May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Epiphany 4
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 28, 2001
TEXT: Luke 4:21-32 – Then he (Jesus) began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth . . . . . . When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.
ISSUE: - God is often not welcomed among his own people, when the world’s culture prevails. This event appears to be an acted out parable provided by Luke. Jesus is the Word that has come to the world, but the world is not always ready to receive him. His own people are caught up in their cultural way of thinking that prevents Jesus from being seen for what he is, Honorable Lord, in spite of his humble background. Neither can they appreciate his broadened mission to all people. Our fixed cultural thinking of caring for ourselves first, and our sense of scarcity may prevent us today from a broadened sense and call to wider mission and compassionate concern for God’ world and Kingdom.
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Today’s story of Jesus returning to his hometown is a continuation of the Gospel reading from last Sunday. And today’s part of the story is a sharp contrast to last week. Some review is important to our overall understanding of this passage. Jesus had visited his hometown of Nazareth, and had been invited to do a reading in the Sabbath synagogue worship. He selects a passage from Isaiah and reads: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” In this quote, Jesus is defined as both prophet and healer, one with messianic character. He is proclaiming a new dignity, a profound forgiveness and love from God, and will open the minds eye to new enlightenment and ways of seeing things as God sees. At first, you get the distinct impression that the people are amazed and wonder at him. They pay close attention to him.
In the second part of the reading for today, there is a complete turn around on the part of the crowd. They go from amazement at his “gracious words,” or another translation amazement over his “words of grace,” to a slur “Is not this Joseph’s son?” Then Jesus turns to them and says, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you well say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’
In the culture of this time, so very unlike our own, it was not appropriate for Jesus who was the son of the carpenter Joseph to be anything else but a carpenter. It was totally inappropriate to become more than you father. It was inappropriate to leave your family. This action was dishonorable. And if you were a folk healer, your powers were to be kept for your own local family. Most people in a small town of this period were likely all to be inter-related in some way. So the assumption that Jesus should cure himself is an indication that he should shape up himself and remain in Nazareth, and be an honorable carpenter, and if he is a healer to heal his own in Nazareth.
It is likely that Jesus saw himself as a healer and a prophet in the likeness of say John the Baptist. He had a religious calling. (However, I do believe that it is very unlikely that Jesus saw himself as Son of God, or even the Messiah for that matter.) Obviously his prophetic role was rejected in and among his own people in Nazareth. Jesus goes on to answer his critics in terms of the wide spectrum of his ministry. Even the prophet Elijah had been sent to the non-Jewish Widow of Sidon and performed the restoration of her dead son. While there were many lepers in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, God sent him to heal Naaman the Gentile of his leprosy. Jesus is making the point that God does not just work among his own people but the ministry is to all people.
In response to Jesus, the community is filled with rage, and they lead him to the brow of the hill outside the town, and are going to push him off the cliff. Somehow, he slips away from them and goes on to Capernaum, and again the people there are astounded because he speaks with such authority. How Jesus just slips away from this angry raging crowd is curious. I believe this is a clue that the story is probably not a literal story, but rather an acted out parable of Luke and the early church. Jesus is perceived by Luke, and his community as the presence of God come among his people. The spirit of God is upon him. He has come to forgive, to change and enlighten, to give new sight to the world. People both want and need that hope, but at the same time are often trapped, paralyzed, by the way the world thinks. It is not just that “A prophet is not welcomed in his own hometown,” but that God himself in the person of Jesus Christ is not welcomed among his own people.”
Jesus relatives and hometown folk of Nazareth are locked into a culture that has trouble being liberated. It can’t see or doesn’t want to see God acting in and through Jesus. They are locked into his being a carpenter. They resent that he is healer in Capernaum and has not healed his own and stayed with his own. They resist the enlightenment that God is at work in the world beyond Nazareth, that the mission of Jesus and the mission of the church is intended to be a broad worldwide mission. The Israelite nation had great difficult with the call it had to be a light to the nations of the world, and maintained its self-centeredness, and the broader sense of mission gets hurled off the cliff.
There are churches today that see mission or extension of God’s grace beyond them selves like an adjunct to the church’s overall program. First, we are all often inclined to say is that we must take care of our own first. First we have to take care of the children in our Sunday school, before we can do something for many of the other suffering and homeless children around the world. Many churches see their pastor as a person they possess and pay as an internal chaplain to the inner circle of members. Some churches even go so far as to limit what their clergy can preach about concerning controversial issues. It is not uncommon for congregations to avoid any kind of controversial issues to be faced so as not to create turmoil or dissention within the ranks. One of the familiar phrases people use to describe their congregations in recent years is the term “family.” We are a “family church.” That sounds nice and it’s a quite popular description, but does it imply. ‘Family’ implies mother, father, and children. How do single people, divorced people, widows, and widowers fit into the ‘family church?’ We have to be extraordinarily careful about what we mean when we say a church is a ‘family church,’ or attempt to define a church by title. It may give the impression that we are exclusive, ingrown, self-centered, and isolated from the greater and larger community. Is the church community merely a community that takes care of its own?
In the world today we need to be careful that we are not becoming trapped into the world’s own logic and way of thinking. We all learned that we have to learn how to take care of ourselves. We have to grow up to take care of ourselves, our own, and be self-made, men and women. After all, “God takes care of those who take care of themselves.” Incidentally, there is no such passage in the Scriptures either Hebrew or Christian that says that. It’s a worldly way of thinking. The facts are that we are all desperately in need of God, and of one another. No one can survive ultimately alone. We live in an interconnected world.
We have also come to live in a scientific world. We are all so impressed with our technology and our need to be able to see it, feel it, hear it, touch it, prove it mentality. Needless to say the accomplishments of the scientific world are incredible. What we can do with computers, the Internet; what the medical profession has been able to accomplish is just miraculous in it’s genius. But if we function in a world of science alone, we once again become isolated from other states of altered consciousness. A poet, a dancer, the music of an orchestra or choir, a painter and works of art supply still other dimensions of feeling, emotion, beauty, and presence of the holy, of the other, of transcendent things beyond ourselves. Did you ever think that maybe all the wonders that the world of science and technology bring to us came out of prayer, longing for healing, longing for God, for love, healing, hope, out of creative imaginations and the arts. People who had the ability to dream dreams and have visions and sought the ways of God, the mercy, the compassion of God, who broke out of the molds of the past to reach for a grander more wonderful world, like what Jesus himself did, give new hope, enlightenment, a breaking away from old worldly molds that are stifling, superstitious, self-centered entrapments of the past.
The world traps many of us middle class Americans into thinking that in order to have honor and status in the community we need to have a lot of things, material things. We have to have big houses, and good educations, money for paying for those educations, and several cars in the garage. Security is the name of the game. Yet we forget so easily that many of our parents, or grandparents went through periods of depression when material things became quite limited. Material possessions were not what gave success, and success was in fact lost. Rather it was relationships, friends, family, God and faith in God that brought them spiritually through difficult times. These relationships were what was the stuff that gave them meaning and hope. We fear scarcity and not having enough in the presence of a God of great grace and bounty.
Jesus was impressive and many people marveled at him. But they did not like it when he tried to crack open their isolation and their thinking the way the world thought. Then they sought to dump him off the cliff, according to Luke. Perhaps today, the inclusiveness of God of love who reaches out to all people may still face being dumped by the traditions, ways and the way the world measures success, importance, honor and status. But just like the mustard seed, that annoying obnoxious plant, that weed, it keeps cropping up here and there calling us all to the possibility of thinking differently, to think as God thinks, and not as the world thinks, and for the church to be nothing less than a mission to all.
Sunday, January 28, 2001
Sunday, January 21, 2001
Epiphany 3
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Epiphany 3
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 21,2001
See also: EPIPHANY 3C - 1998
TEXT: Luke 4:14-21 – He (Jesus) unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” . . . . . . . Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
ISSUE: - Luke’s account of Jesus in the community synagogue marks the Inaugural Speech of Jesus new ministry. The Spirit of God is upon him. He shall give new insight to the blind. He will release the captives from the bondage of demons and oppression. He brings good news to the poor, the last, least, and lost, proclaiming The Year of Jubilee, forgiveness and mercy. The Inaugural Speech also sets the theme for the work of the church as the body of Christ in the world today. We have a mission with Christ.
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This Third Sunday of Epiphany is the one to which every Layreader in the church looks forward. It’s so exciting to read all those names of significant leaders of Israel who stand with Ezra. Difficult as that reading is, it is a significant one in the history of the Jewish people. It tells of a time when the nation, which has been in exile, is allowed to return home. Standing where the destroyed temple had been, Ezra calls the people together along with all of the nation’s significant leaders as listed in the passage and begins to read the Torah, the Mosaic Law of God. The people weep for joy at their restoration, the renewed hope and restored faith. It is a new beginning for them.
The Nehemiah reading is appropriately positioned with the reading of Jesus who attends the synagogue of his home town to announce another new beginning for the people of God. According to Luke, Jesus attends the synagogue on the Sabbath. Our own worship on a Sunday is strikingly similar to the worship in the synagogue. There was the reading of the Shema: “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is One. You shall worship the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” We do the same in Rite I. There was then prayers, and reading from the Torah, or Mosaic Law, a reading from the prophets, a sermon, and a blessing.
Jesus is assigned as one who can read on the Sabbath that he attends to read the selection from the Prophet Isaiah. He opens the scroll and reads a selection from what we know as Isaiah 61:1-2. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord.” This selection is Jesus’ Inaugural Address. It is the keynote proclamation of the ministry that is to begin. His ministry shall be a mission.
Notice that the ministry and mission is clearly marked by God. It is not his own. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and has anointed me.” For the people first hearing this message the anointing imagery by the spirit would have reminded them of how their kings, like King David had been anointed by the prophet and the Spirit of God. It is mindful of a great day in the life of the nation, and now a new day has come again in the anointing of Jesus and his ministry by the Spirit of God. The time has come to rebuild a nation of disenfranchised peoples.
The ministry and mission described in the Isaiah passage which Jesus selected as his Inaugural address deals essentially with three things. First is his announcement of Good news to the poor, the announcement of the Year of the Lord’s favor. In this period 98% of the population was poor. A meager 2% was considered to be the rich. Keep in mind too that poor in the Christian Scriptures does not only refer to limited funds. The poor were people who had no power, no standing, minimal honor and status. Widows, children, slaves, the landless were all considered to be the poor with little respect, honor, or dignity. The sick, lame, blind, deaf, injured were also considered unworthy and cursed. Jesus comes to restore the dignity to a forlorn people. In the Hebrew Book of Leviticus 25:18-55, there is a reference to The Year of the Lord, or The Jubilee Year. Every seven years there was supposed to be a time of re-accounting and restoration. The poor who had made loans were to be charged no interest, and in some cases the loan forgiven. Person who had become slaves because of their poverty were to be freed and restored to their homes and ancestral property. A person who had lost his land as a result of financial difficulty after seven years had the right to buy it back. What Jesus implies from the Isaiah passage is that he brings good news to the poor and proclaims a new release from their lack of respect and indignity. He proclaims a new forgiveness and new hope, and new opportunity for the people of God to reclaim their rights as the people of God. He brings renewed respect and dignity releasing and proclaiming the grace, the graciousness of God that the culture had greatly obscured by corrupted and unjust world powers.
Also involved in the message was freedom from oppression and release from evil powers. The ministry of Jesus was one which repeated heals, restores, and sets people free from the demonic forces. Remember that in the ancient hierarchy of things was God at the top, angels, and spirits. Then came humans and subhuman creatures. People believed they could be possessed and cursed by the spirits. The message of Jesus is that through faith in God, the human spirit itself is lifted up by the grace and love of God, and the power of evil cannot claim what belongs to God. Jesus is liberation from obsession and degradation of the human spirit. Thus, you have a ministry and mission of Jesus that is healing, exorcising evil spirits and that gives new hope, love, forgiveness, honor and status to the disenfranchised. Blessed, honorable are the poor and those who mourn, because claims them for his own.
The focus of the Isaiah passage is the recovery of sight for the blind. (See John Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus, Cycle C, p.25) The aim and focus of Jesus’ ministry was to call people to change and new insights. He brought about a clear insight into what God was like. He challenged people to see things differently, to have respect for one another, to value women, to value people who were different, to expand horizons to see God as Father not of just me, or of my race, or of my persuasion, but to see God as loving Father, The Abba, “daddy” of us all. Jesus intended to give new insights into seeing the importance of the law, but through the eyes of compassion and mercy. So many of the parables and sayings of Jesus challenged the way people saw things: The Prodigal Son and the Loving Father, The Good Samaritan revealing the potential of people different, and often hated by ourselves as good neighbors. The first being last and the last first was a whole new insight that Jesus proclaims in a world of eye for eye, tooth for tooth, survival of the fittest. No one stands outside the redemptive power of God.
Needless to say, I think - I hope, is that Jesus’ Inaugural Address, Proclamation, or Sermon was addressed to the early Church. Surely Luke includes it for that very reason. A church without mission, meaningful purpose, in joining the mission of Christ is just another worldly club. The mission of the church is to be constantly reaffirming, and readjusting when it must its insights. It must be checking its insights and visions to be in keeping with what God in Christ is calling us to be and to do. Lets be well reminded that over the years the church sometimes supported and condoned, or if not supported took very a very apathetic approach to such issues as slavery. For a long time we were blind to the nation’s prejudices toward African Americans and Native Americans. The church excluded women from its ministries and positions of significant leadership. We are still sensitive to issues of gender and the homosexual issues of our age. One of the significant issues facing the Christian Church today is its anti-semitism, which we find in Luke and John, and in ourselves.
By and large we are a people enriched by a wonderful understanding of God, that comes to us in the ways and the teachings of Jesus Christ. We are called upon as St. Paul stresses in the reading from 1Corinthias (12:12-27) to be the body of Christ, a body in unity of purpose and mission. Human body’s often need check-ups and our eyesight checked. We need to be the members, the arms and legs of the mission of Christ in the world today. We have a new hope, a wonderful message, and work to be done. Our efforts in caring for the hungry, homeless people and children, our concern for people suffering from disasters in the world around us are a significant part of our mission. We must also root out our prejudices and seek ways to be more Christian or Christ-like in our lives and endeavors, to join with Christ in that servant priesthood by virtue of the anointing given to us at our baptism. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. When any of us is weak and withdrawn, we weaken the whole body. When we are healthy, strong, and our sights are in focus, then we serve Christ and God’s world. It is such and honor, such a unique calling, to be the people of Christ in God’s world.
Yesterday we heard the inaugural speech along with its hopes and dreams for our nation. Today we hear another one, this one from the Anointed One in whom the Spirit of God dwells. It is no less important and even more important that we embrace our mission as a people, and as a church in the service of Jesus Christ our Lord.
SEASON: Epiphany 3
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 21,2001
See also: EPIPHANY 3C - 1998
TEXT: Luke 4:14-21 – He (Jesus) unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” . . . . . . . Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
ISSUE: - Luke’s account of Jesus in the community synagogue marks the Inaugural Speech of Jesus new ministry. The Spirit of God is upon him. He shall give new insight to the blind. He will release the captives from the bondage of demons and oppression. He brings good news to the poor, the last, least, and lost, proclaiming The Year of Jubilee, forgiveness and mercy. The Inaugural Speech also sets the theme for the work of the church as the body of Christ in the world today. We have a mission with Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This Third Sunday of Epiphany is the one to which every Layreader in the church looks forward. It’s so exciting to read all those names of significant leaders of Israel who stand with Ezra. Difficult as that reading is, it is a significant one in the history of the Jewish people. It tells of a time when the nation, which has been in exile, is allowed to return home. Standing where the destroyed temple had been, Ezra calls the people together along with all of the nation’s significant leaders as listed in the passage and begins to read the Torah, the Mosaic Law of God. The people weep for joy at their restoration, the renewed hope and restored faith. It is a new beginning for them.
The Nehemiah reading is appropriately positioned with the reading of Jesus who attends the synagogue of his home town to announce another new beginning for the people of God. According to Luke, Jesus attends the synagogue on the Sabbath. Our own worship on a Sunday is strikingly similar to the worship in the synagogue. There was the reading of the Shema: “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is One. You shall worship the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” We do the same in Rite I. There was then prayers, and reading from the Torah, or Mosaic Law, a reading from the prophets, a sermon, and a blessing.
Jesus is assigned as one who can read on the Sabbath that he attends to read the selection from the Prophet Isaiah. He opens the scroll and reads a selection from what we know as Isaiah 61:1-2. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord.” This selection is Jesus’ Inaugural Address. It is the keynote proclamation of the ministry that is to begin. His ministry shall be a mission.
Notice that the ministry and mission is clearly marked by God. It is not his own. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and has anointed me.” For the people first hearing this message the anointing imagery by the spirit would have reminded them of how their kings, like King David had been anointed by the prophet and the Spirit of God. It is mindful of a great day in the life of the nation, and now a new day has come again in the anointing of Jesus and his ministry by the Spirit of God. The time has come to rebuild a nation of disenfranchised peoples.
The ministry and mission described in the Isaiah passage which Jesus selected as his Inaugural address deals essentially with three things. First is his announcement of Good news to the poor, the announcement of the Year of the Lord’s favor. In this period 98% of the population was poor. A meager 2% was considered to be the rich. Keep in mind too that poor in the Christian Scriptures does not only refer to limited funds. The poor were people who had no power, no standing, minimal honor and status. Widows, children, slaves, the landless were all considered to be the poor with little respect, honor, or dignity. The sick, lame, blind, deaf, injured were also considered unworthy and cursed. Jesus comes to restore the dignity to a forlorn people. In the Hebrew Book of Leviticus 25:18-55, there is a reference to The Year of the Lord, or The Jubilee Year. Every seven years there was supposed to be a time of re-accounting and restoration. The poor who had made loans were to be charged no interest, and in some cases the loan forgiven. Person who had become slaves because of their poverty were to be freed and restored to their homes and ancestral property. A person who had lost his land as a result of financial difficulty after seven years had the right to buy it back. What Jesus implies from the Isaiah passage is that he brings good news to the poor and proclaims a new release from their lack of respect and indignity. He proclaims a new forgiveness and new hope, and new opportunity for the people of God to reclaim their rights as the people of God. He brings renewed respect and dignity releasing and proclaiming the grace, the graciousness of God that the culture had greatly obscured by corrupted and unjust world powers.
Also involved in the message was freedom from oppression and release from evil powers. The ministry of Jesus was one which repeated heals, restores, and sets people free from the demonic forces. Remember that in the ancient hierarchy of things was God at the top, angels, and spirits. Then came humans and subhuman creatures. People believed they could be possessed and cursed by the spirits. The message of Jesus is that through faith in God, the human spirit itself is lifted up by the grace and love of God, and the power of evil cannot claim what belongs to God. Jesus is liberation from obsession and degradation of the human spirit. Thus, you have a ministry and mission of Jesus that is healing, exorcising evil spirits and that gives new hope, love, forgiveness, honor and status to the disenfranchised. Blessed, honorable are the poor and those who mourn, because claims them for his own.
The focus of the Isaiah passage is the recovery of sight for the blind. (See John Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus, Cycle C, p.25) The aim and focus of Jesus’ ministry was to call people to change and new insights. He brought about a clear insight into what God was like. He challenged people to see things differently, to have respect for one another, to value women, to value people who were different, to expand horizons to see God as Father not of just me, or of my race, or of my persuasion, but to see God as loving Father, The Abba, “daddy” of us all. Jesus intended to give new insights into seeing the importance of the law, but through the eyes of compassion and mercy. So many of the parables and sayings of Jesus challenged the way people saw things: The Prodigal Son and the Loving Father, The Good Samaritan revealing the potential of people different, and often hated by ourselves as good neighbors. The first being last and the last first was a whole new insight that Jesus proclaims in a world of eye for eye, tooth for tooth, survival of the fittest. No one stands outside the redemptive power of God.
Needless to say, I think - I hope, is that Jesus’ Inaugural Address, Proclamation, or Sermon was addressed to the early Church. Surely Luke includes it for that very reason. A church without mission, meaningful purpose, in joining the mission of Christ is just another worldly club. The mission of the church is to be constantly reaffirming, and readjusting when it must its insights. It must be checking its insights and visions to be in keeping with what God in Christ is calling us to be and to do. Lets be well reminded that over the years the church sometimes supported and condoned, or if not supported took very a very apathetic approach to such issues as slavery. For a long time we were blind to the nation’s prejudices toward African Americans and Native Americans. The church excluded women from its ministries and positions of significant leadership. We are still sensitive to issues of gender and the homosexual issues of our age. One of the significant issues facing the Christian Church today is its anti-semitism, which we find in Luke and John, and in ourselves.
By and large we are a people enriched by a wonderful understanding of God, that comes to us in the ways and the teachings of Jesus Christ. We are called upon as St. Paul stresses in the reading from 1Corinthias (12:12-27) to be the body of Christ, a body in unity of purpose and mission. Human body’s often need check-ups and our eyesight checked. We need to be the members, the arms and legs of the mission of Christ in the world today. We have a new hope, a wonderful message, and work to be done. Our efforts in caring for the hungry, homeless people and children, our concern for people suffering from disasters in the world around us are a significant part of our mission. We must also root out our prejudices and seek ways to be more Christian or Christ-like in our lives and endeavors, to join with Christ in that servant priesthood by virtue of the anointing given to us at our baptism. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. When any of us is weak and withdrawn, we weaken the whole body. When we are healthy, strong, and our sights are in focus, then we serve Christ and God’s world. It is such and honor, such a unique calling, to be the people of Christ in God’s world.
Yesterday we heard the inaugural speech along with its hopes and dreams for our nation. Today we hear another one, this one from the Anointed One in whom the Spirit of God dwells. It is no less important and even more important that we embrace our mission as a people, and as a church in the service of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sunday, January 14, 2001
Epiphany 2
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Epiphany 2
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 14, 2001
TEXT: John 2:1-11 – The Wedding Feast at Cana
When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guest have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
ISSUE: - This miracle (trick?) is intended to reveal the glory of God in Jesus Christ. It is quite a festive event loaded with symbolism and innuendo for the people first hearing the story. Essentially it is about transformation possible through Jesus Christ. He is the catalyst for change and hope. Embracing his transforming power we look to a world that will end racism and hatred in our world. Jesus broad ministry to Jew, Samaritan, and Gentiles, his acceptance and raised standard of woman in his own society tells of his transforming hope for his world. This Sunday is set aside by Bishops Ihloff and Rabb as Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, commemorating his non-violent Christian efforts to put and end to racism.
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The story of Jesus changing water into wine at the marriage feast at the wedding in Cana of Galilee is one of the precious stories of the Christian Scriptures in the Gospel of John. Like so many of the story it is full of meaning, symbolism, and innuendo.
Jesus along with some of his disciples, along with his mother have been invited to a wedding. Normally, family were the basic guests at a wedding, with a few friends. The fact that Mary sort of insists that Jesus intervene when the wine supply was running low would presume that Mary was a close relative to whomever was giving the wedding feast. To run out of wine at a wedding feast would have been a dreadful disgrace. Mary gives every indication that Jesus can save the day, and spare the family dishonor. Jesus is reluctant seemingly trying as men did in these times to disassociate himself from their mothers. But, nevertheless, he does in fact save the day changing water into wine. Is John’s gospel suggesting that if you are in the family of Christ, you can not know dishonor?
It is suggested that this first miracle in the Gospel of John reveals Jesus as something of a trickster, but a trickster in a good sense. Many of the prophets and significant characters of the Hebrew Scriptures had an element of cleverness and trickery involved in their ministries. Moses for one had a kind of magic staff that could turn into a snake to frighten the Pharaoh. He could turn water to blood, by dipping the staff in the Nile River. He could even part the Red (Reeds) Sea by holding it up, for the people to cross. Think of Elijah, who on Mt. Carmel douses the wood of his sacrifice with water, and yet lightning comes down and set it ablaze to the great amazement of King Ahab and Jezebel. Even Jacob, who becomes Israel, the Father of the nation, was always tricking people. He has his Uncle Laban’s sheep stand and breed before some branches and the offspring become speckled, and he then has an entitlement to them, leaving Uncle Laban with a lesser breed (Gen.30:25f). Thus, Jesus, like his great and honorable ancestors, says John can turn water into wine, if he so chooses to reveal the glory of his ministry and of God. Now, his hour is about to come for the redemption of God’s people.
Another interesting point of this story is that we really do not know who the bride and groom are in this story. Clearly, Jesus himself is the central character. Just prior to this story of the wedding feast, John the Baptist on seeing Jesus says of him (John1:29f), “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Couple this statement with the words of John who wrote Revelation (19:5f): “Praise God! For the Lord our Almighty God is King! Let us rejoice and be glad; let us praise his greatness! For the time has come for the wedding of the Lamb and his bride has prepared herself for it.” In his onw way John’s Gospel is revealing that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and who has become incarnate in wedded with the world in order that the world should be transformed, like water transformed into wine.
Clearly the story is also about an abundant transformation. We do have to be careful here. When Jesus begins the process of filling the waters jars, these jars are purification jars used for purification rites before the Jewish people when they returned to their home, or before their eating, as required by their purification laws. John may well be indicating that the old Temple purification system was not effective in changing lives that needed change and transformation. The teachings of Jesus would be more effective in bringing about internal change of the human heart. We must not assume by this use of the purification jars, that Jesus was rejecting Judaism. (John’s Gospel does have an element of being anti-Semitic in it, and we as enlightened Christians must rise above that. This anti-Semitism is due largely to the fact that at the time John was writing, Christians were being excommunicated for Jewish synagogues. So the early church had something of an ax to grind. Keep in mind Jesus was always faithful to his Judaism and his Jewish heritage.) Jesus was providing the abundance of hope and change for his world. Changing 180 gallons of water into wine was an awesome amount of wine. It was more than any wedding needed that invited the whole village. Like in the story of the Feeding of the 5,000 where everyone gets fed and there are 12 baskets leftover, indicating the abundance of great love in a world of spiritual poverty, Jesus here is providing that abundance of spiritual renewal and hope for the world.
If the wedding were performed on a Wednesday, the traditional day of weddings, then the miracle would have taken place on the Sabbath – wedding celebrations often went on for days. The miracle is a festive event celebrating with feasting and joy the new hope for the world in and through Jesus Christ who comes with abundance of joy and love to transform the world. What did they do with all that wine? We’re still drinking it today at every Eucharist. His love and call and hope for a transformed world still abounds. This miracle is a testimony to Isaiah’s Messianic Banquet of well strained fine wine through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus clearly redefined what was honorable. He honored the peasants and all who were disenfranchised by and unjust world. He gave place to both Jews and Gentiles, and Samaritans. He saw the people of the world as the children of God, and brothers and sisters of one another. These concerns were surely a transformation of the culture of that time.
We know, all of us that there are things in our lives that need and our world that need transforming. One of the key things that need to be accomplished in our own time is continuing to respect the dignity of all people and to put an end to the prejudices that separate us from one another. Bishop Ihloff and Bishop Rabb have asked all Episcopal Churches in the Diocese of Maryland, on this Sunday, to make another firm effort to bringing an end to racial discrimination in our Diocese and in our culture. They ask us to remember the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, whose non-violent efforts have done much to end racism already, and to continue in his devotion anew to the princlples of equality, fairness, and an end to bigotry that our world may be joyfully transformed into the brotherhood and sisterhood of Jesus Christ.
THE BISHOP’S LETTER IS READ. END WITH PRAYER:
Almighty God, who by the hand of Moses thy servant didst lead they people out of slavery, and didst make them free at last: Grant that thy Church, following the example of thy prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of thy love, and may strive to secure for all thy children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever. Amen.
SEASON: Epiphany 2
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 14, 2001
TEXT: John 2:1-11 – The Wedding Feast at Cana
When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guest have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
ISSUE: - This miracle (trick?) is intended to reveal the glory of God in Jesus Christ. It is quite a festive event loaded with symbolism and innuendo for the people first hearing the story. Essentially it is about transformation possible through Jesus Christ. He is the catalyst for change and hope. Embracing his transforming power we look to a world that will end racism and hatred in our world. Jesus broad ministry to Jew, Samaritan, and Gentiles, his acceptance and raised standard of woman in his own society tells of his transforming hope for his world. This Sunday is set aside by Bishops Ihloff and Rabb as Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, commemorating his non-violent Christian efforts to put and end to racism.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The story of Jesus changing water into wine at the marriage feast at the wedding in Cana of Galilee is one of the precious stories of the Christian Scriptures in the Gospel of John. Like so many of the story it is full of meaning, symbolism, and innuendo.
Jesus along with some of his disciples, along with his mother have been invited to a wedding. Normally, family were the basic guests at a wedding, with a few friends. The fact that Mary sort of insists that Jesus intervene when the wine supply was running low would presume that Mary was a close relative to whomever was giving the wedding feast. To run out of wine at a wedding feast would have been a dreadful disgrace. Mary gives every indication that Jesus can save the day, and spare the family dishonor. Jesus is reluctant seemingly trying as men did in these times to disassociate himself from their mothers. But, nevertheless, he does in fact save the day changing water into wine. Is John’s gospel suggesting that if you are in the family of Christ, you can not know dishonor?
It is suggested that this first miracle in the Gospel of John reveals Jesus as something of a trickster, but a trickster in a good sense. Many of the prophets and significant characters of the Hebrew Scriptures had an element of cleverness and trickery involved in their ministries. Moses for one had a kind of magic staff that could turn into a snake to frighten the Pharaoh. He could turn water to blood, by dipping the staff in the Nile River. He could even part the Red (Reeds) Sea by holding it up, for the people to cross. Think of Elijah, who on Mt. Carmel douses the wood of his sacrifice with water, and yet lightning comes down and set it ablaze to the great amazement of King Ahab and Jezebel. Even Jacob, who becomes Israel, the Father of the nation, was always tricking people. He has his Uncle Laban’s sheep stand and breed before some branches and the offspring become speckled, and he then has an entitlement to them, leaving Uncle Laban with a lesser breed (Gen.30:25f). Thus, Jesus, like his great and honorable ancestors, says John can turn water into wine, if he so chooses to reveal the glory of his ministry and of God. Now, his hour is about to come for the redemption of God’s people.
Another interesting point of this story is that we really do not know who the bride and groom are in this story. Clearly, Jesus himself is the central character. Just prior to this story of the wedding feast, John the Baptist on seeing Jesus says of him (John1:29f), “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Couple this statement with the words of John who wrote Revelation (19:5f): “Praise God! For the Lord our Almighty God is King! Let us rejoice and be glad; let us praise his greatness! For the time has come for the wedding of the Lamb and his bride has prepared herself for it.” In his onw way John’s Gospel is revealing that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and who has become incarnate in wedded with the world in order that the world should be transformed, like water transformed into wine.
Clearly the story is also about an abundant transformation. We do have to be careful here. When Jesus begins the process of filling the waters jars, these jars are purification jars used for purification rites before the Jewish people when they returned to their home, or before their eating, as required by their purification laws. John may well be indicating that the old Temple purification system was not effective in changing lives that needed change and transformation. The teachings of Jesus would be more effective in bringing about internal change of the human heart. We must not assume by this use of the purification jars, that Jesus was rejecting Judaism. (John’s Gospel does have an element of being anti-Semitic in it, and we as enlightened Christians must rise above that. This anti-Semitism is due largely to the fact that at the time John was writing, Christians were being excommunicated for Jewish synagogues. So the early church had something of an ax to grind. Keep in mind Jesus was always faithful to his Judaism and his Jewish heritage.) Jesus was providing the abundance of hope and change for his world. Changing 180 gallons of water into wine was an awesome amount of wine. It was more than any wedding needed that invited the whole village. Like in the story of the Feeding of the 5,000 where everyone gets fed and there are 12 baskets leftover, indicating the abundance of great love in a world of spiritual poverty, Jesus here is providing that abundance of spiritual renewal and hope for the world.
If the wedding were performed on a Wednesday, the traditional day of weddings, then the miracle would have taken place on the Sabbath – wedding celebrations often went on for days. The miracle is a festive event celebrating with feasting and joy the new hope for the world in and through Jesus Christ who comes with abundance of joy and love to transform the world. What did they do with all that wine? We’re still drinking it today at every Eucharist. His love and call and hope for a transformed world still abounds. This miracle is a testimony to Isaiah’s Messianic Banquet of well strained fine wine through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus clearly redefined what was honorable. He honored the peasants and all who were disenfranchised by and unjust world. He gave place to both Jews and Gentiles, and Samaritans. He saw the people of the world as the children of God, and brothers and sisters of one another. These concerns were surely a transformation of the culture of that time.
We know, all of us that there are things in our lives that need and our world that need transforming. One of the key things that need to be accomplished in our own time is continuing to respect the dignity of all people and to put an end to the prejudices that separate us from one another. Bishop Ihloff and Bishop Rabb have asked all Episcopal Churches in the Diocese of Maryland, on this Sunday, to make another firm effort to bringing an end to racial discrimination in our Diocese and in our culture. They ask us to remember the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, whose non-violent efforts have done much to end racism already, and to continue in his devotion anew to the princlples of equality, fairness, and an end to bigotry that our world may be joyfully transformed into the brotherhood and sisterhood of Jesus Christ.
THE BISHOP’S LETTER IS READ. END WITH PRAYER:
Almighty God, who by the hand of Moses thy servant didst lead they people out of slavery, and didst make them free at last: Grant that thy Church, following the example of thy prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of thy love, and may strive to secure for all thy children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever. Amen.
Sunday, January 7, 2001
Epiphany
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Epiphany
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 7, 2001
TEXT: Luke 3:15-16,21-22 – An a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
ISSUE: - Jesus’ ministry begins with his baptism. It is essentially his birth, and he is claimed by God the Father. It is also important to note that Jesus is baptized in the Jordan, a symbolic place of new beginning for this people. He is baptized along with all the people. Jesus begins his ministry among the people of God bringing about a new beginning for them. Jesus with the church now begins the work of Christmas, opening the eyes that are blind, bringing the prisoners from the dungeon of darkness, becoming a light to the nations.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When the song of the angel is stilled
When the star in the sky is gone
When the Kings and princes are home
When the shepherds are back with the flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry
To release the prisoner
To rebuild the nations
To bring peace among brothers
To make music in the heart. By Howard Thurman.
Today marks the first Sunday in the church’s Epiphany Season. Epiphany means “to make manifest.” It is time to let Christ shine in our hearts and in our lives, to let him be the light for the nations of the world, as well as for our selves.
The Gospel reading tells of Jesus baptism. It marks the beginning of his ministry. It might even be perceived as a kind of ordination. Jesus goes to the prophet John the Baptist who is baptizing in the Jordan River. The Jordan River was a symbolic place for the Jewish people of this time. It was the place where they had centuries before crossed over into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. “Joshua” incidentally is another form of the name of “Jesus” meaning “God saves.” In this appropriate place, Jesus is baptized after many other people, tax collectors, sinners, soldiers and the like. After Jesus is immersed and comes up out of the water, the heavens are opened. The God’s Spirit descends upon him as if it were a dove, and there is a voice which says, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
What you have in this scene is really a kind of birth scene. Jesus is born again. Just as we all are carried in the water of our mother’s womb and are born, so Jesus is lifted up out of the water. What was essential to any child being born in this time was that there be a father present to claim the child as his own, and who took responsibility for accepting the child into his family. A child without a father in these days was a nothing with no status or honor in the society. Here Jesus is claimed by God the Father with the blessing of the Spirit, and the voice, which proclaimed: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” It is from this point and in this event that Jesus begins his ministry. His ministry is to the blind, the deaf, the lame, and those imprisoned by an oppressive burdensome culture and alienated from God.
The baptism of Jesus is another birth story, at least in Luke and Matthew it is. In the oldest and most basic Gospel of Mark it is essentially the only birth story. Jesus is the honorable saving Son of God.
What is also important in this story, is that Jesus is baptized along with others. He is Son of God, and yet not separated from other people who are looking to renew, repent, change their lives with John the Baptist’s baptism. Again it is important to appreciate that it is not important to believe that Jesus was born, but that He was incarnate; he came in the flesh sharing the human form of humanity, and entered fully into the human condition with all that was good and all that was bad about the human condition. While appreciated as Son of God, Jesus is at the same time fully aware and immersed into the human condition with all of its sin, pain and suffering. Then the ministry begins. He is Son and Servant of God.
For the people first hearing this story and for those experiencing it, the coming of the new Joshua or Jesus was for them a kind of fulfillment of Isaiah’s scripture. In the reading today from Isaiah 42:1-9, commonly known as one of the Servant Songs of Isaiah, the servant is described as a non-manipulative, non-forceful presence that opens the eyes of the blind, sets the prisoners free from darkness, and is a light for all the nations of the world. Yet, it is important for us to understand that Isaiah was not necessarily speaking of just one individual character who is the Servant. Isaiah may well be meaning that the nation Israel, her/himself was to be God’s servant in the world bringing peace and hope, and enlightenment from God to all people of the world. However, the nation never quite lived up to that expectation. What is important for the Christian Community is that Christ came as a Servant from God who did bring to all who turned to him, a healed spirit and acceptance, hope, and an inner peace that came from an appreciation of God as Love and Forgiveness.
Thus, we see Jesus Christ as Son of God and Lord of our lives. He is the Servant of God who has entered into the human condition and is the one who understands our humanity with its needs and ways. He comes to us to bring the enlightenment and the way of God in our lives. At the same time we are as Christians baptized into his way of life, called to share in that ministry and spirit of servanthood, to join with him in being the light to the nations of the world.
For us to be baptized without a sense of mission and servanthood is to miss the point of baptism. It is appropriate to see Jesus as Son of God. But that sonship is revealed by a significant expression of care, compassion, and life giving concern for others. The same is true of our own baptism. Our baptism declares to us that we are the Sons and Daughters of God. And God is indeed pleased with all who turn to him in faith. But our baptism also calls for seeing Christ as the head and our selves as the body of Christ at work in the world. We embrace the fullness of God. We pray and worship and partake of the Lord’s Supper for strength and encouragement, so that we can proclaim the God News of God in Christ, and seek and serve all people loving our neighbors as ourselves. Work and strive for justice and peace, respecting the dignity of every human being in fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Together we begin a new year. In the Epiphany, missionary, Season we might well want to reflect on what our specific ministries with Christ are going to be this year. What specifically will we be doing that serves the common good or meets some special human need of other people, of the environment, of helping to restore human dignity. This kind of reflection must always be the concern of any congregation and its vestry that is worthy of the name of being Christian servants in the world. Our bonding together as a community with a genuine sense of fellowship, community with a servant mission is the calling of the church in the world today.
Today, we are baptizing still another person into the community. It is her being born again into the fellowship, partnership with Jesus Christ. Once again God proclaims through this sacrament: “You are my daughter, Jade Adele; the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” She joins the family of God, and all of us as fellow partners and Christians, her parents, her God-parents, this congregation must be mindful of our calling to incorporated her into the body of Christ and lead her into the way of caring compassionate servanthood, and a love of God, and God’s world.
With the Epiphany Season, with our Baptism, and with Jade Adele’s, and as we all renew our Baptismal Covenant once again, the work of Christmas begins;
To find the lost,
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry
To release the prisoner
To rebuild the nations
To bring peace among brothers
To make music in the heart. By Howard Thurman.
SEASON: Epiphany
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 7, 2001
TEXT: Luke 3:15-16,21-22 – An a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
ISSUE: - Jesus’ ministry begins with his baptism. It is essentially his birth, and he is claimed by God the Father. It is also important to note that Jesus is baptized in the Jordan, a symbolic place of new beginning for this people. He is baptized along with all the people. Jesus begins his ministry among the people of God bringing about a new beginning for them. Jesus with the church now begins the work of Christmas, opening the eyes that are blind, bringing the prisoners from the dungeon of darkness, becoming a light to the nations.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When the song of the angel is stilled
When the star in the sky is gone
When the Kings and princes are home
When the shepherds are back with the flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry
To release the prisoner
To rebuild the nations
To bring peace among brothers
To make music in the heart. By Howard Thurman.
Today marks the first Sunday in the church’s Epiphany Season. Epiphany means “to make manifest.” It is time to let Christ shine in our hearts and in our lives, to let him be the light for the nations of the world, as well as for our selves.
The Gospel reading tells of Jesus baptism. It marks the beginning of his ministry. It might even be perceived as a kind of ordination. Jesus goes to the prophet John the Baptist who is baptizing in the Jordan River. The Jordan River was a symbolic place for the Jewish people of this time. It was the place where they had centuries before crossed over into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. “Joshua” incidentally is another form of the name of “Jesus” meaning “God saves.” In this appropriate place, Jesus is baptized after many other people, tax collectors, sinners, soldiers and the like. After Jesus is immersed and comes up out of the water, the heavens are opened. The God’s Spirit descends upon him as if it were a dove, and there is a voice which says, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
What you have in this scene is really a kind of birth scene. Jesus is born again. Just as we all are carried in the water of our mother’s womb and are born, so Jesus is lifted up out of the water. What was essential to any child being born in this time was that there be a father present to claim the child as his own, and who took responsibility for accepting the child into his family. A child without a father in these days was a nothing with no status or honor in the society. Here Jesus is claimed by God the Father with the blessing of the Spirit, and the voice, which proclaimed: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” It is from this point and in this event that Jesus begins his ministry. His ministry is to the blind, the deaf, the lame, and those imprisoned by an oppressive burdensome culture and alienated from God.
The baptism of Jesus is another birth story, at least in Luke and Matthew it is. In the oldest and most basic Gospel of Mark it is essentially the only birth story. Jesus is the honorable saving Son of God.
What is also important in this story, is that Jesus is baptized along with others. He is Son of God, and yet not separated from other people who are looking to renew, repent, change their lives with John the Baptist’s baptism. Again it is important to appreciate that it is not important to believe that Jesus was born, but that He was incarnate; he came in the flesh sharing the human form of humanity, and entered fully into the human condition with all that was good and all that was bad about the human condition. While appreciated as Son of God, Jesus is at the same time fully aware and immersed into the human condition with all of its sin, pain and suffering. Then the ministry begins. He is Son and Servant of God.
For the people first hearing this story and for those experiencing it, the coming of the new Joshua or Jesus was for them a kind of fulfillment of Isaiah’s scripture. In the reading today from Isaiah 42:1-9, commonly known as one of the Servant Songs of Isaiah, the servant is described as a non-manipulative, non-forceful presence that opens the eyes of the blind, sets the prisoners free from darkness, and is a light for all the nations of the world. Yet, it is important for us to understand that Isaiah was not necessarily speaking of just one individual character who is the Servant. Isaiah may well be meaning that the nation Israel, her/himself was to be God’s servant in the world bringing peace and hope, and enlightenment from God to all people of the world. However, the nation never quite lived up to that expectation. What is important for the Christian Community is that Christ came as a Servant from God who did bring to all who turned to him, a healed spirit and acceptance, hope, and an inner peace that came from an appreciation of God as Love and Forgiveness.
Thus, we see Jesus Christ as Son of God and Lord of our lives. He is the Servant of God who has entered into the human condition and is the one who understands our humanity with its needs and ways. He comes to us to bring the enlightenment and the way of God in our lives. At the same time we are as Christians baptized into his way of life, called to share in that ministry and spirit of servanthood, to join with him in being the light to the nations of the world.
For us to be baptized without a sense of mission and servanthood is to miss the point of baptism. It is appropriate to see Jesus as Son of God. But that sonship is revealed by a significant expression of care, compassion, and life giving concern for others. The same is true of our own baptism. Our baptism declares to us that we are the Sons and Daughters of God. And God is indeed pleased with all who turn to him in faith. But our baptism also calls for seeing Christ as the head and our selves as the body of Christ at work in the world. We embrace the fullness of God. We pray and worship and partake of the Lord’s Supper for strength and encouragement, so that we can proclaim the God News of God in Christ, and seek and serve all people loving our neighbors as ourselves. Work and strive for justice and peace, respecting the dignity of every human being in fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Together we begin a new year. In the Epiphany, missionary, Season we might well want to reflect on what our specific ministries with Christ are going to be this year. What specifically will we be doing that serves the common good or meets some special human need of other people, of the environment, of helping to restore human dignity. This kind of reflection must always be the concern of any congregation and its vestry that is worthy of the name of being Christian servants in the world. Our bonding together as a community with a genuine sense of fellowship, community with a servant mission is the calling of the church in the world today.
Today, we are baptizing still another person into the community. It is her being born again into the fellowship, partnership with Jesus Christ. Once again God proclaims through this sacrament: “You are my daughter, Jade Adele; the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” She joins the family of God, and all of us as fellow partners and Christians, her parents, her God-parents, this congregation must be mindful of our calling to incorporated her into the body of Christ and lead her into the way of caring compassionate servanthood, and a love of God, and God’s world.
With the Epiphany Season, with our Baptism, and with Jade Adele’s, and as we all renew our Baptismal Covenant once again, the work of Christmas begins;
To find the lost,
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry
To release the prisoner
To rebuild the nations
To bring peace among brothers
To make music in the heart. By Howard Thurman.
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