You are fully known by God, and fully loved by God. That is enough.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Second Sunday after Epiphany, Lect. 2 B
Texts: Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18; John 1:43-51; 1 Samuel 3:1-10

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

It’s tempting this Sunday to focus on God calling us to work in the world.

Every year after celebrating Jesus’ baptism, we hear call stories, Jesus calling people to become disciples. Today we hear Nathanael’s call. This year we also get Samuel’s beautiful and mysterious call story, a young boy serving in the temple, hearing an unknown voice.

And both Samuel and Nathanael answer their calls, Samuel becoming Israel’s last judge and a great prophet, Nathanael joining Jesus’ inner circle.

But this time something else shone out, and drew my heart into joy: These are stories of people known intimately and lovingly by God.

God knows them before calling them.

The God of Israel, I Am Who I Am, wasn’t often honored in the days of Eli, and visions from God were rare. Samuel didn’t know I Am Who I Am before this, God hadn’t spoken to him yet.

But God knew Samuel and loved him, even before hearing his mother Hannah’s prayer and answering.

Nathanael didn’t know Jesus as God’s Incarnate Son. He could only scoff at Jesus’ hometown.

But God’s Son knew Nathanael and loved him, knew before meeting him that he wasn’t capable of lying or treachery, even had a vision of him talking to Philip.

Samuel and Nathanael didn’t know God enough to recognize when God was reaching out to them. But God knew them and loved them enough to call them.

Soaring beautifully above these two stories is the Psalmist’s song of being known and loved by God.

Psalm 139 is a marvelous outpouring of awe by a child of God who recognizes that the true God, the one called I Am Who I Am, knows her in the deepest and most profound ways. When she sits and when she gets up, when she journeys and when she rests.

God knew her before she was woven in her mother’s womb, through all her life, and into the future. In the middle verses we weren’t appointed to sing today, the singer marvels that there is no place she can go where God isn’t, no way she could ever get lost from God, not even in the deepest darkness.

My friends, you get to sing this song, and it is your truth. God has searched you and knows you just as thoroughly, just as deeply, just as intimately.

But that isn’t always good news, is it?

Being known fully and deeply means things inside your heart that you hope remain hidden become known. Secret sins, thoughts and actions you haven’t forgotten but hope no one ever knows about, not even God.

There isn’t a human being who doesn’t have places inside them they hope no one ever sees, who doesn’t try to disguise what they fear cannot be loved.

When the psalmist sings “Where can I go to flee from your presence?” that can be terrifying instead of comforting. Because if God knows you that thoroughly and deeply and intimately, is it possible God could ever truly love you?

And yet. And yet. Our deep human longing is to be fully known and loved.

That’s our wretched pain. We want to keep our secrets, hide our flaws, hope nobody sees our sins. But we also dream of being enough, being worthy of love, in spite of those sins and secrets and flaws.

So if God searches you out, and knows you thoroughly and deeply and intimately, that could be good news indeed if God also loves you.

And that’s exactly what the Holy and Triune God has said.

Last week we heard God’s voice say to the Son, “you are my beloved child, and I am well pleased.” That’s also your voice to hear. In your baptism, God says, “you are my beloved child, and I am well pleased.”

Jesus, the Son of God, made this clear in everything he did, from teaching to healing, through dying and rising from the dead. You are God’s beloved, and God will do anything, even face suffering and death, to bring you, and me, and all God’s children, and the whole creation, back into God’s loving embrace. Nothing can separate you, or me, or the whole creation, from God’s love.

God knows you thoroughly and deeply and intimately. Everything. From before your conception to beyond your death. Your journeying and your resting. Your words and your silence. And God loves you. Without conditions. God’s love is broad enough to forgive whatever it is you try to hide even from God. God’s love is potent enough to shape you into the child of God you already are.

You are known. You are loved. And yes, it must be said, you are called.

There is pain and suffering in God’s good creation, and God needs your love and grace, your hands and feet, your voice. Like Samuel and Nathanael, you are necessary to God’s healing of this world.

But God has called you, knowing everything about you. So, if God says you have gifts to make a difference, God knows you, and it must be true. You can be God’s hope in your part of the world, even if you doubt it.

And God has called you, knowing everything about you and still loving you. If you doubt your goodness or your wisdom, or are anxious about your biases, or weep at your repeated sins, God knows you and loves you. Let that calm your heart and give you courage to go where you are needed.

You are known and loved and called by the Holy and Triune God who made all things, and who entered our world to restore all things. You will always be enough.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

God’s Spirit still breathes into the chaos and darkness of this world and brings life and hope and creation – in you, and in the world.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The feast of the Baptism of Our Lord (First Sunday after Epiphany, Lect. 1 B)
Texts: Genesis 1:1-5; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

In the beginning, the Spirit of God moved over the waters of the void.

God breathed over chaos and darkness and brought light into being. Worlds, stars, beings of all kinds were breathed into life by God. And that creation, filled with the very Breath of the eternal God, embodied God’s being.

In the Jordan, the Son of God was baptized and God’s Spirit breathed into him. Filled with the Spirit, beloved by the Father, the Son showed us the Triune God’s face. He called us to return to God’s love, to love God and each other. He lived and proclaimed God’s way of life for all, a way of justice and love and peace like that first creation. Even when the way led to a cross, Jesus, filled with the Spirit, walked it. Through that death, he broke the power of chaos and death and revealed God’s life for all.

When the Holy Spirit, the breath of the Triune God, breathes into this world, beauty and justice and hope and love and life happen.

But does the Holy Spirit still breathe into the chaos and darkness of our world?

As we watched the insurrection last Wednesday, the chaos of people, enraged by a web of lies they live in as if it were reality, attacking the Capitol, trying to overturn a fair election, seeking to establish a dictator in the United States, it was hard to believe. These were the things, we smugly thought, that happen in other places. Not here.

And when these protesters with guns, intent on intimidation, spread their destruction and rampaged with little opposition, it was hard not to remember peaceful protesters with no guns and no attacking that were shot at, gassed, arrested, beaten down this past year. Apparently in this country, if your skin is white and your cause is preserving a dictator, you can attack peaceful institutions with deadly weapons and be allowed to leave when you’re done.

God breathes over chaos and a beautiful creation is born. God breathes into Jesus and a mission to heal and save the world is begun.

Will God breathe into our world today?

Finding an answer begins with a moment in the reading from Acts.

Paul goes to Ephesus and finds a group of believers who knew of John the Baptist, believed in Jesus, but didn’t know much else. When Paul asked if they received the Holy Spirit when they were baptized, they astonishingly said, “No. We haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit!”

So Paul baptized them, laid hands on them, prayed for the Holy Spirit. And just as at Pentecost, these believers were filled with the Spirit.

But know this: the Holy Spirit was already with them, already in the world. Just because they didn’t know it makes no difference. From the beginning, God’s Spirit has been breathing in and through the creation, bringing peace and light and life.

So, if you despair at the chaos and hatred and violence spreading across our nation, trampling the vulnerable, and wonder where God’s Spirit is now, remember: just because you don’t see the Spirit all the time doesn’t mean God isn’t breathing into our world today.

Still, Paul taught them about the Holy Spirit, and prayed for the Spirit to fill them.

Not because the Spirit wasn’t there. But so they could see God’s breath more clearly, be open to the Spirit’s transformation in their lives, be changed.

Paul believes the Spirit of God continues to breathe into the chaos of our lives and transform us. Again and again in his letters he promises that in the Spirit we are made into a new creation, we become Christ. It’s how we break away from the old way of living and being, the way of destruction, that this world is trapped in, into the new way of Christ that brings life and hope to all creation.

The Spirit moves wherever she wants, in all people, whether they know Jesus or not, whether they know there’s a Holy Spirit or not. But knowing means you can ask God to breathe in you and transform you into Christ, means you can see the Spirit’s movement better.

Because you will be changed.

Your eyes will be changed and you’ll see the Spirit’s work in so many in our world who stand against chaos and violence and hatred and put their lives on the line in love and kindness and grace. You’ll see the Spirit’s breath in them and find hope.

Your own heart will be changed as the Spirit moves over your chaos, the prejudices and sins and wickedness that crop up in your heart even when you don’t want it and sometimes when you do, and brings forgiveness and healing. Changes you.

And since your baptismal promise is the same as the one Jesus has, as the Spirit breathes into you, you’re sent out into your mission of love, making God’s new creation in this world’s chaos.

Is this enough in a frightening and destructive world? Will anything change?

Yes, it is enough. And yes, the world will change. Because when God breathes into chaos a marvelous creation emerges. Even if you and I don’t always see where it’s happening.

So, pray that God breathes into this chaotic world today and always. Pray that the Spirit opens your eyes to see signs of the Spirit’s breathing in the world, signs of hope and truth. And pray that the Holy Spirit breathes into your chaotic heart and mind and brings peace and focus, and transforms you into Christ in your world.

Because then you will become a sign to others that the Spirit is real and breathing life into this world even now, a sign of hope for all the people of this world.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

God’s light has come into the world, is in you and me, and together we can see it, know it, follow it, and with all God’s children, find God’s healing and hope.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord
Texts: Matthew 2:1-12; Isaiah 60:1-6

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

On December 22^nd, at dusk, Mary, Peter, and I went looking for the star.

We drove away from the neighborhood lights, toward a nearby park that had a hill. Sure enough, climbing that hill, we found what we sought in the southwest skies.

The great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was at its closest and clearest in hundreds of years, and at its clearest. In 1614, the astronomer Johannes Kepler determined there were three such conjunctions in the year 7 B.C.E. and speculated that they were behind Matthew’s report of a star announcing Jesus’ birth. The papers were calling this year’s event the Christmas star.

It was profoundly moving, standing in the cold wind, seeing the two planets so close to each other. I told Peter the history behind why people thought this could be what was in the skies around Jesus’ birth. I’ve taught that before. But I needed my phone’s application to know where to look. When you move your phone around toward the sky it shows the names of what you’re looking at. Otherwise, we’d’ve had no idea.

Matthew’s Magi needed no such help.

They studied the skies, studied star charts, as humans have done for millennia. They believed the movement of constellations and planets affected life on earth, and saw enough of significance that they made their journey westward.

They did need some help, though. Their knowledge only got them to Jerusalem. They needed Hebrew scribes to see if there was any mention in Scripture of the location of Messiah’s birth to get the last step of their journey.

They traveled with gifts for a king, and found a poor young family in a little house in Bethlehem. But they were satisfied. They saw God’s epiphany before them, the very appearance of God in their midst. They watched for their epiphany, and knew what to do when they saw it.

We’re not often like that.

We certainly long for clarity from God, for epiphany. We want to see God’s appearing in our midst, and we regret that we don’t often get clear signs of where God is in our world, especially in these days. We’re sitting around copying the shepherds, waiting for God to show up and startle us, do something flashy to let us in on what’s going on. We’d do better to imitate the Magi, and learn to look for ourselves.

“Lift up your eyes and look around,” Isaiah says today, and you will see God’s light shining into the world. You will see people coming from all over the world to the light of God that shines in the darkness. The story of Epiphany is that God enters the world with gentle light, not force, and through that light, draws all into a new way of love and grace.

So lift up your eyes. Look around for the signs of the Triune God’s coming into our world.

See the signs of God’s love and grace that shine out of God’s Word, giving promise and hope to a world suffering under so much evil and oppression. See the signs that God has come in person not only in Jesus the Christ, but in you, in me. Look for the signs that God’s life in Jesus is within you, shining and leading others to God’s light in the darkness of a world of war, terror, and uncertainty. Watch for the signs that we are the body of Christ to one another and to the world.

And then follow those signs. Because the Magi not only saw. They got up and followed. They said, “we have seen his star and have come to worship him.” Copy them, and let these signs of God’s epiphany guide your life.

There’s another important thing to notice about the Magi, though.

They didn’t do this alone. Matthew mentions three gifts, so we assume three Magi. He doesn’t actually say how many, just more than one. These travelers didn’t watch the skies alone, didn’t travel alone, and found God’s coming together. They had each other to help see, understand, navigate.

And they had that help in Jerusalem. They weren’t afraid to ask if there was anyone who knew more about what they sought. They not only had each other, they actively sought more learning and understanding from others.

Our community of faith is so vital for seeing God’s epiphany and for following. In separation it’s far harder to experience this community, so keep doing what you can. Take advantage of opportunities your fellow believers here are offering for online connection. Use the phone and call. Write someone. But until we can be together again, remember it’s your community of faith that helps you see, understand, navigate, as you follow God’s signs.

And don’t stop seeking help, learning what’s happening in the world, asking if others have seen God’s coming. There’s a lot of wisdom out there, if you’re not afraid to ask.

When we got to that hilltop and saw the conjunction, I realized something.

I had actually seen those two stars before getting in the car, just over the roof of our neighbors’ houses. I didn’t know what I was seeing. Seeing them on the hilltop, I realized the sign was at my house already.

Today’s celebration teaches you what we’re looking for. Shows you what the signs of God’s light are. And, like those two lights in the southwest, you may find you’ve been looking at God’s coming all along and just didn’t know it.

So let’s watch, together, and learn, together, and follow, together, until we see for ourselves that God has come, and is shining in you, in me, and in so many, to bring hope and healing to this world.

In the name of Jesus. Amen