December 27, 2015

Breaking Open the Scripture Scriptures for December 27th: I Samuel 2:18-20, 26; Psalm 148; Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 2:41-52: Theme: First Sunday after Christmas; Song: Joy to the World Colossians: What did you get for Christmas? Usually when we were children we go the toys that we wanted, but also under the tree were new outfits. New clothes for the upcoming year. Colossians is encouraging us to put on our new clothes and to model them for everyone else. It encourages us to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. All things that should be renewed with the coming of Christ. We should be better than we were last year. And we should be even more stylish than we were last year. All of these qualities take time to develop. All of these qualities are the mark of a true Christian. All of these qualities make all of the difference in the world to another person. Paul is saying that we all should have received these qualities, not just for one person. And that if the whole community can put on its Christmas clothes, people will truly know that this is a house of God. Luke: This is the time when we learn about things that happen after Jesus is born. There is a different story for each section of the lectionary. This year is the story of Jesus traveling with his family to the temple. When they are on their way home they discover that Jesus is not with them. Jesus is still at the temple, learning and also teaching. We don’t know much about Jesus life until he turns 30 years old. We don’t know how he is educated, we don’t know when he received his calling, we don’t know how God interacted with his only son in order to mold and teach him. We do know that God was well led, and that he had a strong calling to understand the ways of God. We do know that he did not enter the standard methods of being taught – he preferred to stay in the streets with the people. But we are grateful that the Lord kept Jesus through this time and guided him to spread his knowledge on to us generations later. Questions: Are you a different person this year than you were last year? Did you get anything new for Christmas? When have you had to use gentleness, kindness, and patience within the last week? What do you think happened to Jesus as he was growing up? What were the lessons that you learned about Jesus as a child?