Artwork by Josh E.
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
by Doug Anderson
Tyconius is a name you may not be familiar with. He was a Christian layman who lived in North Africa in the late 4th and early 5th centuries when that area was a province of Rome. In his day, the vast majority of Christians were converts from a multiplicity of religions and they had little, if any, prior knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures. While these Scriptures (our Old Testament) were the basis for Christian worship, few Christians could see a connection between these Scriptures and the Gospels. Tyconius resolved this problem by creating a system of rules for biblical interpretation that, among other things, viewed these Scriptures as prophesying the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, God’s anointed one.
Today’s Scripture selection is an expression of longing for the hoped for Messiah, the one who would save his people. Advent captures this hope for salvation, and unites it with our knowledge that God has sent his anointed one. As John wrote, “God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” And as Paul wrote, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.”
Our hope now is for the second coming of Christ who will fulfill all that has been foretold in Scripture.