2nd Sunday of Christmas, January 4th, 2026

Sermon: 2nd Sunday of Christmas, January 4th, 2026

Text: Jeremiah 31:7-14, Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1:1-18

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

As we continue to celebrate the season of Christmas, we are reminded that God is the giver of every good gift, and most of all, He is the giver of the greatest gift of all: The Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ. Through Him, we are gathered together, embraced as Beloved children of God, and given new life. Christmas is about God embracing us fully in a way we could approach Him, and moreover, He showed up in such a way that allows us to embrace the whole world with love. Christmas is about the world changing on a hinge of hope, the hope that the light of God can never be extinguished, the fulfilment of His promises an ever-growing seed in our world, and that life will triumph over death. Goodness will overcome evil, our life in Christ is always an invitation to participate in the world renewed towards goodness and flourishing life.

Knowing this central message of Christmas, I was struck by the vision given to us by the prophet Jeremiah in our first reading. In many ways, it really hit home for me in the heart of my human experience, which perhaps some of you might share. Jeremiah is speaking to an exiled people, a people scattered to places far away from their homeland of Israel and Judea. They suffered from a historical trauma, a wound that was not yet healed. They were conquered by the Babylonians, and were pushed out from their home. Their most important symbols of spiritual life were destroyed, their whole existence was upended. A plant without roots dies out. Where can they find sustenance for themselves?

Who can they be or how can they exist in the absence of everything that made them who they were? And then taken into a strange land, where their way of life was challenged, where their neighbors and family members were scattered to different places, what gave them strength to hold on?

As they lived in those far away places away from home, they dreamt of the return, of their people restored to wholeness from all the past violences they had suffered. Living in exile was a constant test of preserving their own identity, of not losing who they were, of not disappearing from view and forgotten in the grave of oblivion. So they prayed to the God who reminded them of who they were in a strange land: “Save, O LORD, your people, the remnant of Israel.” The remnant were those who had not given up hope, those who kept their uniqueness alive, those who had not forgotten themselves. God gave Jeremiah the vision that would nurture the people, the promise that God would gather together all those who were scattered by the violence and return them home. God will restore the fields, He will bring families together again, life in the homeland will flourish once more, the people will dance again, they will sing again, they will smile again freely as they used to, for God is near to His people, as a Father is to a son. How could God forget he whom He loves? How could joy be far off when God restores them to wholeness? Their hope was rooted in their relationship to God, that their sense of self was secure in the promises of God for their wellbeing and wholeness. This prayer and this vision of the people Israel was a way for them to witness to the future that was in store, and to preserve and practice the ways that prepared them for the time God would bring them back.

When I think about these visions of the future, of these biblical yearnings, I can’t help but think of my own people, the people of Puerto Rico, and many other cultures who have large diasporas around the globe. Living in diaspora can often feel like living in exile. There are many circumstances for why people leave the home country, whether because of economic hardship, conflict, or any other reason, yet the experience is similar for people across different cultures. One feels a sense of alienation, and then one must anchor themselves in the unique practices and customs that remind them of who they are. If you know anything of the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York City, you might have heard of the phrase from nuyoricans: “Puerto Rico in my heart”. The Puerto Rican community in NYC resisted many injustices and marginalization by being reminded of their island identity, of dreaming that all their efforts and struggles in the concrete jungle of New York were to return to Puerto Rico stronger than they had left it. Every struggle was worth it, because they knew where they came from, and they came from a proud and resilient culture that is beautiful and dignified. Forgetting that fact meant a kind of death. Remembering a return to the island became a kind of shelter, something to look forward to as they worked relentlessly in a strange land away from home. As a Puerto Rican in diaspora myself, I feel myself to be part of this collective dreaming and yearning. When you go through the airport in San Juan, if you pay attention to the people around you, you can see all the images that make up a diaspora. You see parents tearfully waving goodbye to their sons and daughters, praying to God for them so that they may live their lives fully; you see the young couple, separated by distance and circumstance, embracing each other for as long as they can before one of them enters the gate

to their destination; and as those, so many more embraces, and kisses, and hugs, and prayers are lifted before that gate.

So indeed, when we think about what God’s Kingdom would look like, what God restoring us to wholeness and new life would look like, it looks like returning home. It looks like the fulfilment of every dream that flew to a far away land. It looks like the beauty of old memories resurrected to a new life, it is the laughing, singing, and dancing together again, it is the joy of family restored to wholeness again. It is the reconciliation and reparation with the past for the sake of a better tomorrow.

Truly, this vision from Jeremiah is a powerful reminder that part of the meaning of Christmas is that God is not absent from our experiences, but instead He is near. He dreams, weeps, struggles with us in our journey far away from home and then back again. Our sufferings are not the final point in the sentence. There is an ongoing story towards healing and receiving anew what was lost. To proclaim Jesus Christ is to affirm that God wills our wholeness, He wills for our return to joy, He wants to turn our sorrow into gladness. In Christ we have the powerful hope that we are gathered together from far away towards a joyful family reunion. We will get to see again every face we’ve wanted to see and catch up again. Christmas is the story of being brought together again by God and with God. No longer will we suffer separation, no longer is grace a far away reality, no longer will we wonder if love is present or not. In the face of Jesus Christ, the light and life of this world, we can trust that God is working out His goodness in us and for us. We are imbued with a living hope; I invite us to affirm as we

continue our walk of faithfulness in this year, to affirm Jesus in our hearts. To dream, yearn, and live out a life that proclaims Jesus restoring us to a flourishing and liberated life. Jesus in my heart is to feel our hearts returning to that homeland, God Himself, to return to the world God made for abundant life for every human being. The promise is given to every one, our mission is to not forget it. To keep Christ close to your heart, transforming how you see the world: with more compassion, more love, more truth. I pray we all might become great dreamers and enactors of the life God has given us in the face of Jesus.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, you are our homeland, in your face we see what we were meant for, and where we are heading towards. In You, we receive every good gift from above, In you there is our true life. Lead us back always into the joy of your Kingdom Come, that if there is anything that either separates us from our neighbors and our true identity, you may bring us back together in love and mercy. Thank you God, for being always nearer to us than we are to ourselves. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.