Lent 1A

Posted on February 16, 2026 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Feb. 22, 2026 (Lent 1A)

The Temptation of Christ (1854), painting by Ary Scheffer (1795-1858). Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

Sunday’s readings begin the penitential season of Lent with a scriptural grounding in the theology of temptation and sin. Our first reading draws from the second creation legend in Genesis: Eve and Adam are tempted, give in, and eat the fruit that God had told them not to touch. Not even God’s warning that the fruit would bring death was strong enough to block the overpowering temptation that came with the crafty serpent’s promise: Godlike knowledge of good and evil? Yes, please! Temptation can be powerful, but so is the shame that comes with realizing that we have distorted our relationship with God and each other, a loss of loving connection that we know as sin.

Psalm: Psalm 32

Profound guilt may indeed come with the recognition that we have done wrong, failed in our trust, and separated ourselves from God through sin, as we hear in Psalm 22. Guilt’s heavy hand weighs on us, the Psalmist sings. Guilt dries us out, withering our bones, leaving us groaning in pain. But then comes the joy: the relief and glad cries that burst out when we acknowledge our wrongdoing, confess our transgressions, and receive God’s loving deliverance from the pain of sin.

Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19

In his letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul draws a direct connection between the sin of Adam and the divinity of Jesus Christ, the son of God. This would have been an important image for the members of the church in Rome as they struggled to restore relationships between the church’s pagan converts and its Jewish Christians who were returning from exile. Paul reminds this community that Adam, the first of creation, gave in to the temptation of the fruit and brought death into the world. But now, he goes on, Jesus has been incarnated as one of us. This act of righteousness restores all with justification and life through God’s free gift of grace.

Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11

This passage follows immediately after Jesus was baptized by John, when Jesus hears the voice of God declaring him God’s beloved Son. Now, in what seems a startling change of direction, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This may seem a very strange thing for the Holy Spirit to do, but the Spirit works in mysterious ways. Jesus, famished after 40 days of fasting, encounters the devil – not a scary red-horned creature but a figure akin to the Adversary who tested Job’s faith in that familiar Hebrew Bible story. The devil tries to test Jesus, tempting him three times to perform miracles to help himself. But Jesus holds steadfast, resisting all the temptations and ordering Satan away.

Ash Wednesday

Posted on February 16, 2026 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on the Lectionary readings for March 18, 2026 (Ash Wednesday)

The Fight between Carnival and Lent (1559), detail from an oil painting on panel by Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Joel 2:1-2,12-17
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Traditionally a time of penitence and sacrifice, the 40 days of Lent invite us to perform acts of devotion and sacrifice as we reflect on the wrongs that we have done, and recognize the simple truth that we will not live forever. We begin with a reading from Joel, one of the minor prophets. The book that bears his name is only three chapters long, likely written after the people returned to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon. Much of the short book deals with the people’s prayerful response to a plague of locusts, and in that setting, this reading offers a look back at an ancient time of penitence and sacrifice.

Alternate First Reading: Isaiah 58:1-12
This Ash Wednesday reading draws from a portion of Isaiah that we heard just a few weeks ago. The prophet, addressing the people returning from exile, makes clear that public demonstrations of fasting and prayer, sackcloth and ashes, are not sufficient to please God unless the people also demonstrate righteousness through service and love of neighbor. In language that might have informed both Jesus and his mother, Mary, the prophet reminds the people to oppose injustice: free the oppressed, feed the hungry, house the homeless, and clothe the naked.

Psalm: Psalm 103:8-14
This portion of Psalm 103 resonated with Ash Wednesday: God made us all from dust. God knows well that we are all only dust. We are human: broken and sinful, often wicked. Yet God’s compassion and mercy vastly exceed God’s anger. God does not punish us as we might fear that our sins deserve, the Psalmist assures us; rather, God shows mercy wider than the world itself, forgiving our sins and welcoming us in a parent’s warm embrace.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Throughout much of his second letter to the people of Corinth, Paul attempts to work out an ongoing quarrel among the people of this contentious little church. In these verses, he speaks of reconciliation. He lists the pain and suffering that he has endured as a servant of God, from beatings and imprisonment to sleepless nights and hunger. Accept God’s grace and work together in Christ, he urges the people, as Christ reconciled us with God by taking human form and dying for us.

Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
This Gospel passage from Matthew seems ideally suited to the arrival of Lent: Jesus, midway through Matthew’s extended account of the Sermon on the Mount, teaches the crowd how best to practice almsgiving, prayer, fasting, and self-denial of worldly pleasures. These all have become traditional Lenten practices. In words that might remind us of the Isaiah reading we have just heard, Jesus urges the people to pray with humility: Shun hypocrisy. Don’t show off. Keep your charity, your prayers, and your fasting to yourself. Don’t brag about your fast. Don’t hoard fragile, transient earthly riches, but store in heaven the treasures that last.

Last Epiphany A/Transfiguration

Posted on February 9, 2026 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Feb. 15, 2026 (Last Epiphany A/Transfiguration)

The Transfiguration (1516-20), oil painting on panel by Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael (1483-1520). Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Exodus 24:12-18

Significant things in Scripture sometimes happen on mountain tops, where Earth and heaven come close. On Transfiguration Sunday, concluding the Epiphany season, we come to the mountaintop. As we turn from the incarnate light of Epiphany toward the penitential pathway of Lent, our readings show us the awe and fear of humans encountering the divine. In the first reading, we see Moses going up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from a mighty God cloaked in clouds and fire.

Psalm: Psalm 2

Psalm 2, a Messianic hymn of praise, envisions God as a mighty king, the King of Kings to whom earthly kings must submit with fear and trembling. Those who seek to break away from God’s power and that of God’s anointed, the Messiah, will earn only divine derision and terrifying rage, the Psalmist sings. Such actions have consequences. But when God’s anointed is set on the holy hill of Zion, the temple, the psalm concludes, happy are all who take refuge in God.

Alternate Psalm: : Psalm 99

Psalm 99, a hymn of praise offered as an alternate reading to Psalm 2 this week, also envisions God as a mighty king, at whose appearance the people tremble and the earth shakes. Yet, recalling that Moses and Aaron received God’s law and teaching, the Psalmist also shows us a forgiving and kind God, a doer of justice, equity, and righteousness.

Second Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-21

Most modern Bible scholars agree that this letter, perhaps the last written in the New Testament, is not the work of Simon Peter, the apostle. It was almost certainly written in Peter’s name by a leader in the early church a century or more after the Crucifixion. Still, it opens a window into the thinking of the second-century church, when believers were trying to understand why Jesus had not returned as soon as had been expected. Everything they have heard about Jesus is true, the letter reassures them, speaking as if in Peter’s own voice: Peter himself was present at the Transfiguration. Trust in God and wait for the dawn and the morning star.

Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9

Using images that recall Moses receiving the commandments on the mountaintop, with words that echo God’s approving words at Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan, Matthew’s account shows Jesus with the ancient prophets Moses and Elijah. Jesus is transfigured, glowing in dazzling light, revealed as both human and divine. It’s no wonder that Peter, James, and John were terrified to hear the voice of God! but Jesus reassures them with a loving touch. Then, for the first time in the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus speaks of his coming resurrection.

Epiphany 5A

Posted on February 2, 2026 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Feb. 8, 2026 (Epiphany 5A)

Le sermon sur la montagne (The Sermon on the Mount, 1878), oil painting on canvas by Guillaume Fouace (1837-1895). Church of Notre-Dame de Montfarville, Manche, Normandy, France. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 58:1-12

To follow in God’s way, we are called to be righteous and to practice justice; to be light to the world and the salt that flavors and preserves our lives. These themes resonate through Sunday’s readings. In our first reading, Isaiah tells the people returning from exile that righteousness and justice are the essence of God’s call. But righteousness and justice, we hear throughout Scripture, require more than fasting and ritual practice. We are to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked, and above all, stand against oppression.

Psalm: Psalm 112:1-9, [10]

Psalm 112, an ancient worship hymn, imagines God rewarding the righteous with earthly power and riches in exchange for their good acts. This is no simplistic “Prosperity Gospel,” though. These verses echo Isaiah’s call in the first reading: The righteousness of those who follow God and delight in God’s commandments will endure forever. Those who are gracious and merciful, who deal with others generously and act with justice, will rise in the darkness as a light for the upright. The wealth we gain by living justly is not measured in gold and silver but by the example we set for others, illuminating the way toward God.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

Continuing through the opening chapters of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, we hear him make his pastoral case to his bickering, divided, yet beloved church community. Paul urges the people to be humble. He reminds them that Christians appear foolish in the eyes of the world because they follow a Messiah who suffered the shame of crucifixion. And yet, he declares, there is no shame, but glory, as we share in God’s hidden and secret wisdom: The Holy Spirit provides us new life through the mind of Christ.

Gospel: Matthew 5:13-20

Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount occupies three full chapters, so we hear portions of it over three weeks of Epiphany. In this, the second portion, Jesus has just taught the crowd the Beatitudes, promising God’s kingdom to the poor, the hungry, the thirsty; those who mourn, the meek; the humble, and all who are persecuted and oppressed. Now he assures the people that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. But, he continues, with those gifts comes responsibility: Those who follow Jesus are called to show God to the world through our good works. Jesus has not come to abolish the Torah – “the Law and the Prophets” – but to fulfill its call to be just and righteous: We are to love God, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

Epiphany 4A

Posted on January 28, 2026 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Feb. 1, 2026 (Epiphany 4A)

Jesus Proclaiming the Beatitudes (1912), mural designed by Christopher Murphy and painted by Paul Gutsche. St. John the Baptist Cathedral Basilica, Savannah, Georgia. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Micah 6:1-8

How does God want us to live? Our lectionary readings for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany speak to us clearly about how we are called to walk in God’s way and to follow Jesus. In our first reading, a beloved verse from the prophet Micah, we are called to respond to God’s love by sharing it with others, simply by doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. Micah, as prophets do, warns that we stand before God as a defendant in a trial, pleading our case to a divine Judge who “has a controversy with us.” The One who has done so much for us wants neither burnt offerings nor sacrifices, but good actions on behalf of others.

Psalm: Psalm 15

Historically, Bible scholars believe, this short Psalm may depict ancient Temple liturgy and practice in the form of questions to be called out by priests and answered by the crowd as they process up to the doors. Call: “Who may enter?” Response: “Those who do right, speak truth, don’t slander or reproach, and do no evil.” These are rules to live by in any age. We can easily hear echoes of Micah’s instruction to walk blamelessly, do what is right, and speak truth from our heart.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Continuing his stern lecture to his quarrelsome congregation at Corinth, Paul declares that Jesus’s death on a Roman cross – a gory, horrifically painful execution that Rome reserved for the worst criminals – appears as “foolishness” to those who don’t understand. But, Paul says, in fact the crucifixion and resurrection demonstrate God’s power to save, even from death. God chose this way to celebrate the weak, the poor, and the despised, Paul says, and to shame the powerful and the strong through Jesus, who gives us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12

The Beatitudes, the beloved verses in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount as told by Matthew, have become so familiar that we may not always pause to give them the deep reflection that they deserve. In eight quick statements, Jesus turns the world upside down: It is not the rich who are blessed, but the poor. It is not the successful and the proud who win God’s blessing, but mourners, the meek, the hungry; the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the oppressed. This is not just good news for the poor; it is earth-shattering. And it is a theme that Jesus repeats again and again, until it is difficult to understand why we have such a hard time getting it.

Epiphany 3A

Posted on January 19, 2026 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Jan. 25, 2026 (Epiphany 3A)

Calling the Apostles Peter and Andrew at the Fish Market (c.1608), oil painting on panel by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 9:1-4

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” As we live through the dark, short days of winter, we can feel the joy that gracious light brings in the darkness. This is the joy that Isaiah and Matthew share in Sunday’s readings. Our first reading from Isaiah recalls the hard time when Israel’s Northern Kingdom – the lands of Zebulon and Naphtali that Jesus will later know as Galilee – had fallen to the Assyrian Empire, and the nation’s fate was in doubt. But the future holds no gloom for those who are in anguish now, Isaiah proclaims: God will bring the people back to a world of bounty and joy.

Psalm: Psalm 27:1, 5-13

In words that echo both the ideas and the emotions of the Isaiah reading, the Psalmist shouts with triumphant confidence that God is indeed our light, so there is nothing to fear. This is not just a happy-clappy praise song, though: Bad things indeed can happen, even to God’s own people. Enemies may surround them. But knowing that God is our light, our stronghold, and our salvation, we need not fear. We call on God to hear us, love us, protect us, and keep us safe.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Last week in the opening verses of 1 Corinthians, we heard Paul assure the people of this little community that they had already received gifts that made them strong in faith. Now, in the following verses, we learn that this little church was troubled, breaking into factions and quarreling among themselves. Remember to stand steadfast in faith, Paul reminds them; and do so even when their Gentile neighbors call them foolish for worshiping a crucified criminal. Baptism brings all together in unity in Christ, Paul says. The cross represents the power of God to us as we are saved by it.

Gospel: Matthew 4:12-23

Jesus, grieving the murder of his cousin John and very likely fearing for his own life, leaves his home in Nazareth to go to Capernaum, a larger city on the shore in Galilee. This was the ancient region of Zebulon and Naphtali that Isaiah referenced in the first reading. There Jesus begins his public life, preaching with the same words that John so often spoke: “‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Jesus then calls four fishermen – Peter and Andrew, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee. All four men eagerly dropped their nets and followed Jesus as he preached, taught, and healed.

Epiphany 2A

Posted on January 12, 2026 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Jan. 18, 2026 (Epiphany 2A)

The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew (1308-1311). Tempera painting on wood by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319). National Gallery, Washington, D.C. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 49:1-7

In the Gospel for the Second Sunday of Epiphany, we hear another version of Jesus meeting John the Baptist at the Jordan, this time the intriguingly different narrative told by John. Our other readings offer perspectives on the idea of waiting with faith and hope for God. The first reading comes from much later in Isaiah’s prophetic book than last week’s passage from Isaiah: We hear the second of Isaiah’s four descriptions of the suffering servant, the savior who would lead the people back to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon. Although once despised, Isaiah foretells, this servant will eventually rise up, bringing God’s saving power not only to Israel and Judah but to all the nations, to the ends of the Earth.

Psalm: Psalm 40:1-12

In verses that resonate with Isaiah’s view of the people waiting in exile for their suffering servant savior to come, Psalm 40 envisions waiting patiently and with deep trust and faith for God to act. Though the people were once left desolate in mire and clay, alone in a pit, the Psalmist sings, “God will place them on a new, secure footing and give them a new song of praise.” Although he remains surrounded by too many evils to count and blinded by iniquities until his heart fails, the Psalmist remains firm in hope that God’s faithful, steadfast love will eventually bring mercy, deliverance, and safety.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

During the remaining Sundays after Epiphany, we will read from Paul’s first letter to the Christian community in Corinth – a major Greek trading and seafaring city. In these opening verses, Paul’s friendly greetings offer a view of the letter that follows. The congregation in Corinth wasn’t old, and it probably wasn’t large; but it was already splitting into bickering factions, each with its own ideas about Christian practice. Faith in Christ has given them gifts that have made them strong, Paul reminds the people of the church. He urges them to hold on to those gifts and be steadfast as they wait for Christ’s coming, an event that many in those days thought would happen soon.

Gospel: John 1:29-42

John’s perspective on Jesus’s baptism is very different from the narrative that we heard from Matthew last Sunday. Now, according to John, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming, immediately declares him the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” and tells the crowd that Jesus both came before him and ranks above him. Then it is John the Baptist, not Jesus or the crowd, who tells of seeing the Spirit coming down like a dove and remaining on Jesus, revealing him as the one who would baptize not with water but with the Spirit: The Son of God. The Gospel doesn’t mention an actual baptism, but through John’s prophetic testimony, Jesus’s first disciples recognize Jesus as Messiah and start to follow him.

Epiphany 1A/Baptism of our Lord

Posted on January 5, 2026 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Jan. 11, 2026 (Epiphany 1A/Baptism of our Lord)

The Baptism of Christ (c.1550), oil painting on panel by Jan van Scorel (1495-1562). Indianapolis Museum of Art (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 42:1-9

We now turn to the season of Epiphany. Throughout this season that leads to Lent, we will hear the epiphanies, the manifestations that reveal Jesus as Christ and Messiah. Sunday’s readings show us God’s spirit coming down to the people: Justice and righteousness are served, the oppressed are set free, and all is made new again. The readings culminate with Matthew’s account of John baptizing Jesus in the Jordan. In our first reading, Isaiah calls to Israel in exile that God who created all things will choose a servant to lead them. God will put God’s spirit upon this servant and will send them out to bring justice to all the nations.

Psalm: Psalm 29

Think about a severe thunderstorm as we sing Sunday’s Psalm: Whether we huddle in the basement, listening to the radio for news, or venture out onto the porch to watch in fearful awe, we know how it feels to live through a powerful storm. Lightning flashes like fire. Thunder shakes everything. Giant oak trees seem to whirl, and large limbs come crashing down. We may sense God’s power in the frightening storm, but we also feel the comfort that comes with knowing God’s protection and peace.

Second Reading: Acts 10:34-43

At the invitation of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, Peter comes to his house and for the first time begins to evangelize to Gentiles. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter tells Cornelius and his family the good news of Jesus, starting with his baptism by John when God anointed Jesus with power through the Holy Spirit. After this speech, Peter and the apostles baptize Cornelius and all his household, the first Gentile family brought into the new church.

Gospel: Matthew 3:13-17

All four Gospels tell of Jesus coming to John the Baptist, who was baptizing crowds in the Jordan River “for repentance and the forgiveness of sins.” Only in Matthew, however, do we hear what seems an obvious question: Why would Jesus need to repent or be baptized? Jesus should be baptizing John, not the other way around, John says. But Jesus insists, asking John to baptize him “to fulfill all righteousness,” echoing Isaiah’s call to go out in righteousness to be a light to the world and bring justice to all the nations. John agrees, and then we experience a vision of the Trinity on Jordan’s bank as Jesus, the Son, comes up from the water to see the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, while Jesus hears the Creator God declare Jesus the beloved son.

Christmas 2

Posted on December 29, 2025 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Jan. 4, 2026 (Christmas 2)

Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1518-1520). Oil painting on panel by Joachim Patinir (1480-1524). Museo del Prado, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Jeremiah 31:7-14

The story of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus seeking refuge in faraway Egypt – one of three Gospels available for our use this Sunday – offers us rich food for thought in our own troubled times, when refugees look for safe places around the world. Our readings for the Second Sunday of Christmas offer comfort for those who put their faith in God while they face fear, poverty, and oppression. As our first reading, we turn to the prophet Jeremiah, speaking to Israel in exile. The people have been forced to migrate to their enemy’s capital, leaving behind the ruins of Jerusalem and the Temple, yet they trust that God one day will lead them back home, turning their sorrow into gladness, their mourning into joy.

Psalm: Psalm 84

In poetic themes and metaphors that closely echo Jeremiah’s verses, the Psalmist offers a hymn of trust and praise in a loving God who will protect the people and lead them back home. God will provide clear water in desolate places, protect them in the heights, and serve as their shield against the burning sun and raging enemy, the Psalmist sings. And, home at last, they will know the joy of worshiping in God’s Temple, lavished with God’s grace and glory.

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a

Paul offers the people of the church in Ephesus a promise similar to the one we heard in last week’s reading from Galatians: They – like all of us – are adopted as God’s children through Jesus, and in this way we are freely given God’s grace. Like migrants received with a loving embrace in their new land, the people of God receive a glorious inheritance of great spiritual riches that provides hope.

The Lectionary offers a choice of three Gospels for the Second Sunday of Christmas: Matthew’s account of the Holy Family’s escape to Egypt from King Herod’s wrath; Luke’s story of the boy Jesus in the Temple; and Matthew’s narrative of the visit of the wise men from the East.

Gospel: Matthew 2:13-23

Think about the sad and sometimes terrifying images of refugees that have filled the news in recent years: Parents and their children risk their lives in the long, dangerous journey to El Norte, only to face rejection and deportation. African immigrants drown in capsized ships on the Mediterranean. Life as a refugee can be hard, frightening, sometimes fatal. Now think about Joseph and Mary in Matthew’s Gospel: They are terrified, running away to a foreign land to escape the threat of their own baby’s death at the hands of an angry King Herod. What parents would not go to such an extreme to protect their precious child? And what child, living through such an experience, would not forever remember to care for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger?

Gospel: Luke 2:41-52

The gospels tell us almost nothing about Jesus’s childhood and youth. This intriguing gap is filled by this short, fascinating story that appears only in Luke’s Gospel. Twelve-year-old Jesus disappears while the family is in Jerusalem, to the horror of Joseph and Mary, who find him three days later in the Temple, impressing the elders with his intelligent discussion. The child reassures his frantic parents, declaring that his place is in his “Father’s house,” the Temple. In the next chapter, in Luke’s account of the baptism of the 30-year-old Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan, we will hear the voice of God announce that Jesus is God’s beloved Son.

Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12

One of the most memorable Christmas stories, told only in Matthew’s Gospel, tells of the Magi, wise men from the East who followed a shining star to Bethlehem, the village that the prophets foretold as the birthplace of the Messiah. Matthew doesn’t actually say that there were three of them, or that they were kings. They came, following the star, the Gospel tells us. They bore gifts. They knelt and paid homage to baby Jesus as if he were a king … and then they thwarted evil Herod’s plan to find and kill the baby by heading home via another road, avoiding a return through Jerusalem.

Christmas 1

Posted on December 26, 2025 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Dec. 28, 2025 (Christmas 1)

Saint John the Evangelist (c.1624-1629), oil painting on canvas by Domenico Zampieri (“Domenichino,” 1581-1641). National Gallery, Washington. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 61:10-62:3
The Twelve Days of Christmas continue through the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6. It’s hard to resist the feeling that Christmas was over on December 26, though. We’ll return to work Monday, if we didn’t have to go back already; soon we’ll pack the colorful lights, the Christmas gift boxes and the holiday music. Sunday’s reading, from near the end of the book of Isaiah, finds the people getting back to work too. Returned to Jerusalem after years in exile, they rejoice in God’s righteousness as they face the hard work of rebuilding.

Psalm: Psalm 147
One of the half-dozen resounding songs of joy that conclude the book of Psalms, this memorable hymn begins with a mighty “Praise the Lord,” a shout of exultation that the ancient Hebrews sang as “Hallelu-Yah!” We praise the Lord who is near, who heals our hearts and binds our wounds. We praise the mighty far-off God of all creation, too: The Lord of stars and clouds, winds and waters, rain and the growing grass, all the animals and all of us, too. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!

Second Reading: Galatians 3:23-25;4:4-7
In his short letter to the Christians of Galatia, a Gentile Christian community in what is nowcentral Turkey, Paul argues in fierce conflict against those who demanded that gentile converts follow the strict requirements of Jewish law. We should be careful, though, not to interpret these words as anti-Jewish or as suggesting that the new covenant abolishes the old. But there is no controversy in Paul’s ringing conclusion to this passage, celebrating our joy in being adopted without restriction as God’s heirs and children through Christ.

Gospel: John 1:1-18
These spiritual and poetic words that begin the Gospel of John are so familiar that we may hear them without deep thought. But let’s stop to pay attention: Surely John had the creation story from Genesis in mind when he began with the very same words, “In the beginning.” Then he goes on to place Jesus, the Word, at the moment of creation, when God uttered the creative word, “Let there be light.” John names John the Baptist as the witness to Jesus’ divinity, and he echoes Paul’s point about Moses giving the Law while Jesus gives grace.