The Second Sunday of Christmas Year B

The Second Sunday of Christmas

Jeremiah 31.7–14
Ephesians 1.3–14
John 1.1–18

At the heart of the Christian proclamation of God is the belief that before time, before creation, before the existence of anything but God, God is already love. God’s very nature is the love that flows out and returns, that gives and receives, that multiplies and unites. God is generosity and delight so overflowing that it wishes to share its perfect joy with others. The first stage of this sharing is the creation of the world. John’s Gospel radically restates the original biblical creation story in the light of the experience of Christ. We now know, John says, that that outgoing, creating, generating force that unleashes the world in the first place is the Son, the Word of
God. The Son channels God’s generous, overflowing love outward into the world.

But that is just the first stage. It is not in God’s nature to make the world just as a kind of plaything, to be observed with detached amusement. Within his own nature, God knows the pleasure of union, of being together, of complete sharing. And that is what God wills for what he has made...

Taken from Lectionary Reflections – Year B by Jane Williams