Yes, Christmas 2, the second Sunday after Christmas.  We are still in the Christmas season.  Which after all does have 12 days, as the song reminds us.

Do you like the excitement of the holidays or do you yearn to return to normal routine?

That may depend on your personality.  The introverts among us probably tend to prefer routine while the extroverts may seek a bit more adventure.   Psychiatrist Carl Jung held that the difference between intro- and extroverts was not a matter of sociability but of where they get and give their energy. 

The author of the Fourth Gospel indicates that Jesus’ presence physically on earth was just temporary.   In that well-known verse, John declares both that ‘the Word became flesh’ and that it ‘dwelt among us’.   But that dwelling was only for a short time.  The Greek word behind ‘dwell’ is more literally to ‘tent’ or to bivouac.  Nothing permanent.  Just for a time.  A purposeful time.

Some of our relationships are long-term, some are short-term.  Some are brief, even fleeting.  In all of those places and times, we are called to embody the presence and will of God for the world.   God dwells with us; God loves the world.

For further thought:

Reflect on brief encounters with people who have impacted you: some positively, some negatively.

Reflect on your brief encounters with others: the person on the street, the clerk in the store, the person who picks up your trash, the bank teller.   Has God’s Word/presence been enfleshed in you for those people?

Almighty God, you have filled all the earth with the light of your incarnate Word.  By your grace empower us to reflect your light in all that we do, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.


7For thus says the Lord:
 Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
   and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
 proclaim, give praise, and say,
   ‘Save, O Lord, your people,
 the remnant of Israel.’ 
8See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north,
 and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
 among them the blind and the lame,
   those with child and those in labour, together;
   a great company, they shall return here. 
9With weeping they shall come,
 and with consolations I will lead them  back, I will let them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path in which they shall not stumble;
 for I have become a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn.


10Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
   and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
   and will keep him as a shepherd a flock.’ 
11For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
   and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. 
12They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
 and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall become like a watered garden,
and they shall never languish again. 
13Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
   I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. 
14I will give the priests their fill of fatness,
and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the Lord.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.