First Sunday after Christmas, Cycle A
Within our Church Year schedule, already within a week after the birth of Jesus, our texts remind us that Jesus was born to suffer and to die. Our theology, if it is to be faithful to the texts, must be a theology of the cross, a theology of God in Christ suffering with us for our redemption.
Advent 4, Cycle A
The comforting message of each of these texts selected for us for the Fourth Sunday of Advent this year is that God is present with us. The expectation level for this is very high. It is almost Christmas, but not quite. Something must be held in suspense in anticipation of Christmas.
Advent 3, Cycle A
The primary theme of the texts for the Third Sunday of Advent for this year is that the Lord is coming and has come to relieve the suffering of those who are suffering political, economic, social, and religious oppression and those who are disadvantaged by a variety of afflictions.
Advent 2, Cycle A
All of the four texts selected for us for the Second Sunday of Advent in Series A call for changes to situations in which righteousness, justice, and peace will prevail. They suggest that these life situations will change and improve because people will change, because the leadership of the people will change, and most of all because God will act decisively to bring about change. The vastly improved situations hoped for in these texts will benefit all people who are open to God’s actions and to the presence of God in this world.
Advent 1, Cycle A
“Come! Let us walk in the light of the Lord!” This call from Isaiah 2:5 incorporates for us the essence of the four texts selected for the First Sunday of Advent, the beginning of this new Church Year. We are called by the Spirit of God through these texts to make, to proclaim, and to share on this day our commitment to God to be alert, thoughtful, actively involved People of God during these next twelve months. We are called to walk always in the “light of the Lord,” open to God in whatever ways God will come to us. As we begin a new Church Year, this is the day for us to be critically cleansing our lives and our institutions, both religious and secular.