On Christmas Morning

I would be remiss if I were to talk about Christmas without mentioning the red bicycle. The red bicycle was a Schwinn with 20 inch tires, the kind of bicycle that was soon to be in high demand for converting into a stingray with a banana seat and butterfly handlebars. At the time I had not ridden a bicycle and so pretty promptly my older brother was riding it around and around the driveway, but I did learn with some help and training wheels. That was one of the great Christmas presents. There were certainly others that at the time were more highly valued, but that was one of the most challenging, even daunting, to absorb.

Of course, the most daunting Christmas gift to absorb is the one we are all given this morning as we are every Christmas morning and that is the birth of Christ.

This morning, with the help of Linus and the Peanuts gang, we are reminded of the words we have just heard that we will hear again whenever we open the king James Bible, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, and listen to the words from the gospel of Luke chapter 2, that introduce us to the introduction of our savior into the world.

As Leo Tolstoy put it when describing another mother giving birth, this is the world's most solemn mystery now unfolding: when Mary, the mother of Jesus, in an unexpected accommodation, is giving birth to her firstborn son. 

Soon, according to some accounts, there would be a lot more of a fuss, but at the time, shepherds aside, and them the least of these the children of men, there was not much of a celebration. There was not much to mark this birth out from the birth of any other child.

His parents had some mysterious stories to be told, both by Joseph and by Mary,  and so did her cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah. 

I don’t think the stories had spread very widely by the time. This little child was born in Bethlehem, the city of David, a city, small yet not least among the cities of Judah, for in it was born this child who was to be king of the Jews and crucified as such.

I hope that isn’t jumping ahead too far in our story— it certainly isn’t jumping to the end, which is yet to be told or known or experienced.

And so we have the story which tells itself in our hearts, but also bears repeating for every Christmas and beyond.

Some people call the Episcopal Church a Christmas church because our emphasis is so much on the Incarnation; more than on the crucifixion which some Roman Catholics may be accused of dwelling upon too much, or on the resurrection and Easter, which are often the province of other denominations more inclined to look beyond Good Friday to the happy ending of the resurrection.

But we know the happy ending was there at the beginning, not just the "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" beginning, but the "in the beginning was the Word" beginning.

For Jesus, this little child, in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell comes for us, the fullest expression of God, of God’s will, of God’s grace, of God’s presence, of God’s love. that we can imagine or experience in our lives.

This child, yes, born 2000 and more years ago on the far side of the world in a small town, somehow becomes present to us and brings present to us the love of God, and that is what we celebrate today.

Merry Christmas.

​​ 

• Isaiah 9:2-7

• Titus 2:11-14

• Luke 2:1-14(15-20)

• Psalm 96

https://lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/Christmas/ChrsDay1_RCL.html

https://ctktucson.org/

"The world's most solemn mystery was now being slowly enacted." 

[Sounds like the Nativity... it's from "War and Peace", as Andrei's wife gives birth. (Vol. 2, Part 1, Ch. 8.)]

Sarah Hale

Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (October 24, 1788 - April 30, 1879)
Editor and Prophetic Witness

With the possible exception of the Lady anchoress at the church of St Julian in Norwich is there an Editor in the calendar of saints (here, in the 2008 revised edition of Lesser Feasts and Fasts)?

In the case of Sarah Hale probably it is her championing of women in ministry, building toward the modern (relatively) deaconess movement, that got her a place in modern saints calendaring. What makes her story more compelling to me is the editorial quality of her sanctity.

Editor of Ladies' Magazine. 1828-1836; Godey's Lady's Book, 1837-1877.

Who knew? Who knew that an editor could be a saint? Well I've met plenty, and yes, though mostly I express gratitude for their work and their personal demeanor rather than putting the two together. Perhaps I should. Perhaps I should. 

N.B. She is also noted for a 17 year campaign to establish a new national holiday, at length persuading Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to support the effort, for which we owe her Thanksgiving.

https://extranet.generalconvention.org/staff/files/download/19349

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/sara_hale.htm

Psalm 96
Jeremiah 30:17-19, 22
Philippians 1:27–2:2
Matthew 5:1-12

 

image of God

"Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples while judging ourselves by our best intentions, forgetting the image of God we should see in each other." (http://bbc.in/2yzpTh2) George W. Bush, on Thursday 19 October 2017 in New York.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness .... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

I’d like to thank President George W. Bush, a member of the United Methodist Church, for his comments providing insights into today’s gospel lesson. For he speaks about the image of God, and what is due to it, wherever it appears, under whatever guise, and his initial comment, too, exposes a real tyranny of the superficial that we see linked to an easy judgmentalism too often.

Indeed, the opponents, or crafty interlocutors, of Jesus, are up to something very like what the former president decries in his remarks given only last Thursday in New York. They sought to put Jesus in the very worst light and themselves in the best. We often do this casually; they did it with intent. They are not alone.

So to the lesson. Jesus, in context, is teaching in the Temple during the days leading up to Passover, and responding to the challenges of the established religious parties. Who in turn, it must be said, feel challenged by him! Even as Pontius Pilate was marching into the city from the Jaffa Gate (as conquerors do, then and now) the Lord entered by the Lion Gate on the far side of the town. Jesus rode down the hillside through olive gardens, as we know, and the people greeted him as he arrived, the very picture of the ancient desire of his people, the anointed one of God.

Anointed, it should be said, to do God’s purpose. Anyone, even Cyrus, the Persian king, could be “God’s anointed” in the sense that he was called to do God’s will. For Cyrus, to free the people of Israel from foreign bondage by an oppressive empire. Huh. In his case, Babylon.

Come to think of it, the Herodians and the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Romans themselves had reason, deep reason, to be perturbed by this “messianic” arrival.

God accomplished his purpose through a foreign king, Cyrus, and now through a Galilean, from a town of small note, Jesus of Nazareth.

The challenge begins, on the day after Jesus’ triumphant arrival in the Temple (Palm Sunday).

Is it lawful, or not, to pay taxes to the emperor?

Show me the coin.

And on that coin is the image of Caesar, surrounded by words of power: Son of God, Prince of Peace.

To use it is to worship him, in some sense; certainly to accept his hegemony.

But what are they themselves doing with that coin on the Temple mount? You know it would have to be exchanged for a Temple special coin to make an offering in the Temple. But there they have it.

So whose eikon, whose image, is this?

And then he gives his enigmatic, challenging riposte to their question.

Render - that is, give back - to Caesar what is his own, and to God…

Here is where George W. Bush comes in, if we follow him to the end of his sentence.

We too often forget the image of God that we should see in each other.

There it is: what belongs to God? Where is his image found - today? In you and you and you and me.

In each other, and those far from us, in miles or attitudes, or deeds or beliefs.

Them at their worst, we at our best - but those with best intentions, even at the center, are not enough. We are all in the circle - the circle of the love of God, of the making by God, of those stamped with his image.

The imperial coin, the Roman coin, has an image of one self-styled great; Caesar. Let there not be another.

For we are receiving the mark of the presence of God, the love that he bears for us and we are called to bear as we look upon each other.

That is the image of God, the mark of the Christian: the undeniable stamp of one who is loved, by God, and one who loves another even as they love themselves.

How we carry out this love in the world, how we show the stamp of that image, is the next challenge.

Are we up to it?

Isaiah 45:1-7

Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Matthew 22:15-22

Year A
Proper 24
RCL

October 22, 2017
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:35)

After 461 days...

Sometimes I feel like Mr. Pepys the witness of extraordinary events from a fortuitous vantage point. He climbed pillars or scaffolds to witness the return of the monarch. Tonight at the back of the room on the kiva-like benches of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, I witnessed (and participated in) the communal celebration of the

Final Sanctuary Prayer Vigil for Rosa

November 10, 2015

Opening/Canción de Apertura

            Pescador de Hombres, No. 721

Gathering Words of Welcome/

Palabras de Bienvenida

Psalm 96/Salmo 96

Sharing Words of Gratitude/

Compartiendo Palabras de Agradecimiento

Philippians 4: 4-9/Filipenses 4:4-9

Sharing Words of Blessing/

Compartiendo Palabras de Benedición

Laying on of Hands/Imposición de Manos

Song of Praise   We Will Go Out With Joy, No. 539

            Spanish Verse:

            Vamos saliendo con gozo en el alma;

            vamos saliendo ya

            Vamos saliendo con gozo en el alma,

            vamos saliendo ya

            Aleluya, vamos saliendo ya.

            Aleyua! Aleyua!

Spreading the Light/Compartiendo la Luz

Amen! Amen! Amen!

It was powerful. It was unexpected. In the course of things Alison Harrington the pastor welcomed us – and told us that tomorrow at eleven o’clock we were all welcome back for the public announcement and celebration of the end of Rosa’s confinement to sanctuary. “She is protected!” she cried. And may all those like her, undocumented, be likewise so.

Margo Cowan the lawyer was there and received due congratulations. Isabel Garcia from Derechos Humanos, Ilaa Abernathy from St. Michael’s Guatemala Project, … many familiar and new faces joined in joy in this celebration. “The movement is spreading.”

the people we are called to become

 

A centurion, commander of a hundred soldiers, is a man familiar with authority. This centurion sends a group of Jewish elders to Jesus, to vouch for him and make a request. He does not come himself, he says, out of respect. His request is socially correct – even since it comes through people who have lower social status than he in the Roman order, but in Jewish eyes are worthy to approach the Rabbi.

Master come and heal my boy, my servant.

Notice that they, like he, are making a request, not for themselves, but for some one else. Every one in this community is looking out for someone else’s welfare, not their own.

But then the second group of messengers arrives: friends of the centurion, his social equals, who bear the message for him.

I am not – I the Roman official, the benefactor of the Jewish people – I am not worthy to receive you under my roof. But only say the word: let my servant be healed.

The centurion knows authority: he has it. And he had thought, at first, he knew whom he was addressing. But then it began to dawn on him just who he was dealing with.

He recognizes an authority like no other. And he is not trying to make a deal; he has nothing to offer. All he can do is trust – and let go, leave the matter in Jesus’ hands.

It is not about giving up his own authority, but about humility, charity, obedience, servanthood, gratitude, and awe.

At first he acted within his authority, in the context of the community, for a purpose greater than himself. So far he is laudable, a good man. But then he goes farther. He puts his trust, his faith, in Jesus, without condition.

This will not be transactional – Jesus does not, cannot owe him anything, and he can give Jesus nothing worthy in return. He is asking for grace; it is an act of faith.

The faith of the centurion is built on the faithfulness of God toward humankind, faithfulness represented in Jesus. That faith is not conditional, and it is not misplaced.

Awe, reverence, obedience, humility, joy, and peace – these are the fruits of this faith.

The centurion recognized in Jesus authority like no other. It is not something you can hold onto for yourself. Jesus himself did not hold onto anything. It is not that kind of universe. He himself shows us the way: putting faith in the Father, trust absolutely, that all shall be well, in the Father’s hands.

...

The church cannot become again what it used to be, but it can become the church it is called to become. We cannot, not any one of us, be again what we once were but we can become the people we are called to become.

A church is a community in which we can experience that transformation, the becoming what we are called to be, in the company of friends, and to participate in the work of the Holy Spirit, for eventually that transformation will embrace the whole world.

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever.  Amen.    (Ephesians 3:20, 21)

In those days...

In those days, Rome was strong, and young in its strength. It had a ruler so powerful he was called a living God, king of kings, and prince of peace. He was called the Emperor Augustus, and he was Emperor of all the world we knew.

His Legions, each five thousand strong, tramped the straight roads of empire, leveling high places and raising the low before them, arrow-straight through the heart of the nations, ruling them all and binding them all, in the darkness of imperial power. He closed his fist in his might, his boots trod across the world.

And he made peace: the peace of Rome, the quiet of empire, the velvet night of unchallengeable authority.

There was no questioning who was in charge… of this world that we knew.

Who were we?

We were just ordinary workingmen trying to make a living – shepherds, staying out in the fields all night, tending the sheep, guarding the flock, keeping watch.

We had seen a lot of strange things, at night, out in the fields. We had our share of bear stories, wolf stories; we'd fought lions.

But we had never seen anything like this. Right in the middle of an ordinary night, right in the middle of an ordinary job, something broke through from a realm beyond our sight.

A choir of heavenly messengers filled our eyes. Unto you, they sang - unto you!

Salvation comes, the king is born, and God has fulfilled his promise. Go and see: go into the town and look for a baby, an ordinary baby, all wrapped up and ready for bed, but sleeping in a manger – that's him.

That BABY is God incarnate: a baby lying in a manger, gently breathing, his folks standing by. This is the sign of God that everyone has been waiting for. This is the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Son of David, Christ Almighty – don't you want to tell somebody about it?

We're no angels. We're just shepherds, working the night shift on a far hillside. The mother herself saw no angels tonight, only us -- bringing the message, confirming what she knew in her heart, that today, in the City of David, is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

He had come, the Savior, the Messiah we were looking for – but not as we were looking. He came to us as a helpless infant, a baby: the hope of the world wrapped in swaddling cloths.

And this child, born to marginal people in a marginal town in a marginal province on the distant edge of the greatest empire the world had ever seen, quietly moved to the center of life. Humble and obedient, Joseph and Mary became more exalted than Herod had ever been; and their son, their Son, was in his infancy more powerful – though invisible in his majesty – than any Caesar would ever become.

Somehow, through this child, peace and righteousness and justice began to work their way in the world, the world that – after all – God, not Herod, had made. And into God’s world he sent his own Son, who became for us the Bread of Life.

We were ordinary workingmen, leading a workingman’s life. Into the very fields where the sheep lay came the extraordinary messengers, bearing glad tidings.

“On earth peace, good will toward men!”

Our lives were changed. Even after, later that night, as we trudged back up the frosty hill-paths to our flocks, we knew that the dawn that was breaking that morning was a new day indeed, for us, for our people, and for the whole world.

How then on an ordinary day are you to recognize the Christ Child? How is he born in your life – in your town?

You go about your business in your ordinary way – and yet: something extraordinary is happening even now, in your heart, in your life, in your will.

Christ is being born. God has sent his Redeemer to you, to establish the way of peace, to bring righteousness and peace to the world he has made, to the person he has made, to you.

Unto you is born this day a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

What child is this who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping, whom angels greet with anthems sweet while shepherds watch are keeping? This, this, is Christ the King; whom shepherds guard and angels sing: haste, haste, to bring him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary!

JRL+


Fred B. Craddock et al., Preaching through the Christian Year (Trinity Press International)

Herbert O'Driscoll, The Word Today (Anglican Book Centre)

Hugh Keyte & Andrew Parrott, eds., The Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford, 1993) No. 53.

+

workingman's life

In those days…

Rome was strong, and young in its strength. It had a ruler so powerful he was called a living God, king of kings, and prince of peace. His name… didn’t matter: he was called Caesar Augustus, and he was Emperor of all the world we knew.

His Legions, each five thousand strong, tramped the straight roads of empire, leveling high places and raising the low before them, arrow-straight through the heart of the nations, ruling them all and binding them all, in the darkness of imperial power. He closed his fist in his might, his boots trod across the world.

And he made peace: the peace of Rome, the quiet of empire, the velvet night of unchallengeable authority.
There was no questioning who was in charge… of this world that we knew.

Who were we?

We were just ordinary workingmen trying to make a living – shepherds, staying out in the fields all night, tending the sheep, guarding the flock, keeping watch.

We had seen a lot of strange things, at night, out in the fields. We had our share of bear stories, wolf stories; we'd fought lions.

But we had never seen anything like this. Right in the middle of an ordinary night, right in the middle of an ordinary job, something broke through from a realm beyond our sight.

A choir of heavenly messengers filled our eyes. Unto you, they sang - unto you!

Salvation comes, the king is born, and God has fulfilled his promise. Go and see: go into the town and look for a baby, an ordinary baby, all wrapped up and ready for bed, but sleeping in a manger – that's him.

That BABY is God incarnate: a baby lying in a manger, gently breathing, his folks standing by. This is the sign of God that everyone has been waiting for. This is the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Son of David, Christ Almighty – don't you want to tell somebody about it?

We're no angels. We're just shepherds, working the night shift on a far hillside. The mother herself saw no angels tonight, only us -- bringing the message, confirming what she knew in her heart, that today, in the City of David, is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

He had come, the Savior, the Messiah we were looking for – but not as we were looking. He came to us as a helpless infant, a baby: the hope of the world wrapped in swaddling cloths.

And this child, born to marginal people in a marginal town in a marginal province on the distant edge of the greatest empire the world had ever seen, quietly moved to the center of life. Humble and obedient, Joseph and Mary became more exalted than Herod had ever been; and their son, their Son, was in his infancy more powerful – though invisible in his majesty – than any Caesar would ever become.

Somehow, through this child, peace and righteousness and justice began to work their way in the world, the world that – after all – God, not Herod, had made. And into God’s world he sent his own Son, who became for us the Bread of Life.
We were ordinary workingmen, leading a workingman’s life. Into the very fields where the sheep lay came the extraordinary messengers, bearing glad tidings.

“On earth peace, good will toward men!”

Our lives were changed. Even after, later that night, as we trudged back up the frosty hill-paths to our flocks, we knew that the dawn that was breaking that morning was a new day indeed, for us, for our people, and for the whole world.

How then on an ordinary day are you to recognize the Christ Child? How is he born in your life – in your town?

You go about your business in your ordinary way – and yet: something extraordinary is happening even now, in your heart, in your life, in your will.

Christ is being born. God has sent his Redeemer to you, to establish the way of peace, to bring righteousness and peace to the world he has made, to the person he has made, to you.

Unto you is born this day a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

What child is this who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping, whom angels greet with anthems sweet while shepherds watch are keeping? This, this, is Christ the King; whom shepherds guard and angels sing: haste, haste, to bring him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary!

JRL+

Fred B. Craddock et al., Preaching through the Christian Year (Trinity Press International)

Herbert O'Driscoll, The Word Today (Anglican Book Centre)

Hugh Keyte & Andrew Parrott, eds., The Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford, 1993) No. 53.

St Alban's Episcopal Church, Edmonds, Washington
December 24, 2007.

unto you a child is born

We were just ordinary men trying to make a living - out in the fields all night, guarding the flock, keeping watch. We had seen a lot of strange things, at night, out in the fields. We had our share of bear stories, wolf stories; we'd fought lions.

But we had never seen anything like this. Right in the middle of an ordinary night, right in the middle of an ordinary job, something broke through from a realm beyond our sight.

A choir of heavenly messengers filled our eyes. Unto you, they sang - unto you! Salvation comes, the king is born, God has fulfilled his promise. Go and see: go into the town and look for a baby, an ordinary baby, all wrapped up and ready for bed, but sleeping in a manger -- that's him.

That BABY is God incarnate: a baby lying in a manger, gently breathing, his folks standing by. This is the sign of God that everyone has been waiting for. This is the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Son of David, Christ Almighty -- don't you want to tell somebody about it?

We're no angels. We're just shepherds, working the night shift on a far hillside. The mother herself saw no angels tonight, only us -- bringing the message, confirming what she knew in her heart, that today, in the City of David, is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

How then on an ordinary day are you to recognize the Christ Child? How is he born in your life -- in your town?

You go about your business in your ordinary way -- and yet: something extraordinary is happening even now, in your heart, in your life, in your will. Christ is being born. God has sent his Redeemer to you, to establish the way of peace, to bring righteousness and peace to the world he has made, to the person he has made, to you.



JRL+
Christmas, Christmas Eve, Luke 1:1-20, John 1:1-14 (15-18), Isaiah 9:2-7, Titus 2:11-14,Isaiah 62:6-7, Psalm 96, Psalm 97, Psalm 98, Titus 3:4-7, Hebrews 1:1-4

Herbert O'Driscoll, The Word Today (Anglican Book Centre)

Fred B. Craddock et al., Preaching through the Christian Year (Trinity Press International)

St Alban's Episcopal Church
Edmonds, Washington

gifts at Cana

First, I'd like to apologize for my wife's absence this morning; second, I'd
like to take advantage of it. Sarah could not be with us this morning because
she has duties at the cathedral today, in children's chapel and in Sunday
School. The advantage for me is that I can talk about her a little bit. We just
got married a year and a half ago, and we are still learning a lot of new things
about each other, and how to get along, every day.

Last night, for example, I was pondering over how spiritual gifts and wedding
gifts relate to each other. What do the gifts of the Spirit that Paul talks
about have to do with the wedding feast at Cana, and Jesus' miraculous
provision? So we took a break from sermon writing, and Sarah unwrapped the last
of the Christmas presents. They were a lot like our wedding gifts.

They were gifts of - and for - hospitality. There were two chafing dishes to
keep things warm, with matching Pyrex for the baking. There was an oven rack
gizmo for potlucks, and some other kitchen gadget. All of these were gifts Sarah
applauded, and was glad to have. And all of them she will use in exercising her
own gifts, of hospitality and care.

Later this week we hope to attend a special reception for Paul Kennel, the
president of World Concern, the relief agency that Sarah works for, saying
farewell and thanks after twenty-five years of service. Sarah has the gift of
showing up for these things - honoring watershed occasions in people's lives.
Indeed, that is how we met: under the eaves of St Paul's parish hall in
Healdsburg, attending the ordination of mutual friends (Roger and Libbie Weber).
So there is a connection after all between spiritual gifts and weddings.

The words from the book of the prophet Isaiah, our OT reading for this morning,
proudly proclaim that God's vindication of his holy city of Jerusalem will be
like a wedding: that the Lord will show forth his love for the city of his
kingdom, and it will be called My Delight is in Her, and its land Married. Your
God, the prophet says, will rejoice over you.

The psalm gives our response: to proclaim the good news of his salvation from
day to day, to declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all
peoples -- for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Let the heavens
rejoice and the earth be glad.

Paul in writing to the church at Corinth tells them how they can all come
together as a family, bringing their various gifts to the table - to the feast
that is the church's celebration of God's. None of these gifts may make much
sense by itself; together, they build up the body of Christ.

And, as one pastor pointed out in The Christian Century, the gifts of the Spirit
and the fruits of the Spirit that we enjoy in fellowship are a lot like the
gifts we enjoy in marriage - listening to one another, interpreting what each
other is saying, hospitality, thoughtfulness - as well as particular functional
gifts, like teaching or administration. Each of our practical contributions to
the work of the people is of value. Eventually, as Paul reminds us, all will
fall away except LOVE.

And love is what Jesus is all about. He and his friends, new or old, have
arrived at a party back in his home place - and the host is running out of wine.
Big embarrassment. Didn't Jesus bring any with him? Could he take a run to the
store and bring more?

Mary puts him on the spot. He does not want to tip his hand - he doesn't think
this is the time or the place - but, just like the man in the parable who opened
his door to persistent knocking, he does respond to the request, and provides
what is needed for hospitality. He does a little more than this.

Presumably he could have gathered the lads together and gone off to buy more
wine. Or he could have made a simple, quiet effort. Instead, he takes the
occasion - and begins to shine forth, revealing who he is, and who God is.

There stand the jars for purification. It only takes a cupful of water, we are
told by William Willimon, to purify a hundred. But Jesus has the servants fill
six stone jars - with over a hundred gallons of water in total - enough to
purify the whole world. Enough to purify the whole world. And he doesn't then
recommend tee-totaling. How about some nice water instead? Nope. He provides an
overabundance of wine that is hilarious. Jesus provides enough wine, we would
think, to host a party that will last until the end of time.

And that is exactly what he is up to.

God sent the prophets, over the centuries, to his people Israel. But he saved
the best for last. The crown of the prophets, his own Son, was Jesus. Jesus, who
shows, even more than any who came before, that the steadfast love [hesed]
between God and humankind, and the love between a man and a woman in marriage,
are the same steadfast love. God is like a bridegroom, loyal and rejoicing in
his beloved, as he contemplates his people.

We his people are like a family. We are called together, to stick together,
through good times and bad. ... Even when somebody stinks up the family car with
cigar smoke, or takes out the trash a day too late. Even when somebody tells us
the truth about themselves, and makes us realize that real love involves
accepting them as they really are.

Even when we are angry with each other. We are to stay together, loving each
other, using the gifts God has given us, and most of all, rejoicing in the
celebration that began that day at Cana, and will extend into eternity. The
feast of God's presence of among us.

JRL+

CEpiphany2 BCP
January 14, 2007
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Willows, California

Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 96 or 96:1-10
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11


___________________
Lawrence Wood, "Living by the Word: Wedding Gifts", The Christian Century,
January 9, 2007, page 16.

Lawrence Wood, "Living by the Word: Wedding Gifts", The Christian Century,
January 9, 2007, page 16.

William Willimon, "Some Saw Glory", sermon on John 2:1-11 preached 1/18/1998 at
Duke University Chapel.
http://www.chapel.duke.edu/worship/sunday/viewsermon.aspx?id=93

John R. Donahue, S.J., "A Different Kind of Inauguration 1", America, Vol. 184
No. 1, January 8, 2001.
http://www.americamagazine.org/SundayScripture.cfm?articletypeid=40&textID=959&i
ssueID=312