Greetings on the first Sunday after Christmas after a long Christmas week between Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and our service of Lessons and Carols on the first Sunday after Christmas. It was a busy time but rewarding, and the links to earlier sermons are at the bottom of this note.
Our invitation to worship asks us to delight in hearing the story of Christmas with the background of Scripture from the Fall to Jesus’ birth and offer prayers for all. Our first lesson from Genesis is the story of Adam and Eve’s fall and expulsion from the Garden. Our second lesson from the prophet Isaiah is the comforting reminder that we know what God wants from us in our relationship. The third reading from Hebrews recounts and explains the complex nature of Jesus as God incarnate and human. Our fourth reading from the gospel of John is the prologue with the ethereal and difficult to understand description of Jesus as the Word of God and savior of the world.
This Sunday’s readings celebrate the unknowable nature of Jesus and the necessity of Jesus for our salvation. We are reminded of the arc of our life, beginning with our place in the Garden of Eden and our dismissal from the Garden because of our self-centered decisions. Yet, as Isaiah and the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews remind us, we do know the essence of God’s desires for us in our lives and our involvement with God and our Community. The continued connection between us and God is anchored on the birth of Jesus – in Jesus’ birth God binds creation to heaven and heaven to creation. Our life and ongoing growth in our knowledge of God is mediated in Christ and community.
How are you encouraged to remember you know enough about God and God’s desire for all humanity so you can move forward in hope and grace? I invite your comments,
Les+
Lessons: Genesis 3:1-23; Isaiah 40:1-11; Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:1-18.
First Sunday after Christmas sermon: https://audiomack.com/fatherles-2/song/christmas-1-sermon
Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols sermon: https://audiomack.com/fatherles-2/song/christmas-eve-lessons-carols-sermon
Lessons: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20
Christmas Eve Mass sermon: https://audiomack.com/fatherles-2/song/christmas-eve-mass-sermon
Lessons: Isaiah 62:6-12; Psalm 97; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:1-20
Christmas Day sermon: https://audiomack.com/fatherles-2/song/christmas-day-sermon-1
