2nd Sunday of Christmas, January 4, 2015

Collect for the Day

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; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Lesson: Jeremiah 31:7-14

Thus says the LORD:

Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,

     and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;

proclaim, give praise, and say,

     "Save, O LORD, your people, the remnant of Israel."

See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north,

     and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,

among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together;

     a great company, they shall return here.

With weeping they shall come,

     and with consolations I will lead them back,

I will let them walk by brooks of water,

     in a straight path in which they shall not stumble;

for I have become a father to Israel,

     and Ephraim is my firstborn.

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 a flock."

For the LORD has ransomed Jacob,

     and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

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 become like a watered garden,

     and they shall never languish again.

Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,

     and the young men and the old shall be merry.

I will turn their mourning into joy,

     I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

I will give the priests their fill of fatness,

     and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty,

says the LORD.

Reflections: This passage provides the context for the reading on Rachel’s mourning appointed for the Feast of Holy Innocents, which we celebrated last Sunday. Several lines here may sound familiar because they were quoted in last week’s Reflections. It is therefore with great joy that God loves us home.

Psalm 84 Quam dilecta

How dear to me is your dwelling, O LORD of hosts! *
    My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.

The sparrow has found her a house and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young; *
    by the side of your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

Happy are they who dwell in your house! * they will always be praising you.

Happy are the people whose strength is in you! * whose hearts are set on the pilgrims' way.

Those who go through the desolate valley will find it a place of springs, *
    for the early rains have covered it with pools of water.

They will climb from height to height, * and the God of gods will reveal himself in Zion.

LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; * hearken, O God of Jacob.

Behold our defender, O God; * and look upon the face of your Anointed.

For one day in your courts is better than a thousand in my own room, *
    and to stand at the threshold of the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

For the LORD God is both sun and shield; * he will give grace and glory;

No good thing will the LORD withhold * from those who walk with integrity.

O LORD of hosts, * happy are they who put their trust in you!

Reflection: This year, the world news is full of disease, downed transportation, military aggression, tragic accidents. And many in our own community find their Christmas season darkened by illness, injury, death.

Life was no less unpredictable and tragic in the time of the psalm above. Still, the psalmist was reassured by a visionary faith. We generally experience life as a succession of happy or painful, hopeful or hopeless events. But the psalmist proclaims: “Those who go through the desolate valley will find it a place of springs.” Springs rise for us, not only after we have crossed to the other side of the valley, but in the valley itself.

Epistle: Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a

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, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.

Reflections: This, to my mind, is one of the most beautiful epistles in the New Testament. The letter continues to unfold the themes touched on here, calling us into a deeper knowledge through transforming love. Far more than feeling or emotion, love is a power that transforms our minds and awakens our hearts; it is the faculty by which we reach out, we know, God and the other.

Gospel: Luke 2:41-52

Now the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem every year for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

Reflections:  The Gospel of Luke teaches us to pray in various ways. In these stories of the early life of Jesus, Luke twice give us a model for contemplation. In the passage above, we are told that when Mary heard Jesus’ answer, she “treasured all these things in her heart.” She responds the same way at the news of the shepherds in Luke 2:19: she “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”

There are many ways to pray. And the questions raised by life can be very troubling. It is difficult to live with uncertainty and ambiguity. So sometimes we pretend we don’t have questions, or we pounce on conclusions, or settle for answers prematurely. Mary invites us to sit with ambiguity and uncertainty, and to value it at least as much as we value resolution. Mary invites us to cultivate a listening heart.