The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation during Christmas
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Today’s Readings and Feast
January 6 is the Feast of the Epiphany, but most dioceses in the United States transfer it to the Sunday between January 2 and 8. The Baptism of the Lord is usually on the Sunday after Epiphany. But if Epiphany is celebrated on Sunday, Jan. 7 or 8, then the Baptism of the Lord is the following Monday, and “Ordinary Time” begins that Tuesday. If you followed that, you’re well on your way to a Ph.D. in lectionary science.
The liturgy around Epiphany is one of the oldest liturgies we possess, rivaled only by the Holy Week Triduum.
In classical Greek, epiphanea is “the appearance of dawn or a manifestation of a deity for worship.”
This feast invites us to discover anew all the ways in which God has appeared and is at work in our lives. In a way, it is a summary of the whole Advent season. This feast also reminds us of the great diversity within the church – the gifts that the many cultures bring. Inclusivity always enriches.
This feast suggests the paradox of a hidden, unseen God, manifesting self. Why do you think God isn’t more overt about manifesting her presence? Or is she?
“Those who have received the Good News and who have been gathered by it into the community of salvation can and must communicate and spread it… Evangelizing is, in fact, the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize.”
Pope Paul VI On Evangelization in the Modern World (1975)
Isaiah 60:1-6
This reading comes from the last section of Isaiah. The Babylonian exiles are returning home and trying to make sense of things. The Temple that was the center and focal point of their religious lives has been utterly destroyed. How do they worship now? Is it even possible for God to be present without the Temple? They are asking new questions – questions intensely relevant for some of us today.
Chapters 60-62 envision a glorious New Zion – the Messianic age when God will establish a physical reign on earth and peace will prevail.
Even though Christians will apply this and similar passages to Jesus, the original context does not look forward to a human messiah to liberate or govern. Rather, the Jewish people believed that God would rule the nation directly, and the whole nation would enjoy royal status.
Jerusalem is imaged as a light to other nations. So should be the church. How brightly do we shine as a church? As a corporate community? How brightly do you shine individually? Where changes are needed?
Verse 1 says that the glory of the Lord has dawned. Old Testament glory is always the visible manifestation of God’s presence.
Verse 6 lists the gifts of gold and frankincense. Matthew’s gospel will add myrrh, used for burial. Because of the royal imagery in this passage, early tradition called the visiting wise men “kings.”
Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6
A startling declaration: not only has God been made manifest to all nations, but those same nations are now equal partners in God’s covenant. Astounding news if you were an ancient Jew!
The book of Ephesians post-dates Paul, written by a later disciple but accepted by the church as being in Paul’s spirit and teaching. Like Isaiah, this book provides guidance on the meaning of an earlier message for a new day, a new community, and new questions.
Some key teachings in this book include the unity of Jew and Gentile as well as many gifts, one body. The genre is a handbook of instruction on the meaning of baptism. It would have been studied by those preparing for baptism and entry into the Christian community.
This reading speaks of radical inclusivity: Gentiles are on equal footing with Jews. We take for granted today that we don’t need to be Jewish in order to be Christian. But in the early church it was a huge debate: what are the boundaries to inclusion? They didn’t necessarily want to say some are excluded. But they wanted to set up narrow boundaries and difficult entry. Paul will have none of it. He says there are no boundaries to inclusion. Anyone may come on simple faith, even the Gentiles. ALL ARE WELCOME.
The church of my childhood was a small Southern Baptist church in a small town in Texas. I remember we would occasionally have visitors, but they were usually other Baptists passing through. I don’t remember any of the locals ever visiting. Why? Perhaps it had to do with the rules: no drinking, no dancing, no card-playing, no smoking, no pants on women, no women teaching men. And you thought the Catholic church had a lot of rules! More subtly, though, perhaps it had to do with the expectations around just showing up: walking through the door meant you were dressed in your Sunday best (a suit and tie for men, a very nice dress for women), children were expected to be quiet and still, and you had to bring your Bible. Could someone have walked through the door in dirty farm clothes and be made to feel truly welcome? I seriously doubt it. What groups today do we (or the Church) implicitly – if not exclude – then create a difficult boundary that discourages entry?
Matthew 2:1-12
Matthew’s subtitle could be “the Torah as effected by Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.” The Torah is the first five books of the Bible, and the central figure is Moses. In Matthew, Jesus is the new Moses – the hero who will lead the people out of bondage. He is also the new David, shepherd, and King.
1:1-17 is a genealogy which parallels Exodus 6
2:13 recounts the flight to Egypt which parallels Israel’s flight to Egypt
2:16 the slaughter of the innocents parallels Exodus 1
The magi in today’s reading mirror Exodus 7:11 – the magicians and sorcerers who were unable to beat Moses. Here they pay homage to the new Moses.
What was the star of Bethlehem, from a scientific point of view? Read more in this article.
We have so many ideas about who God is supposed to be. The magi invite us to leave room for who God reveals God’s self to be, so that we, too, may find and worship him.
Think of the magi’s visit as the anchor of a great arch that spans this gospel. The other end is the Great Commission. The magi come and worship. We worship and go out.
The Greek term “magoi” is difficult to translate. In the cultural context, they were a caste of very high-ranking political-religious advisers to the rulers of the Median and Persian empires (modern-day Iran and Iraq). They were powerful advisors to powerful kings. Christian tradition names them Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior. Caspar is traditionally rendered as a black man to indicate the universal nature of Jesus’ coming.
Verse 6 pieces together parts of Micah 5:1 and 2 Samuel 5:2.
The magi brought three gifts: gold was reserved only for kings; frankincense was an expensive perfume affordable only by the wealthiest; and myrrh was used for burial.
The magi go to the political authority who, in that culture, is closely associated with the religious authority. The outsiders go to the people who ought to have the answers. But the “insiders” are blind to the truth. It often takes someone looking from the outside to show us the way.
Think about a current situation in your life. How might you put on “outsider glasses” and view it from a new perspective?
What is your image of God – who do you expect God to be?
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