Second Sunday After Christmas
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VII, Cycle A
Object:
Seasonal Theme
God with us in human flesh. The incarnation means God knows what it's like and God has entered the world to save us.
Theme For The Day
We are children of God. As our holy parent, God is with us and calls us together. We celebrate.
Old Testament Lesson
Jeremiah 31:7-14
God's Promise
These are probably not Jeremiah the prophet's own words. They post-date his thought. Nevertheless it is a beautiful passage about God's promise to save and bring back together God's exiled people. And the return of the people will be a happy one. It's an expansion on the prophet's hope that the promises of God would be kept and God's people return home.
Listen to how it shall be:
What's left of Israel is saved.
All the people will return from all the lands.
Pregnant, blind, and lame will come also.
There will be plenty of life-giving water.
Even the road will be level.
They will be protected like a shepherd does his sheep.
They will have lots to eat and drink.
Those who are grieving will be comforted.
Young and old will celebrate and dance (like a Jewish wedding in our day).
Even the priest will have choice cuts of meat!
In a scene like that, how could you not celebrate? What a homecoming of saved people.
New Testament Lesson
Ephesians 1:3-14
A Hymn Of Praise
Many view this passage as a hymn of praise about what God has done for us. According to the hymn we are destined to serve and praise God. Verse 5 tells us of God's initiative in establishing the relationships (as a parent adopts a small child) and that the relationship is like that between a parent and a child. Because of what God has done we ought obey. The words in verses 7 and 8 probably were part of the vocabulary of the baptism liturgy. Notice that for Paul redemption meant more than forgiveness for past sins. Because of this freedom, a total inner transformation is possible (vv. 13 and 14).
The Gospel
John 1:10-18
He Lived With Us
Here is another hymn, this time a hymn of praise of The Word. Jesus' coming into the world in Palestine is the entry of God's saving and creating Word into the world. John claims that the word was here all along but not recognized, and when Jesus came he was not welcomed as God's Word but killed on the cross. Verses 12 and 13 tell us not everyone rejected Jesus. To those who did welcome him is given the privilege to become God's own children. And it was God, not we, who made the parent/child relationship with God possible. It is an important thought of John that in Jesus we see the essence of God -- how God wants to relate to us.
Then comes verse 14, which is why the Gospel must have been written. The one who created the universe, the one who runs the order of the world, has become a person -- and we saw him! He lived with us. In Jesus we see God living life as the human God would have us live. There are great theological words connected with this which is one of the greatest verses of the Bible. There are glory (grace), kindness, and truth. Glory again hits us with the idea of the presence of God. Verse 16 talks of one blessing upon another or grace upon grace. This is a rich expression which can mean many things. It could mean that in Christ we find more and more amazing things. Or it could mean the more grace we receive the more we realize. It just keeps growing out larger and larger. So we have the limitlessness of Christ. Or perhaps it's like it sounds: in him are many blessings for whatever we need them. Through Moses we were given many hard rules; but through Christ came many, many abundant blessings.
No longer a stranger at a distance, God came to be here with us.
Preaching Possibilities
There are so many. Where shall we start?
A. If we want to put the three scripture readings together, we might take on the theme of God's family and what God has done for us, God's children. As a Holy Parent (Father), God has called the people back home and made it easy to get there. And home is a place of comfort and encouragement according to Jeremiah. Paul in Ephesians claims God adopted us to be God's own children, chosen for this special family membership. And the parent in this blessed family is none other than the one who creates and saves and nurtures us yet today. Then comes John's Gospel which tells us it is not an absentee parent we have, but one who has worn flesh like we do and is still with us now.
B. Another way to approach the preaching for this day and use all three readings would be to speak of "hymns we sing." There are several:
1. Jeremiah's hymn -- God gathers us back home.
2. Saint Paul's hymn -- God adopts us and saves us.
3. John's hymn -- God is with us here.
You could easily find in your hymnal one to go with each of the above and sing them at the place of each sermon move.
C. If you take any of these three readings alone, there is still plenty.
The Jeremiah passage lends itself to talking about hope and promise and returning home, gathering there in delight like when the family comes together from far places for Christmas.
D. The Ephesians passage opens up what the purpose of Christ's birth in Bethlehem was all about: to save, to make as family, to bring us the truth, to set us free.
E. Of course the John passage can be the basis for a whole series of sermons based on the idea of God with us -- the Christmas Emmanuel.
1. Why God came and almost no one knew God.
2. What it means to be children of God.
3. What difference does it make that God became a human?
4. What good is one blessing upon another?
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
1. Title: "Welcome to God's Own Family"
2. Text: All three readings for the day
3. Introduction: Begin with a narrative about your own growing up in family or one about what it means to live in family.
a. Jeremiah's family
1. Move to Jeremiah and tell how he had so longed for all the family to be gathered together again.
2. Talk of all God has done to help us return here week after week.
3. Tell of how inclusive God wants God's family to be.
4. Speak of the celebrative nature of our worship as we are called out of the world to be family today. (I wouldn't say a lot about the Priest getting the choice cut of meat! Then again there could be some good humor there.)
b. Paul's family. Now turn to Ephesians and Paul's words about:
1. God's adopting us into God's family.
2. In an adoption, the parent chooses the child.
3. A bonus is added: we are changed by the Holy Spirit because we are children of God.
c. John's family. John tells us the kind of holy parent we have in our family:
1. As a gift made us God's children.
2. Is a present parent always with us.
3. Knows what it's like to be human.
4. Blesses us with grace, kindness, and truth.
4. Now frame the sermon by returning to the story of family you used at the beginning. Then finish with these 3 verses of scripture: Jeremiah 31:10; Ephesians 1:5; and John 1:14.
Prayer Of The Day
O Holy Parent God, we rejoice that again today you have called us together as your adopted daughters and sons. We pray your Holy Spirit would teach us how to live as your family and invite others into the blessings. When things are tough you are with us and know first hand what it is like. Accept our praise and thanksgiving for the privilege of being your children. In Christ's name. Amen
Possible Stories
When an orchestra plays, there is a "sideman" who is not the lead musician but "sides" the lead musician. The "sideman" usually stands nearby the leader and supports the star by the way he or she plays the second part of the music. Jesus is our "sideman." We are called to "side" each other. May the melody be great!
At the training camp for the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, Florida, there are four diamonds, a pitching machine, and a game going on with a junior college. And there are the old retired players who suit up and mingle with the young active players in the dugout and behind home plate screen. They urge the younger ones on, so much like the incarnation when God suits up as Jesus, a human, and is with us.
"Mama Ganna" (Amanda Gardner), the Bible Woman of Liberia, West Africa, said of the missionary nurse who raised and taught her, Kirsten Marie Jensen, that when she taught she "... wore Ma Jensen's skin." Since then many letters have arrived from my students there which have said, "Today I wore your skin... I taught them about Jesus." Jesus put on our skin in the incarnation and asks us to wear his skin in the world in our ministry.
God with us in human flesh. The incarnation means God knows what it's like and God has entered the world to save us.
Theme For The Day
We are children of God. As our holy parent, God is with us and calls us together. We celebrate.
Old Testament Lesson
Jeremiah 31:7-14
God's Promise
These are probably not Jeremiah the prophet's own words. They post-date his thought. Nevertheless it is a beautiful passage about God's promise to save and bring back together God's exiled people. And the return of the people will be a happy one. It's an expansion on the prophet's hope that the promises of God would be kept and God's people return home.
Listen to how it shall be:
What's left of Israel is saved.
All the people will return from all the lands.
Pregnant, blind, and lame will come also.
There will be plenty of life-giving water.
Even the road will be level.
They will be protected like a shepherd does his sheep.
They will have lots to eat and drink.
Those who are grieving will be comforted.
Young and old will celebrate and dance (like a Jewish wedding in our day).
Even the priest will have choice cuts of meat!
In a scene like that, how could you not celebrate? What a homecoming of saved people.
New Testament Lesson
Ephesians 1:3-14
A Hymn Of Praise
Many view this passage as a hymn of praise about what God has done for us. According to the hymn we are destined to serve and praise God. Verse 5 tells us of God's initiative in establishing the relationships (as a parent adopts a small child) and that the relationship is like that between a parent and a child. Because of what God has done we ought obey. The words in verses 7 and 8 probably were part of the vocabulary of the baptism liturgy. Notice that for Paul redemption meant more than forgiveness for past sins. Because of this freedom, a total inner transformation is possible (vv. 13 and 14).
The Gospel
John 1:10-18
He Lived With Us
Here is another hymn, this time a hymn of praise of The Word. Jesus' coming into the world in Palestine is the entry of God's saving and creating Word into the world. John claims that the word was here all along but not recognized, and when Jesus came he was not welcomed as God's Word but killed on the cross. Verses 12 and 13 tell us not everyone rejected Jesus. To those who did welcome him is given the privilege to become God's own children. And it was God, not we, who made the parent/child relationship with God possible. It is an important thought of John that in Jesus we see the essence of God -- how God wants to relate to us.
Then comes verse 14, which is why the Gospel must have been written. The one who created the universe, the one who runs the order of the world, has become a person -- and we saw him! He lived with us. In Jesus we see God living life as the human God would have us live. There are great theological words connected with this which is one of the greatest verses of the Bible. There are glory (grace), kindness, and truth. Glory again hits us with the idea of the presence of God. Verse 16 talks of one blessing upon another or grace upon grace. This is a rich expression which can mean many things. It could mean that in Christ we find more and more amazing things. Or it could mean the more grace we receive the more we realize. It just keeps growing out larger and larger. So we have the limitlessness of Christ. Or perhaps it's like it sounds: in him are many blessings for whatever we need them. Through Moses we were given many hard rules; but through Christ came many, many abundant blessings.
No longer a stranger at a distance, God came to be here with us.
Preaching Possibilities
There are so many. Where shall we start?
A. If we want to put the three scripture readings together, we might take on the theme of God's family and what God has done for us, God's children. As a Holy Parent (Father), God has called the people back home and made it easy to get there. And home is a place of comfort and encouragement according to Jeremiah. Paul in Ephesians claims God adopted us to be God's own children, chosen for this special family membership. And the parent in this blessed family is none other than the one who creates and saves and nurtures us yet today. Then comes John's Gospel which tells us it is not an absentee parent we have, but one who has worn flesh like we do and is still with us now.
B. Another way to approach the preaching for this day and use all three readings would be to speak of "hymns we sing." There are several:
1. Jeremiah's hymn -- God gathers us back home.
2. Saint Paul's hymn -- God adopts us and saves us.
3. John's hymn -- God is with us here.
You could easily find in your hymnal one to go with each of the above and sing them at the place of each sermon move.
C. If you take any of these three readings alone, there is still plenty.
The Jeremiah passage lends itself to talking about hope and promise and returning home, gathering there in delight like when the family comes together from far places for Christmas.
D. The Ephesians passage opens up what the purpose of Christ's birth in Bethlehem was all about: to save, to make as family, to bring us the truth, to set us free.
E. Of course the John passage can be the basis for a whole series of sermons based on the idea of God with us -- the Christmas Emmanuel.
1. Why God came and almost no one knew God.
2. What it means to be children of God.
3. What difference does it make that God became a human?
4. What good is one blessing upon another?
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
1. Title: "Welcome to God's Own Family"
2. Text: All three readings for the day
3. Introduction: Begin with a narrative about your own growing up in family or one about what it means to live in family.
a. Jeremiah's family
1. Move to Jeremiah and tell how he had so longed for all the family to be gathered together again.
2. Talk of all God has done to help us return here week after week.
3. Tell of how inclusive God wants God's family to be.
4. Speak of the celebrative nature of our worship as we are called out of the world to be family today. (I wouldn't say a lot about the Priest getting the choice cut of meat! Then again there could be some good humor there.)
b. Paul's family. Now turn to Ephesians and Paul's words about:
1. God's adopting us into God's family.
2. In an adoption, the parent chooses the child.
3. A bonus is added: we are changed by the Holy Spirit because we are children of God.
c. John's family. John tells us the kind of holy parent we have in our family:
1. As a gift made us God's children.
2. Is a present parent always with us.
3. Knows what it's like to be human.
4. Blesses us with grace, kindness, and truth.
4. Now frame the sermon by returning to the story of family you used at the beginning. Then finish with these 3 verses of scripture: Jeremiah 31:10; Ephesians 1:5; and John 1:14.
Prayer Of The Day
O Holy Parent God, we rejoice that again today you have called us together as your adopted daughters and sons. We pray your Holy Spirit would teach us how to live as your family and invite others into the blessings. When things are tough you are with us and know first hand what it is like. Accept our praise and thanksgiving for the privilege of being your children. In Christ's name. Amen
Possible Stories
When an orchestra plays, there is a "sideman" who is not the lead musician but "sides" the lead musician. The "sideman" usually stands nearby the leader and supports the star by the way he or she plays the second part of the music. Jesus is our "sideman." We are called to "side" each other. May the melody be great!
At the training camp for the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, Florida, there are four diamonds, a pitching machine, and a game going on with a junior college. And there are the old retired players who suit up and mingle with the young active players in the dugout and behind home plate screen. They urge the younger ones on, so much like the incarnation when God suits up as Jesus, a human, and is with us.
"Mama Ganna" (Amanda Gardner), the Bible Woman of Liberia, West Africa, said of the missionary nurse who raised and taught her, Kirsten Marie Jensen, that when she taught she "... wore Ma Jensen's skin." Since then many letters have arrived from my students there which have said, "Today I wore your skin... I taught them about Jesus." Jesus put on our skin in the incarnation and asks us to wear his skin in the world in our ministry.
