January 5, 2020

As It Was in the Beginning . . .

Anne Burkholder | Read Ephesians 1:11-14

(Image by: Pixabay)

Lectionary Week

December 30, 2019—January 5, 2020

Scripture Overview

Jeremiah delivers happy news, a promise from the Lord of a brighter future day. God will bring back the scattered peoples to their homeland, and their mourning will turn into joy. The psalmist encourages those in Jerusalem to praise God for all that God has done. God gives protection, peace, and the law to the children of Israel. The author of Ephesians encourages readers with confidence in God’s eternal plan. God’s will is to send Christ and adopt us into God’s family. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. The opening to John helps us understand the eternal scope of God’s plan. From the beginning, the Word has been with God but then becomes flesh and lives among us to reveal divine glory.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

Read Jeremiah 31:7-14. How do you continue to celebrate God’s goodness, even if the Christmas season has been difficult for you?
Read Psalm 147:12-20. What is your doxology—your command and faith claim—today?
Read Ephesians 1:3-14. Consider the author’s question, Who makes up your family? Do you define your family by looking back to your heritage or looking forward to your legacy and future generations’ inheritance?
Read John 1:1-18. What does it mean for you that Jesus is cocreator in the beginning and takes on human life and suffering as Emmanuel?

Respond by posting a prayer.

I love working on my genealogy as a way of discovering my heritage. I have learned a lot about my family members. I am quite proud of some; others, not so much. Most of us define who we are based on whom and where we have come from, from the...

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God of us all, plant in me your vision of the ingathering that leaves out no one. Help me honor the beauty of our differences and the unity that can ground us in Christ. Amen.

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