Sunday January 1 Christmas 1
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Psalm 103
God has been so generous to us! God has given us life when death was close, has been generous when we abandoned God’s justice, has cared for us as a doting parent does, and all in spite of our lives being so short. Even angels and creation bless God and we join with them!
Genesis 17: 1-16 What’s Genesis about?
This is the foundational promise to Abraham in which God commits God’s self to eternal blessing of the Israelite people. In one sense, this is the central story of the entire “Old Testament”, the Hebrew Bible, in which the ancient Jews described their experience of being cared for by God. Their unlikely escape from Egypt, and later from Babylon, were seen as God acting to fulfil this original promise regardless of how the people had rejected God.
God changes Abraham’s name from “Exalted Ancestor” to “Ancestor of Multitudes” and Sarai’s name from “My Princess” to “Noble Princess of Many”. Name changes indicate changes in the person’s significance, not simply a different name.
Circumcision, a kind of ceremonial sacrifice, is the sign of the people’s response to God’s unilateral generosity. Appropriate for this new year starting today, in which God will continue to offer a great future to humanity. To receive that future, our culture will need to make some sacrifices in our way of life and our inclusion of those not yet living in dignity.
John 16: 23b-30 What’s John about?
In this highly symbolic conversation, Jesus is speaking about his imminent return to the Father following his crucifixion.
He is not really talking about a journey back to heaven, but about the fact that he and the Father are already one, just as John said at the start of his gospel, “The Word was God.” So, when the disciples ask Jesus for fulfillment, they are really asking God for fulfillment. That’s why Jesus says he doesn’t need to ask God anything for them—because in asking him they are already asking God. The disciples affirm that they have begun to experience this.
As Jesus’ physical life receded further and further into the past, it was necessary for the early Christians to become less dependent upon a fading physical relationship with Jesus and to become aware that through Jesus they had been experiencing God. That’s what John is trying to say and is a major theme in John’s gospel. That transition from being loyal to an historical person long ago to experiencing God through Jesus continues to be an important step for us, too.
This week’s collect:
Eternal Father,
we give thanks for your incarnate Son,
whose name is our salvation.
Plant in every heart, we pray,
the love of him who is the Saviour of the world,
our Lord Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
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