The lessons for each Sunday in the church year proclaim God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Also derived from a Sunday’s texts are lessons for the Christ-inspired and Christ-like life of God’s people. The comments here will help you find hunger-related threads –sermon starters – among the themes of this day’s texts. (We're presuming you have already done your exegetical work on the texts.) God bless your proclamation (and teaching) of what is most certainly true!

In verse 9 of this passage the author recalls God’s presence through God’s personal saving help rather than the intervention of a messenger or angel. The image we are left with is one of an accompanying and a compassionate God (contrasting the image of the divine warrior in the first six verses of this chapter). God feels the distress and responds personally. While honoring the holiness of God, we can imagine the author envisions communities who would respond similarly on behalf of those who are in need.

In this way, the light that comes from the glory of the Lord (Is. 60) is also reflected by the community of faith. The community that remembers the gracious deeds of God and recalls the abundance of God’s steadfast love is on the way to becoming a community of presence in the lives of those who need to know it. One of the marks of God’s people is that they are “children who will not deal falsely” (Is. 63:8). In other words, they are a people who care about justice and see that it is done.

This passage is a softball for those looking for a way to talk about atonement theory. For those who might not appreciate the details of atonement theory, the first Sunday after Christmas provides an opportunity to reflect on the Incarnation and what God’s action means for our lives. The emphasis in this passage is God, through Christ joining us in the flesh. The actions that take center stage are Christ’s destruction of the power of death and liberation of those who are held in fear of death. Christ’s presence is seen by the author as suitable evidence for trust in God’s redemption. There is no mention of the purpose of Christ’s suffering, only that in his suffering, the redeeming and sanctifying work takes place.

The final verse in this passage also speaks to Christ’s accompaniment, “he is able to help those who are being tested.” Notice that suffering and testing aren’t rationalized, but instead we are reminded of the present help of Christ. Like the reading from Isaiah, we see that presence in the midst of suffering is how the help of Christ is realized in the world.

Matthew 2:13-23
Readers do not have much time to dwell on the theological profundity of the Incarnation, as the action quickly moves to the young refuge family in flight. Jesus’ presence in the world is not immune to the worst humanity has to offer. The danger of murderous rulers and the instability of life on the run are realities that are still experienced in the world and threaten the livelihoods of many. While part of Matthew’s agenda here is to place Jesus within Israel’s prophetic history, we can also see God’s association with the marginalized and threatened of the world.