000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

First Sunday after Christmas Day/Year A 11
angel and the heavenly host sing “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and
on earth peace among those whom he favors” (Luke 2:14). Peace, God’s
peace, is that to which we witness, for which we work, of which we sing
at Christmas, and for which we achingly long.
Commentators have worried over the claim that the “feet” of the messenger
are said to be “beautiful.” Some even claim that feet are repulsive.
This colossally misses the point. Any messenger who brings us the extraordinarily
good news of peace and deliverance is ipso facto beautiful. Our
culturally shaped notions of human beauty, those idealized photographs
of surgically enhanced, botoxed and then air-brushed people noted mainly
for superficiality, are in no meaningful way beautiful. But the wrinkled
face of a balding, gray-haired friend who has been honest and loyal through
the decades most certainly is. Isaiah’s messenger has run across the rocks
of the desert and the stones of city streets to announce: “the LORD has
comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem” (v. 9). His feet are
scarred and likely bleeding. They are beautiful.
Throughout Second Isaiah, the note of universality is struck, and so
here: “The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations
[Gentiles]; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God”
(v. 10). YHWH’s intention is that Israel’s well-being shall redound to all
people and that all people shall live with each other in relations of peace
and well-being. All people are given and called to participate. We see this
in Luke 2:31–32 in Simeon’s singing of God’s salvation “which you have
prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel” and in the visit of the Gentile
wise men from the east in Matthew 2:1–12. God is not a sectarian.
First Sunday after Christmas Day/Year A
Isaiah 63:7–9
This reading follows that from Isaiah in the second proper for Christmas
Day. There Isaiah dealt with a desolated people who had returned from
exile to find themselves in hard circumstances. Failure of hope sapped
the energy required to rebuild Jerusalem and Judea. In today’s reading,
the first three verses of an expression of grief that runs through 64:12,
Isaiah recalls God’s gracious activities on Israel’s behalf. These are all in
the past, as the text points out: “he lifted them up and carried them all the
days of old” (v. 9; emphasis ours). The people wanted to know: where is
God now?