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John’s Gospel has been known since the second century as “the spiritual Gospel.” One of the features that earns it that reputation is that John weaves the insights that stem from Jesus’ resurrection into the narrative account of Jesus’ activity, even before the Crucifixion. In this case, John 10:22-30 addresses the issue of the “sheep” of Jesus, the same group he expressed concern for last Sunday in the context of a Resurrection appearance. Their identity as gathered around the Lamb is portrayed in visionary terms in Revelation 7:9-17. That perspective gives new meaning to Psalm 23, which the Lectionary appoints for today. Last Sunday’s readings also introduce the focus on Peter in today’s reading—Acts 9:36-43—where he takes up a ministry of healing comparable to that of Jesus.

The First Reading
Acts 9:36–43
Continued Witness by Rock—Peter—through the Ministry of Healing

As the witness to Jesus continues in the book of Acts, Rock—Peter—is called upon to help after the death of a committed student, named Tabitha. Parallel to Jesus’ healing ministry (Mark 5:35-43), Rock prays over Tabitha, and she returns to life. As the news of Tabitha’s healing spreads, many throughout the region of Joppa believe in the Lord.
—

In Joppa, there was a committed student named Tabitha, which when translated is Dorcas (“gazelle”). She was known for good works and charity to the poor. In those days she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Now since Lydda was near Joppa, when the students heard that Rock—Peter—was there, they sent two men to him, urging him, “Do not hesitate to come to us.” So Rock rose up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him into the upper room, and all the widows stood by him, crying and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas was making when she was with them. Then Rock pushed them all out. He went down on his knees and prayed while turning to the body; he said, “Tabitha, arise.” She opened her eyes, and when she saw Rock, she sat up. He gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the holy community along with the widows, he presented her alive. It then became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. And so, he stayed some days with a certain Simon, a tanner.

The Psalm
Psalm 23
God Protects Us as a Shepherd in Dark Times

Psalm 23 portrays God as a shepherd who protects the flock even in the darkest times. The image of God as shepherd connects this passage to the reading from John, which is today’s Gospel, in which Jesus refers to his followers as sheep to whom, because they hear his voice, he gives eternal life. This psalm’s reference to the fearlessness of the psalmist, even when traversing “a valley as dark as death,” hints at the idea of escape from death.
—

1. A song of David.
        The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2. God lies me down in grassy meadows;
        to still watering places, God guides me.
3. God refreshes my soul.
        God directs me in the ways of righteousness,
        for the sake of God’s name.
4. Even when I walk in a valley as dark as death,
        I fear no evil,
        for you are with me.
        Your rod and your staff comfort me.
5. You prepare before me a table in the presence of my enemies.
        You have anointed my head with oil.
        My cup overflows.
6. Yes! Goodness and kindness will pursue me,
        all the days of my life.
   And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
        for the length of my days.

The Second Reading
Revelation 7:9-17
Vision of Those Who Are Saved

In the sequence of the visions of John of Patmos, four angels are commanded to prevent all harm to God’s servants who are marked with a seal. The number of those sealed comes to 144,000:12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel (Revelation 7:4-8). A numberless host from the nations now supplements the 144,000, all of whom shout out with the heavenly court to praise the one seated on the Throne as well as the Lamb. Clothed in white robes, they are drawn close to the Throne and its shelter, having purified themselves in the blood of the Lamb.
—

After this I saw, and look—a massive throng that no one could number, from every nation: clans, peoples, and tongues. They stood before the Throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes and with palm branches in their hands. And they cried in a great voice:

“Redemption belongs to our God,
to the one seated upon the Throne
and to the Lamb.”

All the messengers stood around the Throne, as well as the elders and the four living animals, and they prostrated before the Throne and worshipped God:

“Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power
and strength belong to our God forever. Amen.”

One of the elders asked me, “Who are those clothed in white robes, and where do they come from?” I answer him, “My Master, you know.” He said:

“They come from the great tribulation;
they washed their robes
and whitened them in the blood of the Lamb.
For this reason they are before God’s Throne
and attend him day and night in his temple.
And the one who sits upon the Throne will shelter over them;
they will neither hunger nor thirst,
neither sun nor any burning will fall on them,
because the Lamb in the midst of the Throne
will shepherd them and guide them
to fountains of living water.
God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.”

The Gospel
John 10:22-30
Jesus in Jerusalem at Hanukkah

The Renewal Feast—Hanukkah—in Jerusalem celebrated the restoration of the Jerusalem Temple after its defilement by foreign forces in the period of the Maccabees (164 BCE). John’s Gospel makes this celebration the occasion for a dispute between Jesus and other Jews. In this case, local Judeans question his status as the Anointed. Jesus answers, speaking of who truly is part of the flock that God is gathering out of the world. In the mysterious claim of being one with “the Father,” Jesus proclaims himself a renewed and restored temple, the place where people encounter God. Written after the year 70 CE, at a time when the Jerusalem Temple again lay in ruins so that no one could realistically seek God there, the Gospel undergirds the faith of an early Jesus community.
—

Then came the Renewal Feast in Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the Temple in the portico of Solomon. The Judeans circled him and said to him, “How long will you distress our soul? If you are the Anointed, tell us in public.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe! The deeds that I do in the name of my Father, they bear witness concerning me, but you do not believe, because you are not from my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me; I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will take them from my hand. My Father gave them to me; he is greater than all and no one is able to take from the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Although John’s Gospel appeared to reach its climax last Sunday when, in Jerusalem, the risen Jesus praised the faith that requires no physical proof, an entire chapter follows that is dedicated to Jesus’ manifesting himself by the Sea of Galilee. Peter appears at the center of interest within the lection (John 21:1-19), so that he can be restored as a representative of Jesus after he had denied his association with Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion. As Peter’s denial occurred three times, so Jesus presses Peter three times as he gives him the care of his flock. The setting of a meal and a miraculous catch of fish alludes to the Eucharistic context in which the account finds its natural place. The reading from Acts recounts Paul’s first encounter with Jesus in a manner that presents the Resurrection along the lines of a call of a prophet, while Revelation 5:11-14 presents the living Jesus in an unmistakably visionary and prophetic way.

The First Reading
Acts 9:1–6 [7-20]
Saul’s Vision of the Risen Jesus

While traveling to Damascus to persecute those in the community known as the Way of Jesus by arresting some of the them, Saul has a vision. In a flash of light, he hears the voice of Jesus confronting him for his efforts at persecution. The appearance of Jesus leaves Saul blind and in need of assistance. Then in a vision Jesus directs Ananias, one of his committed students, to lay hands on Saul to return his sight. The regaining of his physical sight parallels Saul’s new insight and call—with his name significantly changed to Paul—as God’s instrument to proclaim the name of Jesus.
—

Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the committed students of the Lord, went to the High Priest and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus for the purpose that, if he found anyone belonging to the Way, men and even women, he could tie them up and lead them to Jerusalem. Now as he was going, he came near to Damascus, and suddenly a light flashed around him from heaven. As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you chasing me down?” So he asked, “Master, who are you?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are chasing. Even so, get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

[The men traveling with Saul stood speechless, because they heard something but saw no one. Saul rose up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he saw nothing. So, they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he couldn’t see, and he neither ate nor drank. Now, there was a certain committed student in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord spoke to him in a vision: “Ananias.” He said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and in the house of Judas look for a man named Saul from Tarsus. He is praying, and he envisions a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so that he will see again.” But Ananias said, “Lord, I heard from many about this man, about how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. Even here, he has authority from the high priests to arrest all of those who call upon your name.” Still, the Lord said to him, “Go. This man is a chosen instrument for my purpose to carry my name before both nations and kings and the people of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” So Ananias left and went into the house. He laid hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you can see again and be filled with the holy Spirit. Then immediately something like scales fell from his eyes. He both regained his sight and arose to be immersed for cleansing; then, taking food, he was strengthened. He then stayed some days with the committed students in Damascus and immediately was proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.”]

The Psalm
Psalm 30
A Psalm of Thanks for Healing

The theme of God’s healing and having metaphorically lifted the psalmist from the grave accounts for its relevance and expressive power in describing the context of divine salvation that explains Jesus’ own resurrection.
—

1. I will exalt you, Lord, for you have drawn me up
        and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
2. Lord, my God, I cried out to you and you healed me.
3. Lord, you lifted me from the grave;
        you kept me in life, away from those who go down to the Pit.
4. Praise the Lord in song, God’s faithful;
        give thanks to God’s holy name.
5. For God’s anger lasts but a moment,
        while God’s favor lasts a lifetime.
   Crying endures only a night,
        but joy appears with the morning.
6. As for me, I said with confidence, “I shall never be shaken.”
7. Lord, in accordance with your will,
        you established me as a strong mountain.
   You hid your face!
        I was disquieted!
8. To you, Lord, I called out.
        From my Lord I sought favor.
9. What profit is there in my blood,
        in my descent into the Pit?
   Will the dust thank you?
        Will it tell of your truth?
10. Hear, Lord, and be compassionate with me!
         Lord! Be my help!
11. You turned my wailing into jubilant dance;
         you removed my sackcloth and clothed me in joy.
12. So that my heart might sing your praises and not be silent,
         Lord, my God, I shall thank you forever.

The Second Reading
Revelation 5:11-14
A Vision of the Lamb and God’s Throne

The context of this passage is John’s vision of a book at the right hand of God, sealed up with seven seals (Revelation 5:1-5). An elder by the Throne assures John of Patmos that the lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed, so that he is able to open the seals. The “lion” of whom the elder speaks, however, appears in the midst of the Throne as a Lamb, which seems to have been slain. The living creatures and elders take up a song in his praise (5:6-10). He is worthy to open the seals because he has been slain and has presented a people to God. The song dedicated to the Lamb echoes throughout heaven and earth.
—

I saw, and I heard—the sound
of many divine messengers around the Throne
and the living animals and the elders.
And their number reached myriads upon myriads, thousands upon thousands; they said in a thunderous voice:
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
to take power and wealth and wisdom
and strength and honor and glory and blessing.
Every single creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, indeed all that is in them—these I heard saying:
To the one who is seated upon the Throne and to the Lamb
belong blessing and honor and glory and power forever.
And the four living animals said, “Amen,” and the elders bowed low and worshipped.

The Gospel
John 21:1-19
Jesus Appears by the Sea of Tiberias

John’s Gospel carries the story beyond the Resurrection in a scene that alludes richly to both Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and the church’s mission to become a community of faith and mutual care. The three denials by Rock—Peter—about even knowing Jesus find their counterpart in three affirmations of love and loyalty. The risen Master elicits these affirmations through probing questions, leading to the mandate that Peter care for those gathered in Jesus’ name, as God’s flock.
—

Later Jesus revealed himself again to the committed students by the Sea of Tiberias, and he appeared in this way: Simon Rock—Peter—and Thomas called Twin and Nathaniel from Cana of Galilee and the Zebedees and two others of his students were together. Simon Rock said to them, “I am going to fish.” They said to him, “We are going along with you.” They went out and got on board the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But by this time, as it became early, Jesus stood by the shore, although the students did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus said to them, “Children, don’t you have any food?” They answered him, “No.” But he said to them, “Throw the net to the right of the boat, and you will find fish.” So they threw it, and because of the quantity of fish caught they weren’t strong enough to haul the net by hand. So, that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Rock, “It is the Master.” Simon Rock, hearing that it was the Master, then tied his overgarment around himself, because he was naked, and threw himself into the sea. The other students came in the boat, because they were not far from the land—only about a hundred yards—dragging the net of fish. When they got off on the land they saw a charcoal fire set and fish arranged and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring in from the fish you now caught.” So Simon Rock went up and hauled the net onto the land full of big fish—153—and although there were so many the net did not split. Jesus said to them, “Come on, eat breakfast.” But none of the students dared to confirm with him—“Who are you?”—knowing that he was the Master. Jesus came and took the bread and gave to them, and then gave the fish in the same way. This was already the third time Jesus was revealed to the students, raised from the dead. When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Rock, “Simon of John, do you love me more than anyone?” He said to him, “Yes, Master: you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Herd my lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Master: you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Shepherd my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon of John, do you love me?” Rock was grieved that he had said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Master, you know everything: you recognize that I love you.”  He said to him, “Herd my sheep. Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were a youth, you tied your own clothes and walked where you wished, but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hand and another will tie you and carry you where you do not wish.” Saying this he signaled the sort of death by which he would glorify God. With that he said to him, “Follow me.”

The promise within John’s Gospel to Mary Magdalene on Easter Day was for further contact with Jesus, and the Gospel reading selected for this Sunday—John 20:19-31—fulfills that promise. Becoming present in a room with locked doors, Jesus breathes into his closest students, giving them Spirit so that they might engage in a dedicated practice of forgiving sin. The famous incident with Thomas is widely misinterpreted, probably as a result of Renaissance art that depicts Thomas touching Jesus’ wounds. In the account itself, however, Jesus’ presence is enough to make Thomas believe. Jesus then insists that the point of his being raised from the dead is to demonstrate that belief comes from insight, rather than from physical contact or even seeing. The psalms of the day—118:14-29 and 150—present faith in its strong relationship to the praise of God, while Acts 5:27–32 portrays praise as an irresistible impulse, even under duress, as a result of the Spirit’s support. During the season of Easter, readings from Acts regularly take the place usually occupied by the Scriptures of Israel. In today’s readings and on several occasions during Easter, a reading from the Apocalypse (Revelation 1:4-8) takes the place of the Epistle, in this case because it is written as a letter from Jesus, “firstborn of the dead.”

The First Reading
Acts 5:27–32
The Apostles’ Appearance Before the Supreme Council of the Judeans

In this reading from the book of Acts, the theme of witnessing to God’s raising and exaltation of Jesus continues with Rock—Peter—and the Apostles’ obedience before the Supreme Council (the Sanhedrin) of the Judeans. Empowered by the Spirit, their witness encourages obedience to the God of Israel who exalted Jesus for the people of Israel.
—

When they brought the Apostles, they stood them before the Supreme Council of the Judeans. The High Priest interrogated them: “We gave you a direct order not to teach in this name, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, intending to make us guilty for this man’s blood.” In response Rock—Peter—and the Apostles said, “It is necessary to obey God rather than people. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. This man God exalted to God’s own right hand as sovereign and savior to give to Israel repentance and release from sins. We are witnesses to these things, as also is the holy Spirit, which God gave to those who obey.”

The Psalm
Psalm 118:14-29
Thanksgiving for Victory Brought About by God

This psalm of victory perhaps originally celebrated the Israelites’ return from the Babylonian exile. It is rich in allusions that are given new meaning by the Easter season: “I did not die but live” (verse 17); “The rock the builders rejected” (verse 22); and, overall, that of the Lord’s gate through which the righteous will enter (verse 20). The “horns of the altar” (verse 27) refers to horn-like projections at each corner of the Jerusalem Temple’s sacrificial altar. This feature of the altar is as required in the altar’s construction in Exodus 27:2.
—

14. Yah is my strength and my rescue;
         God has become my victory.
15. A sound of joy and victory is in the tents of the righteous!
         The right arm of the Lord performed mighty acts;
16. The right arm of God is exalted;
         The right arm of the Lord performed mighty acts.
17. I did not die but live,
         and I will recount the acts of Yah!
18. Yah has certainly chastened me,
         but God did not hand me over to death.
19. Open for me the gates of the righteous;
         I shall enter them giving thanks to Yah.
20. This is the Lord’s gate;
         only the righteous shall enter it.
21. I thank you, for you have answered me;
         you have become my victory
22. The rock the builders rejected has become the cornerstone!
23. This is from the Lord;
         it is extraordinary in our eyes.
24. This is the day the Lord brought about;
         let us rejoice and celebrate on it.
25. Please, Lord, rescue us!
         Please, Lord, cause us to prosper!
26. May all who enter be blessed in the name of the Lord!
         We bless you all from the house of the Lord.
27. The Lord is God and gives us light;
         tie up the festival offering with cords;
         bring it to the horns of the altar!
28. You are my God, and I shall thank you;
         my God, and I shall exalt you.
29. Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good:
         God’s steadfast love is eternal!

or Psalm 150
The Lord Deserves Our Praise

The book of Psalms ends with this declaration of God’s mighty deeds for which we owe praise and thanksgiving.
—

1. Praise Yah!
        Praise God in God’s sanctuary;
        praise God in the firmament of God’s strength.
2. Praise God for God’s mighty deeds;
        praise God in harmony with God’s abundant greatness.
3. Praise God with a blast of the trumpet;
        praise God with lute and lyre.
4. Praise God with timbrel and joyous dance;
        praise God with strings and flute.
5. Praise God with loud cymbals;
        praise God with a crash of cymbals.
6. Let all that breathe praise Yah!
        Praise Yah!

The Second Reading
Revelation 1:4-8
Jesus the “Firstborn of the Dead and Ruler of the Kings of the Earth”

In this reading, John of Patmos, speaking as a prophet, formally addresses seven assemblies (or churches), explaining that he speaks on behalf of God enthroned in heaven, before whom seven spirits dwell (Zechariah 3:1-9). Paired with God, Jesus appears as firstborn of the dead, as well as the faithful witness who releases people from their sins and makes them a kingdom and priests to God. His coming in judgement is fearful (compare Daniel 7:13 and Zechariah 12:10-11), accounting for the urgency of the message. God himself speaks at the close; he is is the Alpha and Omega, who was, is, and is to come (Isaiah 41:4; 44:6).

The Gospel
John 20:19-31
The Committed Students See Their Risen Master

The Gospel of John underscores the power of its own witness to bring people to belief in Jesus and to the life that he offers. Those who first see their risen Master on Easter evening recognize him by his wounds. Thomas seeks the same evidence, but—like Mary Magdalene—recognizes Jesus in the personal encounter of being known by him. Then the Gospel draws its hearers into the story by having Jesus call them “favored,” favored with belief even when we have not seen him.
—

When it was evening on that first day after Sabbath and the doors were shut where the committed students were on account of their fear of the “Judeans,” Jesus came. He stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace to you.” Having said this, he showed them his hands and side. Then the students rejoiced, having seen the Master. Then Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you: just as the Father delegated me, I also send you.” Having said this he breathed into them and said, “Take holy Spirit: whose sins you release are released for them; whose sins you hold are held against them.” 

Yet Thomas, one from the Twelve called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. Then the other students were saying to him, “We have seen the Master.” But he said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and thrust my finger in the mark of the nails and thrust my hand into his side, I shall not believe.” After eight days Jesus’ students were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came while the doors were shut and stood in their midst and said, “Peace to you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands, and take your hand and thrust it into my side. Do not be faithless, but faithful.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Master and my God.” Jesus said, “Because you saw me, you have believed? Those are favored who have not seen, and believe.” Then Jesus did many other signs before the students that are not written in this scroll, but these are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Anointed, the Son of God, and so that, believing, you might have life in his name.

For Easter evening, the Lectionary appoints the unique account in Luke’s Gospel of how Jesus joined in an evening meal with Cleopas and an unnamed companion. Jesus’ opening of the meal in the inn is strongly reminiscent of what he did in his Last Supper, so that the celebration of the Eucharist emerges as an occasion for recognizing his risen presence. Yet the emphasis of the account falls even more strongly on the interpretation of Scripture: how Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms map Jesus’ trajectory as the Anointed of God. It is fitting, then, that the evening’s reading from the book of Isaiah voices an early prophetic hope of resurrection. The Resurrection is seen reflected even in the Passover through the reading of Psalm 114 in the light of Jesus’ presence (1 Corinthians 5:6b-8).

The First Reading
Isaiah 25:6-9
God’s Promises Are Universal

The earliest prophecies in the book of Isaiah were composed during the eighth century BCE and underwent several expansions, owing to its wide usage. The last part of the book of Isaiah as it stands (chapters 56-66) reflects a period of keen anticipation of God’s inclusion of all peoples within a newly restored Temple: a restoration that occurred towards the end of the sixth century BCE. This passage from chapter 25 reflects the same period, the same prophetic assurance, and an emerging interpretation that the promises of God are universal.
—

6. The Lord of angelic armies will make for all peoples on this mountain
        a feast of fat animals, a feast of good wine—
        fat animals full of marrow and refined good wine.
7. He will swallow up on this mountain
        the cover that covers all peoples
        and the veil that veils all nations.
8. He shall swallow up death forever
        and the masterful Lord will wipe away tears from the all faces,
        and the reproach of his people he will remove from the earth,
   because the Lord has spoken.

The Psalm
Psalm 114
In the Exodus and Conquest of the Land, Nature Recognized God’s Power

Psalm 114 reflects on God’s divine power and the victories it facilitates in times of the greatest need, such as during the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt. In this reading, this past victory connects to the one celebrated today, when God, in the body of Jesus, conquers even death.
a people of foreign tongue,

1. When the people of Israel left Egypt,
        the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2. the territory of Judah became God’s sanctuary;
        the territory of Israel, God’s realm.
3. The sea saw and fled;
        the Jordan River reversed course.
4. The mountains skipped like rams;
        the hills, like sheep.
5. Why is it, sea, that you fled?
        Jordan, that you reversed course?
6. Mountains, that you skipped like rams?
        Hills, like sheep?
7. Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
        at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8. who turned the rock into a pool of water,
        flint into a fountain of water.

The Second Reading
1 Corinthians 5:6b-8
Jesus as Paschal Lamb

Jesus died near the time of Passover, so that early believers came to call the celebration of his being raised from the dead their Pascha (the Aramaic term for “Passover”). Because Paul was dedicated to the view that believers should look to the Anointed as the example of their own resurrection (as in this morning’s reading from 1 Corinthians), he here lingers on the comparison of Jesus’ offering to the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb, and relates the removal of yeast from Israelite households at Passover to the purging of immorality from the communities in Corinth.
—

Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Cleanse out the old yeast, in order that you can be new dough, just as you are unleavened: because the Anointed, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us.

The Gospel
Luke 24:13-49
The Risen Jesus Appears Near Emmaus

On Easter afternoon and evening, as the Gospel according to Luke tells it, those who mourned Jesus as dead experienced his living presence in various ways. In an inspiring encounter, two of them found meaning in their tragic experience through a reading of biblical Israel’s Prophets interpreted by Jesus himself. They went on to recognize Jesus in the new meal shared by a community of his followers. Others believed a report from Simon, and all became witnesses of his resurrected body in their gathering. Their testimony carried forward insights into Israel’s Scriptures that sprang from the story of Jesus’ life and death, becoming a divine commission to preach repentance for the release of sins.
—

And look: two of them on the same day [the day the tomb had been found empty] went to a village lying seven and a half miles from Jerusalem, named Emmaus. They were conversing with one another concerning all the things that had transpired. It happened while they conversed and argued that Jesus himself approached to go with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. He said to them, “What are these things that you are tossing around at one another as you walk?” And they stood, heartsick. One—Cleopas by name—answered him, “Are you the only person in all Jerusalem who doesn’t know what happened there in these days?” And he said to them, “What sort of things?” But they said to him, “The things concerning Jesus the Nazirite, who was a man of prophecy, powerful in deed and in word before God and all the people: how our high priests and leaders handed him to a sentence of death—and crucified him. We had hoped that he was about to redeem Israel, but at all events, this is the third day since these things happened. Some women from our group also stunned us: having been at the tomb in the morning, and not finding his body, they came to tell us they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he lives. And some of those with us went away to the tomb, and found it so, just as the women had said, and they did not see him either.” He said to them, “How dense! So slow to believe in all that the prophets spoke. Wasn’t it necessary for the Anointed to suffer, and enter into his glory?” And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them by all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.And they neared the village where they were going, and he made as if to travel on. But they prevailed on him, saying, “Stay with us, because it is toward evening and the day has already declined.” And he went in to stay with them. And it happened, when he reclined with them, that he took the bread, blessed, broke, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened up, and they recognized him—and he vanished from them. They said to one another, “Wasn’t something kindled in us when he was speaking to us on the way, as he opened up the Scriptures to us?” They arose in the same hour and returned to Jerusalem. They found assembled the Eleven and those with them, who said, “The Master has in fact been raised, and was seen by Simon.” So they explained the things that happened on the way and how he had become known to them in the breaking of the bread.

While they were speaking of these things, he himself stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace to you.” Shocked and frightened, they thought they perceived a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you shaken, and for what reason are you confused? See my hands and my feet, that I am myself. Take hold of me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bone, which you see I have.” In their joy and amazement they could not believe it, so he said to them, “Do you have anything to eat here?” They gave him a portion of cooked fish. He took and ate in front of them.

Then he said to them, “These were my words that I spoke to you when I was still with you: that it was necessary for everything written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me to be fulfilled.” Then he opened up their mind to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, “So it was written, for the Anointed to suffer and to arise from the dead on the third day, and for repentance for release of sins in his name to be proclaimed to all the nations—beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And look: I confer the promise of my Father upon you, yet remain in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Jesus’ victory over the grave is remembered every Sunday during the year; that is why worship occurs on that day. The weeks between Easter and Pentecost mark an entire season to recollect and reflect upon resurrection within the calendar of Christianity. The readings of each week articulate specific ways of understanding how Jesus was raised from the dead, and to varying degrees they also relate his resurrection to how each believer can anticipate eternal life with God.

Easter Day itself, then, does not stand alone as a festival. It is the primary celebration of the year, but it functions as the entry into pondering and experiencing Jesus’ resurrection. For that reason, the early-morning visit to Jesus’ tomb is the focus of the day. In all the accounts in the Gospels, despite significant differences from one to another, the purpose of the narrative is to point Jesus’ followers from the place of burial and towards where he will be experienced as alive. Encounters with Jesus are promised in John 20:1-18, and the reality of those encounters features centrally in Acts’ record of the earliest preaching in Jesus’ name. The expectation that God can and will effect unanticipated redemption forms one basis of hope in the Resurrection, which the Scriptures of Israel support in existential (Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24) as well as collective and cosmic terms (Isaiah 65:17-25).

The First Reading
Acts 10:34-43
The Power of the Gospel for All Who Believe

The book of Acts portrays how the earliest preaching bore witness to Jesus’ resurrection and proclaimed the cleansing of sins for all people who believe. In recounting the message of God’s anointing of Jesus, Rock—Peter—begins with John’s immersion of repentance for the cleansing of sins, continues through Jesus’ ministry of healing and doing good, and culminates in the appearance of Jesus to the witnesses after his death. In that testimony, Rock realizes that, in Jesus, God has sent word to the people of Israel that God accepts all people. 
—

Rock—Peter—opened his mouth and said, “In truth, I understand that God is not one who shows favoritism, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does righteousness is acceptable to him. In reference to the message that he sent to the people of Israel proclaiming peace through the Anointed Jesus—this one is Lord of all: you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the immersion of repentance for cleansing of sins  proclaimed by John. You know how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy Spirit and power—who then went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him. So we are witnesses of all that he did in the region of the Judeans and in Jerusalem. The one they killed by hanging him on a tree—this one God raised on the third day and caused to appear, not to all the people, but to witnesses who had been chosen beforehand by God, to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead. He commanded us to proclaim to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness: all who believe in him receive cleansing from sins through his name.

or Isaiah 65:17-25
God’s Creation of an Ideal World

The book of Isaiah envisions a new and perfect world, in which there is no longer suffering and distress. In this world people experience long life and plenty. The book of Isaiah, however, notably envisions neither resurrection of the dead nor the eternal life of those now born.
—

17. For now I am creating a new heaven and a new earth
         —those originally created will not be remembered
         nor come to mind.
18. Even so, rejoice and be glad forever that I create,
         because now I am creating Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a delight.
19. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people.
         Neither the sound of weeping nor a cry of distress will be heard there again.
20. Never again will a suckling baby there live just a few days,
         or an old person not live out the fullness of days.
         For one who dies at a hundred will be thought of as a youth,
         and one who falls short of a hundred years will be considered cursed.
21. They will build houses and dwell in them,
         and plant vineyards and consume their fruit.
22. They will not build and another inhabit.
         They will not plant and another eat.
         For the days of my people will be like the days of a tree,
         and the work of their hands my chosen ones shall fully enjoy.
23. They will not labor in vain and not give birth to alarm.
         For they are offspring blessed by the Lord,
         their descendants along with them.
24. Even before they call out, I will answer.
         While they are yet talking, I will heed.

The Psalm
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-29
Thanksgiving for the Victory Brought About by God

This psalm of victory perhaps originally celebrated the Israelites’ return from the Babylonian Exile. Though it does not in its Israelite context reflect an ideology of resurrection or eternal life, the psalmist’s declaration that “God did not hand me over to death” connects the passage perfectly to the central theme of the Easter season. Verses 14-19 use a two-letter (in Hebrew), shortened, poetic form of the four-letter name of God usually translated “Lord.” This usage is familiar from the declaration of praise, Hallelu-Yah. The “horns of the altar” (verse 27) refers to horn-like projections at each corner of the Jerusalem Temple’s sacrificial altar. This feature of the altar is as required in the altar’s construction in Exodus 27:2.
—

1. Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good:
        God’s steadfast love is eternal!
2. Speak out, Israel!
        God’s steadfast love is eternal!

14. Yah is my strength and my rescue;
         God has become my victory.
15. A sound of joy and victory is in the tents of the righteous!
         The right arm of the Lord performed mighty acts;
16. The right arm of God is exalted;
         The right arm of the Lord performed mighty acts.
17. I did not die but live,
         and I will recount the acts of Yah!
18. Yah has certainly chastened me,
         but God did not hand me over to death.
19. Open for me the gates of the righteous;
         I shall enter them giving thanks to Yah.
20. This is the Lord’s gate;
         only the righteous shall enter it.
21. I thank you, for you have answered me;
         you have become my victory.
22. The rock the builders rejected has become the cornerstone!
23. This is from the Lord;
         it is extraordinary in our eyes.
24. This is the day the Lord brought about;
         let us rejoice and celebrate on it.
25. Please, Lord, rescue us!
         Please, Lord, cause us to prosper!
26. May all who enter be blessed in the name of the Lord!
         We bless you all from the house of the Lord.
27. The Lord is God and gives us light;
         tie up the festival offering with cords;
         bring it to the horns of the altar!
28. You are my God, and I shall thank you;
         my God, and I shall exalt you.
29. Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good:
         God’s steadfast love is eternal!

The Second Reading
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Jesus’ Resurrection as the Promise of Cosmic Victory

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is part of an extensive correspondence with communities of believers in Corinth, written between 55 and 56 CE. In it Paul responds to specific questions and challenges they had conveyed to him. Jesus’ resurrection, and its relationship to the resurrection of believers, was one of the central issues. Paul devotes an entire chapter to how Jesus was raised from the dead, both quoting the earliest sources he knows and setting out his own views. In this passage, Paul expresses his theology of how Jesus corresponds to Adam: just as people follow Adam in death, the way to resurrection is opened to them by the Anointed. He is the “primal offering,” a term familiar to Paul and his audience as designating the first, promising sacrifices of springtime (Deuteronomy 26:10).
—

If we hope in the Anointed in this life only, we are the most pitiful of people! But now the Anointed has been raised from the dead, primal offering of those who sleep. For since death is through a person, resurrection of the dead is also through a person. Because just as in Adam all die, so also in the Anointed all shall be made alive. But each in proper order: the Anointed, primal offering, thereafter those of the Anointed in his arrival. Then, the conclusion: when he delivers over the Kingdom to God, that is to the Father, when he shall abolish all rule and all authority and power. Because it is necessary for him to reign until he puts all enemies under his feet. Death is the last enemy abolished.

or Acts 10:34-43
The Power of the Gospel for All Who Believe

The book of Acts portrays how the earliest preaching bore witness to Jesus’ resurrection and proclaimed the cleansing of sins for all people who believe. In recounting the message of God’s anointing of Jesus, Rock—Peter—begins with John’s immersion of repentance for the cleansing of sins, continues through Jesus’ ministry of healing and doing good, and culminates in the appearance of Jesus to the witnesses after his death. Here, Rock’s realization of God’s acceptance of all people augments the message in Jesus’ name first delivered to the people of Israel.
—

Rock—Peter—opened his mouth and said, “In truth, I understand that God is not one who shows favoritism, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does righteousness is acceptable to him. In reference to the message that he sent to the people of Israel proclaiming peace through the Anointed Jesus—this one is Lord of all: you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the immersion of repentance for cleansing of sins  proclaimed by John. You know how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy Spirit and power—who then went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him. So we are witnesses of all that he did in the region of the Judeans and in Jerusalem. The one they killed by hanging him on a tree—this one God raised on the third day and caused to appear, not to all the people, but to witnesses who had been chosen beforehand by God, to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead. He commanded us to proclaim to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness: all who believe in him receive cleansing from sins through his name.

The Gospel
John 20:1-18
“I Have Seen the Master”

The Gospel of John tells the Easter morning story with an emphasis on seeing and believing, as well as on the particular role of Mary Magdalene as a witness to the Resurrection. The account describes much activity in an almost frenetic scene of running, bending, turning, and weeping—all leading up to encounter! The experience of the empty tomb challenges familiar expectations and hierarchies, while Mary’s experience of the risen Lord becomes clear to her in the most familiar of all ways: when she hears him speak her name. With word of his impending ascension, he invites her and all his committed students to join the throng he leads to God: the Father they now fully share.
—

At the first opportunity after Sabbath, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb—when still dark—and saw the stone taken from the tomb. She ran and came to Simon Rock—Peter—and to another committed student, whom Jesus loved. She said to them, “They have taken the Master from the tomb and we do not know where they have placed him.” So Rock went out, and the other student, and they came to the tomb. The two of them had been running together but the other student ran ahead more quickly than Peter, so he came first to the tomb. Bending down he saw the dressings laid out inside, though he did not enter. Then Simon Rock also came following him, and he entered into the tomb and perceived the dressings laid out and the kerchief, which had been upon his head, not laid with the dressings but bundled in a separate place. Only then did the other student, who had come first, enter into the tomb. He saw and believed, although they did not yet know the Scripture that he had to arise from the dead. So the students returned to their group. But Mary stood outside the tomb, weeping. While she wept, she bent down into the tomb and perceived two angels in white, sitting—one at the head and one at the feet—where the body of Jesus had lain. They said to her, “Woman, why do you weep?” She said to them, “They have taken my Master, and I do not know where they have placed him.” Having said this, she turned back and perceived Jesus standing, and she did not know that he was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said to him, “Master, if you have removed him, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” Turning again, she said to him in Aramaic, “Rabbouni” (which means, “Teacher”). Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me! I have not yet ascended to the Father. But proceed to my brothers and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.” Mary Magdalene came announcing to the committed students, “I have seen the Master,” and that he had said these things to her.

or Luke 24:1-12
The Empty Tomb

Luke’s Gospel focuses so intently on what was found (and not found) at the tomb of Jesus that the list of those present comes only late in the reading. Mary Magdalene heads the list, as in all the Gospels, but Luke’s depicts many more witnesses than other sources. The narrative describes the witnesses as entering the tomb and not finding Jesus’ body. The two heavenly men who appear do not refer to Galilee as the place where Jesus is to be encountered, as in Mark and Matthew’s Gospels; instead, Galilee is the location of Jesus during his mortal life. In the Gospel according to Luke, Jerusalem is where the risen Jesus is manifested, and Peter gives a preliminary sign of how palpable that presence will be.
—

On the first of the week, at dawn’s break, the women came to the tomb carrying the spices they had prepared. But they found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. They entered, yet did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were at a loss concerning this, look: two men stood by them in gleaming apparel. As the witnesses became fearful and inclined their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has been raised. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, that it was necessary for the Son of Man to be delivered over into the hands of sinful men
and to be crucified and on the third day to arise!” Then they remembered his sayings, and returning from the tomb they reported all these things to the Eleven and all the rest. And they were the Magdalene, Mary, and Joanna and Mary of James and the rest of the women with them who said these things to the delegates. But these sayings seemed to them a fable, and they disbelieved. Yet Rock—Peter—arose, ran to the tomb, and bending down saw the dressings; he departed, marveling to himself, “What has happened?”

The Second Sunday after Christmas takes up themes, and even borrows a reading, from earlier Sundays. It does so to deepen the sense of celebration whenever God is revealed among God’s people. This is especially poignant in the passage from Jeremiah and in today’s psalm. The figure of Wisdom also appears, in readings from the book of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon, conveying how God can become accessible. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, Jesus fulfills the providential purpose of God as the Anointed, while John’s Gospel identifies Jesus as God more emphatically than any other Gospel.

The First Reading
Jeremiah 31:7-14
Celebrate God’s Restoration of the People Israel!

The prophet Jeremiah announces God’s intention to restore the people Israel after they were disciplined in their time of exile. Images of well-being and renewal pile one on top of another to proclaim the Lord’s compassionate rescue of the people from foreign powers. Not only Israel itself, but all the world sees the power and protection that God gives to God’s people.

The Lord declares:

Shout out joy for Jacob and raise a shout over the foremost among the nations!

Announce, give praise, and say: Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel!

Look: I am bringing them from a north land

and gathering them from the far reaches of the land.

Among them are the blind and impaired,

women both pregnant and in childbirth;

it is a great gathering that returns.

They come weeping; at their pleading I will show them the way.

I will lead them to streams of water on a level path—they will not stumble there;

so have I proven to be Israel’s father and Ephraim is my first-born.

Hear the proclamation of the Lord, nations! Declare on the distant shores; say:

The one who scattered Israel will gather them again

and will guard them as a shepherd with the flock.

For the Lord has ransomed Judah and taken them back from a power too strong for them.

So they will come and raise a shout on Zion’s height; they will stream to the Lord’s goodness:

to the grain and to the wine and to the oil, to the flocks and herds.

Their very being will be like a watered garden; never again will they wither.

Then a young woman will dance with joy—young and old men together.

So I will turn their grieving to celebration;

I will comfort them and make their joy greater than their grief.

I will fully satisfy with richness the very being of the priests

and my people will be satiated with goodness

pronouncement of the Lord.

or Sirach 24:1-12
Wisdom’s Dwelling in Zion

The Scriptures of Israel sometimes personify Wisdom, with Wisdom appearing as the feminine aspect of God. The book of Sirach, alternatively called the book of Ecclesiasticus or Ben Sira, describes Wisdom as active in creation along lines similar to the book of Proverbs, chapter 8. In that text, Wisdom states that God created her before the creation of the earth; during God’s act of creation, Wisdom stood beside God, “like a master worker.” Here the author of the book of Sirach more particularly celebrates the deep and joyous association of Wisdom and Jerusalem.
—
Wisdom proclaims herself, she boasts in the midst of her people;
she opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High and boasts in the presence of God’s power:
“I emerged from the mouth of the Most High and blanketed the ground like a mist;
I established a dwelling in the highest skies, and my throne in a pillar of cloud.
I alone encircled heaven’s sphere and walked in the bottomless depths.
Among the sea’s waves, every land, and every people and nation, I staked a claim.
Among them all I considered sheltering—in whose inheritance should I lodge?
Then the creator of all commanded me; the one who created me settled my dwelling.
God said, ‘Establish your dwelling in Jacob and receive your inheritance in Israel.’
Before time, from the beginning, God created me, and I shall not disappear for all time.
I had ministered before God in a holy dwelling, and so in Zion I was established.
Accordingly, in a beloved city God settled me; my authority was in Jerusalem.
I took root among a glorified people, in the Lord’s portion: God’s inheritance.”

The Psalm
Psalm 147:12-20
God Protects Zion and Its Inhabitants

God deserves praise for protecting the people of Israel (verses 12-14), for exerting great power over all creation (verses 16-18), and for revealing the divine law that sets Israel apart from the nations (verses 15, 19-20). Just as God’s power over creation is eternal, so must be God’s protection of Israel and God’s law. That law appropriately shapes the lives of the people of Israel in the same way that God’s word continually orders creation.
—

12. Extol the Lord, O Jerusalem;
         praise your God, O Zion.
13. For God strengthens the bars of your gates,
         bringing blessing upon your residents in your midst.
14. God—who creates peace within your borders,
         satisfying you with choice wheat;
15. who sends divine speech to the land—
         how quickly God’s word runs!—
16. who spreads out snow like wool,
         scattering frost like ashes.
17. God flings down hail like crumbs;
         God’s freezing blast, who can withstand?
18. God issues a word and it melts;
         exhales and the water flows.
19. God declares a word to Jacob,
         statutes and ordinances to Israel.
20. God has not done so for any other nation;
         divine ordinances they know not.
         Praise Yah!

or Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21
In Praise of Wisdom for Deliverance and Guidance

Scripture often portrays Wisdom as a feminine figure associated with God in heaven. The following reading praises her as the force behind Israel’s deliverance from Egypt at the Red Sea and as Israel’s guide through the wilderness. Not only does Wisdom accomplish these things for Israel, she also grants Israel the power to sing God’s praise for the victory God has won for the people.
—

15. Wisdom has delivered a holy people and a blameless seed from an oppressive nation.
16. Wisdom entered into the very being of the Lord’s servant—Moses—and stood against fearsome kings by wonders and signs.
17. Wisdom rewarded the upright for their labors, led them in a wondrous way, became protection for them by day and a blaze of stars by night.
18. Wisdom carried them across the Red Sea and led them through overpowering waters.
19. Wisdom drowned their enemies and churned them back up from the bottomless depths.
20. Therefore the righteous laid waste to the ungodly and praised in song, Lord, your holy name and cheered in unison your victorious hand.
21. For Wisdom opened the mouth of the mute and made plain the speech of babblers.

The Second Reading
Ephesians 1:3-14
Redemption in the Anointed

The Epistle to the Ephesians deliberately brings together many themes that the apostle Paul addressed in his correspondence with several communities of believers. The epistle takes a long view, discerning God’s purpose as it emerges over time. God desires the unification of heaven and earth so that the children of God can enjoy their full redemption.
—

God, source of blessing, father of our lord the Anointed Jesus, has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the celestial realms by means of the Anointed. God chose us by means of the Anointed before the foundation of the world, so that we could stand holy and blameless before God in love. God destined us, by the pleasure of the divine will, to be made God’s own children through Anointed Jesus—praise the glory of God’s grace, extended to us by means of the beloved! In the Anointed we have redemption through his blood, forgiveness of transgressions by the wealth of his grace, abounding to us in all wisdom and intelligence. God made the mystery of the divine will known to us by God’s pleasure as set out by means of the Anointed, to bring together everything in him as the fulfillment of time unfolds: everything in heaven, everything on earth, by means of the Anointed.

In accordance with the purpose of the One who effects everything by deliberate intent and will, we, who have long hoped in the Anointed, have been allotted and destined to become the living praise of the divine glory. You also heard the word of truth, the message of your salvation: you believed and were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, which is the initial realization of our inheritance—the accomplished redemption that makes us the living praise of the divine glory.

The Gospel
John 1:[1-9], 10-18
The Word Uniquely Revealing God

The opening of John’s Gospel introduces a theme that became dominant in Christian theology: the understanding that the world encounters the force of its creator in the person of Jesus. For that reason, the Gospel begins with a description of how God shaped the world, stressing that God did so by means of “the word,” a term that in Greek (logos) refers to the meaning and purpose of a speaker’s words. “The word” refers not only to the specific terms a speaker uses but also to the speaker’s choice of language. Here, however, the speaker is God, so that the spoken word brings reality itself into existence. As this reading develops, Jesus is identified as God—first as the “light” and then as the “word” of God, now embodied in a specific person.
—

[At creation: The word, so close to God that it was God. At creation, close to God, everything existed through the word. Apart from it not one thing existed which has ever existed. Life was by the word, and life was the light of humanity. The light shines in the darkness, and darkness does not grasp it.

There was a person sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness, so he could testify concerning the light, so that all would believe through him. He was not the light, but came so he could testify concerning the light.]

The light was true, which enlightens every person coming into the world. It was in the world, but, although the world existed through it, the world did not recognize him. He came into what was his own, and his own did not accept him. Whoever did accept him—to them he gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were begotten not from bloodlines, nor from the will of flesh, nor from the will of a man, but from God.

The word became flesh and resided among us; we saw his glory, glory as of an only child close to a father, full of grace and truth. John was witness to him and announced: “This is the one of whom I said, ‘The one who comes after me is ahead of me, because he was prior to me.’” From his fullness we all received: grace piled upon grace—Law given through Moses, and grace and truth coming through Anointed Jesus. Nobody has ever seen God. The one divine word, cradled in the Father—this one has interpreted God.

The calendar we use today, with its marking of a new year on January 1, derives from Roman practice. In particular, in the first century BCE, Julius Caesar introduced the month of January as the beginning of the year (named after Janus, the Roman god of transitions). The widely shared application of this calendar throughout the Roman Empire made it the basis for timekeeping in the church when the Empire became Christian. The readings for today address time as a universal experience but also compare people’s limited, temporal condition to God’s eternity.

The First Reading
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
God Establishes the Rhythms of Life

The book of Ecclesiastes states that, contrary to what we generally imagine, we have little or no control over the world in which we live. Rather, everything that life holds and its opposite has a fixed time, which is determined by God and independent of our own actions and desires. The best we can do, therefore, is to find joy in all we undertake, realizing that everything we achieve is a gift from God, not a necessary consequence of our own labors.
—

1. Under heaven, everything has its season; every purpose, its time:
2. A time to give birth and a time to die.
        A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
3. A time to kill and a time to heal.
        A time to tear down and a time to build.
4. A time to cry and a time to laugh.
        A time to wail and a time to dance.
5. A time to toss aside stones and a time to gather stones.
        A time to hug and a time to keep far from hugging.
6. A time to seek and a time to abandon.
        A time to keep and a time to toss aside.
7. A time to rip and a time to sew.
        A time to keep silent and a time to speak.
8. A time to love and a time to hate.
        A time for war and a time for peace.
9. What do those who work gain by their labor?
10. I have seen the things God gave humans with which to busy themselves.
11. God makes everything beautiful in its season; God placed in the human heart a conception of the whole, even though no person can discover everything that God does from time’s beginning and until the end.
12. I know that nothing is better than to be joyous and do good while alive,
13. and also that, whenever a person eats, drinks, and sees success from labor—this is a gift from God.

The Psalm
Psalm 8
Humankind’s Unique Place within Creation

This hymn of praise recognizes God’s creation of heavens and earth and thanks God for the glorious position granted to humankind, which is given responsibility for all that is in the sky, earth, and sea. The reference to God’s putting an end to “the enemy and avenger” is obscure. The psalm may be referring to God’s conquest of primordial forces of chaos or of the great sea-monsters that are mentioned elsewhere in Scripture and in non-Israelite creation narratives.
—

1. To the conductor, on the gittith, a psalm of David.

1. Lord, our master, how glorious is your name throughout the earth,
        for you have placed your splendor upon the heavens—
2.      from the mouths of children and nursing infants.
   You established a refuge on account of your adversaries,
        to put an end to the enemy and avenger.
3. When I look at your heavens,
        the work of your fingers,
        the moon and stars that you set in place—
4. what are humans that you are mindful of them,
        mortals that you pay them any heed?
5. For you made them to lack only a little from divine beings,
        crowning them with honor and splendor.
6. You gave them control over your handiwork;
        you placed all things under their feet—
7.      all sheep and oxen,
        and also beasts of the field,
8.      birds of the heavens and fish of the sea,
        whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9. Lord, our master, how glorious is your name throughout the earth!

The Second Reading
Revelation 21:1-6a
Vision of a New Heaven and New Earth

John of Patmos sees a new heaven and new earth (in language inspired by Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22), which host the advent of a new Jerusalem. The city is adorned as a bride. It accommodates the people of God, offering the spring of the water of life (verse 6, also referenced in John 4:14) and even—in fulfillment of the promise in Revelation 2:6—the tree of life (Revelation 22:2), because this new Jerusalem is the place of God’s servants alone.
—

I saw new heaven and new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had departed, and the sea was no more. And the holy city, new Jerusalem, I saw descending out of heaven, from God, prepared and adorned as a bride for her husband. I heard a great voice from the Throne:

“Look, the dwelling of God is with humanity,
and he will shelter with them,
and they will be his people—
and God himself will be their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and there shall no longer be death or mourning
or outcry or pain, because the former things have departed.” 

                 The one who sits upon the Throne said: “Look, I will make everything new.”
                 He said: “Write, because these words are trustworthy and true.”
He said to me:
                “It has happened. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”

The Gospel
Matthew 25:31-46
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats

Jesus appears as “the human one” within the Gospels in two ways. At the end of days he is the divine figure with human traits that judges all peoples, an identification that comes from Daniel 7:13. In his own humanity, however, Jesus can also be seen as “the human one” alongside other human beings—a way of thinking derived from Psalm 8:5. This famous parable attributed to Jesus combines the two usages, presenting Jesus as both the judge and companion of all humanity.
—

“When the human one comes in his glory and all the messengers with him, then he will sit upon a throne of his glory, and all the nations shall be gathered together before him, and he will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will stand the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, those favored of my father: inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the world’s origin! Because I hungered and you gave me to eat; I thirsted and you let me drink; I was a stranger and you gathered me in, naked and you dressed me; I was ailing and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and nourish you, or thirsty and let you drink? When did we see you as a stranger and gather you in, or naked and dress you? And when did we see you ailing or in prison and come to you?’ The king will reply and say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, as much as you did to one of the least of those akin to me, you did to me!’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Go away from me, accursed, into the perpetual fire prepared for the devil and his messengers! Because I was hungry and you did not give me to eat, and I thirsted and you did not let me drink; I was a stranger and you did not gather me in, naked and you did not dress me, ailing and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ailing or in prison and not provide for you?’ Then he will reply to them, ‘Amen I say to you, as much as you did not do for one of the least of these, neither did you do for me.’ And the latter will go away into perpetual punishment, but the righteous into perpetual life.

The Gospel of Luke recounts the naming of Jesus at the time of his circumcision (Luke 2:21), as was the Jewish practice from then until now. The timing of the ritual, on the eighth day of a male infant’s life, is specified in both the book of Leviticus (12:3) and the book of Genesis (17:9-14). The latter explains that circumcision marks God’s covenant in the flesh of the community. Covenantal blessing forms a common theme across the readings for today, the eighth day after Christmas.

The First Reading
Numbers 6:22-27
God Instructs the Priests in Blessing the Israelite Community

As part of the instruction that accompanied the construction of the Israelites’ worship tent in the wilderness, God told Moses the words the priests should speak to convey God’s blessing of the people. Naming the people as the people of God, these words continue today to convey blessing to God’s people in both the synagogue and the church.
—

Then God said to Moses, “Say to Aaron and to his sons: ‘You shall bless the community of Israel; say to them:
The Lord bless you and guard you.
The Lord smile brightly on you and act graciously to you.
The Lord turn toward you and set you at peace.’
So they will set my name on the community of Israel and I will bless them.”

The Psalm
Psalm 8
Humanity’s Unique Place within Creation

This hymn of praise recognizes God’s creation of heavens and earth and thanks God for the glorious position granted to humankind, which is given responsibility for all that is in the sky, earth, and sea. The reference to God’s putting an end to “the enemy and avenger” is obscure. The psalm may be referring to God’s conquest of primordial forces of chaos or of the great sea-monsters that are mentioned elsewhere in Scripture and in non-Israelite creation narratives.
—

1. To the conductor, on the gittith, a psalm of David.

1. Lord, our master, how glorious is your name throughout the earth,
        for you have placed your splendor upon the heavens—
2.      from the mouths of children and nursing infants.
   You established a refuge on account of your adversaries,
        to put an end to the enemy and avenger.
3. When I look at your heavens,
        the work of your fingers,
        the moon and stars that you set in place—
4. what are humans that you are mindful of them,
        mortals that you pay them any heed?
5. For you made them to lack only a little from divine beings,
        crowning them with honor and splendor.
6. You gave them control over your handiwork;
        you placed all things under their feet—
7.      all sheep and oxen,
        and also beasts of the field,
8.      birds of the heavens and fish of the sea,
        whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9. Lord, our master, how glorious is your name throughout the earth!

The Second Reading
Galatians 4:4-7
No Longer a Slave, but an Heir

In a small segment of a longer discussion, the apostle Paul reminds the Galatians that God has adopted them as children. Henceforth, obligations that previously characterized their slavery to sin no longer apply to them.
—

When the time had fully come, God dispatched the Son, born of a woman, born subject to law, in order to redeem those who are subject to law; so we gain adoption. Because you are now related as children, God has sent the spirit of the Son into our hearts, calling out, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but family; being family, you are also an heir through God.

or Philippians 2:5-11
Jesus Receives the Name above All Others

Paul’s Letter to the Philippians ties Jesus’ name as “Lord” to God’s exalting of him. Israel has long acclaimed “the Lord” as God, and now all of creation joins in this by glorifying God.
—

Have this thinking be among you, which was also in the Anointed Jesus, who, since he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to exploit. Instead, he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, by being in human likeness. And then, being found in human figure, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross. Therefore, God highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name that is greater than every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee would bow in heaven and upon the earth and under the earth, and every tongue would proclaim that Jesus the Anointed is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

The Gospel
Luke 2:15-21
The Shepherds’ Visit in Bethlehem

In Luke’s Gospel, prior to this reading, angels announce to shepherds that Jesus has been born. Luke now depicts the shepherds’ visit to Bethlehem to experience what they heard the angels announce. Luke underscores the truth of the announcement by using its exact words to describe what the shepherds found.
—

When the messengers went away from them to the heaven, the shepherds started to speak with one another: “Now let us go over to Bethlehem and see this announcement made real, which the Lord made known to us.” They hastened and located Mary and Joseph, and also the baby lying in the feed-trough. As they saw they made known the announcement spoken to them concerning this child. And all who heard marveled concerning what was spoken by the shepherds to them, but Mary safeguarded all these announcements together, turning them over in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they heard and saw—just as was spoken to them. When eight days were filled—the time to circumcise him—the child was given the name Jesus, which was given by the messenger before he was conceived in the womb.

Christmas celebrates the birth of a child as a fresh, distinctive moment marking God’s entry into human affairs. The prophet Samuel is recalled as a child who matured in service to God and to the people, Israel, offering a point of reference for Jesus’ development. The distinctiveness of the moment calls for a cosmic celebration, a call that the words of Psalm 148—an ancient song of festivity—voice. Jesus’ young life, which the Gospel reading depicts, is both distinctive and exemplary: for the author of the Epistle to the Colossians, Jesus’ wisdom, stature, and grace model how believers should conduct themselves in the future.

The First Reading
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26
Service, Blessing, and Growth

Samuel was a prophet destined for the court of Saul, Israel’s first king. Blessings from his mother and from God helped shape his early training. The Bible’s description of his development as a servant of the Lord offered the later gospel writer, Luke, a template for his picture of Jesus’ development.
—

Samuel was in service to the Lord, an apprentice outfitted with a linen ephod. His mother would make a little robe for him and bring it to him year by year, when she went up with her husband to make the annual sacrifice. Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife: “May the Lord grant you offspring with this woman in place of the one demanded by God’s requirement.” So they returned to their place…. And the apprentice, Samuel, continued to grow and do well both with God and with people.

The Psalm
Psalm 148
All Creation Must Praise God, Lord of All Creation

The entire range of God’s cosmic creation owes God praise. In the Christmas season, the church can celebrate Jesus as the “horn” God has raised up for the people, giving fresh impetus to their praise.
—

1. Praise Yah!
   Praise the Lord from the heavens;
        praise God in the heights.
2. Praise God, all God’s messengers;
        praise God, all divine armies.
3. Praise God, sun and moon;
        praise God, all bright stars.
4. Praise God, you highest heavens,
        and you waters that are above the heavens.
5. Let them praise the Lord’s name,
        for God commanded and they were created.
6. God established them for eternity;
        God set their boundaries, which no one can violate.
7. Praise God from the earth:
        the sea monsters and all the ocean depths,
8.      fire and hail, snow and storm clouds,
        the raging wind fulfilling God’s will;
9. the mountains and all the hills,
        fruit trees and all cedars;
10. wild animals and all beasts,
         creeping things and winged birds;
11. kings of the earth and all peoples,
         princes and all the land’s rulers.
12. Young men and also young women,
         the old along with the youth—
13. let them praise the Lord’s name,
         for God’s name alone is exalted.
    God’s majesty is upon the earth and heaven!
14. God has raised a horn for God’s people;
         praise for all these faithful,
         for the people of Israel, the people who are close to God.
         Praise Yah!

The Second Reading
Colossians 3:12-17
Forgiving as Christ Forgave Us

The Epistle to the Colossians stresses the feelings of affection that bind together those who share a common faith in Christ. Even though in this letter the author addresses those with whom he disagrees, as compared to earlier epistles, a greater sense of forbearance and compassion runs throughout.
—

As God’s chosen, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with empathy, mercy, goodness, humility, gentleness, patience. Go easy on one another and—when someone has a grievance against another—be gracious with each other. As the Lord has been gracious with you, you also ought to be gracious. Above all else, clothe yourselves with love, which is the unifying bond of mature perfection. The peace of the Anointed, into which you were called together into one body, should hold sway in your hearts: be grateful. Let the word of the Anointed dwell among you abundantly: teach and advise each other in all wisdom; sing psalms, festive songs, and spiritual praises with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And so, in whatever you do—in word or deed—do everything in the name of Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

The Gospel
Luke 2:41-52
Jesus in the Temple as a Youth

Using the prophet Samuel as a model, Luke’s Gospel presents Jesus as naturally belonging close to God. He prefers to linger in Jerusalem when his parents depart after participating in the festival of Passover, and enters into discussion with teachers in the Temple. At the same time, Luke emphasizes that Jesus spent most of his youth in Nazareth with his family.
—

His parents traveled annually to Jerusalem on the festival of Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up according to the festival custom and completed its days; when they returned, the child Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and his parents did not know. They reckoned he was elsewhere in the caravan, and traveled a day’s journey; they sought him out among the relatives and acquaintances. They did not find him and returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the holy place, sitting and listening in the midst of the teachers as well as interrogating them. All who heard him were beside themselves over his discernment and replies. His parents saw him and were overwhelmed and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you acted in this way with us? Look: Your father and I are worried sick looking for you!” He said to them, “Why was it that you sought me? Did you not know that it is necessary for me to be among those of my father?” And they did not understand the reply he gave them. And he went down with them and came into Nazareth, and he was respectful of them. His mother kept all the events together in her heart, and Jesus progressed in wisdom and stature and grace with God and with people.

Celebrations of Christmas, as a principal feast of the year, offer variations of readings for each service. Each of the three options, however, follows the same pattern. A reading from the Hebrew Bible looks forward to the consummation of God’s promises to the people, Israel. A psalm particularly focuses on the justice that is involved in the fulfillment of God’s will. The epistle, most often taken from the Letter of Paul to Titus, speaks of Jesus’ coming as a fulfillment of God’s promise, while the Gospel readings relate the significance to humanity of Jesus’ birth.

Nativity of the Lord – Proper I

The First Reading
Isaiah 9:2-7
A Birth Brings Joy and Promise

The prophet Isaiah uses the announcement of a royal birth to anticipate the sovereignty and prosperity that God will restore to Judah and Jerusalem one day. Although a time of discipline and trial lies ahead and the nation does not yet “abound,” nevertheless the prophet sees a day coming when this promise will mature just as a royal infant does. Thus there remains hope for the Kingdom of David, a hope the New Testament writers understood as fulfilled in Jesus.
—

2. This people—those walking in darkness—have seen a great light.
   Those dwelling in a land as dark as death—a light has shined on them.
3. Have you made the nation greater? No! You have increased the joy.
   They have rejoiced in your presence as with rejoicing at the harvest,
   or as they would celebrate in dividing up spoils of war.
4. For their burdensome yoke and the bar on their shoulder,
   the rod of their oppressor, you have shattered—like the Day of Midian!
5. Indeed, every boot tramping in pandemonium and cloak drenched in blood
   will become a conflagration, fuel for a fire.
6. For a child has been born for us, a son has been given to us,
   and power will fall on his shoulder.
   They will call his name Wondrous Guide, Almighty Hero, Enduring Father, Prince of Peace.
7. For the abundance of his power, and for peace, there will be no end—
   on David’s throne and over his government,
   to confirm it and to sustain it
   with justice and with right, from now until forever.
   The fervor of the Lord of heavenly divisions will do this.

The Psalm
Psalm 96
A Call to Worship the Lord

God’s power and justice awaken a response in the form of prayerful praise. The idea emerges in each of Psalm 96’s two sections—first with a call to sing God’s praises (verses 1-6) and then with the command that all peoples and all the earth recognize God’s greatness (verses 7-14).
—

1. Sing to the Lord a new song!
   Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
2. Sing to the Lord; praise God’s name!
   Announce God’s deliverance day by day!
3. Recount God’s glory among the peoples;
   among all the nations, God’s wondrous acts.
4. For the Lord is great and highly praised;
   God is majestic above all the gods.
5. For all the gods of the nations are weak,
   while the Lord created the skies.
6. Splendor and grandeur go before God.
   Strength and beauty are in God’s sanctuary.
7. Credit to the Lord, families of nations;
   credit to the Lord glory and strength.
8. Credit to the Lord the glory of God’s name;
   bring an offering and enter God’s courts.
9. Bow down to the Lord in holy adornment.
   Let all the land tremble before God.
10. Pronounce among the nations: God reigns!
    Indeed, God established the world; it will not teeter.
    God will judge the peoples equitably.
11. Let the skies rejoice and the earth delight.
    Let the sea and all it contains thunder.
12. Let the fields be jubilant, and all that is in them.
    At that time, let every tree of the forest cry out in joy—
13. before the Lord, for God is coming.
    For God is coming to judge the earth.
14. God will judge the world in righteousness,
    and the nations faithfully.

The Second Reading
Titus 2:11-14
Ethical Exhortations while Awaiting the Arrival of Jesus

In this epistle, Paul encourages Titus to maintain an ethically upright life reflective of the grace that he received as he eagerly awaits the arrival of Jesus, God’s Anointed, in the age to come.
—

For the saving grace of God has appeared for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly desires, so that we should live sensibly, rightly, and godly in this present age, as we await the blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus the Anointed, who gave himself for us in order to ransom us from all lawlessness and cleanse for himself a people of his own, who are passionately committed to good deeds.

The Gospel
Luke 2:1-14, [15-20]
The Birth of Jesus

Among the Gospels, Luke’s Gospel alone relates Jesus’ birth to Roman history through reference to a census that was taken at the time. The triumphant message of angels to shepherds, however, sidelines the power of Rome, insisting that Jesus, born from the line of David, is to be savior of all. Mary, Jesus’ mother, who first appears in the reading in a position secondary to Joseph, emerges at the close of the reading as the person who best understood events.
—

At that same time an ordinance went out from Augustus Caesar for the inhabited world to be registered. This first registry happened while Quirinius governed Syria. All proceeded to be registered, each to one’s own town. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea into David’s town, which is called Bethlehem, since he was of David’s house and paternity, to be registered with Mary, who was contracted in marriage to him, being heavily pregnant. While they were still there, the days were filled for her to bear, and she bore her first-born son, and swathed him, and laid him in a feed-trough, because there was no place for them in the lodging. In the same region, shepherds camped and kept watch at night over their flock. And a messenger of the Lord stood over them, the Lord’s glory shined around them, and they were afraid—with great fear. And the messenger said to them, “Do not fear, because, look: I proclaim to you great joy such as will be for all people, because a savior has been born for you today, who is Lord Anointed, in David’s city. And here is a sign for you—you will find a baby swathed and lying in a feed-trough.” And suddenly there was with the messenger a multitude of heaven’s army, praising God and saying, “Glory is with God in greatest heights, and peace on earth among those God favors.” 

[When the messengers went away from them to the heaven, the shepherds started to speak with one another: “Now let us go over to Bethlehem and see this announcement made real, which the Lord made known to us.” They hastened and located Mary and Joseph, and also the baby lying in the feed-trough. As they saw they made known the announcement spoken to them concerning this child. And all who heard marveled concerning what was spoken by the shepherds to them, but Mary safeguarded all these announcements together, turning them over in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they heard and saw—just as was spoken to them.]

Nativity of the Lord – Proper II

The First Reading
Isaiah 62:6-12
Zion Hears Her Rescue Announced

Jerusalem and the surrounding nations hear the prophet Isaiah announce that God is taking action to restore the city after the long Babylonian Exile. A dramatic picture and a resounding report use images from war, agriculture, construction, and national rescue to convey the excitement of the promise fulfilled: God has not abandoned you.
—

6. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have stationed guards;
   neither by day nor by night will they ever grow idle.
   O heralds of God, do not fall silent,
7.      nor let God fall silent until God has laid a foundation,
   setting up Jerusalem for praise throughout the land.
8. The Lord has sworn by right hand and strong arm:
   I will no longer give your grain as food for your enemies;
   foreigners will not drink your wine for which you have worn yourselves out.
9. Rather, those who gather it shall eat it and praise the Lord,
   and its harvesters shall drink it in my holy domains.
10. Pass on, pass on through the gates; prepare the people’s way.
    Build up, build up the road; clear it of rocks.
    Raise a signal toward the nations.
11. “Here is the Lord!”—announce it to the end of the land;
    say to Zion’s children, “Here, your rescue is coming—
    see, together with reward and God’s benefits in the lead.”
12. Thus people will call them: “The People of the Holy One, Those Redeemed by the Lord”;
    you will be called: “Recovered, A City Not Abandoned.”

The Psalm
Psalm 97
God’s Justice Is Evidenced on Earth

In this reading, God’s justice and power appear in a perfected world in which idolatry comes to an end, as all nations recognize the Lord’s singular might and glory.
—

1. The Lord is king:
   Let the earth rejoice!
   Let the many coastlands be glad!
2. Clouds and storm clouds surround God;
   righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s Throne.
3. Fire goes before God,
   scorching God’s adversaries all around.
4. God’s lightning illumined the world;
   the earth saw and quaked.
5. Before the Lord, mountains melted like wax,
   before the Master of all the earth.
6. The heavens proclaimed God’s righteousness,
   and all the peoples witnessed God’s glory.
7. All who worship idols will be humiliated,
   those who boast of the gods.
   Bow down to the Lord, all you gods!
8. Zion heard and was glad;
   the daughters of Judah rejoiced,
   because of your just acts, Lord!
9. For you, Lord, are Most High over all the earth,
   highly exalted over all the gods.
10. Hate evil, all who love the Lord!
    God protects the lives of the pious.
    God rescues them from the hand of evil-doers.
11. Light is sown for the righteous,
    and joy for the upright in heart.
12. Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous ones,
    giving thanks to God’s holy name.

The Second Reading
Titus 3:4-7
God’s Kindness and Generous Love through Jesus the Anointed

This confessional creed serves as a reminder of God’s grace. God’s benevolent love is experienced through baptism and renewal through God’s Spirit, which is poured out by the Anointed Jesus.
—

When the kindness and the benevolence of God our savior appeared, God saved us not because of the deeds which we did ourselves in righteousness, but rather according to divine mercy. God saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal from holy Spirit, which was poured out abundantly upon us through Jesus the Anointed our Savior, so that being justified by God’s grace we might become heirs with respect to the hope of eternal life.

The Gospel
Luke 2:[1-7], 8-20
The Birth of Jesus

Among the Gospels, Luke’s Gospel alone relates Jesus’ birth to Roman history through reference to a census that was taken at the time. The triumphant message of angels to shepherds, however, sidelines the power of Rome, insisting that Jesus, born from the line of David, is to be savior of all. Mary, Jesus’ mother, who first appears in the reading in a position secondary to Joseph, emerges at the close of the reading as the person who best understood events.
—

[At that same time an ordinance went out from Augustus Caesar for the inhabited world to be registered. This first registry happened while Quirinius governed Syria. All proceeded to be registered, each to one’s own town. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea into David’s town, which is called Bethlehem, since he was of David’s house and paternity, to be registered with Mary, who was contracted in marriage to him, being heavily pregnant. While they were still there, the days were filled for her to bear, and she bore her first-born son, and swathed him, and laid him in a feed-trough, because there was no place for them in the lodging.]

In the same region, shepherds camped and kept watch at night over their flock. And a messenger of the Lord stood over them, the Lord’s glory shined around them, and they were afraid—with great fear. And the messenger said to them, “Do not fear, because, look: I proclaim to you great joy such as will be for all people, because a savior has been born for you today, who is Lord Anointed, in David’s city. And here is a sign for you—you will find a baby swathed and lying in a feed-trough.” And suddenly there was with the messenger a multitude of heaven’s army, praising God and saying, “Glory is with God in great
est heights, and peace on earth among those God favors.” When the messengers went away from them to the heaven, the shepherds started to speak with one another: “Now let us go over to Bethlehem and see this announcement made real, which the Lord made known to us.” They hastened and located Mary and Joseph, and also the baby lying in the feed-trough. As they saw they made known the announcement spoken to them concerning this child. And all who heard marveled concerning what was spoken by the shepherds to them, but Mary safeguarded all these announcements together, turning them over in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they heard and saw—just as was spoken to
them.

Nativity of the Lord – Proper III

The First Reading
Isaiah 52:7-10
Your God is King!

Rescue does not just happen; salvation is not by chance. The prophet Isaiah heralds the moment of rescue and salvation with vivid images of the besieged Jerusalem’s being set free. As word of the victory reaches those who wait for it, the cry goes up that God has acted, that the proper ruler has regained the capital for the kingdom. 
—

7. How delightful on the mountains are the feet of a messenger
   reporting peace, announcing good things, declaring rescue,
   saying to Zion, “Your God is king!”
8. The voice of your lookouts: they raise a shout, together they cry out
   as, one by one, their eyes gaze on the Lord’s return to Zion.
9. They erupt! They shout out together! “O ruins of Jerusalem—
   the Lord has indeed had mercy on God’s people, has redeemed Jerusalem.
10. The Lord has bared the holy arm for all nations to see,
    and the farthest reaches of the land have witnessed the rescue by our God.”

The Psalm
Psalm 98
Let the Entire Earth Celebrate God’s Victory

Psalm 98 is a hymn of praise for the victory instigated by God in days of old. It corresponds to and sheds new light
on the divine victory God has wrought in connection with Christ.
—

1. A psalm.

1. Sing to the Lord a new song,
   for God has performed extraordinary acts;
   God’s right hand brought God victory,
   along with God’s holy arm.
2. The Lord has made that victory known;
   in the sight of the nations, God revealed God’s righteousness.
3. God recalled God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to the House of Israel;
   all the ends of the earth saw our God’s victory.
4. Let all the earth raise a shout to the Lord;
   let them burst forth in a joyous shout, give a ringing cry, and sing in praise.
5. Let them sing praise to the Lord with the lyre,
   with the lyre and sound of melody.
6. With trumpets and the sound of the shofar,
   let them raise a shout before the Lord, the King.
7. Let the sea roar, and all that it contains,
   the earth, and those that dwell on it.
8. Let the rivers clap hands;
   together let the mountains give out a ringing cry
9. before the Lord,
   for God is coming to judge the land.
   God will judge the earth with righteousness
   and the peoples with an even hand.

The Second Reading
Hebrews 1:1-4, [5-12]
God’s Son, Greater than the Angels

The Epistle to the Hebrews presents a concentrated consideration of Jesus in relation to God, beginning with a strong, startling assertion of Jesus’ superiority to angels. For the unknown author of Hebrews, only Israel’s Scriptures could undergird such an assertion. The author in this passage, therefore, uses direct quotations from the book of Psalms, building on the Psalms’ imagery of Israel’s royal rulers, in order to express Jesus’ character as the Son of God. The reason for the emphatic contrast of Jesus with the angels is to insist that the Son directly speaks on God’s behalf, while prophetic inspiration derives from intermediary angels.
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During ancient times, God spoke to the ancestors in many different ways by means of the prophets. In these last days God has spoken to us by means of a Son, whom God made inheritor of all things and through whom God structured time and space:

•      Being the brightness of the glory and the character of God’s nature,
•      upholding every thing by the command of his power,
•      and having made purification for sins,
•      the Son sat at the right of the majesty in the heights.
•      He became as much greater than the angels
•      as the name he inherited exceeds theirs.

[To which of the angels has God ever said, “You are my son; I have begotten you today”? And again, “I shall be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me”?

Moreover, when God brought the first-born into the world, Scripture says, “All God’s angels shall worship him.” And while it says of the angels, “God makes the angels spirits, and the attendants flames of fire,” it says of the Son:

•      Your divine throne endures age after age, and the power of your kingdom is ethical.
•      You love righteousness and hate wrong-doing,
•      so that God, your God, anointed you,
•      with oil of gladness exceeding your companions.

And:

•      Lord, you founded the earth at creation;
•      the heavens are the works of your hands.
•      They shall pass away, but you remain;
•      everything will wear out as a garment;
•      like a cloak you will roll up the heavens and the earth,
•      and as a garment they will be changed,
•      but you: ever the same, and your years will never end.]

The Gospel
John 1:1-14
The Word Become Flesh

The opening of John’s Gospel introduces a theme that became dominant in Christian theology: the understanding that the world encounters the force of its creator in the person of Jesus. For that reason, the Gospel begins with a description of how God shaped the world, stressing that God did so by means of “the word,” a term that in Greek (logos) refers to the meaning and purpose of a speaker’s words. “The word” refers not only to the specific terms a speaker uses but also to the speaker’s choice of language. Here, however, the speaker is God, so that the spoken word brings reality itself into existence. That reality encompasses the making of humanity, and also the redemption that can make people children of God.
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At creation: The word, so close to God that it was God. At creation, close to God, everything existed through the word. Apart from it not one thing existed which has ever existed. Life was by the word, and life was the light of humanity. The light shines in the darkness, and darkness does not grasp it.

There was a person sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness, so he could testify concerning the light, so that all would believe through him. He was not the light, but came so he could testify concerning the light.

The light was true, which enlightens every person coming into the world. It was in the world, but, although the world existed through it, the world did not recognize him. He came into what was his own, and his own did not accept him. Whoever did accept him—to them he gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were begotten not from bloodlines, nor from the will of flesh, nor from the will of a man, but from God.

The word became flesh and resided among us; we saw his glory, glory as of an only child close to a father, full of grace and truth.