The First Sunday after Christmas (Year A), Dec. 30, 2007
BCP and RCL: Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147 or 147:13-21; Gal. 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John
1:1-18
 
Liturgically speaking, the Christmas season is the shortest of the year, almost as short as the days of special discounts at your local shopping mall. There can be as many as two Sundays, but this year there is only one.
 
All of the Old Testament readings during Advent, and indeed for Christmas Day, were taken from the book of Isaiah. He prophesied that God’s kingdom will come (Advent I) led by God’s chosen one (Advent II), and presented a vision of that future (Advent III) sustained by an optimism about the divine purpose (Advent IV). Thus it is fitting that Isaiah’s triumphant words begin our day: “... all the kings [shall see] your glory; and you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will give” (62:2).
 
The passage from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians interprets the coming of Christ in the context of the Mosaic law. The word “custodian” (3:24) is more accurately translated as “tutor” and refers to the custom of assigning a male slave to look after boys between the ages of 6 and 16. The tutor’s job was to guide the growing child and help him to avoid evil ways. Thus, the presence of the slave became a symbol of minority age and immaturity. “So, the law was our custodian (tutor) until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith” (3:24).
 
Now that Christ has come, we may “receive adoption as sons” (4:5); “you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son than an heir” (4:7). The Old Testament prepared us much as the tutor prepares a young boy. Now that we have reached maturity, “when the time had fully come” (4:4), “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts” (4:6).
 
The prologue of John’s gospel sets the birth of Christ in a truly cosmic context. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word (Greek “logos”) means much more than simply speech; it is God in action: creating, revealing, and redeeming. It is the invisible God incarnated in action.
 
Verses 6-8 are clearly a digression and perhaps even an insertion. There were some who claimed for John the Baptist a position superior to that of Christ. The purpose of these verses is to clearly state the Baptist’s function as one who “came for testimony, to bear witness to the light” (1:7), a point reaffirmed in 1:15: “John bore witness to him.”
 
The selection concludes with the same point made in the Letter to the Galatians: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (1:16). In addition to “grace and truth,” Paul probably would add “freedom.”
 
Look It Up
The concept of custodian or tutor is also presented by Paul in 1 Corinthians
4:14-21, in which Timothy is cast in the role of the tutor guiding those not yet
mature in their faith.
 
Think About It
Reread John 1:1-18, substituting the phrase “the creative power” for “the Word.”
 
Next Sunday
The Epiphany, Jan. 6, 2008
BCP and RCL: Isaiah 60:1-6, 9; Psalm 72 or 72:1-2, 10-17; Eph. 3:1-12; Matt. 2:1-2