As Ephesians explains our faith: “In Christ we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to
the riches of God’s grace lavished on us.” We are to know the great blessings
of the incarnation.
Yet we are called to answer questions asked by this world:
Who is Jesus? Really. A memory? A miracle? A metaphor? Is his role in our lives
defined by history or philosophy, art or another kind of experienced feeling?
This Sunday gives us Christ in images of light. We are
preparing for Epiphany. And somehow the light is described by the bringing
together of exiles. Is Christ about mercy toward the stranger? Could this be a
word from God specifically for our time?
John 1:1-18
Eugene Peterson in his The Message translation renders John
1:10 this way: “He was in the world, and the world was there through him, and
yet the world didn't even notice.” And yet the world didn't even notice. It's
an odd note to sound in the wake of a month-long celebration of the birth of
Christ, but the reality is the world has noticed Christmas, while there is
serious doubt as to whether it has noticed Christ.
Of course, that's what the church's
witness has been about, ever since the day John the Baptist came out of the
wilderness, especially since the day he pointed to Jesus as the Christ: “This
was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was
before me'” (v 15). Not many people got it then, and not many people get it
now.
The problem is, because it is so
difficult to get people to see Jesus as the Christ of the scriptures, we in the
church are tempted to make it easier for them by presenting a more visible and
palatable savior. This is not a fault simply of liberals or conservatives,
liturgicals or evangelicals, mainliners or megachurches; we are all guilty. We
all try to present Christ in a way that is attractive to our niche of the
culture. Though somewhat necessary, we must be careful not to bend Jesus out of
shape, not to turn the Gospel into something it isn't. This text is a reminder
to us of the unlikeliness of the story of Jesus and of our call to tell it as
it is, trusting God to use our telling to open eyes and change lives.
Let us endeavor only to be faithful to the vision set
before us. Nothing that outstrips Jesus of the hard edges of his witness will
feed us in the end. We must listen to John who tells us that believing in the
Word is life, even though the words about the Word can be misconstrued.
Jeremiah 31:7-14
How are people of faith to find our way in this world guided
by the Word?
Consistent with the deepest values
of the covenant, God will include those in the community who are most
vulnerable (the blind, the lame, and those in labor). God guides the people
through the desert by brooks of water and along straight paths on which they
will not stumble. To a people in a semiarid land, the reference to brooks
signifies that God provides all that they need even in the face of threat. God
becomes a parent to Israel. The community is no longer orphaned (as in the
exile) but is a part of God's family: they have a place and a protector.
. . . . The people will be radiant
in the presence of overflowing produce, “life shall become like a watered
garden” (a new Eden), young women and young men will be dancing and exchanging
mourning for gladness, and “satisfied with [God's] bounty.”
Ephesians 1:3-14
Today's reading is a berakah, a
traditional Jewish form of prayer that blesses God. . . . God is acting through
Christ to adopt the Ephesians into God's family in the coming new world (the
realm of God). Indeed, God had planned this adoption from the beginning of
history and is now bringing it about. . . . God has given the Ephesians the
Holy Spirit as a seal of the divine promise.
We await the redemption of this world, freedom for those who
suffer under tyrants, peace for those whose villages are assaulted by the
ruthless, food enough and shelter for those who wander without a home. But we know,
as well, that where the Word resides, compassion has found its home for the
infinitude of the Alpha and Omega has come to dwell with us in our finitude.
Alleluia!
Contributing to this
commentary:
Ronald J. Allen, professor of preaching and New Testament at
Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana. Delmer L. Chilton, assistant to the
bishop of the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA in Atlanta. Aaron J. Couch, co-pastor of First Immanuel Lutheran Church, Portland,
Oregon. Virginia S. Wendel, Health
Care Coodinator for the Cenacle Sisters, Chicago, Illinois.
Homily Service 43, no. 1 (2009): 74-81.
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