Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: Advent and Christmas
Each week, we’ll offer a curated selection of blog posts that speak to the upcoming lectionary texts to help spark your imagination and serve as a thought partner for you. We hope these musings meet you right where you are with a fresh, bold, and faithful witness.
As Christmas Arrives
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Seasons of Bells and Chains”
Advent/Christmas may be a time of double-hearing by the faithful, attentive to the bells of hope-filled celebration while at the same time responsive to the clanging chains of servitude. Our lives and our faith are situated in the both/and of bells and chains, and we are not free to simply choose one or the other in a way that covers over the profound ambiguity of our lives.
Rev. Dr. Dorothy Wells, “New Lessons from the Grinch”
However festively we celebrate our traditions, however joyfully we sing our hymns, however piously we display our faith, if we fail to acknowledge the presence of the neighbor who sits just beyond our doors – the neighbor whom we see but whose story isn’t known to us, the neighbor who may not look like us, the neighbor who may not know our traditions, the neighbor who may be completely alone and struggling – we pay lip service to what we claim that we believe.
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Some Child! A Poem for Christmas”
“‘What child is this who laid to rest on Mary’s lap is sleeping?”
We ask in awe and wonder.
But wait!
We know who this child is:
We know: this is the child who will grow in authority to cast out demons,
while we are beset by the demonic force of racism and nationalism.
We know: this is the child who will grow in capacity to feed the hungry multitudes,
while we casually permit children all around the world to die in starvation.
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Joseph and Mary: On Becoming a Statistic”
All of that is operative in the innocent-looking narrative of Joseph with the “decree” to be “registered.” It turned out that the process of registration was an enemy from which Mary and Joseph had to flee. It belongs to the church to be a haven for those who fear being “written down.” It belongs to the church to gather all of the baptized, but beyond them all of those with names who refuse to become statistics.
Old Testament (Nativity – Proper I): Isaiah 9:2-7
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Size of Government”
As I thought about the size of government in relation to the role of government, I remembered the anticipatory oracle of Isaiah to which we Christians appeal at Christmas. The prophet anticipates the coming of the “good king” (messiah) who will undertake the proper role of government. … The new government will have many roles: counselor, military might, peace. … The NRSV translates, “his authority will grow.” The more familiar KJV has it: The increase of his government shall know no end. Talk about “big government”!
Psalm (Nativity – Proper I): Psalm 96
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Trees: Signals of Hope and Defiance”
In the doxological tradition of Israel, trees are reckoned as lively creatures and not simply inanimate objects waiting to be exploited.
