm 119:113-128
December 13 Ezr 1; Luk 11:1-32; Psalm 119:129-144
December 14 Ezr 2; Luk 11:33-53; Psalm 119:145-160
December 15 Ezr 3-4; Luk 12:1-34; Psalm 119:161-176
December 16 Ezr 5-6; Luke 12: 35-end; Psalm 120-121
December 17 Ezr 7-8; Luke 13; Psalm 122-123
December 18 Ezr 9-10; Luk 14; Psalm 124-126
December 19 Hag 1-2; Luke 15; Psalm 127-128
December 20 Zec 1-5; Luke 16; Psalm 129-130
December 21 Zec 6-9; Luke 17; Psalm 131-132
December 22 Zec 10-14; Luke 18; Psalm 133-134
December 23 Est 1-5; Luke 19; Psalm 135-136
December 24 Est 6-10; Luke 20; Psalm 137-138
December 25 Neh 1-3; Luke 21; Psalm 139
December 26 Neh 4-6; Luke 22:1-38; Psalm 140
December 27 Neh 7; Luke 22:39-end ; Psalm 141-142
December 28 Neh 8-9; Luke 23-1-25; Psalm 143-144
December 29 Neh 10-11; Luke 23:26-end; Psalm 145
December 30 Neh 12-13; Luke 24:1-35; Psalm 146-147
December 31 Mal 1-4; Luke 24:36-end; Psalm 148-150
the elves are heading west 