Overview

• Talk about Variety!

  Epiphanies don’t just happen in church—a sudden insight can lead to a “Eureka!” in scientific experiments, an “Aha!” in a detective’s casework, a “Checkmate!” in a fierce chess game, and even a self-satisfied “Yes!” in Sudoku, crosswords, or finding a set of lost keys. So, too, epiphanies about the true nature of Christ come in a variety of words, actions, and places in our gospel readings during the Sundays after Epiphany.

  First wise men from the east, then a dove from heaven and the voice of God, and now water into wine—all pointing to the glory and wonder of God-made-flesh. Just as we have been created and blessed with varieties of gifts, services, and activities, so too has God created and blessed us with varieties of epiphanies throughout human history. In our world that so often relies on an us-versus-them mentality, can we see the rich tapestry of differences as part of God’s glory? Will we be able to look past our traditions, our comfort zone, and our familiarities to see the glorious diversity of God’s revelation? Are we open to an epiphany in any form so that we can in fact “do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5)?

Overview 

Playgrounds still resound with “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” But those words ring hollow. As adults, and as children, we know only too well the power of words to do harm. In contrast, the scriptures for today point us to the word that bears hope, promise, and life. Human words can hurt or fail, but now we hear this holy word of wisdom, challenge, instruction, and hope that really does form us in God’s promise. Rather than words that tear down, we are invited by the prophets and Jesus into God’s living words with and among friends. Jesus, in coming home and attending the synagogue, reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus announces good news to those struggling economically on the fringes of society, hope to those who are imprisoned, healing to those without sight, a lifting of the burden from those who are weighed down or oppressed, and even the in-breaking of a holy year of favor. Standing in a tradition of prophets and priests who speak, engage, and teach God’s word, Jesus now offers one thing more—fulfillment. The words of those who dream and hope, who work for justice and mercy on behalf of God, are now true. Today as we look around and see people spending time speaking, reading, and even playing games with words, this is an opportunity to ground ourselves in the one full Word that bears life. This word counters sticks and stones and all that oppresses; Jesus address announces God’s liberating actions. This Word sounds promise to all who hear; it is an invitation to see God at work among God’s people.

Overview

Forty days after the birth of Christ we mark the day Mary and Joseph presented him in the temple in accordance with Jewish law. There a prophetess named Anna began to speak of the redemption of Israel when she saw the young child. Simeon also greeted Mary and Joseph. He responded to the presence of the consolation of Israel in this child with the words of the Nunc dimittis. His song described Jesus as a “light for the nations.”

Because of the link between Jesus as the light for the nations, and because an old reading for this festival contains a line from the prophet Zephaniah, “I will search Jerusalem with candles,” the day is also known as Candlemas, a day when candles are blessed for the coming year.

Overview 

“Go in peace, share the good news.” Week after week Christians gather together, hear the word proclaimed, share a meal, and are sent out to bear the good news of God in Christ Jesus to a hungry, needy world. Inside though, we wonder why God has entrusted such an important mission to people like us.

God’s prophets and apostles carried the same anxieties. Isaiah declares, “I am a man of unclean lips.” Paul asserts, “I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Peter responds to Jesus’ miracle of plenty by saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Yet, without question, God used these flawed and fragile human beings to proclaim God’s mercy and love.

In a world where we are constantly being told that we are insufficient—that we do not have enough, know enough, or matter enough—God’s trust in our capacities seems imprudent, even irrational. But notice, Jesus precedes a call to discipleship with a miracle pointing to God’s abundant provision, signaling that we will be given all we need.

Martin Luther writes in The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, “What I accept, I accept not on my own merits or by any right that I may personally have to it. I know that I am receiving more than a worthless one like me deserves; indeed, I have deserved the very opposite. But I claim what I claim by the right of a bequest and of another’s goodness” (Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, ed. Timothy Lull [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989], p. 302).

Jesus meets us at the shorelines of our own lives, going about our daily work, and calls us to lifelong discipleship. Caught up in God’s abundant grace, and fed out of that bounty, we are commissioned to go catch others.

Overview

A fundamental decision is placed before us this day: Will we choose the way of blessing or the way of woe? The death and resurrection of Jesus is the pivot on which the decision turns. To be in Christ means that we get planted by streams of water and are rooted among those who thirst for God’s reign. The mystery of our faith points the path to life: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.