Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Jan. 3, 2021

First Reading: Jeremiah 31:7-14

Merry Christmas! Yes, we are still in Christmastide: The 12 days of Christmas continue through Epiphany, January 6, and our readings, appropriate for the season, reflect thanksgiving, hope, and joy.

The Flight into Egypt (c.1570), oil painting on canvas by El Greco (1541-1614). Museo del Prado, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

Even Jeremiah, often called “the weeping prophet” for the dire warnings of destruction that fill his prophecy, resounds with shouts of praise and joy today. The prophet offers hope for all of God’s people, even those weeping in sorrow and pain. God will comfort all, turn our sorrow into gladness, our mourning into joy. The Episcopal Lectionary offers a choice of three Gospels this week: 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.

Psalm: Psalm 84

The Psalmist sings a hymn of trust, praise, and joy. Even amid the joy of having the building restored, though, the real exultation rests not on a structure built by humans but on the grace and glory found in encountering God. God 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 burning sun and raging enemy. And, home at last, they will know the joy of worshiping in God’s temple as Jeremiah had foretold, lavished with God’s grace and glory.

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

Paul offers generous, expansive praise in the opening pages of his letter to the people of Ephesus, then a Greek city on what is now Turkey’s Aegean shore. Paul praises the Ephesians for their faith in Jesus and offers them a promise similar to the one we heard in last week’s reading from Galatians: All are adopted as God’s children through Jesus, and in this way are freely given God’s grace. Like migrants received with a loving embrace in their new land, all receive a glorious inheritance of great spiritual riches that fosters hope.

Gospel: Matthew 2:13-23

This is a hard reading to ponder during the joy of Christmastide, and it gets worse if you look up the three verses that the Lectionary omits: The horrifying story about Herod’s genocidal slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem. This bloody event may not be historical, as neither Flavius Josephus nor other historians of the era mention it. Even without this passage, the story of the flight to Egypt out of fear of Herod frames an important reality: When Jesus is grown, he will seek to bring in the Kingdom of God by delivering good news to the poor and the oppressed. This mission will not always be received with joy and approval, and it ends with his crucifixion. There is risk in following Jesus, but do we really have a choice?

Alternate Gospel: Luke 2:41-52

The four gospels tell us little or nothing about Jesus’s childhood and youth. This disappointing gap is filled only 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 indeed God’s beloved Son.

Alternate Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12

One of the most memorable Christmas stories tells of the wise men from the East who followed a shining star to Bethlehem, the village that the prophets foretold as the birthplace of the Messiah. It might surprise us, though, to remember that Matthew doesn’t actually say there were three of them, or that they were kings. They are called “Magi,” or “magicians,” in the original Greek, and the New Revised Standard Version translates it as “wise men.” So they came, following the star. 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 by heading home by another road.