January 1 gets attention for being the first day of the new year, but it’s also the festival of the Name of Jesus. Why? “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2:21). Eight days from December 25 is January 1.

How lovely to open a new year with the naming of the infant Jesus, looking not only to the year to come but to the consummation of all things, when “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:10)!

In this year of our Lord 2026, it’s exactly a “week of weeks” or forty-nine days from the Name of Jesus to Ash Wednesday on February 18. So in this edition of Book Recommendations, I’m making so bold as to recommend three of my own for this unique constellation of dates—and two of them are free!

Sermon on the Mount: A Poetic Paraphrase

Whether you’re following the Revised Common Lectionary or the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the Mass, you’re already in Year A, devoted to Matthew’s Gospel, which means that the Sunday readings for Epiphany season are drawn from the Sermon on the Mount (on January 25, February 1, February 8, and also February 15 for the Roman cycle but not the RCL: see below). Some years ago I discovered I had a hard time even hearing the Sermon on the Mount anymore; it was just too familiar. So, I started fiddling around with the Greek and this was the end result, a “poetic paraphrase” to reawaken my sensibilities to Jesus’ great sermon. Maybe it will do the same for you? You can download both the ebook and audiobook version for free from Thornbush Press. If you’d like a print copy for yourself—or as a study book for use in the congregation—you can order them at Amazon, Bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Lenten Postil on the Passion

This one came about from a different sort of Scripture-in-church problem. After a few years back in the pulpit, I realized that the most consequential part of the Gospel story gets shoved into Holy Week, and covers so much ground that it leaves little time for preaching. So over the course of four Lents at Tokyo Lutheran Church, I had us read our way slowly and carefully through the Passion starting right on the First Sunday of Lent. Holy Week was all the more deeply felt and believed after that kind of pilgrimage to the cross. I’ve collected my sermons from four Lenten traverses through each of the four Gospels, together with a proposed schedule for readings and accompanying Old Testament passages, in this new book. A “postil,” by the way, is a nice old term for a collection of sermons meant as aids for preachers and also for devotional reading. Whether you’re a pastor looking to structure the Lenten liturgical season around deeper attention to the Passion of our Lord, or a layperson wishing to do the same in your private devotions, you’ll find much here to help and direct you. This one is available only in ebook, but it is now and always entirely for free (which also explains the homemade, hand-drawn cover).

Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration

The Lutheran reformers placed the observance of the Transfiguration of our Lord on the last Sunday before Lent, which is how it ended up there on the calendar of the Revised Common Lectionary and ultimately as well on the Second Sunday of Lent in the Roman Lectionary. Catholics and Anglicans also observe it on the medieval date of August 6. I wrote this one to solve my own puzzlement about it: the Transfiguration is obviously of huge significance, but what exactly is the significance? Other than, you know, you have to go home to ordinary life after a great week of church camp? I didn’t even know of any serious theological works focusing primarily on the Transfiguration to understand the person and work of Jesus Christ. But, once I started tugging at the threads, a whole complex web of meaning started to reveal itself, to my immense delight. This book will cover you for at least seven observances of the Transfiguration, and probably a whole lot more. You can get the ebook or audiobook direct from Thornbush Press, or buy a print copy at Amazon, Bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Thanks and happy new year!