What does it mean to be called by God? Called to do what?  To whom?
As Christians we are called to live the radical gospel of Christ. Sometimes that call is scary.  It can come in the form of a thought we can’t shake, an idea that seems crazy but won’t go away. 
Here’s a story from a whole different culture from our own.  It comes to us from the Suquamish people of Washington State.  Their young people were getting caught up in the culture of drugs and alcohol.  So the elders started sending them every year along with young people from many other tribes on the traditional Tribal Canoe Journey, a drug and alcohol-free event where Tribes gather and share their cultures.
The canoe journey represents adaptability and reliability, traits necessary inside and outside the canoe, especially with the many Native youth who struggle with substance abuse.  The journey is difficult for the youth and the adults who have spent much time planning the journey and counseling and encouraging the young people.
That’s love in action both for the young people and the health of their tribe and culture.  (For more information see Yes Magazine, Winter 2016, pp. 46-47.)  What a beautiful example of many of the facets of love that Paul so eloquently described in the second reading today! 
Many of us remember that reading from 1st Corinthians from our own wedding, and or from many we have participated in or witnessed.  By the way, Paul spoke those words not as a fluffy pat on the back but as a strong rebuke.  The Corinthians were fighting with one another.  Everything he said love is they were not.
God’s call to Jeremiah was relentless and inevitable.  Jeremiah kept telling God he wasn’t up to the job, but God wore him down saying that God would put words in his mouth and deliver him from harm.
I suggest you continue reading from Jeremiah.  That truth-telling message which the prophet gave from Yahweh shows the depth of God’s love for Israel as a spouse. 
We are sometimes called, as Jesus was, to take an unpopular but loving stand.  It’s usually easier to speak an unpleasant truth among people we don’t know, but among our friends and family, it’s much more difficult.  We are sometimes called from somewhere deep within to invite those close to us to participate with us in unfolding new stories, creating a new story for people on the margins of society and the church, one of hope and justice.
Jesus led the way, reminding his listeners that during the time of Elisha, only a foreigner from Syria was cured.  He was sending the message to his family and friends that their God loves all people, not just them.  Jesus had just returned from a Retreat in the desert and was ready to face people’s resistance to his message.  Luke is warning us, his readers, that in Jesus life he would be experience increasing resistance.   
Maybe that’s a clue for us to expect resistance and to take some time away, in the spirit of Lent, to listen to God’s message for us.  The Holy Spirit will be with us, giving us the ability to lead others to greater love, for both those near us and those on the margins. 
Question: What does it mean to you to be called by God? Called to do what?  To whom?  Do you feel alone, or do you have help and support?
For further reflection:  How does that translate to our St. Mary of Magdala Community?  If you haven’t put your ideas on the chart of dreams for the future of our community, you can do it on your way out today.
As we celebrate the Eucharist together we share in the Spirit of Jesus and move forward in love.

Rev. Maria Thornton McClain

How wonderful that God is bringing us new gifts, insights, to praise God and spread God’s love everywhere!  How comforting to hear that God won’t rest until love and compassion is spread everywhere!  All creation will rejoice when the earth is rich with nutrients, food is plentiful for all, and the air is pure and clean to breathe.  All people will rejoice when peace has spread throughout the land, and people don’t have to live in fear, but can use their God-given abilities to develop even better food, works of art to express beauty, and nations built on justice and love.
The new wine that Jesus gave the bride and groom for their guests is symbolic of all the gifts that God gives us to care for each other and the world we live in.  Jesus himself experienced newness of a deeper understanding of his mission through the message of his mother.  This led his disciples to have deeper confidence and commitment to him which would come in handy before too long.
Mary’s alertness to the needs of the host and hostess of the wedding party reminds me of the event some of us went to the other night at the Interfaith Center.  You may have seen something about it on TV.  It was the reception here in the 1st floor gallery for the display of interactive artwork designed for sightless young children.  One of the leaders of the group is a woman whose child can see things but can’t connect what she sees with any meaning of what it is. 
As we walked around the room, some of us using eye shades that were provided, we could feel how important the sense of touch is to visually impaired children.  Here’s a quote from their newsletter from Emily, the mother of Vance.  “Thank you all for giving me ideas and tips and teaching me how to teach my son.  When he was first diagnosed one of my biggest fears was that I wouldn’t be able to interact with him, that I would never truly be able to understand my son.  All of you that worked with him from the very early days up until now, have showed me just how much potential he has.  Each and every one of you appreciates his sense of humor and his sweet smile.”
Working with visually impaired preschoolers is one of the faces of compassion.    Every time we look around, see a need, ask God for guidance, and act with compassion we are following Mary’s example.  Our Leadership Circle has decided to give this group our tithe for the 4th quarter of 2015. 

Rev. Maria Thornton McClain

Matthew wrote his gospel to the young Christian communities.  It was not to relate details of a happening as to give guidance of how we are to live what Jesus came to transmit to us. “We have observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay homage,” Matthew writes.  Wow!  A new star to make known the birth of a child!  The wise men, which followed that star, would be most likely be from the country of Iran today.  These were unanticipated people from unexpected places who came to pay homage to a child not of their faith or culture.  In our time of political xenophobia, this story contains power and challenge that we look for God’s presence in what is not familiar to us and do not put up a wall that keeps what is unfamiliar out of our presence. 

“Wise Women also came.  They walked in shadows, trusting the path would open under the light of the moon”.  Sometimes, there is no path, no clear direction that we can discern.  So we trust each step that we take on the journey moves us in a positive direction.  The wise women also went home by another route.  Sometimes, in following God we must change directions, find new horizons and encounter new vistas.  On this journey God will be with us.  Always, as believers, we must have one foot rooted in the present and the other rooted in tradition. 

I wanted to share with you the year’s summary from Exodus Refugee Immigration.  This community’s third quarter tithe contributed to Exodus’ work to resettle refugees in the Indianapolis area.  They wrote in their 2015 summary:  “Exodus is honored to have resettled 888 courageous refugees in 2015.  This included 13 Syrians and 16 Iraqis caught in the conflict.  We expect more Syrians to arrive in early 2016 and we look forward to welcoming them.  Our lawsuit against Governor Pence will be reviewed by a judge in early 2016.”  Our contribution helped this city and us live out the gospel imperative to be a welcoming community, city, country. 

Ilia Delio’s new book is: Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology, Consciousness.  In it she writes: “that the Greeks coined the word catholic to describe attunements to the physical order, that catholicity meant living in harmony with the stars.  To live in catholicity was to have a sense of the cosmos or the whole order of things, including the physical and spiritual things.”

After the first few centuries’ catholicity shifted from wholeness to orthodoxy.  There are rules and codes and creeds that we must believe to belong.  That is the church that most of us were raised in.  The remnants of that orthodoxy are still among us in the church!  There is nothing wrong with having rules and creeds to guide us, yet the heart and life of Christianity is in relationships…family, friends, neighbors, students, work associates, nature, the earth, the universe and our Godde, Jesus the Christ who became human.  This Incarnation tells us how much our Godde loves us.  Our gathering, this evening, as we celebrate the memory of Jesus and aware of his risen presence we have an increased consciousness of community and church.   We, tonight, are challenged to continue our commitment to the lived experience of catholicity, of wholeness and consciousness, of following the star in our life that leads to life. 

Francis of Assisi had a great love of Christmas and the Incarnation.  He was the first one to engage the town’s people in Greccio in the first nativity scene in 1223.  When I traveled in Germany and Austria one of the striking elements of the nativity scenes and paintings is that the Christ child was surrounded by the townspeople of that time.  Each person had their trade, family and gifts for the child.  I am sure the homeless and the tax collectors were included in the scene.  How do we embody the Incarnation in our lives that we bring not only ourselves but all of our relationships to the manger?  Have you considered placing your family picture as part of the crèche?   All of them!

Jamie Manson has a great article in NCR: Crèches from the Americas offer an Epiphany on Migration, Social Justice.  It offers another way to engage ourselves, the earth and our life in the Incarnation.  

Final question:  What are we called to today, as citizens of the universe, as followers of Jesus Christ and as members of the Church?  Can we invite the Incarnation to live in us this New Year?

And for our Meditation a Poem by Lutheran theologian: Walter Brueggemann

Epiphany

On Epiphany day,
we are still the people walking.
We are still people in the dark,
and the darkness looms large around us,
beset as we are by fear,
anxiety,
brutality,
violence,
loss --
a dozen alienations that we cannot manage.

We are — we could be — people of your light.
So we pray for the light of your glorious presence
as we wait for your appearing;
we pray for the light of your wondrous grace
as we exhaust our coping capacity;
we pray for your gift of newness that
will override our weariness;
we pray that we may see and know and hear and trust
in your good rule.