Today in the Spirit: Christmas 2C
We continue to celebrate the Christmas season on the Second Sunday of Christmas. The Church gives two options for the assigned Gospel readings in all three lectionary years. Taken together, these readings cover all the infancy and childhood narratives of our Lord’s life found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.
Matthew 2:1-12 appears every year as an option to give the important Gospel reading for the Feast of Epiphany (6 January) a hearing, if chosen, for worshipers on a Sunday. In that reading, we meditate on the arrival of “wise men from the east” to worship the One “born king of the Jews” (in contrast to Herod, who received the title only by the appointment of the Roman emperor). The narrative is important for the further development of a theme showing up in Scriptures throughout Advent and Christmas to this point: that Jesus is the Christ and Savior of the whole world (recalling, for instance, Zec. 14:9 from Advent 1C and Isa. 62:2-3 from Christmas 1).
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The assigned OT reading from Jeremiah 31:7-14 is a song of rejoicing from the mouth of YHWH through the prophet. It likewise declares God’s plan of salvation for all nations (“Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away,” 10a). It also serves as an introduction to an important message in this section of Jeremiah–that God himself “will make a new covenant” with his people (see Jer. 31:31-34). In our passage, we will hear: “I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow (13).
The appointed Psalm 84 (also assigned every year at the upcoming Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and at Pentecost, Proper 25C) is appropriate for remembering the presence of the Christ child in and around the temple. Think of Jesus, even as an infant full of the Holy Spirit, crying out, “My soul has a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God” (2, BCP New Coverdale).
Christmas 2 is the feast assigned yearly for us to hear as an NT reading Ephesians 1:3-14 (also Pentecost, Proper 10B). Here is Paul’s well-known doxology at the beginning of that great epistle, where even beyond the nations and the world, Paul declares the redemption of Christ and our living “in Christ” as the fulfillment of God’s plan for the entire cosmos from the beginning of creation: In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood…making known to us the mystery of [God’s] will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (7,10).
The assigned Collect is another petition during Christmas that the faithful be enabled to live out of the gift given within–not this time using the image of light as in the prayer for Christmas 1, but out of the renewal of “human nature: “Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The Collect
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
With Weeping They Shall Come…and Sing Aloud (Jeremiah 31:7-14)
8 “Behold, I will bring them from the north country
Jeremiah 21:8-12
and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
9 With weeping they shall come,
and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
I will make them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11 For the Lord has ransomed Jacob
and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be like a watered garden,
and they shall languish no more.”
“With weeping they shall come…They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion” (9,12). This text is a calling out of the one God to the “nations” (10) to witness the singing in heaven in celebration of the Judean exiles returning to their homeland. In our overhearing the summons, we note the puzzling and poignant description of the returnees. They weep, and they rejoice. How can it be both? It is both because the One “who scattered Israel (because of rebellion) will gather him and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”
Beloved, let the world around us know that we, too, are a people both sorrowful for our sin and joyful for the provision of the Father of a way out through the Son. May we never fail to enter our worship with the requisite sense of need for Jesus so that the renewed pronouncement of his never falls flat and always satisfies. Away, Christians, with the disinterested countenance of so many who do not know Jesus but attend Christmas services out of necessity. Let our common joy, even more than the pageantry of the occasion, be the winsome witness we make to our unbelieving family and friends in attendance. Let the “nations” see that puzzling juxtaposition of sincere weeping and fountainous rejoicing that shows the presence of God.
Today, in this season, Holy Spirit, we confess our own falling into the world’s nonplussed attitude in celebrating the Christmas season. Bring us weeping and joyous again.
Desire and Longing (Psalm 84)
1 How lovely are your dwellings,
Psalm 84:1-3, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
O Lord God of hosts!
2 My soul has a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.
3 Indeed, the sparrow has found her a house, and the swallow a nest where
she may lay her young,
even your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Or, “Always dreamed of a room in your house, where I could sing for joy to God-alive!” (2, MSG). On the one hand, we find an intense sense of longing in the psalm that rubs against the grain of other prayers and readings in the Christmas season, declaring arrival and fulfillment. On the other, there is a joy counterpoised with the pilgrim’s yearning that fits right in the season. The pilgrim may be far away from the temple, the place of the presence of the One God, and yet, even as he walks from a distance with his body, internally in heart and flesh, he “sings for joy to God-alive.”
It is, in fact, this wanderer’s situation that most resemble our own today: We are certain through the word and experience that the Lord exists, that he is present, and that he reigns over all, and yet we know we are not yet at home and long to be there. As our understanding grows as believers and we get older (I don’t know why I picture this pilgrim as older), we may often find ourselves narrowing our interests and yearning for the presence of God in his fullness. Even for Joseph and Mary, the fanfare around the manger was short-lived. Although they would have the child with them for years, they wandered and suffered and dreamed of something more.
Today, at Christmas, the Spirit of God being our helper, we press on like this psalmist with joy even as we look forward to more later.
In the Heavenly Places (Ephesians 1:3-14)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:3-14
The passage exists as one long sentence in Greek. Paul designed it, even in its structure, so that the church might grasp a larger, cosmic understanding of God’s design in sending Jesus Christ into the world. By my count, there are twelve references to Christ in this passage either by name or by use of pronouns (in him or through him), and yet, with the exception of one reference to blood (v. 7), there is nothing to indicate that Paul’s Christ is even human. The uninitiated in Ephesus or in any church today might well have asked in response to this passage: Who could he be, an angel or a wind from heaven?
But here’s the thing: right after we hear these words on Sunday (no matter which Gospel passage is chosen), we run head-on into our Lord’s humanity. Whether our worship experience features a baby in a home visited by Magi or a young boy separated from his parents in Jerusalem, we climb down from the cosmic to flesh and blood. Don’t look now, but the church’s lectionary has hooked you into an experience of marveling over a great mystery. The lyrics of Chris Tomlin’s modern Christmas song come to mind: “Love incarnate, love divine/Star and angels gave the sign/Bow to babe on bended knee/The Savior of humanity/Unto us a Child is born/He shall reign forevermore.”
Today, Holy Spirit, as Christmas comes to a close, I carry into the new calendar year my joyous perplexity of contemplating the Son of God over eternity coming into the world.
Worshiped Him (Luke 2:22-40 or Matthew 2:1-12)
11 And going into the house, [the Magi] saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way (11-12).
Matthew 2:11-12
What do we have here? A gathering of people in a location (note: a “house,” not in a barn as in your Christmas cards), heartfelt devotion to Christ, and even an offering. Should this not be considered the first-ever recorded Christian worship service? The shepherds who “found Mary and Joseph, and the baby” (Lk. 2:16) at the manger may claim for themselves, but Luke‘s specifying that the Maji (and maybe Mary and Joseph too) worshiped “Jesus” is the convincing point for me.
Let’s take this event as a worship event and, in the Spirit, join the service. What do we find? It is international, intercultural, and probably multilingual worship. Luke, as I have said in earlier installments, is building a case for the original readers of his Gospel that Jesus is Lord of the whole earth. Here is his opening statement to make that case. Some translation must have been needed at some point in this scene. This idea makes our minds run to the well-known passage in Revelation: “After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (7:9).
But we may wonder about the unanimity of devotion to Jesus. Could Joseph and Mary, at this stage, have so easily joined the worship of the Magi?
Today, in the Spirit, in wonder over Christ of the nations and the devotion of those in the past who sacrificed so much to welcome him into the world–even with my own doubts, I worship you, Lord Jesus.
Today in the Spirit
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