The Synoptic Gospels: A Journey Into the Kingdom

As with some of our other seasonal readings, the lectionary for the First Sunday after Christmas is the same each year.

John 1:1-18
The gospel offering is John 1:1-18. Though John is not among the synoptic Gospels, it does occasionally receive some commentary in the Journey series. In fact, it was a subject of our blog entry of Monday, December 24, 2007, as Christmas selection III.

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about John 1:1-18. The text is located at pages 208-212.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in PDF format.

Galatians 3:23-35; 5:4-7
The First Sunday after Christmas features an important reading from one of the letters of Paul. The Letter to the Galatians contains his most powerful declaration about how freedom in Christ liberates the people of the way from what Paul by now considers to be the shackles of Judaic law. Paul focuses on faith working through love, rather than obedience to ritual requirements, as the center of one’s relationship with God.

Paul’s view about the relationship of the Christian believer to the Hebrew law was far from unanimous. Other early Christian leaders, including James the brother of Jesus, adhered to the notion that the law was still operative, and that gentile converts to even this Christian expression of Judaism were required to accept all the burdens of the law, including circumcision and dietary restrictions.

In fact, the experience of the early church coming to grips with a mission that embraced gentile converts was among the most important developments in first-century Christianity. It opened the richness of life in relationship to the God if Israel to those who were previously outside that fellowship.

Among the Gospels, Matthew is the one most focused on connections between Jewish tradition and the growing church. For that reason, we considered the text from Galatians in light of statements that Matthew’s Jesus makes about the law in the Sermon on the Mount. The sermon itself receives the lion’s share of our attention in Volume II of the Journey.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about Galatians 3:23-25 and 5:4-7. The text is located at pages 255-264.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in a PDF format.

The RCL and the BCP are virtually identical for the Second Sunday in Advent, Year B, with only slight variations around the optional portions of the readings.

Mark 1:1–8 and Isaiah 40:1–11

The Gospel and Old Testament lessons today contain two interesting features. The first is that the gospel text contains a paraphrase of the Old Testament lesson. Consequently, the pages from the Journey, which comment on one reading also comment on the other. The second feature is that the Journey breaks down today’s gospel reading into two parts, with intervening parallels and separate segments from Matthew and Luke falling between the book’s study of Mark. Of course, that is why the books themselves offer more than this blog! But we should still be able to make something worthwhile out of this format.

Mark 1:1–6 contains the powerful opening of the oldest gospel. It proclaims the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The opening goes on to quote Old Testament prophecy and to declare the arrival of John the Baptist on the banks of the River Jordan.

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about Mark 1:1–6 and Isaiah 40:1–11.  The text is located at pages 172–176.

The Journey commentary on today’s gospel continues later in Volume I. John the Baptist describes the coming One, with a promise of baptism by the Holy Spirit exceeding John’s own baptism by water. In this preaching, John connects back to the Old Testament and foresees that all will be fulfilled.

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about Mark 1:6–8. The text is located at pages 193–196.

Year B

We are, on November 30, starting Year B with the first Sunday in Advent, the year we focus of the Gospel According to St. Mark. While I have not yet published on the gospel for the day, I have preached on it. Following please find a link to the sermon I delivered three years ago to the congregation of Grace Episcopal Church, Chattanooga TN.

Wishing you and yours a blessed, rich, and meaningful Advent season.

Sermon on Mark 13:24-37

Ash Wednesday brings us out of Epiphany, the season of lights, and into a time to confront the inner darkness. We begin the forty days of Lent by acknowledging our sins, and turning to God in repentance, seeking his forgiveness.

Matthew 6:1–6,16–21

Matthew offers the same gospel reading every Ash Wednesday. We have studied all of it in the Journey series, though its segments fall in separate places. We will also follow that practice here.

Verses 1–4: The first segments of the gospel concern the deeds of righteousness, reinterpreting the traditional Jewish practices of almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Jesus’ opening injunction, found in verse 1, calls us to avoid making a show of our pious acts. He moves us away from image—oriented religious observance to the substance of following God’s call.

Our first example is almsgiving. Providing for the poor should be done privately, without drawing undue attention to ourselves. Even so, we must also be aware of the tension between giving privately, as a way to avoid show, and being instructed not to hide our light under a bushel.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say in introducing the deeds of righteousness, and about the giving of alms. The passage interprets Matthew 6:1–4. The text is located at pages 305–312.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

Verses 5–6: The passage continues with the practice of prayer. Jesus encourages private prayer, in communion with God, not public displays of piety. The Journey commentary explores some very recent examples of people rejecting Jesus’ direction, which calls into question how and when public prayer is to be avoided or offered.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about the practice of prayer, interpreting Matthew 6:5–8. The text is located at pages 312–316.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

Verses 16–18: Here we encounter fasting, the third deed of righteousness. Fasting was an acted–out prayer of lamentation. As practiced by Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries, typically it was accompanied by visual cues, such as ashes and sackcloth. Jesus encourages his followers not to make a show, but to fast without drawing attention to themselves. In the Journey, we also consider modern fasting practices.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about fasting, interpreting Matthew 6:16–18. The text is located at pages 334–336.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format

Verses 19–21: The gospel theme now shifts toward other aspects of Christian practice, as Jesus directs us how to live. He has turned our attention away from the negative (how not to practice piety), through the corrective (how to practice piety), and now toward the productive (how we are to store up true treasure). We see that human stores of wealth are vulnerable, but heavenly stores are safe. We further consider that this distinction between the concrete and the abstract is an example of the greater conversation about what is real and what is not. We even cite sources such as Plato and modern physicists!

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about treasures, interpreting Matthew 6:19–21. The text is located at pages 337–340.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:10

This epistle reading juxtaposes Christ’s sinlessness with the need to confront our own sinful nature. This is an appropriate reading with which to begin the penitential season of Lent. We touch ever so lightly on the epistle for today in Volume I of the Journey, where we study the baptism of Jesus, according to Mark. In questioning why Jesus would need to be baptized, we considered 2 Cor. 5:21, Paul’s reference to Jesus not knowing sin. If there is no sin, is baptism necessary? If so, why?

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about 2 Corinthians 5:21. The text is located at pages 203–205 of Volume I.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in PDF format.

Well, it looks like I am a little late to blog on the lectionary for the First Sunday After Christmas, since that day came and went on December 30. At Trinity Episcopal Church in Asheville this year, we held a service of lessons and carols. Our worship encapsulated the entire Christmas season rather than focusing specifically on the lectionary. Some Presbyterian friends visiting from Greensboro got lots of exercise, though, what with all the standing, sitting, kneeling, singing, and praying that attends lessons and carols!
As with some of our other seasonal readings, the lectionary for the First Sunday after Christmas is the same each year.

John 1:1-18
The gospel offering is John 1:1-18. Though John is not among the synoptic Gospels, it does occasionally receive some commentary in the Journey series. In fact, it was a subject of our blog entry of Monday, December 24, 2007, as Christmas selection III.

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about John 1:1-18. The text is located at pages 208-212.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in PDF format.

Galatians 3:23-35; 5:4-7
The First Sunday after Christmas features an important reading from one of the letters of Paul. The Letter to the Galatians contains his most powerful declaration about how freedom in Christ liberates the people of the way from what Paul by now considers to be the shackles of Judaic law. Paul focuses on faith working through love, rather than obedience to ritual requirements, as the center of one’s relationship with God.

Paul’s view about the relationship of the Christian believer to the Hebrew law was far from unanimous. Other early Christian leaders, including James the brother of Jesus, adhered to the notion that the law was still operative, and that gentile converts to even this Christian expression of Judaism were required to accept all the burdens of the law, including circumcision and dietary restrictions.

In fact, the experience of the early church coming to grips with a mission that embraced gentile converts was among the most important developments in first-century Christianity. It opened the richness of life in relationship to the God if Israel to those who were previously outside that fellowship.

Among the Gospels, Matthew is the one most focused on connections between Jewish tradition and the growing church. For that reason, we considered the text from Galatians in light of statements that Matthew’s Jesus makes about the law in the Sermon on the Mount. The sermon itself receives the lion’s share of our attention in Volume II of the Journey.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about Galatians 3:23-25 and 5:4-7. The text is located at pages 255-264.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in a PDF format.

A Personal Note of Thanks
One final comment about the First Sunday After Christmas, 2007. That date also served as the occasion for the retirement of The Reverend Thomas D. Hughes from active parish ministry. Tom has served Trinity for a number of years as an Assistant to the Rector by preaching, celebrating, teaching, providing pastoral care, and doing whatever else needed to be done. We were always appreciative of getting better than full-time service from Tom for part-time pay! Trinity served as Tom’s last formal vocational call after a lifetime of wonderful ministry.

After the service, we sent Tom and Peg on their way to what we hope will be a fun-filled time of vacation, travel, and new adventures. Thanks be to God for how both the Hughes have touched our lives, and the lives of many others.