Lectionary for Jan. 5, 2025
Second Sunday of Christmas
Jeremiah 31:7-14; Psalm 147:12-20;
Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:10-18
I’m writing this reflection while nestled in the Wasatch Mountains just south of Salt Lake City. I leapt at the opportunity to attend a conference here because I’ve always wanted to visit this area. I had never seen the Rockies before! At the end of the conference, I stood outside in the freezing cold and looked up at the stars twinkling above the mountains’ silhouettes. Not only had I learned so much about the latest research on faith and social change, but I also was feasting on views I had never even known to imagine! I felt incredibly loved and blessed by God!
I’m reflecting on this week’s psalm while standing among the snow and ice. God sends snow like wool, scatters frost like ashes, flings ice as if tossing breadcrumbs. As if that weren’t enough, God also causes them to melt by divine word (147:16-18). The God of winter in the mountains is also the God of spring in the Midwest. God has a habit of doing “so much more.” The Creator will also cause wildflowers and new growth in these canyons and valleys currently filled with snow.
The lectionary passages this week are about God adding blessing on top of blessing.
When we look for examples of God’s multiplied kindnesses, turning to the “weeping prophet” might not be our first instinct. Yet, Jeremiah is the source of much good news. In Chapter 30, God promises restoration to the people of Judah who had experienced exile at the hands of the Babylonians. This undoing of exile will be a new exodus that will eventually lead to a new covenant (31:31). This is a wonderful, gracious promise for people who were just violently uprooted.
But God wants to do more than simply bring back the exiles of Judah. In Chapter 31 the language switches. God will bring back “all the families of Israel” (1) to live and farm the hills of Samaria (5) and of Ephraim (6). God will not only undo exile but will also undo the division and civil war that separated Jacob’s children from one another. God is a father to all of Israel, and Ephraim (symbolizing the Northern Kingdom of Israel) is God’s firstborn (9). Then, Israelite and Judahite, young and old, men and women, abled and disabled, will come to Zion together to bask in God’s abundant provision.
This presents a reinstitution of the thrice-yearly pilgrimage festivals to Jerusalem in which harvests were celebrated in conjunction with remembering God’s redemption of Israel. The citizens of the Northern Kingdom had been prevented from joining families in Jerusalem for hundreds of years due to political calculations. Now God promises to end not only exile but the national rivalries that prevented unity among the children of Jacob.
We know right from the introduction of John’s Gospel that Jesus comes not just to his own people, many of whom follow him and believe, but also so that everyone who receives him can also become a child of God.
The Gospel of John opens with God’s promises to unify yet more people into God’s kingdom and family. Everyone who accepts Jesus, God gives the right to become God’s children (1:12).
John’s language becomes graphic as he insists that we think through the implications of how children join families. Some children are born into socially recognized family (marriage) relationships. Some are conceived because, well, conceiving children can be delightful—John calls this “the will of the flesh.” Others come into families because of adoption. In the ancient Mediterranean context, this is when a man wills to adopt a child into his family. John says that it isn’t men adopting here but God (13).
So we know right from the introduction of John’s Gospel that Jesus comes not just to his own people, many of whom follow him and believe, but also so that everyone who receives him can also become a child of God. This is grace upon grace, and it is God’s pattern throughout Scripture and history.
Not only did I learn and meet delightful new colleagues yesterday, but I also saw the most breathtaking night sky of my life. Often, in the depths of winter, we have trouble imagining the beauty that will come from the melting. The exiles to Babylon could not have imagined national redemption, let alone national reconciliation. And Jesus’ disciples—and many of us—had/have difficulty imagining what the full inclusion of all peoples into Jesus’ Gospel movement will look like. Yet, God is profoundly delighted to be the Heavenly Father of “not only/but also.”
