Monday January 2 Christmas 1
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Psalm 34
I will praise God because God rescued me when I was in trouble. God will always support those who live with integrity and the evil people will not get away with it forever.
The verse about no bones being broken became significant for the early Christians. Breaking legs was the Roman technique when they wanted to hasten the death of a crucified person. John, the gospel writer, says that Jesus’ legs didn’t need to be broken (and uses this verse to prove that) because Jesus was already dead. In John’s understanding Jesus wasn’t a victim, but was in charge of the entire process—his death was pure gift carried out entirely by his own will.
Genesis 12: 1-7 What’s Genesis about?
Yesterday we read the story about God promising to care for Abraham’s descendants forever, the foundational story of the Hebrew Bible. Today God puts that promise into practical effect—God will give a permanent home and land to Abraham, who before this had been only nomadic. For nomads to own land was an unimaginable luxury. We hear the ancient explanation of how the people came to live in Canaan even though they had been nomads. Are we in equal amazement that God has given us this planet for our permanent home?
John 6: 35-42, 48-51 What’s John about?
John continues his series of conversations with tightly-packed meanings in the days leading up to Jesus’ arrest and execution. In this conversation, Jesus claims that he has saved everyone, because he is the food which feeds humanity with heavenly nourishment. If heaven is the ability to die for someone—even our enemies—then that experience is to be in heaven. In face of opposition which claims he is nothing special, Jesus responds that his own death for his enemies—his “flesh”—is what will feed humanity and bring all people to heaven.
Subsequent Christians, perhaps beginning with John’s community, have interpreted these conversations about Jesus as our food as a way of experiencing the meaning of eucharist.
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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