Readings for January 2 2011

It's hard to believe that we are at the end of 2010 and about to begin another year. As you begin the new year I ask you to make at least one new resolution: to renew your baptismal covenant for the coming year. At our baptisms we, or our parents for us, made a public acceptance of God's grace, salvation, steadfast love, and unending forgiveness. We also promised to serve God and the church through our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. The beginning of a new year is a great time to renew that acceptance and promise. Therefore, please join us at our Sunday morning worship this week for our 1st Annual Covenant Renewal Service.

Our readings for this coming Sunday, the 2nd after Christmas, includes a couple of passages from the Apocrypha.

Jeremiah 31:7-14 - The Lord promises the return of all the lost and scattered Israelites. Those returning will not only include the healthy and able bodied people but even the sick, blind and lame. When they return, they will be amazed at the bounty that the Lord will give the people.

OR Sirach 24:1-12 - Sirach is a book of wisdom much like Proverbs. In this passage, Wisdom, which is female, tells her story. She came from the mouth of God from before time and covered the entire earth. Wisdom wandered the earth and God told her to settle on the people of Judah. Is this the "female" side of God and is this the Spirit of God?

Psalm 147:12-20 - The Psalmist calls on Jerusalem to praise God for he strengthens gates, blesses children, grants peace, gives wheat, gives snow, scatters frost, hurls hail, then melts them and the waters flow. Sounds like winter and spring in Minnesota.

OR Wisdom of Solomon 10: 15-21 - Another book of wisdom and our passage recounts how Wisdom (always female in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha) led Israel out of Egypt.

Ephesians 1:3-14 - Paul recounts how the Ephesians, and us also, have received the blessing of salvation in and through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ we have been chosen, made holy and blameless, adopted as God's children, redeemed through his blood, forgiveness of our trespasses, been told the mystery of his will, obtained an inheritance, so that we might live for the praise of his glory. We have also heard the word of truth, believed in him, and been marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit. All I can say is "WOW!"

John 1:(1-9) 10-18 - "In the beginning . . ." God and Word. Emmanuel and salvation. Holy Spirit and presence. We saw and heard the Word and we rejected it and killed it. Yet it lives on. For those who begin to see and understand and believe there is redemption. Jesus, full of grace and truth.

I pray that you are blessed by these readings this week.

Readings for December 24 and December 26 2010

Hello Everyone,

This week, with Christmas Eve and the Sunday after Christmas, we have eight readings.

Christmas Eve:

Isaiah 62:6-12 - The 5 verses before these seem to be a love song by God for his people and nation of Israel that look forward to a day when they will be united (in marriage). These verses turn to a more protective theme. God will protect his people with the restored fortress of his kingdom (Jerusalem?) and no enemy will attack them or take from them.

Psalm 97 - The psalmist sings the praises of God who is King and reigns over all the earth. All of the heavens and earth proclaim his holy name. He call us to "Give thanks to his holy name."

Titus 3:4-7 - Here is an interesting thought. We know that works, the things we do, will not save us. What if faith doesn't necessarily save us either? What if our salvation is totally God's work of grace through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection and the power of the Spirit which has been poured out on us? "So that, having been justified by [God's] grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Think about it.

Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20 - This is the Lukan story of the birth of Jesus which Luke set in political, historical setting (verses 1-2). A census is called and Joseph and Mary make the long (3-4 days walking and/or riding a mule, donkey, or horse) journey to Bethlehem. The only thing Luke tells us about Bethlehem was that there was no room in the inn so they had to stay in a barn. Verse 8 begins the story of the shepherds and the visitation of the angel and the heavenly hosts. The shepherds (a group of men that were looked down upon by society) visited Mary, Joseph, and the baby and told Mary everything that happened. I think verse 19 is one of the most intriguing in this passage, "Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart." I think it was more than the shepherds' words that she pondered. She must have also pondered the words of the angel that visited her, Elizabeth's words, Zechariah's, Simeon's, and Anna's (read all of chapter 1 and 2). What did this all mean and what will happen?

Sunday:

Isaiah 63:7-9 - Isaiah recognizes that it is God who has saved Israel and that God has become their savior "It was . . . his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried then all the days of old."

Psalm 148 - The psalmist call on everyone to praise the Lord. This is very similar to Psalm 97 above.

Hebrews 2:10-18 - According to the author of Hebrews, Jesus was made perfect by his sufferings which make him a brother to us all. Because Jesus was flesh and blood like you and I he shares in our sufferings. In Jesus' death he was able to defeat death and set us free from the bonds of death. His death, his self-sacrifice to our god of death (or in modern terms, our machinery of death) allows him to help all people. What are we to do? Nothing, for it is all God's work that we might be set free from death.

Matthew 2:13-23 - We skip right over the visit of the Magi which we will read on January 2 but is rightly read on January 6, Epiphany. It is because of the visit of the Magi that we have this week's text. Herod gets mad when the Magi don't return to tell them where the future king is and he orders the killing of all boys 2 and under in Bethlehem. Joseph seems to be prone to having dreams with angels or the Lord appearing. This happens 3 times in this passage: get out of Bethlehem and go to Egypt; Herod is dead so go home (Bethlehem); and Herod's son is worse so go to Galilee (Nazareth). For an interesting exercise compare the sequence of events and where Mary, Joseph and Jesus are in Matthew 1:18-2:23 (Bethlehem, Egypt, back to Bethlehem and on to Nazareth) and Luke 2:1-40 (Nazareth, Bethlehem, the temple in Jerusalem, back to Nazareth).

I pray that everyone will have a joyous celebration of Jesus' birth. Reflect on the fact that we celebrate Christmas because of Easter.

Readings for December 19 2010

Our Gospel reading refers to our Old Testament reading this week but there was a translation problem that has led to many debates about that key word.

Isaiah 7:10-16 - During the reign of King Ahaz in the southern kingdom of Judah, the nations of Israel (the northern kingdom, referred to as Ephraim) and Syria (referred to as Aram) are threatening an invasion and King Ahaz is worried. God sends Isaiah and his son to the king to reassure him that within 3 years these threats will go away. All of this happens in verses 1-9. In our reading, God tell Ahaz to ask for a sign from Isaiah but Ahaz refuses saying he won't put God to the test. Isaiah gave a sign anyway: a young woman will give birth to a son whose name will be Immanuel and before he is 3 the threats from Israel and Syria will be dealt with by their destruction. In the verse not read, verse 17, the nation that will deal with Israel and Syria is an even worse foe: Assyria. Note: when the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek about 100 years before Jesus, the Greek translators had a problem. The Hebrew word translated as "young woman" in most modern English translations can sometimes also mean a "young virgin". The translators chose the Greek word meaning "virgin". This translation is called the Septuagint and is the scripture that all the New Testament writers knew.

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 - The Psalmist asks God to restore the nation to it former glory and also asks God how long he will be angry with them. The skipped verses recount what God has formerly done for Israel. The last verses promises that the people will never again turn away from God if God were to restore them.

Romans 1:1-7 - These verses are the greeting or salutation to the church in Rome. Paul says he has been chosen for the gospel of God, which was promised by the prophets about Jesus Christ who has given us grace and apostleship to help believers in their faith. (I tried to use a short run-on sentence to imitate Paul's long run-on sentence.)

Matthew 1:18-25 - Here we are at the fourth Sunday in Advent and we finally get a "Christmassy" verse. Following a long genealogy that works from Abraham to David to Josiah (king of Israel at the time Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and carried many people into Exile) to Joseph the husband of Mary the mother of Jesus, Matthew begins to tell the story of Jesus' birth from the perspective of Joseph. Joseph & Mary are engaged but not living together. Mary gets pregnant and Joseph wants to sent her away. An angel appears in Joseph's dream and tells him the child Mary is carrying is of the Holy Spirit and Joseph needs to do the right thing: stick with her and name the boy Jesus. When Joseph awoke he took Mary as his wife but remained celebrate until after Jesus' birth. Matthew includes a quote from Isaiah 7:14 in the Septuagint about the son born to a virgin and who is to be called Immanuel. Notice that in Matthew's version there is no story of Elizabeth, Zechariah, and their son John. There is no mention of mangers or shepherds and there is no mention of Nazareth or Bethlehem or of a journey between. Bethlehem is mentioned at the beginning of the story of the magi (2:1) which may have happened when Jesus was 2 years old (2:16) and Nazareth doesn't come up until they return from Egypt (2:23). The Matthew story of the birth of Jesus is about a man, Joseph, doing the right thing in the midst of a corrupt political scene in Judea.

Have a great week reading the Good News / Gospel of Jesus Christ.