Category: Epiphany Sunday

John 1:(1-9), 10-18

This text is used for the Lectionary Year C on January 3, 2016.

John 1 1-18I’m never entirely sure what to do when the lectionary hands me a set of verses, half of which are in parentheses.  Does that mean those verses are a suggestion or does it indicate they are less crucial to the liturgical season on hand? Or does the lectionary committee simply mean to honor my skill as a preacher treating me like a quarterback with an ability to call an audible after a quick look at the congregation.  “This bunch looks engaged, I think I’ll unpack the cryptic prologue,” or “This group looks like they’ve been to a Christmas party thrown by Christians who’ve found their freedom in Christ, I better stick with the basics.”

Then again I find that I’m always asking that sort of question of John, no matter what the season is or what verses I’m assigned.  I have to slow down for John more than any other gospel.  It has been said that the fourth evangelist provides waters in which elephants can swim and children can wade.  John is consistently assigned the eagle when the church is distributing the images of the four creatures found in Ezekiel and Revelation.   Why?  Because with that eagle we share a high-flying omniscient perspective.  That’s helpful because in John we are constantly looking at the layers of meaning.  Take for example Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus in chapter three when Jesus tells him that he will be “lifted up.”  The Greek word is hypso and it can me just that, lifted up, as in Jesus was lifted up off of the ground on a cross or it can mean exalted, as in being an elevated object of worship.  John uses this kind of double entendre often, leaving clever interpretation to his readers.

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Matthew 2:1-12

This text is used for the Lectionary Year B on January 4, 2015.

In the history of the Christian Church the story of the Wise Men is not emphasized as part of the Christmas story.  It stands alone—and after the celebration of Christmas.  Over the years, it has been remembered with a unique celebration called the “Feast of the Three Kings” or “Epiphany.”  The date each year is January 6.  It’s an important date for us but one we all too often pass over.  The wise men represent that noble spirit of curiosity that searches for truth, and goes the distance to find it—and having found it, recognizes deity and bows before it.  They could have been satisfied with research and speculation on the nature of the stars.  But they were not.  Their search led to the fulfillment of life.

Their presence in Matthew’s gospel defined God’s salvation as universal.  These men were outsiders.  They did not “belong” in the story.  They came from a foreign place and returned to a foreign place. They were Gentiles, not Jews, and outside the ancient covenants between Abraham’s people and God.  Yet there they were, standing with the Christ child, bowing before him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  When their worship ended, they returned to the place of their origin taking with them the message:  God’s unique Son, hidden, secret, and obscure was hidden, secret, obscure no longer.  In a way greater than the angels, the shepherds, or even Mary and Joseph, the wise men tell us what the coming of Jesus was about.  It’s about God’s all inclusive love.

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Isaiah 60:1-6

This text is used for the Lectionary Year B on January 4, 2015.

Chapters 56-66 of Isaiah are generally considered to come from a time after the Babylonian exile (587-539 BC) when the returnees were resettled in Palestine. The first section of the book (1-39) largely reflects the pre-exilic preaching of Isaiah of Jerusalem warning of God’s judgment for failures of justice and righteousness. The second part (40-55) is full of the ecstatic anticipation of the end of Exile and return to the land. But this last part is about a time when the routine of life in the land has dulled the earlier earnestness of those who have returned, a return that is much more a trickle than a flood. So, it is the prophet’s task to rekindle the enthusiasm of the people with messages of hope centered on God’s faithfulness.

Understanding the timing of this oracle is important. Most scholars think that chapters 60-62, while post-exilic, were written fairly soon after the first return in 538 BC. Those pioneers found Jerusalem largely destroyed and abandoned. The soaring hopes of a triumphant return (cf. chapter 40) have been brought back to earth. The rebuilding of the Temple, passionately preached by Haggai, has not been a panacea. The rebuilding of the city under Nehemiah has not yet happened.

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