LECTIONARY REFLECTIONS

December

Jesus transforms the human situation

4 DECEMBER: ADVENT 2

Matthew 3:1-12 John the Baptist prepares the way The figure of John the Baptist is unmissable – wild, eccentric to say the least, and certainly not welcome at the average family tea table. If he was a toddler someone might suggest his emotions were dis-regulated by his diet and he needed to calm down and get a good night’s sleep. Yet his prophetic voice is one we cannot ignore. He reminds us that there is always a place for righteous anger and that sometimes the new and better requires actions of clearing and letting go that can be painful and disturbing to some. His voice acts as corrective to tendencies in some Christian circles to associate the gospel with niceness or respectability. John was not respectable. But his message was essential. 11 DECEMBER: ADVENT 3 Matthew 11:2-11 Are you the one who is to come? ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?’. Somehow it is consoling to realise that even John, whom we acknowledge as the one who points to Jesus as the Messiah, had doubts. For even when we are sure about something as we possibly can be – we’ve done our research, we spent time with someone, we’ve weighed up all the evidence – we can tend to be risk averse. Maybe we should wait. Maybe the jury is still out. Maybe there is some vital piece of information we are missing. Sometimes indeed it is important to wait. But sometimes we can wait too long, and we miss the transformative opportunity being presented to us. ‘Look’ Jesus says – take in the evidence of your own eyes and have the courage to act. 18 DECEMBER: ADVENT 4

AT HIS BIRTH

JESUS BECOMES

BOUND TO THE HUMAN CONDITION TO TRANSFORM IT 25 DECEMBER:

FROM WITHIN CHRISTMAS Luke 2:1-20 Birth of Jesus/shepherds The infant Jesus was ‘wrapped in bands of cloth’ or swaddled. This is such a familiar idea that it is easy to miss its significance. People have swaddled babies for generations. Such swaddling provides protection and helps the child to feel safe and secure. So why does Luke mention it? Firstly, perhaps as a reference back to King Solomon, ‘in swaddling clothes and with constant care I was nurtured’ (Wisdom7:4). But more importantly as a reference forward to the grave clothes, the linen wrappings that the risen Christ breaks and leaves behind at the resurrection. At his birth Jesus becomes bound to the human condition to transform it from within. At his death he breaks those bonds for all of us. We too can therefore take comfort and inspiration in the bands put upon us or in those we take upon ourselves to help free the burdens of others. These Lectionary Reflections have been preprared by Rev. Dr Jo Inkpin and have been edited for length. Find the full versions at www.insights.uca.org.au

Matthew 1: 18-25 Angel appears to Joseph At the beginning and heart of Christian marriage and family life is this extraordinary story of the creation of a very atypical family unit. Here indeed is the supreme example of a ‘family of choice’ – the family God apparently chooses, with much heralding by angels, for their child. This is not a ‘natural’ family, or a family formed according to traditional ‘religious values. It is an extraordinary family, and as such should give courage to all other families that do not fit neatly into customary categories. For those who live within typical expectations it may also give strength to acknowledge hidden differences and to support those who face other hurts and condemnations. Without the courage of both Joseph and Mary in choosing to step outside conventional boundaries, exercising compassion and common sense, the Christian story could not have begun.

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January

What are you looking for?

1 JANUARY: CHRISTMAS 1

Matthew 2: 13-23 Escape to Egypt, return to Nazareth New Year can be unsettling. It is a time when we look back, perhaps with regret as well as gratitude, as well as looking forward, perhaps with fear as well as hope. It can be a moment of uncertainty as to what the future may hold. This story carries the same tension – backward glances as well as decisive actions that enable transformation and hope. Herod takes us back – back to all the tyrants in history including the Pharaoh who sought the life of Moses. Joseph takes us forward, acting decisively to save his family, taking the risk of a new beginning that ultimately enables a return to Nazareth. But we can be sure that he, Mary, and Jesus did not return to Nazareth unchanged. Their refugee experience shaped and enriched them, and in so doing shapes and enriches us. 6 JANUARY: FEAST OF EPIPHANY

Matthew 2:1-12 Magi meet Herod and bring gifts to Jesus Epiphany means revealing and begins a season in which we reflect upon key moments of divine revelation in the Jesus story. Can we open our eyes, hearts, and lives more fully to these extraordinary things? We begin with the tale of the Magi, full of symbols expressing the profound significance of Christ’s birth in relation to later events and its ultimate meaning. The Magi themselves represent the world’s wider deep wisdom traditions. The Light of Christ thus shines for all the world and connects with each and every culture and pathway to God. Each of the Magi’s gifts similarly resound with significance: speaking, respectively, of the ultimate power of God’s love (in the gold of a king); of the sacred nature of divine love in human form (in the frankincense of a priest); and of the transforming work of suffering love (in the myrrh of redemptive offering). If such lifegiving wonders are revealed, God’s light also reveals fear and false power-seeking in the figure of Herod. For truth uncovers sin and evil as well as releasing the good and bringing healing. Epiphany hence both celebrates Christ and displays the cost and wisdom needed to respond. 8 JANUARY: BAPTISM

Matthew 3: 13-17 Baptism of Jesus by John There are some actions in life that change things for ever. They often begin with the smallest of words, ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They are often taken without full understanding of their implications, and we even have a sense that some things still need working out but we need to do them anyway. John must have been thoroughly confused by Jesus coming to him for baptism – but he consents. It is an act of trust. We too encounter moments when the only response that can enable us to move forward is one of trust. 15 JANUARY: EPIPHANY 2

John1: 29-42 What are you looking for? Some of us look for relationship, some for success, some for security. Sometimes all such things come disguised as a search for God, for belonging, for homecoming, which is perhaps why the disciples return Jesus’s question with one of their own, ‘where are you staying’. They sense in Jesus a true home, a place to stay and remain – a place where all their longings can be transformed. Exactly what that means will play out differently for each of us, but here at the start of John’s gospel we are offered a key to all that will follow. To ‘come and see’ Christ’s dwelling place is to discover what it is to rest in the love of God and find there all that we seek. 22 JANUARY: EPIPHANY 3

Matthew 4: 12-23 Repent and Follow Jesus only says two things here – ‘repent’ and ‘follow me’. Repentance isn’t over popular as an idea in our context. Too often we hear condemnation in the word. But in reality, it is about a turning point; about those moments when we reassess things and choose a different direction. The gospel makes it all sound very sudden, and it may have been. More often we change slowly. Only when we look back do we recognise the turning points. What are the turning points that you can see in your life today? 29 JANUARY: EPIPHANY 4

Matthew 5: 1-12 Blessed to be a blessing? A friend from Fiji reminded me of their grandmother’s instruction each day to them as they left the house, ‘go and be a gift’. What a challenging yet encouraging instruction! We may imagine that our giftedness, the blessing we have to offer is something to be achieved by our best efforts. Yet Jesus here teaches that we are most blessed when we are incapable of striving; when we are at the limit of our own resources; when we are poor and persecuted and suffering. Our desolation becomes consolation and the means of transformation for ourselves and others.

February

Being Salt and Light

5 FEBRUARY: EPIPHANY 5

Matthew 5: 13-20 Salt and light, fulfilling the law Jesus is talking about things that are absolutely essential – in small quantities – salt and light. (If you really want to know about salt, read Mark Kurlansky’s Salt: A World History – it will tell you everything!) We do not regard salt very highly, yet in the ancient world it was so precious that our word salary comes from the Latin word sal for salt – for Roman soldiers were paid in salt. We should prize it still, for without consuming salt our bodes cannot function and we die. Likewise light is essential and even a tiny light in a large space makes a difference. Jesus was paying those listening a great compliment, for he addresses them all – ‘you are all salt’ is the literal translation. So, they – and we- are essential – but possibly not in the big, flashy ways we imagine. 12 FEBRUARY: EPIPHANY 6 Matthew 5: 21-37 Teaching regarding anger, adultery, divorce, oaths These verses are among the ‘hard sayings’ of Jesus which might lead us to despair if we did not hold them together in the grace of God and the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit. For how, we might wonder, is it possible for even exceptional holy people, never mind ordinary folk, to keep such demanding standards? How can this sit with the same Jesus who says that ‘my yoke is easy’ and embodies mercy and transformative forgiveness? How is this righteousness less burdensome than that of the Pharisees and others? Here the standards of righteousness are indeed set high for they relate to God and divine perfection. It is thus crucial to hold them together with the centrality of God’s grace. Jesus is saying that no one can reach God’s standards by their own efforts and that outward achievements of restraint are not enough. 19 FEBRUARY: TRANSFIGURATION Matthew 17:1-9 Transfiguration It is not for nothing that the Transfiguration story concludes our Epiphany lectionary for it is in many ways the greatest revelation of the purpose of the coming of the Light of Christ. Indeed Orthodox Christianity has particularly valued it as revealing our ultimate destiny, as, like Jesus, we are gradually transfigured by sharing in Christ’s light. We are thus lifted up into a mountain view of the Christian life before we begin the journey through Lent, enlivened to continue our pilgrimage even in its struggles. As we are transfigured we also aid the transfiguration of the world and, like Moses and Elijah before us, act as fellow guides and companions for other pilgrims on the Way. 22 FEBRUARY: ASH WEDNESDAY Matthew 6.1-6 & 16-21 Jesus’ teaching in these verses can seem to sit oddly with public prayers and ceremonies, particularly on this day, and the giving and receiving monetary and other offerings in our worship gatherings. If we are here commanded to pray, give,

LIKE JESUS, and fast, in secret, why do WE ARE we act so differently in our usual common life?

GRADUALLY As with Jesus’ teaching TRANSFIGURED elsewhere in the Sermon

BY SHARING on the Mount, the key

IN CHRIST’S LIGHT point is surely the intent rather than the acts themselves. After all, feeling self-satisfied for hiding away from others and being pious is also not what Jesus had in mind. What Ash Wednesday does is to offer a vital opportunity to let go of all of that and to allow the Holy Spirit to burn away all that keeps us from God, thereby renewing us to rise again. 26 FEBRUARY: LENT 1 Matthew 4:1-11 Temptations in the wilderness Jesus enters the wilderness only after having received baptism and heard himself named as the beloved of God. This is the pattern many of us recognise from our own journeys of faith – first, the call, and then the doubts. Traditionally the temptations in their fable-like form have been understood to be about rejecting material comfort, power, and idolatry. Yet behind them we can recognise a more fundamental temptation that occurs the moment we perceive, even if only for a moment, that we are the beloved of God. That perception puts everything else in our lives in the shade. We find ourselves no longer the most important player in our own story. The invitation of Lent is to stay a little longer, just as we are, in the loving gaze of God and know ourselves beloved. REV. DR JO INKPIN Full versions at www.insights.uca.org.au