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.
“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.
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