The Second Sunday after Christmas Day, Jan. 4, 2004
Jer. 31:7-14; Psalm 84 or 84:1-8; Eph. 1:3-6,15-19a; Matt. 2:13-15,19-23 or Luke 2:41-52 or Matt. 2:1-12
How good it is to be reminded in our worship and through the texts of holy scripture this Sunday that the “Joy to the World” that we’ve been celebrating endures. Christian joy is filled with wonder over what God has done and is doing and inspires hope for what God will yet accomplish. The collect of the day speaks of this wonder and hope. In it, we reverently acknowledge that our human nature was “wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored” in Christ, leading us to hope to “share the divine life” of the Son of God “who humbled himself to share our humanity.”
Wonder and hope inspire our prayer in a way similar to the inspiration of the words of prophecy from Jeremiah. The prophet is touched by wonder that God would save his people from captivity and restore them to the land of promise. In wonder, he calls forth singing and dancing for joy and gladness. In hope, he hears a divine word of promise that the Lord “will turn their mourning into joy … will comfort … and give gladness.” By all of this, the prophet sees that the source of well being is nothing less than “the goodness of the Lord” by which God’s “people shall be satisfied.”
Such satisfaction in the Lord, such wonder-provoking, hope-empowering satisfaction, is found for us through our “faith in the Lord Jesus” and our “love toward all the saints” of which the passage from the Letter to the Ephesians speaks. God “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.” Such blessedness, such satisfaction, is not something attained through our individual efforts, but through “the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe.” The psalmist put it more simply: “Happy are the people whose strength is in you.”
Of the gospel passages that may be used today, the story of the Epiphany is most evocative of joy, wonder, and hope. The wise men follow the star in hope and seeing it, “they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” Finding “the child with Mary his mother, they fell down and worshiped him” in wonder. The other passage from Matthew’s Gospel tells of the angelic guidance of St. Joseph through his dreams, taking the Holy Family to Egypt for the protection of Jesus and returning to settle in Nazareth in fulfillment of scripture. The experience of wonder is described in the story of Jesus as a boy in the temple from Luke’s Gospel. The child is found speaking with the teachers of the law, and “all who heard him were amazed.”
In our prayers and through the scripture the living God communicates to us the gift for which we pray at baptism, “the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.” Such joy and wonder may enkindle hope within us as we begin another year of service to “him who humbled himself to share our humanity,” Jesus Christ our Lord.
Look It Up
Read, or better yet, sing, your favorite Christmas hymn from the hymnal. Recall the occasions that have made it special to you and reflect on the message of the text.
Think About It
What is your hope for 2004? In what way does your faith inspire or express this hope?
Next Sunday
The First Sunday After Epiphany, Jan. 11, 2004
Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 89:1-29 or 89:20-29; Acts 10:34-38; Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
