I. Theme
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
The First Sunday after Christmas, also known as the Feast of the Holy Family, celebrates the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The lectionary readings for this day are:
Isaiah 61:10-62:3: This passage is often used as a prophecy of the coming Messiah, who will bring joy and salvation to the world.
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7: This passage emphasizes the importance of faith in Christ and the freedom that comes with it.
John 1:1-18: This passage is the prologue to the Gospel of John, which describes the Word of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us.
Psalm 147 or 147:13-21: This psalm praises God for his goodness and mercy, and calls on all creation to praise him.
These readings together highlight the themes of joy, salvation, faith, and the love of God. They invite us to reflect on the meaning of Christmas and to live out our faith in our daily lives.
II. Summary
Old Testament
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
This passage begins with a verse of personal praise for promises now fulfilled for the writer, which have seen God bring about a change in their life. The change is likened to someone being invested into a new office or getting married, symbolised by the clothing put on in those circumstances. The fulfilment and hope of God’s promises are then broadened out beyond the individual, to be visible springing up before all the nations (61:11).
Chapter 62:1 offers one verse in the voice of God. While it can feel that God is silent and inactive in troubled times (including the exile, which is the probable context for this passage), God promises restoration and glorification of Jerusalem. In the wider culture that would also be seen as a sign of God’s presence with God’s people. In verses 2 and 3 the prophet then expands on God’s word. Again the change of situation will be visible before the nations and their leaders – now visible as light, glory and crowns. The change for the people will also be signified by a change of name, as is so often the case in Old and New Testament stories.
The passage (in NRSV) uses religious terminology such as righteousness, salvation, vindication. It is helpful to remember that such language is strange for most people, particularly over the Christmas season when there may be a broader range of people engaging with the church.
The imagery may be more useful, particularly in online/visual presentations. The change in someone’s situation is described as being re-clothed, or as getting dressed up to be married. Hope is pictured as springing up as shoots do in a garden. The transformation of Jerusalem is visible, like dawn, a burning torch or a crown. In midwinter the light and green shoots imagery may strike a particular chord (although being re-clothed in a good warm coat might do too). At a season normally filled with parties, nativity plays and pantomimes, where expectations are expressed in dressing up, clothing and crowns may also be expressive of hope for new beginnings. There may also be interesting contrasts to draw between the grand imagery of wedding outfits, robes and crowns, and a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and laid in a manger – transformation and hope may come looking very different
Psalm 147
This psalm of praise is mostly a series of commands to everyone and everything that is not God – to praise their Creator. The list includes celestial bodies, waters, mountains and weather systems (v8 “fire and hail” probably refers to “lightning and hail”); as well as ‘beings’ – wild, domesticated and human. All people are invited and commanded to join the praise, irrespective of status, age or gender.
Verses 5 and 6 explain why – because God created and sustains all things. Verses 13 and 14 offer another reason for the praise of God alone – God is beyond earth and heaven, and is acting for God’s people. The raising up of a horn may be a general symbol of strength, power or victory, but also has a parallel in Zechariah’s song of praise in Luke 1:69, where it refers to a Saviour.
This psalm is shaped around a sense of order in creation. While we might not describe that order in the same terms as here, Genesis 1 or Job 38, scientific understanding of the universe is based on an assumption of order that allows theories and laws to be derived from observation. Such laws of nature may be the best interpretation of verse 6, as the bounds of the waters, and in verse 8 the winds obeying God’s command. These recognise an overall boundedness of creation, without assuming God’s direct control of winds, seas and nature, which would raise huge questions about God’s care in natural disasters (e.g. the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004).
The order of creation also poses challenges to humanity, as our behaviour increasingly damages ecosystems and all of the Earth’s resources. At the turn of a year it may be a good time to consider changes we could make to care for the rest of God’s creation. 2021 brings Glasgow’s hosting of the COP26 conference on climate change, and massive changes are urgently needed at policy level as well as in lifestyle choices as we play our part in maintaining the wonder of God’s diverse creation.
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
Paul describes the birth of Jesus as coming at “the fullness of time.” This recognises a crucial event that brings a change of era. It then brings a change of status for people; from enslavement to being heirs, a change shown by the presence of the Spirit in human lives (with parallels in Isaiah 61:10).
There is a great breadth of those for whom Jesus came. The translation is of those born under the law (not the ‘Law’) – the Greek text apparently doesn’t imply the Jewish Law but general human life and laws. That fits with Paul’s calling to bring the good news to Gentiles, and with much of the content of the letter to the Galatians.
In this passage, we receive from God. We are redeemed, we receive adoption as children, we receive the Spirit of God’s Son into our hearts. The only person with any agency in this text is the woman who bears God’s Son, otherwise the activity is all by God. God sent God’s Son, God redeemed humanity, God sent God’s Spirit, God made us God’s children and heirs. God acts for us.
That might emphasise power and control over us, but we are also reminded that the Spirit comes into our hearts crying “Abba! Father!” The Aramaic “Abba” is probably preserved because that is what Jesus called His heavenly Father in prayer (e.g., in Gethsemane, Mark 14:36). That reminds us that we turn to God as beloved children, enabled to cry out in that close and loving relationship.
It could be interesting to explore crying out to God: “Abba! Father!” at a time when we remember Jesus as a baby. Babies cry, so Jesus would have cried (despite what “Away in a manger” says!), and as a small child would have cried out to His dad Joseph. There are basic needs that God knows from the perspective of human vulnerability and helplessness.
John 1:1-18
John’s Prologue represents the core truths of the Gospel . John writes his prologue to show that God has had a purpose from the beginning. Before there was anything, there was God. John 1:1 affirms that there was also the Word.
It expresses the major christological beliefs of Christianity: the Word (Jesus) preexisted creation with God; creation was through the Word; Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God, the Word become flesh; he shares in the divinity of God, yet he has taken on the human condition to¬tally; Jesus is the unique, once-and-for-all revelation of God in the human story; the perfection of God’s earlier gift of the Law to Moses takes place in and through Jesus Christ
It can be divided into the major sections:
1. Preexistence 1-2
2. Creation 3-5
3. Story of human condition until the high point of the incarnation 6-14
4. Reception of the incarnate 15-18
Major doctrines or truths regarding Jesus stated in John 1:1-18:
1. Jesus is eternal and uncreated, existing before the world began (1:1-3).
This implication of Jesus’ preexistence contrasts sharply with the synoptic gospels, in which Jesus is born of a virgin or his birth is not mentioned at all; indeed, the Fourth Gospel is known for its highly developed Christology. John seemingly rewrites Genesis 1:1
John’s vision also clarifies the birth stories of the child Jesus found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, helping us see that these are accounts of Jesus’s fleshly incarnation as an aspect of the Christ but do not in any way tell of the begin¬ning of the Christ.
The Word was “with God” in that Jesus was present in the beginning with the Father . Hence, He is a separate individual living Being from the Father. But also He “was God” in that He Himself possessed Deity.
2. Jesus possesses Deity (absolute authority and rulership over created things — 1:1).
3. Jesus is a separate Being from the Father (1:1,2,18).
4. Jesus is the Creator – the active force through Whom all things were made (1:3,10).
5. Jesus is the source of truth and understanding of God’s will (1:4,5,14,17,18).
6. Jesus is the source of life by which men have a relationship with God and hope of eternal life (1:4).
7. Jesus became incarnate in the flesh as a man (1:14,9,10)
8. Jesus was rejected by men (1:10,11).
9. Jesus is the One who can give people power to become children of God (1:12).