Preparing for Sunday, January 3, 2021 meeting
Dear Psalms friends,
Merry Christmas! I love that our tree, manger scene, Dickens Village, St. Nicholas, wreaths, and “a multitude of the heavenly host” on our mantel and table top remind us to keep celebrating the wonder of the Incarnation. “Meekness and Majesty, manhood and deity…Bow down and worship, for this is our God,” I’m hum-muttering these lyrics as I type.
Father Paul’s sermon last Sunday, the first Sunday of Christmas, pointed us to the “naming verse,” Luke 2:21, “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” (See Luke 1:31.) Jesus’ name in Hebrew is Yeshua/Yehoshua (Joshua), meaning “Yahweh saves.” Sundays’s sermon alliterations were “Whose, What, and Why?” How did Jesus answer those questions and how are we answering them?
The ongoing “lack of fit” we experience with the world we live in is especially evident in the Collect for January 1:
The Circumcision and Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Almighty God, Your Blessed Son fulfilled the covenant of circumcision for our sake and was given the Name that is above every name: Give us grace faithfully to bear his Name, and to worship him with pure hearts, according to the New Covenant; who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen (p. 625 in the BCP)
Due to the pandemic (a refrain that Doug and I use frequently now, sometimes with inappropriate laughter to break the heaviness), our culture’s New Year’s parties may be more subdued this year, although alcohol sales are soaring (“Due to the pandemic”!). So while the culture may be widely “hung over,” we are directed back to Jesus, to the Christ in swaddling cloths, to His Circumcision. Jesus Christ’s circumcision and naming securely links us, now that we are “little Christs,” to ancient Israel. And for us in this Psalms group, Jesus links us to the Psalms of ancient Israel. “Not only is Jesus Christ the mediator between God and Man; He is also the mediator between the Old Testament and the Church.” (Patrick Reardon, Christ in the Psalms, p. x)
Ultimately, Jesus Christ makes the Psalms pertinent to us. As each of us was prompted by the Holy Spirit to accept the Gospel and be joined to Christ by that gift of faith, our union with Christ joins us through Him to the “ancient faith of the Hebrews who waited His coming…their history becomes our history…The Hebrew Scriptures become our own family narrative. The history of the Bible and the history of the Church form a single story, of which our lives—and our worship—are an integral part.” (Reardon, p. x)
So, here we go, finishing up a trip through the Psalms and starting our next trip through the Psalms. Praise God, we do this together in Christ, as we begin the new calendar year of 2021. We’ll share reflections on our ending and beginning experiences in the Psalms this Sunday morning at 9 am. I’ll be sending you a lesson focused mostly on Psalms 1-2. Also, read the Introduction and pages 1-3 in the Keller Psalms book, The Songs of Jesus.
May all the blessings of Christmastide remind you of your core identity in Christ and with the Communion of the Saints of all ages.
Amen!
Love in Him,
Toni