The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation during Christmas
The Feast of the Holy Family seems to want to present us with a picture of an idyllic family that has probably never existed in the history of mankind. The fact is, relationships can be messy, all the more so when they are in the context of closely lived proximity. Some people hold up the Holy Family as an ideal fir which we strive. But what exactly are we striving for? What lessons are there beyond the surface?
Some will want to say that we strive for a society in which every home has a father, a mother, and children. They might go so far as to say that establishing such a society would alleviate all the harshest problems of the world.
I would challenge us to scratch below the surface, to dig even deeper into what these readings offer us. Look beyond the familiar images of mother, father, and child. What lessons await the single parent? The widower? The couple with no children? A same-sex couple raising children? A single person with no desire for marriage or children or religious life? Even broader, what wisdom is there for manager/employee relationships? Student/teacher? Friends? Rather than enshrining some ideal that exists only in a carefully cultivated polaroid image, let’s dig deeper and see what these readings have to say about all the relationships in our lives.
A note on the lectionary readings
For this feast we always have the Sirach and Colossians readings, although other Old and New Testament passages can be substituted. In Year A, the gospel reading is from Matthew where Joseph has a dream that warns him to escape to Egypt. In Year B we read the presentation at the template, and Year C is the story of Mary and Joseph “losing” Jesus at the Temple at Passover. Below you will find commentary on all the passages for all the years.
Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
The world of Sirach is a black-and-white landscape. It is a simple life based on a patriarchal family structure. The challenge in this reading – in all these readings – is to ask how do we interpret the underlying wisdom for a new age?
Verses 1-16 are a grouping we could entitle “responsibilities and honor due to one’s parents.” It’s a reflection and commentary on the commandment to honor one’s father and mother. We might extend our thinking a bit here. Parents raise us but there are all sorts of wise elders who dip into our lives to teach us and set us firmly on the right path. Think about the people along the way who have helped “raise you” regardless of your age.
Sirach utilizes a technique called “parallelism.” This is most often found in poetry, and Sirach does have a certain poetical ring to it. In parallelism, a statement is made followed by another statement which can enlarge the first one, or comment on it, or negate it. The parallels in this passage frequently make a statement about a father and then extend that statement to a mother.
You might wonder why v12-14 address only the father. Are we not to care for our mothers in the same way? In that culture, there would have been traditions and expectations already in place to care for an elderly mother. Expectations were not as clear on fathers. So the author is making sure that fathers get the same kind of care mothers do.
Think about this passage in light of your current living situation. How can you extend the wisdom to meet your unique circumstances?
This passage lists some of the blessings that come from honoring and respecting one’s parents. What blessings have come into your life from giving honor and respect to the people in your life, whether they be parents or not, younger or older?
Colossians 3:12-21
An alternative for this reading is to end with verse 17 and bypass the “troublesome” verses 18-21.
Verses 11-17 are an exhortation to virtue while 3:18-4:1 is a “household code.” The latter is a general type of instruction popular in Greek culture. The author has most likely adapted an existing list to fit into a Christian perspective. Three pairs of people are addressed: wives & husbands, children & parents, slaves & masters. The subordinate member of each pair is called to “be subject to” the dominant member, while the dominant member is charged with responsibility and care for the subordinate.
The chapter begins with a reference to baptism (“since, then, you have been raised with Christ”) and then continues that imagery with a putting off (put to death) and putting on. This would have brought to mind the physical act of a catechumen stripping naked to enter the baptismal pool.
In ancient societies, people often relied on the manner of dress to indicate station and status. The author is using this convention to say that Christians should be readily and easily identified by their manner of living. It’s not saying that the way we live is surface, as though we throw on a jacket of love and discard it when we don’t need it.
All the virtues listed are relational. Compassion requires an object of compassion, as does kindness. The passage highlights not patriarchal privilege but rather responsibility of care and concern in all relationships at all levels by all people.
Some passages do not at first glance seem to lend themselves to imaginative prayer but try it with this one. What items of clothing do you need to take off – habits or internal narratives or assumptions or ways of viewing the world? Now imagine yourself getting dressed in the qualities listed in the passage. What does that look and feel like for you? How do you wear them?
Pick one virtue or approach to relationships to focus on this week. Think of some very obvious ways to practice it and then try to think of some less obvious ways.
Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 Year A
Commentary on this passage not yet available.
Luke 2:22-40 Year B
Today’s passage is the same one we read at the Feast of the Presentation.
I think it’s significant that when Jesus is initially brought to the center of institutional worship, none of the “professionals” recognize him. Simeon and Anna are both “lay” people in our terminology. They are on the margins of the institution rather than being insiders. Prophets rarely operate on the inside of things. Finding God, recognizing God, does not depend on official status or having some official, privileged role. In fact, it seems such can often be a hindrance to recognizing God.
Verse 22 references the “law of Moses.” These instructions can be found in Exodus 13, the context of which is instructions for the Passover.
The name Simeon means “God has heard.” Judging by his prayer in verse 29, it seems God has heard Simeon’s request to see the Messiah.
Luke is fond of parallelism as a literary device. For example, John the Baptist provides a figure parallel to Jesus. Here in this passage, Simeon and Anna are characters parallel to Zechariah and Elizabeth.
Consider the “families” of which you are a member – communities, groups, people bound by blood or some other tie. What lessons can you draw from this passage that apply to those families?
Luke 2:41-52 Year C
Bible scholar Raymond Brown posits that this is part of the “Christmas” story in the sense that the function of the Christmas story, along with the theme of the Feast, is the first revelation to others of God in the world in God’s son Jesus.
In Luke’s gospel, the “infancy narratives” of Jesus and John the Baptist mirror one another, with the intent always of showing Jesus’ superiority. For everything that happens in Jesus’ story in these infancy narratives, there is some parallel with John the Baptist.
The finding in the Temple story breaks that pattern. There are also two apparent “discrepancies” in this passage: Joseph is called Jesus’ father without explanation and his parents didn’t seem to understand Jesus’ reference to God as Father. The latter doesn’t make sense if they both knew that from previous angelic revelation. All of this probably indicates that Luke is drawing on a different source for this story than the previous stories.
During the time Luke was writing, there were many literary examples of biographies of great figures that began with a story of their boyhood, just on the cusp of adulthood. In these stories, it was very common to portray the person as having superior insight into scripture and law and life, as well as people recognizing that and seeking the person out. The story of Jesus in the Temple fits nicely into that pattern.
Someone might point to v49 and say that, even as a child, Jesus knew exactly and fully who he was. Someone else could point to v52 and say that Jesus did not know all things. Both points are true and our call as Christians is to hold them both in tension and not fall into the trap of fundamentalism. We recognize that this story developed out of the post-resurrection Christian community where people looked at what they knew Jesus to be after his resurrection and tried to make sense of his life as a whole. When did he know exactly who he was? When do any of us know exactly who we are? Are there moments when we do intuit who we are in God? Certainly. Is life mostly a process of knowing and growing over and over and over again? Certainly. It is both/and.
Matthew and Luke both have birth and infancy narratives. From that point of view, everyone should have known exactly who Jesus was right from the beginning of his ministry. But they didn’t. How to explain that? Luke does it in this passage by saying that Jesus went back to Nazareth and led an ordinary sort of life. He did and said nothing that would cause the town to think he was anything more than an ordinary person. So, in chp 4 when Jesus begins preaching at Nazareth, the townsfolk are taken aback by what he has to say.
Adult Jewish males at the time were obligated to observe the pilgrim feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles in Jerusalem. Only the wealthy could make such a pilgrimage three times a year. If a man was unable to make all three, then Passover was the only required feast. Today’s passage shows that Joseph was observant of this requirement.
The passage seems to set up a conflict for Jesus: Mary references “your father,” meaning Joseph, while Jesus responds “my father,” meaning God. What are the responsibilities of Jesus as son? In Luke’s account, he is faithful to both.
For her part, Mary may not understand things, but she doesn’t give up pondering them, perhaps wrestling with them.
This story shows the holy family in a somewhat negative light. First they “lose” their son, traveling for days before they find him. Then they seem to misunderstand his identity and tell him to fall into line. For his part, perhaps we might expect Jesus to have been a more dutiful son. Couldn’t he have paid more attention and known that his family’s caravan had departed? Family life is messy. Think about the conflicts within your own family. What light can this story shed on how to handle and respond to those conflicts?
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© 2024 Kelly Sollinger