Preaching Paths, 1st January 2023

Sally A. Brown, Professor of Preaching and Worship Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary

While the gracious host of this blog takes a well-deserved “time out” for other pressing projects, I provide here a few reflections for preaching on the First Sunday after Christmas (Year A).

Preaching options are many on 1 January 2023; one can choose the First Sunday after Christmas readings; yet also worth considering are those for the Feast of the Holy Name, or texts suggested for New Year’s Day. Ultimately, a preacher’s text choice(s) may well depend on his or her context. For sake of space, I consider here only the three possible Gospel texts.

Gospel choices include Matthew 2:13-23 (Herod’s murderous raid on infants in Bethlehem), Luke 2:15-21 (the visit and testimony of the shepherds, as well as Jesus’ circumcision and naming), or Matthew 25:31-45 (the parable of the division of the sheep and goats). Their thematic foci are distinctive, yet central to the action in each of these pericopes are persons who would have been among the least regarded in ancient Palestine.

The story of Herod’s terroristic attack on infants in Matthew 2 is hard to hear at any time of year; yet, in social contexts where the abuse of power and violence against the innocent is a central concern, this text may be exactly the right point of departure on this first Sunday and first day of a new year. It can prompt a congregation to consider which populations in its immediate or national context most needs them to speak and act to shield the innocent from abuse or exploitation.

Luke’s story of the visit of the shepherds to Bethlehem also points us to the marginal in society. Shepherds were at the bottom of the social pecking order in ancient Palestine. That they would be the first to hear heavenly news of the earthly wonder of God-with-us  (Luke 2:8-14)is highly significant. This is exactly the outbreak of “good news to the oppressed” of which Isaiah speaks (Isaiah 61:1-3; cf Luke 4:18-19). God shows up in the world in the most humble circumstances, and it is rough-hewn shepherds who come to honor him. Many NT scholars suggest that shepherds were despised as “unclean,” since their occupation prevented them from observing Jewish purity rules. (In Book I of his “Politics” Aristotle famously takes a dim view of shepherds, calling them the ‘idlest’ of men because they simply follow their flocks [1256a 32-35].) Yet, it is also worth noting that Israel’s most beloved monarch, King David, was “taken from the sheepfolds” (Psalm 78:70).

Indeed, in Matthew 25, those honored for their active care for the sick, the naked, and those in prison are designated “sheep.” This text is apt for the first Sunday of the year. It suggests that if it is Jesus we seek to know and follow, we are most likely to find him among the sorts of people this world routinely neglects.