Sunday January 10 Baptism of the Lord
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Psalm 146
Joy in God’s victorious justice for the oppressed, the blind, the strangers and the orphans – that justice for all is built into God’s magnificent creation. Appropriate for a Sunday, which is the anniversary of the resurrection – God’s victory over all evil.
Psalm 147
God’s wondrous creation and God’s commitment to justice are intertwined. Other cultures are not aware of this. What a helpful insight in our day!
Isaiah 40:1-11
This middle section of Isaiah (written by Second Isaiah) begins with the traditional interpretation—that the nation’s injustice to its poor is what caused the country to be exiled to Babylon and enslaved there. But then more of God’s character shows through—God is tender, gentle, holding the people in God’s bosom, gently leading the female sheep, and at the same time full of might—a great highway will appear across the Syrian desert on which the people will easily travel back to Jerusalem.
Second Isaiah is pushing the limits of his new interpretation—God can’t ignore injustice, but in spite of the nation’s injustice to the poor and its faithfulness being like parched grass or fading flowers, God is more powerful and compassionate than had been imagined.
John 1: 1-7, 19-20, 29-34
For the next six weeks or so we will read from John’s gospel on Sundays.
This beginning of John’s gospel focuses on Jesus’ cosmic significance – Jesus (the process of love through death and resurrection) was central to the creation of the universe. John the Baptist asserts that process is becoming complete in human history in the person of Jesus.
This week’s collect:
Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit,
keep your children, born of water and the Spirit,
faithful to their calling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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