The Adventurous Lectionary – The First Sunday after Christmas Day – December 28, 2025
Isaiah 63:7-9; Psalm 148; Hebrews 2:10-18; Matthew 2:13-23.
On this First Sunday after Christmas Day, the readings are both painful and hopeful. They describe the contrast between the fidelity of God and the beauty of God’s world and the evil intentions of those in political power. Tragic beauty, a term coined by the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, could easily describe the extreme contrast between a world of praise and the terror of Bethlehem children and parents. Yet, the evils human plan – the state sponsored terrorism of Herods then and now, are penultimate and will not last; God’s vision is present in threat and tragedy, giving us hope for deliverance. Today’s scriptures note that the Infinite is also intimate. God’s salvation is global as well as individual.
This vision of divine companionship in the realization of beauty and the response to trauma and tragedy is at the heart of the incarnation. Christmas is profoundly political as well as personal. There is a place for Hallmark movies and also a necessary place for the realities of state sponsored violence. Still, the world is saved one person – one creature – at a time. God’s healing initiative is everywhere and joins the healing of nations and planets with the healing of persons. We need a healing environment; our own healing also transforms the environment to support our own and others’ wellbeing. We need to claim our vocation as agents of healing in partnership with God.
The prophet Isaiah proclaims God’s faithfulness. Like a good Parent, God is not distant or abstract, God’s love is immediate and transformative. God is right here: the divine pathos, as Abraham Joshua Heschel asserts, means that God is concerned about the small as well as large details of our lives. God is intimate, moving through the lives of persons and institutions. We are saved by God’s intimate presence, reflected in both loving care and uncomfortable challenge, aimed at the realization of love in persons and political policies. The adventurous pastor may invite the congregation to consider: Where is God present in saving ways? Where do we experience God’s presence in concrete and intimate ways? Is God present in responding to suffering caused by political policies: Isaiah invites us to reflect on our own mystical experiences despite the fact that we seldom experience God’s presence except through the events of our lives. Only occasionally does God present us with a flashing light announcing, “I am here.” (For more on mysticism see Bruce Epperly, “The Mystic in You: Discovering a God-filled World,” Upper Room, “Mystics in Action: Twelve Saints for Today,” Orbis, and “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries,” Anamchara.)
Isaiah invites us to be especially attentive to divine movements in ordinary as well as unique events. Isaiah is no deist who places divinity outside of the world to give humankind elbow room for creativity. God already gives us freedom and encourages creativity by working within our lives relationally and non-coercively. God is with us in the maelstrom of daily schedules and political realities. God wants us to grow to be God’s companions in saving the world through our efforts. God is even present in the ambiguities of our government, and in our quest to balance patriotism, law, justice, and open-mindedness.
Psalm 148 joins cosmology and praise. Astounded by our wonderful world, the Psalmist imagines a world of praise. All things reflect divine wisdom and give praise to their creator. Human praise is part of a larger community of praise that includes the many varieties of plant and animal life. The Psalmist invites us to become mystics who encounter the holy with all our senses. Divine companionship moves through fellow humans, galaxies, and companion animals. Even difficult people and situations mediate the holy, albeit in curious ways. Once again, we need to look beyond appearances and slow down long enough to see the deeper divinely-inspired realities of life. The Psalmist is not advocating pantheism, nor is the Psalmist making an exact correlation between God’s movements and the movements of creatures. When we perceive “a world of praise,” we see unanticipated signs of God’s handiwork in all things. Knowing God is, then, a matter of intention and perception as well as divine initiative and artistry.
The Psalmist challenges preacher and congregation alike to pause and notice, to set aside our agendas to experience the Beauty of God reflected in our wonderful world. Truly, with beauty all around us, we walk.
The reading from Hebrews joins majesty and universality with intimacy. The One who creates all things moves through each thing, mirroring and responding to our feelings of joy and pain. God is truly with us, and all creation. God experiences agony and ecstasy, sorrow and joy, and acts redemptively to bring beauty out of tragedy. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once asserted that only a suffering God can save us and the deity envisaged by the author of Hebrews shares our human condition of suffering, limitation, and temptation. Christ saves by empathetic relationship and experience of our human lives.
The Gospel reading can be addressed from a variety of perspectives. Once again in the Christmas stories, we are introduced to the power of the unconscious to shape our lives. Dreams reveal divinity. The ancients saw God as moving through the non-rational as well as the rational elements of life, through the dusk as well as the dawn, the darkness as well as the light. Joseph dreams and takes Mary as his bride. The magi dream and decide to return home without reporting to Herod. Joseph dreams of Herod’s threat and the family flees to Egypt and two more dreams to guide his way home.
Then and now, dreams reveal divine wisdom. When we listen to God’s whispering in our lives, we are often led on unexpected pathways of personal growth. Synchronicities emerge, guiding us toward new possibilities of adventure; luring us toward safety in threatening situations. Such messages may come to us all the time, but we are seldom sensitive to their wisdom. Once again, we are encouraged to pause and notice and then respond to the wisdom we receive. (For more on dreams as media of revelation see Bruce Epperly, “Angels, Mysteries, and Miracles: A Progressive Vision,” Energion Publications.)
As current as the state sponsored violence of ICE raids, the Gospel reading involves the realities of immigration. Indeed, the Gospel reading is as current as USA’s heartless and ideologically driven immigration policy and the millions of climate, famine, and political refugees in our world today. The holy family flees to Egypt, having been warned through a dream that Herod plans to kill the young Jesus. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are political refugees, dependent on the kindness of strangers. Apart from the welcome of the residents, likely Jewish community, they would not have survived. In the flight of the holy family, we see both grace and initiative – God’s grace mediated through dreams is fulfilled in the actions of Joseph and Mary and the hospitality of those who welcomed them in Egypt.
A third theme, and a difficult one to discuss, is Herod’s slaughter of the innocents. One needs to be careful to about sharing this reading with young children present, although often our young children “know” more than we think about the evil machinations of political leaders. Herod had a choice. Like all political powers, he can choose life or death for innocent people. Then again, like leaders then and now, he was doing what he needed to preserve his throne. Perhaps, Herod’s court – like national leaders today – took this persecution as a matter of course, the cost of maintaining the government and their well-being. Their good fortune was based on violence to the marginal and threatening. While recognizing that some forms of potential violence are implicit in maintaining national security, this passage reminds us that the most vulnerable among us must be protected even when we try to protect ourselves and our nation. Sadly, today, our leaders wage war with apparently a clear conscience against the toddlers and the infants of the world in a variety of ways: cutting food stamps and Head Start programs, maintaining a minimum wage that is unsustainable for families, failing to provide adequate parenting education and job training for parents, and arresting hardworking and law abiding parents and separating children from parents in ICE raids.
Less obvious, and more socially acceptable, is the war against childhood when we promote adult behaviors among children through the media and advertising, and also the neglect of children by parents who place their jobs and personal satisfactions about the well-being of their children. God comes to us as a child. Pause and notice, you are on holy ground whenever you encounter one of God’s little ones.
Salvation is global as well as individual. This vision is at the heart of the incarnation. The world is saved one person – one creature and child – at a time. God’s healing initiative is everywhere and joins the healing of nations and planets with the healing of persons. We need a healing environment; our own healing also transforms the environment to support our own and others’ wellbeing. We must as followers of Jesus always choose to be on the side of beauty and justice.
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Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD (https://www.westmorelanducc.org/) and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 80 books including: “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America’s Mystics” (Amazon.com: Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries: 9781625249142: Epperly, Bruce: Books) “Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet “(Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet: Epperly, Bruce: 9781625248732: Amazon.com: Books), Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet”( Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999215: Amazon.com: Books), and his most recent book, “God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality and Social Change.” (The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books) His latest books are “A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians.” (A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999413: Amazon.com: Books), “Creation Sings: 40 Days of Spiritual Wisdom from the Non-human World” (Amazon.com: Creation Sings: Forty Days of Spiritual Wisdom from the Non-Human World: 9781625249296: Epperly, Bruce G: Books), and “Three Wise Women: The Twelve Days of Christmas with Mary, Elizabeth, and Anna” (https://www.amazon.com/Three-Wise-Women-Christmas-Elizabeth/dp/1625249330/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PPN0SBU2BW35&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.I0QgtrolNv8FOJYiEhj8bEaLSSx1pwROcggCiug_8lybpSUzp8GSYaJBGh467Ar8lsOLGc23G9CpjirJxGxfKGXj-fXvaBOyHA2MRS6Jh0KdSfinpmdM6z_v5YE2Vrj4Uc2mq9tdx7NMg_n3UG6Aa__Bnzs4T-nSGlp1ADYClKRnxMUl64h_JFcG2CqK21toV0Mxm2CixAx306Pm7_R9nLXHrxyd7NOI6XfcI44JiPhc1HXZ8F6sz6W_Q3fjXAbhdWXXDVtu_XuKkXOoXubCIHSW9QKfG71BXdRRPB-5fpM.2QpPBFE9Y31ZLdV26CZYU0rwLEm88p2Fhrike7y0LvU&dib_tag=se&keywords=bruce+epperly+books&qid=1765207440&sprefix=bruce+epperly%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-1)
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