Welcome to Holy Textures, Year C, Season of Epiphany

Holy Textures is a spot for my musings on the various Gospel texts that come our way through the Revised Common Lectionary.

My goal is to provide timely, short, easy to use and thought-provoking background commentary for your sermon or bible study preparation.

It can be daunting to start planning for Epiphany while still in the midst of Advent Christmas, so I hope this post will find a space for sowing seeds for the season yet to come.

This year Epiphany falls on Sunday, January 6, which will provide an occasion for education about the lectionary and "12 Days of Christmas" as you explain why its January and we are still reading about the three magi.

Easter is later this year, which gives the opportunity for a stretch or "ordinary" Sundays to catch one's breath before launching into getting ready for Lent.  This means there are 8 Sundays following Epiphany before Ash Wednesday, March 6. This will give us time to sample Luke 3, 4, and 5 - with one detour into John (for reasons that escape my imagination).

Unfortunately it also means we miss the last two sections of Luke's version of the Sermon the Mount - texts that every Christian needs to hear every year in my not-so-humble opinion. So if I can be presumptuous, I recommend playing Epiphany in "Shuffle" mode, and at least every other year, work back from Transfiguration Sunday and include Epiphany 6, 7, and 8 regardless of the dates.

Year C, Season of Epiphany - 2019

We have observed his star at its rising

Epiphany of the Lord
January 6  or  May be used on the First Sunday of January
Matthew 2:1-12.   
"That this comet is understood to be a sign of the birth of a "child who has been born King of the Jews" is particularly frightening to Herod since HE is King of the Jews and this unknown child is a threat to him and his heirs." 

The Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove

Baptism of the Lord
First Sunday After The Epiphany
January 13, 2019
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.  
"Jesus' baptism is not about repentance. It is about his identity being publically, ritually re-rooted into God." 

When the host ran out of wine ...

Epiphany 2
January 20, 2019
John 2:1-11.  
"But since this is a sign and not a miracle, the point is not, 'Wow! How did that happen?' The point is, 'Wow! Who did that?'" 

Bring Good News to the poor

Epiphany 3
January 27, 2019
Luke 4:14-21.
"A passage like this always reminds me of Jonah. When the Spirit of the Lord shows up - run away! Because a God-sized blessing always comes with a God-sized mission."  

They took Jesus to a cliff to throw him off

Epiphany 4
February 3, 2019
Luke 4:21-30.  
"This, of course, will not be the last time words and wits will fail Jesus' opponents and they will resort to violence." 

He taught the crowds from a boat

Epiphany 5
February 10, 2019
If this is the final Sunday before Ash Wednesday, this reading may be replaced by Transfiguration Sunday below.
Luke 5:1-11.  
"We should also remember that this is the last time that Simon, James, and John will fish in the old way. Jesus is about to ask them to re-imagine what it means for them to be fishers - and to re-imagine who 'fish' might be. So the moral of this story is NOT, 'Let's keep doing what we have always done before and trust that one day God will fill our nets.'" 

Blessed are you who are poor

Epiphany 6
February 17, 2019
If this is the final Sunday before Ash Wednesday, this reading may be replaced by Transfiguration Sunday below.
Luke 6:17-26.  
"There are at least two sermons in today's text. One comforting and one possibly discomforting. Blessed indeed is the preacher with the courage to preach both." 

Do good to those who hate you

Epiphany 7
February 24, 2019
If this is the final Sunday before Ash Wednesday, this reading may be replaced by Transfiguration Sunday below. 
Luke 6:27-38.  
"The word used here for love, agape in Greek, does NOT mean romantic love, liking, or even friendship. What it does mean is whole-hearted, unreserved, unconditional desire for the well-being of the other. Expecting nothing in return." 

When the river burst against it, it immediately fell

Epiphany 8
March 3, 2019
If this is the final Sunday before Ash Wednesday, this reading may be replaced by Transfiguration Sunday below. 
Luke 6:39-49.  
"These sayings point to the impossible possibility of heaven on earth. They show us how God intends us to live together. But because this age is not living in the way God desires us, it means that opting to live God's way right now will require both wisdom and innocence; courage and humility." 
 

Not even in Israel have I found such faith

Epiphany 9
Not used this year.
If this is the final Sunday before Ash Wednesday, this reading may be replaced by Transfiguration Sunday below.  
Luke 7:1-10.
"It is crucial for our understanding of the Good News to recognize that "Good News" is not just a proclamation. It is also a response. It requires not only a Jesus, but also a centurion to be realized. And the centurion is both the model and the challenge for you and me." 

(c) Armando Alemdar Ara, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence 3.0

Transfiguration Sunday
March 3, 2019 
Luke 9:28-36, (37-43).  
"Jesus' response to the news that the father begged the disciples to cure his son but they could not is an insult felt all the more sharply because it is given in public."