Luke 2:41-52
1st Sunday after Christmas C
[…] probably have worked as slapstick comedy no matter what time of the year the story was set in. But as it stands, the story takes place at Christmastime when a frantic family jets off to Paris for Christmas only to discover too late that they had left their youngest child behind. Thus Home Alone […]
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Christmas 1B
Rejoicing in Salvation For those churches that celebrate a strict Advent fast from Christmas hymns, this Sunday lands with all the pent-up energy of the season. Church musicians stuff this service full of all the carols that wouldn’t fit on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning worship. There are plenty of “Joy to the Worlds” […]
Psalm 148
Christmas 1B
What a magnificent Psalm for this first Sunday after Christmas! The middle Psalm in the five Psalm “Hallelujah chorus” that ends the Psalter, Psalm 148 calls on the entire universe to praise Yahweh. These five Psalms are called the Hallelujah chorus because each one begins and ends with the Hebrew words Hallelu Yah, Praise […]
Luke 2:41-52
Christmas 1C
[…] probably have worked as slapstick comedy no matter what time of the year the story was set in. But as it stands, the story takes place at Christmastime when a frantic family jets off to Paris for Christmas only to discover too late that they had left their youngest child behind. Thus Home Alone […]
Isaiah 9:1-7
Christmas Eve
[…] truly evil forces that are out to work woe in our hearts and lives. Probably for that very reason we prefer the Luke 2 version of the Christmas story compared to the far more startling version of that story we get in Revelation 12 (indeed, most of you just now thought, “There’s a Christmas […]
Luke 2:1-20
Christmas Day A
[…] the fields–two millennia later we still remember them with honor and are only too happy if our child gets to dress up as a shepherd for a Christmas program at school or church. But even at that time, the message of the angels and the things the shepherds saw in Bethlehem elevated their own […]
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Christmas 1B
Comments, Observations, and Questions The First Sunday after Christmas is something of an odd moment in the church’s year. Many in the church regard it as somewhat anticlimactic following whatever big services, concerts, and other celebrations and programs that probably accompanied the run-up to Christmas Day and then whatever special services got held on […]
Colossians 3:12-17
1st Sunday after Christmas C
The Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a good day to find a guest preacher to fill in for you. I mean, after all the hoopla of the holidays, people are exhausted and after exploring the depths and heights of the Incarnation. So is the preacher. What do you say on this […]
Psalm 96
Christmas Day A
Perhaps it counts as something of an irony that the Lectionary calls on us to reflect on Psalm 96 on Christmas Day. After all, if ever there were a day in the church year when we do not want to do what Psalm 96:1 says—namely, sing to the Lord a new song—this day is […]
John 1:(1-9), 10-18
Christmas 2A
[…] now, starting well before American Thanksgiving even, it’s been all Jesus, all the time. The Muzak pumped into the shopping malls and heard in city centers, the Christmas specials, the long series of special worship services and Lessons & Carols and Messiah sing-a-longs and what all not: it’s all been about Jesus, the Child […]
Search Results: christmas