Greetings on the second Sunday after Christmas as the nebulous time between Christmas and the Epiphany comes to a close and life starts to normalize.
Our invitation to worship offers a prayer that reminds us of God who creates, restores, and dignifies humanity through the person of Jesus Christ, because Jesus shares our nature. Our first lesson from Jeremiah relates Israel’s call to God to save people and how God responds by reminding them that God has always been there if we but look. The psalmist offers the song affirming that God’s people long to be present with God in God’s house. The reading from Ephesians reaffirms that we were destined to be in God’s kingdom forever, not to be separated from God. The reading from Matthew’s gospel is the account of Herod’s infanticide of the male children in and near Bethlehem because that was where the King of the Jews was being born.
Today’s readings help us make sense of the intersection of human time and eternal time. While we are reminded that we are destined to reside forever in God’s house, we still live in a world where tyrants and self-centered people live and try to convince us that power is everything. Even if the story we hear isn’t completely “correct” (a verbatim recounting of historic events) our lessons and stories help tie us to hope founded on God in the person of Jesus. What happens in earthly leadership doesn’t supplant God’s truth and our responsibility to be just people whose greatness is measured by the actions we take to build rather that the great things we amass for ourselves.
How do we share the message of hope to people overwhelmed by the people of the world who try to overcome good with power? I invite your comments,
Les+
Lessons: Jeremiah 31:7-14; Psalm 84; Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a; Matthew 2:13-15
Sermon link: https://audiomack.com/fatherles-2/song/christmas-2-sermon
