Year C First Epiphany 2025 Here and Now

 Year C First Sunday after Epiphany, 12 January 2025

St James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Here and Now”

Collect: Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Isaiah 43:1-7

Thus says the Lord,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom,

Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.

Because you are precious in my sight,

and honored, and I love you,

I give people in return for you,

nations in exchange for your life.

Do not fear, for I am with you;

I will bring your offspring from the east,

and from the west I will gather you;

I will say to the north, "Give them up,"

and to the south, "Do not withhold;

bring my sons from far away

and my daughters from the end of the earth--

everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed and made."

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

Looking at the last week, the concept of Baptism is a bit ironic. Some of you were not able to bathe for days this week over water issues, and our whole region was paralyzed over our first real snow in years and the accompanying power then water outage.

But this is the week of the Baptism of our Lord, and the proclamation that accompanied it. When the Holy Spirit came down in the bodily form of the dove and the Vox Dei, the Voice of God, declared Jesus: "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

Friends, in his obedience, Jesus pleased God. He was already the Beloved, and he pleased God. He was not the Beloved because he pleased God. It was not causative. God is not into transactional relationships. Grace does not work that way. 

God’s whole point in this, Life, the Universe, Everything is for us to be in relationship with God. God desires the Universe to be Redeemed and he came up with a solution which would solve the whole shebang once and for all.

And this is where that story begins. The Epiphany is the declaration that God’s Plan has begun. The Wise Men witnessed the outset, but it had decades before there was proof. Today we begin with those public displays of who Jesus was.

Jesus’ ministry began when he was about 30 years old. And that journey began with him going out to his cousin, John the Baptizer, to receive a Baptism of Repentance. In years past I spoke about how we do not understand why Jesus needed that, but he did it “to fulfill all righteousness” as the Matthew version of this story tells us. Luke puts it this way…

…when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. 

In art we often see this scene. Jesus and John standing in the waters of the River Jordan. A dove is seen coming down. Then, up in the clouds, we see an eye, or maybe a hand, or often an old bearded man. All of them symbolic for God the Father. A dove is pretty, but not proof. That comes from the Voice…

And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

I have always loved that word, Beloved. Love is an action. Beloved can be an adjective. You are beloved. But here, and in the Greek, by the way, there is a definite article. ‘Ho agapetos. The Beloved.

Let that sink in.

Everything we think about and talk about and act upon as Christians has its foundation in this. Jesus did not come to show us how to act so that we might be good.

Jesus did not come to hold his nose amongst all us sinners long enough to pay a sacrificial debt and then go running back to heaven before the taint of sin or the wretched stink stuck on him.

Jesus, the Beloved, came to tell us that we are the Beloved, too. And that we can start living into that and acting in that right now. The Kingdom of God is here and now.

Now let that sink in.

Jesus is THE Beloved, and you are the Beloved. Already. Right now. 

Epiphanies are revelations. It is about seeing with new eyes. This year has had a rough start. Fires and Terror Attacks. Rough conditions and isolation. And there are thousands of things just in this room we know nothing about. As writer Ian Maclaren said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

The message of all our Belovedness is more needed now than ever before.

It is a sign of our times that people so readily believe the worst instead of the best, or at least to give the benefit of the doubt. I may sound naive or pollyanna-ish, but in our jaded age, when trust seems to have flown the coop, but I believe that we can live in love and trust.

We are God’s, and God holds us in the palm of his hand. As Isaiah prophesied in today’s reading:

Do not fear, for I am with you;

I will bring your offspring from the east,

and from the west I will gather you;

I will say to the north, "Give them up,"

and to the south, "Do not withhold;

bring my sons from far away

and my daughters from the end of the earth--

everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed and made."

We were not made for shame. We were not made for suffering. Though we may have to walk through both, we were made for Glory, God’s glory. And every so often we are able to catch glimpses of that.

The last few weeks have been a source of great joy for me, having both my kids under our roof. The other day we all went down and voted in the special election. Both my kids voted. I started to feel a bit more gray in the hair. But also, I reveled in how good they are, and how far they have come. Sitting with Steph the other night, it struck me, and I said how happy and proud it made me for them both to be doing so well. I gloried in them.

Multiply that by a million, and it still would not come close. God, to whom “all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid” still loves you, wants to be in relationship with you, and glories in you. And no matter how far you have roamed, north, south, east, or west, he welcomes and wants you home.

The Holy Spirit working in you can bring the love of God into this hurting world. I heard of our folks caring for one another. For bringing water this week. For calling and checking in. For so much and so many things I know nothing about.

While the times might be screaming “Fear, fear, fear” we hear the voice of God whispering, “Fear not.” That still, calm voice whispers because we are given the choice to believe it or not. They call it Faith for a reason.

This week we laid to rest a man who lived his faith to the best of his ability. He worked for peace when people said peace was impossible. He loved those who needed help and built homes for the Unhoused. He taught Sunday School when he could. He had such a strong faith, he refused to have worship services in the White House because he so strongly believed in the Separation of Church and State. At his Funeral was sung Imagine by John Lennon, his favorite song it was reported. This song may seem cynical, but it talks about the Kingdom of God without a heaven on the other side, but a world living as one right now. 

The final verse end this way:

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

Jimmy Carter may have had a better concept of God’s Kingdom than most of us.

Beloved, we fear not, and we arise and shine, because the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, is more about life Here and Now than about life [point up] There and Then. 

His grandson, Jason Carter, shared this in his eulogy:

He was the same person, no matter who he was with or where he was, and for me that's the definition of integrity. That honesty was matched by love, it was matched by faith, and in both public and private, my grandparents did fundamentally live their lives in an effort, as the Bible says, to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with their God.

Most people are not aware, but Jimmy Carter led his Carter Center to eradicate a disease, the guinea worm disease, which has affected the “least of these,” the impoverished since the beginning of time. When his efforts started there were 3.5 million cases a year. Last year there were 14. 14! Not 14 hundred. 1. 4. 14 total in the entire world. Jason goes on… 

…in those tiny 600 person villages is an army of Jimmy and Rosalyn Carters, who have demonstrated their own power to change their world.

And that is a fundamental truth about my grandfather: It begins where it ends. When he saw a tiny 600 person village that everybody else thinks of as poor, he recognized it. That's where he was from, that's who he was. And he never saw it as a place to send pity. It was always a place to find partnership and power, and a place to carry out that commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.

Essentially, he eradicated a disease with love and respect. He waged peace with love and respect. He led this nation with love and respect.

To me this life was a love story from the moment that he woke up, until he laid his head. [Source: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/politics/a63383050/read-jason-carter-eulogy-jimmy-carter/ ]

Speaking of Imagine, imagine a world where Christ’s Church and his followers were seen to give love and respect first, and that was our hallmark. What a different world that could be. And it can be. Will we do it?

Friends, as we look to Jesus, Jesus looks to us. Behold, this is my Beloved in whom I am well pleased. Be that Jimmy Carter, or be that you when you share a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name.

May you be the Epiphany in someone’s life this week. May we all. Amen

Year C Christmas Day 2024 Traditions 2024

 Year C Christmas Day, 25 December 2024

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Traditions 2024”

Collect: Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born [this day] of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

We all have them. We might not see them as Traditions, but we do things in the same way for comfort, for ease, for our brains to go on automatic pilot at times, so our souls can find those still, happy places we need. We also carve out space in our days or seasons to do things with intention. Christmas is filled with Traditions, and that means Christmas is filled with Intention.  

Stephanie and I were married on the 19th, so on our honeymoon we began to read the three Gospel accounts of Christmas from Luke, then Matthew, then John. And then we read the Gospel according to Dr. Seuss. The Grinch is Gospel, or so I think, as there is a conversion when his heart “grew three sizes that day.” 

We got to read those together last night in the Rectory. Another Traditional Ritual is the eating of Chinese Food which comes from my birth family who always went to the Chinese restaurant after the Christmas Eve service. Wonton Soup might not scream “Happy Birthday, Jesus!” to you. But it does to me.

Traditions bring us comfort. Traditions warm our hearts. Traditions make us cozy inside. This sermon itself is a Tradition as it has new sections every year, but the foundational stories are the same. It also helps us get through hard days. It is a touchpoint to better times, to times with those we loved.

Not everyone has merry Christmases, some of them are red and green, but for some, Christmas is blue. Like the old song, our Christmas can turn blue with a loss or during hard times. We are not expected to be perky at all times, no one is. But often people have to pose and put on a happy face if they are struggling because that is what is “expected.”

Faking it makes the struggle even worse. No matter the reason, the season can exacerbate the sense of isolation and shame. 

And we are living in hard times for so many. Economically, socially, internationally. We have come into a time where there is a lack of trust. When institutions and leaders are held in a level of contempt and distrust. And it is a hard way forward. These dark days at Christmas are not new. 

The story around our hymn “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day” is one that always speaks to me, especially when those somber feelings come up during the holidays. The song comes from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A simple song, a throwaway song almost until you hear the words with Longfellow’s thoughts in your mind. Two years after his wife died in a tragic accident, which also left him permanently scarred, Longfellow’s son enlisted in the Union Army in the Civil War. Receiving a grave wound, Charley, Longfellow’s son, was in hospital in Washington, D.C. Longfellow joined him there to help in his recovery. On Christmas Day, in the midst of personal tragedy and in his beloved country ripping itself apart, he penned these words.   

I heard the bells on Christmas Day 

Their old, familiar carols play, 

And wild and sweet,  the words repeat 

Of peace on earth, good-will to men! 

And thought how, as the day had come, 

The belfries of all Christendom 

Had rolled along the unbroken song 

Of peace on earth, good-will to men! 

Till ringing, singing on its way, 

The world revolved from night to day, 

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime 

Of peace on earth, good-will to men! 

And in despair I bowed my head; 

"There is no peace on earth," I said; 

“For hate is strong, and mocks the song 

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!" 

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: 

"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; 

The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail, 

With peace on earth, good-will to men." 

And that poem became a song when we are tired and beaten by a world that ignores the message of Hope and Love we share at Christmas. 

One cannot be cynical and call oneself a disciple of Christ. It is as hypocritical as the bigot, the sexist, the blatant sinner. Cynicism is a sin of the heart. And this song reminds us of that, and that Hope conquers all, especially the hardness of our hearts. 

This year, I look to the Christ Child in hope, and in trust. I have to. This year we have had to remain hopeful when we hear names we may not have known before, but now these places are scars on our souls. When we think of Haiti, South Sudan, or Syria, or flooding in so many places including the USA, and so many, too many more tragedies, places where hardness of heart makes it all the worse.  

And in despair I hung my head. 

There is no peace on earth, I said, 

for hate is strong and mocks the song 

of peace on earth good will towards men.

Longfellows words haunt me as surely as Scrooge’s ghosts haunted him.

But it is Christmas, and at Christmas you tell the truth, or so Love Actually says. I have to have Hope.

Speaking of Hope, one of my favorite Christmas traditions is Charlie Brown’s Christmas Special. From 1965, it was controversial even then. The climax of the special is a boy quoting a Bible story. That’s it. But it is everything!

I heard an interesting piece of trivia, and I have shared it the last few years. I am shocked I had never noticed it before. You see, Linus stops the production of the Christmas show rehearsal to tell Charlie Brown the real meaning of Christmas, and he quotes Luke 2 from the King James Version. 

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field , keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo , the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid . 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold , I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes , lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying , 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. 

“That’s the meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown.” Linus, being a cartoon character, is defined in simple ways. He is a believer, trusting or naive, depending on your point of view. He also is comforted by his security blanket and sucking his thumb. NOT your normal hero. He holds tight to his protection from his insecurities, and most of us cannot think of Linus without it. 

But if you go back to watch the video, and I did a couple of times to make sure, while he is quoting Luke, a most amazing thing happens. As soon as he says “Fear not!” his hand disappears from the screen and it returns without the blanket. The boy who is so timid, so fearful, goes center stage and let’s go of his fears, or at least his comfort from his fears. His “security” dropped at his feet. You see, the one who can stand with Linus, the one who can stand beside Longfellow in his pain and grief, the one who can stand beside me in my weakness and insecurities and you in yours has come into the world. “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”  

Maybe that is the greatest Christmas Tradition of them all, and it started with Mary unsure if she would be stoned for being pregnant and unwed, then Joseph wondering what people will think, then the Shepherds afraid of the heavenly host, and then all the way down to us. And we gather still under threat of civil strife, terrorism, wars and rumors of war, the collapse of our democracy, and so many other big, bad things, we hold onto hope and offer it to a suffering world. Immaneul, God-with-us, encourages us and is with us through all of it. That is Christmas, and always will be. The words of the angels come to us today, “Fear Not.” And that my friends, is a Tradition to keep, especially in 2025! Let it be our rallying cry. Let it be our shield, whatever this year may bring. “Fear Not!” Amen

Year C Christmas Eve Late 2024 Eyes with which to See

 Year C Christmas Eve Christ Mass, 24 December 2024

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Eyes with which to See”

Collect: O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit he lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Luke 2:1-20

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Two Thousand Twenty Four years. Give or take a few, we mark the night when Christ was born. We celebrate the light that he brought into the world, and we place it on the nights when the days are getting longer bit by bit and the light is more present.

We are made to be in the light. Our bodies need Vitamin D, which, while needed, is something which comes from being in the sunlight. Or, if you are like me, melanin poor, I need to watch my sun exposure, and I have to take pills. But Vitamin D, originally from the sun processing in our bodies, affects our bone health, our mental health especially around depression, our heart health, aids in nerve transmission, and may even help us fight cancer in our bodies. We were made to be in the light. This is so important to remember in these darkest of days when the northern hemisphere is turned away from the sun.

In my youth, with a younger back and hips and knees, I used to spend time exploring dark places. Nothing immoral, but caves deep, and dark, and wild. There was one in particular I spent many hours in called Crossroads Cave in Bath County. I did this exploring as part of the ministries at Camp Alkulana run by the Richmond Baptist Association.

One of the great experiences was taking kids from the inner city who never had been in a place without street lights, they had never really experienced physical darkness in any real way.

One of the many glories of the cave was seeing a wall 20 feet tall in one of the many corridors. And in this wall was layer upon layer of sedimentation. And in those thousands of layers in those 20 feet of sandstone were seashells. Year upon decade upon century upon millenia of seashells. I would tell the campers that for millions of years God made life that no one would know about until a special few, like them, were able to see it and see the glories of God and God’s goodness. And then we would go deeper.

About a mile into the cave we would snake and burrow our way to a place we called the Pit. We had to shimmy down a chimney about 15 feet and get to the bottom. Once everyone was safely down there we would ask everyone to turn off their lights. There was always one child who thought we were going to scare them, and try and leave theirs on, but the ring of light shining pink through their fingers would be visible. It was so dark in the pit that even that bare little light would show.

Darkness is the absence of light, and after every one sat fully in the dark for about a minute I would ask them to wave their hand in front of their eyes and many of them would “see” their hand. They did not. They could not. But their minds, so used to the light, saw in the darkness even though it was impossible.

Friends, we were made for the light. Like with Vitamin D needs, our brains are wired to see the light even in the dark. And I do not think it is just our eyes and brains, I believe that our very souls are designed for the light as well.

And that is why the Church chose these days for our celebration of Jesus’ birth. We did not have a date, but We believe him to be the light of the world, and that his light shines in the darkness and the Darkness cannot, will not EVER overcome it. Even in our darkest nights of the soul, we can picture him with our souls’ eyes, knowing him to be there despite our senses not being able to affirm it. Those eyes of faith looked ahead to him for thousands of years and our eyes look back knowing that the fullness of time is fulfilled and we are awaiting the Culmination of his return.

Keeping Christ in Christmas is an annual appeal. On this evening the last few years I have mentioned how St. Francis had the first Nativity Scene eight-hundred-and-ONE years ago tonight. Francis wished to make real in a palpable way the presence of Christ for those in the village of Greccio in Italy that night. But it is not performative, to have Christmas we do not add Jesus and stir.

One of the big things that being a Christian can lead us to see is that Christ is always present. Christ is in Christmas. Let us rather say, do we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear Christ in our Christmas, no matter how our Christmas is.

Those shepherds in those fields so long ago were invited to come and see. The angels invited them, directly. Kings may have gotten their star, but the shepherds got the formal invitation. The first singing telegram. 

But don’t imagine the cute shepherds we will see in our Epiphany play. Bathrobes and towels held on by ropes. The message of Jesus and its radical nature says much by who God includes. 

The Gospel of Luke is all about bringing in those apart, those who normally were picked last if they were recognized at all. That would have been the shepherds. They were on the bottom rung of the 

Shepherds were considered unclean religiously and “less than” socially. They had daily contact with unclean animals, in constant contact with the manure, blood, and the insects that surrounded the sheep. And this would have been worse when they were caring for them while giving birth. That is why they were “abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night.” Shepherds would have to kill predator animals to protect their flock, which made them unclean under Jewish law. 

They were considered social outcasts and were on the lower rungs of the social ladder. They were treated similarly to tax collectors and dung sweepers. Shepherds were often uneducated and unskilled. Shepherds were often regarded as untrustworthy and irreligious, not that they would have been allowed to participate because of their unclean status. They were not allowed to testify in court. Because of all of this they were banned from entering homes and the temple. They were banned by people, but not by God.

These humble shepherds were the ones about whom God said, “Make sure they get an invite.” And that is the beginning of Jesus’ story. I see Christ in that act. And I am led to wonder who we need to invite in.

In Carl Jung’s office, the eminent psychologist had inscribed above the door to his home, “Bidden or not bidden, God is present.” Vocatus atque non vocatus, deus aderit. There are many supposed origins of the phrase from the Delphic oracle or Erasmus. I always associated it with Jung. Whatever.

But the idea remains, do we see Christ in the face of the stranger, or not. In the depths of the darkest of days, is God there or not?

It comes down to faith. Without eyes of faith, we will never see it. Without ears believing we will never hear it. With the gift of those eyes and ears, we cannot help but see God’s fingerprints if not Godself any and everywhere. 

Even in what has become a secular Christmas story, God is there. Go and read the original. Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is less about making Scrooge good, but whole. The Ghosts haunt him by showing him his life: his past heartaches, his present heartbreaks, and his heartless future. But in this most secularized story, if you go back to the original you see it is about Spiritual rebirth It must be with us each and every day so we can say like Scrooge, 

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

As Christ promised, “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10b) That is for Scrooge and for us, still.

I do not know where you are this Christmas Eve. Maybe you are feeling it. Maybe you are not.

The shepherds were huddled around their campfire surrounded by the stars, faint lights all. Then the glory of the choir of angels astounded them, but even that paled in comparison to the light they pointed toward. The light that came into the world that it made, and that light was life. The light and life of the world.

Maybe you can hear the angels inviting you into the beautiful circle in such a humble setting, or maybe you are like Scrooge, so loathing of self that it blurs his view of humanity. Feeling it or fleeing it, God is there. Immanuel, God with us. God is with us now. God was with us then. God is with us always, bidden or not.

Jesus came to show us what already was. And made it clear that it always would be. 

This Christmas, my prayer for all of us is that we hear that invite into the glow of the holy, to sense the light even if it remains unseen. May your Christmas Presence, C E, be so very present. And may your presents, T S, be a reminder of that. Amen