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Luke 2:15-20 - Lectionary for Christmas Dawn

12/21/2020

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12/21/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.


"Let's go see what's happening over there." Our Gospel reading from Luke 2:15-20 has all the makings of a great road trip story. The shepherds, probably not very far from Bethlehem, received an angelic message. They don't quite know what to make of it. After all, it isn't just every night that angels appear to you telling you about a Messiah. In fact, it isn't just every night that angels appear to you period.

What would you do if you heard the greatest event in all history was happening, and you were not that far from it? Would you quickly appoint somebody to cover you at work and then head over there? You'd want to know what was going on. You'd want to see it.

What did they find? A young couple and a baby. Verses 17-19 speak volumes. After they met Jesus, they told people about what the angels had said, and, we assume, what they had seen in the manger. People "wondered at what the shepherds had told them." No doubt, some of them wondered what the shepherds were thinking or how they came by such a strange idea, but others were in amazement at what God had done. Mary also kept this in her heart. She heard the message and she understood it, more and more, as time went on.

As we celebrate Christmas, may we also reflect on these amazing facts. God can be incarnate, in a perfectly human child. God can reveal his plan through the Scripture and through special signs. And he can accomplish his will. His will is for the good of all humanity, that we may be redeemed from sin and adopted as God's children, heirs of heaven, through Jesus.

That's quite a baby they found lying in the manger. God with us.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Titus 3:4-7 - Lectionary for Christmas Dawn

12/20/2020

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12/20/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Christianity is sometimes called "a wet faith." It is full of the idea of washing. In our reading of Titus 3:4-7 we have a clear statement that the regeneration brought by Jesus is a washing away of sin. 

Many Christians, especially in the United States, are uncomfortable with the idea of baptism being an effective washing. We like to think of it as our work, a work of testimony, a confession that we have believed Jesus is the savior. In contrast, passages like this one in Titus 3 confess that baptism is the work of God. In Christ, not because of our works, our goodness, our love for God, but because of his love for us, we receive his washing. He is the one who does the cleansing.

Does this passage say specifically that Jesus washes us from sin in baptism? Not precisely. But its use of the image of washing in conjunction with the idea of regeneration has always suggested to Christians that the water of baptism is to be seen as effective. Not our work, but God's work in us.

Through Jesus, furthermore, we become heirs of a great inheritance, the hope of eternal life. This hope is not a vague possibility or a suggestion that if we live well enough for Jesus we might make it to eternal life. It is a confidence that he will be able to deliver the inheritance to us.

In this Christian faith, then, we are washed by God and presented before him, in purity, all by God's mercy in Christ. Our job is to await the final fulfillment of the promised inheritance.

As we remember these great promises of God, particularly in the season of Christmas, we realize that Jesus has come, God with us, to rescue us from sin and death. This is something we could never do. It is something we would never do even if we could. At the heart and center of it all, Jesus is the one who washes us and gives us what we need for life, in this world and into eternity.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Psalm 80:1-7 - Lectionary for Christmas Dawn

12/19/2020

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12/19/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Our Psalm for Christmas Dawn speaks to the sorrow which is common to all of us at times. Especially in Psalm 80:4-7 we are invited to join in the lament. We have prayed and God doesn't seem to be answering. We have bread of tears and we drink tears also. Why is it that things seem so bad so frequently?

The Psalmist doesn't answer that question. We could certainly make a theological statement about the fallen condition of the world or we could observe that the presence of some good in the world speaks of God's mercy. That would be fine, but the Psalm doesn't go there. 

I'm not going there either. What response does the Psalmist have? What is the response of the Christian?

We pray that the Lord would come. We pray that he would restore us, that his face would shine on us. 

God's people are going to be mocked, scorned, characterized as fools or power hungry bigots. You name it, the accusations are out there. Sometimes the accusations are even accurate, at least about individuals and even significant groups. We are an object of contention and derision. 

Again, we could fight back. On some levels we should, especially by giving the many good reasons to trust in Christ. Much of my career has been spent demonstrating that there is no incompatibility between Christian beliefs and serious academic inquiry. 

Is that convincing? To some, it is. But above all else, the facts of the Incarnation, life and work of Jesus, and his death, burial, and resurrection are what convinces.

In the time of Christmas, then, and at all other times, we proclaim the fact that God has come to reconcile the world to himself. With the Psalmist, then, we pray he would come to us.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Micah 5:2-5a - Lectionary for Christmas Dawn

12/18/2020

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12/18/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Some things don't make much sense until we can see them in retrospect. That is the case with our prophetic reading from Micah 5:2-5. It is cryptic until we consider it in light of the birth of Christ.

Bethlehem, the place which is out of the way and easily forgotten, that's where the ruler of Israel comes from. Yes, we know that refers to David the King, but it is greater than him. The origin of this ruler is "from of old." There are prophecies from the very beginning of the human period, referring to someone who will come to destroy sin. But he waits until the appointed time.

At that appointed time, there's a birth, there's a return of the brothers to Israel, and the ruler stands and acts as a shepherd, but one who rules in majesty. Like a shepherd keeps his sheep safe, this ruler keeps his people  in peace, all over the world.

David never did this. His brothers weren't part of his reign. He sometimes kept his nation safe, but at other times it was characterized by war and dissent. And he certainly didn't rule all over the world.

Jesus, on the other hand, draws all nations to himself, restoring Israel itself. He will bring a reign of peace, eternal peace, in the last day. And his reign knows no boundaries.

This is Christ, who is born to save us, come to deliver us, prophesied of old, reigning now from his seat at the right hand of the Father in majesty. When we look to Christ as a baby on Christmas, we also look at the eternal king of Israel. From a humble place, apparently nothing but a child, but the ruler and shepherd of all.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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