God dwells in the world! We carry this Christmas proclamation with us each day in work, life, struggle, and joy. 

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
The Second Sunday of Christmas, Year B 
Text: John 1:(1-9), 10-18

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

God dwells in the world.

This is our five-word prologue for the new year. It is the wisdom and insight that has been born into our world.

The prologue message that God dwells in the world is what we will need to orient us and ground us, to give us the perspective we need and a direction for where we are going.

The purpose of the prologue is to prepare us for what we are about to encounter. In our reading for today from John’s Gospel, we hear a section of John’s prologue as John is providing us with what we need to know as we begin to encounter God.

John’s prologue reveals that God’s Word is in the world and that God’s Word took on human form as Jesus and lived-in human flesh in order to redeem what God loves, showing us that God’s glory is filled with grace and truth.  

John’s prologue also points to the beginning, when God’s Word created the world and all of its inhabitants and called it good. We are told human beings are created in the image of God and God calls us to be co-creators in caring for all of God’s creation.

But anyone who has read today’s headlines sees that humans have a hard time caring for creation and caring for each other. Injustice and oppression always have a place in the daily news.

And again, our community is in the headlines as another brother was killed by police in our neighborhood. We shake with fear and anger, cry at the sight of injustice and cry out against injustice.

Grieving for another beloved life has been taken from this world and asking what this means for our community in the days to come.

We proclaim all people are created in the image of God, that every body reflects the radiance of God, and that God dwells in humanity yet systemic racism, classism, xenophobia, among other structures of oppression create biases and cloud our vision, preventing us from seeing God’s presence in humanity.

The pain in our lives and in our community can become so consuming that we don’t know where to turn. When we get to this point, we must cling tightly to the promise that God is active in our world and knows firsthand all the troubles we face.  

We are comforted knowing Jesus experienced the fullness of human emotions and felt the aches and pains of our bodies. Jesus lived in the world filled with injustice and showed us a different way of living that puts caring for our siblings in Christ with dignity and love at the center of our purpose.

Jesus came into being to show us the truth and grace of God’s heart so that our lives can take form and become examples of God’s truth and grace. Because once we have experienced the fullness of God’s truth and grace in our lives, we can’t help but to proclaim this truth and grace in the world to bring healing justice and peace.  

But even these encounters may spin a web of grief and frustration so thick; we may have a hard time seeing how God is present in the world. It might be difficult find hope and grounding as we share God’s grace and truth and seek God’s presence.

Experiencing the fullness and mystery of God’s dwelling in this world was more reachable when we worshipped together in physical community. Our liturgy activates all of our senses as we touch, smell, hear, taste, and see God’s presence in our community.

Our encounters are simply different for now as we have had to open ourselves and stretch ourselves to experience God. We’ve been practicing bringing our liturgy into our daily lives, keeping our eyes open and our hearts hoping to experience God dwelling in our world in unexpected and ordinary places.

In unexpected ways God’s Word, the same word that spoke creation into being, enlightens and enlivens us today.  God’s Word animates the world, transforming ordinary things in our daily lives, like homemade cookies, bird feeders, walks in the neighborhood, and a note from a friend into places that reveal to us that God is present in real and tangible ways.

Our lives are imperfect and ordinary places that become divine and shine with God’s own radiance in the world. As God is made known to the world through our compassion and care, our seeking for justice, and our hope for the well-being of all of God’s creation.

We hold fast to God who dwells in the world and within us for good and cling to the certainty that we as ordinary flesh made divine, co-create this world each day through our work, life, struggle, and joy.

Therefore, when we lose our grounding and are unsure where to turn, we turn to the beginning, to the prologue message that God dwells in the World. This wisdom and insight are almost all we need to begin each new day.

Amen

 

 

God heals you, saves you. God is with you. That’s all you need to know.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The feast of the Name of Jesus
Texts: Luke 2:15-21, plus references to Matthew 1

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

“Good news of great joy for all the people.” That’s what the shepherds were told.

Today we get the end of the Christmas Gospel from Luke, because Luke only speaks of this day of Jesus’ circumcision and naming in one verse. That’s a short Gospel reading.

But it’s good to recall the shepherds today, and even angels from before today’s reading, to remember something vitally important for you: God’s coming in Christ – a coming that continues to this day – is good news of great joy for you and for all people.

It’s important to remember because it’s easy to get lost in the problems of the world.

On the Fourth Sunday of Advent we heard Gabriel tell Mary that God was with her. But that led Mary to contemplate a huge upheaval in her life, the impact of following God and bearing Christ into the world.

You’re all well aware of that upheaval, the challenge to follow Christ, be Christ, with your life. You know how intricately you’re connected to all God’s creatures, that every moment you could ask, “What’s the Christ thing to do here?” You know well that “sin” is far more than just specific evils or wrongs you do, but extends to harm you might do – even unknowingly to people you’ll never see or meet – by hundreds of random decisions or actions or words each day.

And you truly are trying to follow Christ, asking God’s help. Whether it’s racism or sexism or classism, you’re trying to change biases inside you that are not of Christ. When it comes to injustice and oppression and the pain so many endure, you’re trying to make a difference, make decisions that don’t have negative impacts, put your life into the lives of others. I know you are doing this. I see it all the time.

And it’s exhausting some times. Your spirits are willing, and I know you find joy in it, too. But it is tiring every day, every moment, to think about who and what you are and do because you belong to God.

So for today, the first day of a new year, just be God’s beloved.

Hear the good news of great joy that God’s coming in Jesus is also your blessing and your truth.

You know it from the name the eight-day old infant received: Jesus. “God saves.” Call the baby Jesus, the angel told Joseph, “because he will save his people from their sins.” Or also, “because he will heal his people from their sins.”

Good news: God has come to heal you. Heal you of your sins – all those things you know are sin, things you do, things systems you support do, all the things that grieve you – this baby’s name says that God will heal you, give you new life without that sin.

And God in Christ will heal your heart when it suffers loneliness, loss, grief, and pain. Heal your mind when it’s troubled and anxious, when you can’t seem to get it under control. Heal your relationships that are broken.

God is healing you in Christ and you are God’s beloved. Your work as Christ remains, but let that be tomorrow. Just be God’s beloved today.

Jesus got another name, too – Matthew says he will be called “Emmanuel.”

Which means “God is with us.”

God is with you. Let that be your truth today. Not Mary’s implications, the overturned life of following. That turning will come, but let it come tomorrow.

The deep and abiding truth of Jesus’ coming is the promise that God has come to be with you and is always with you. End of sentence. Full stop.

You are never alone, beloved of God, because God is with you. You are always enough, beloved of God, because God loves you and is with you. You are always beloved of God, because God is with you.

And yes, some days it’s hard to believe this good news, hard to find great joy.

God’s healing sometimes seems to be slow – both in your life and in the world. God’s presence sometimes seems to be hard to find or sense – both in your life and in the world.

But today we celebrate that an eight day old baby is named “God heals and saves” and “God is with you,” and will fulfill that in his life, death, and resurrection. It’s hard to see that truth in an infant. It took some time for that to be fulfilled, even in the Son of God.

But it was fulfilled. And it is true. God saves you, heals you, always. And God is with you, always.

Be at peace. Rest in God’s loving embrace. This is your good news of great joy.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen