December 2022 – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Jesus as food

Christmas Eve; 24 December 2022; Christmas I (RCL); Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 26; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20.

The passage we hear from Isaiah is one of the most familiar to Christians in what we call the Old Testament, thanks in no small measure to G. F. Handel. All those royal titles have been applied to Jesus through the long history of Christian biblical interpretation. Isaiah certainly had something else in mind.

Immanuel

Fourth Sunday of Advent; 18 December 2022; Advent 4A (RCL); Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25.

So much hinges on a dubious (ancient) translation, and some verb tenses. In the reading from Isaiah, the prophet is giving Ahaz a sign that Israel and Syria will be desolate before they can carry out their plot to overthrow Judah (Judah refused to enter their alliance against Assyria). Isaiah notices a young, pregnant woman (his wife? Ahaz’s wife?) and says that by the time the child is old enough to know right from wrong (3yrs? 5 yrs?), Assyria will have conquered Israel and Syria.

A royal highway

Third Sunday of Advent; 11 December 2022; Advent 3A (RCL); Isaiah 35:1-10; Canticle 15; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11.

Matthew sets up the exchange between John’s disciples and Jesus with a fair amount of irony. John hears in prison what the Messiah is doing, telegraphing Matthew’s understanding of who Jesus is. John’s disciples ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Remember, John had preached that a more powerful one was coming who would baptize with Holy Spirit and fire, and begin the judgment between wheat and chaff. Apparently, in Matthew’s telling, John is beginning to have his doubts.