Immediate Word

For January 3, 2021:

• The Ingathering by Tom Willadsen — With vaccines there’s light at the end of the Covid tunnel. Jeremiah foretold what joy the exiles would feel when they finally returned to Judah. It was far off, but it was hope.
• Second Thoughts: Legos in the Dark by Dean Feldmeyer — This Sunday is about light and dark. About how darkness can be cozy and romantic but can also hide trouble and danger. It’s also about how light illuminates everything it touches, good and bad.
• Sermon illustrations by Katy Stenta, Mary Austin, and Chris Keating.
• Worship resources by George Reed.
• Children's sermon: The Important Parts by Bethany Peerbolte — The Magi knew what had happened and still traveled the long road to experience the amazing for themselves. They wanted to be a part of the good things happening in the world. We too can make a commitment to be part of the amazing.

The Ingathering
by Tom Willadsen
Jeremiah 31:7-14, Psalm 147:12-20, Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1:(1-9) 10-18

While social media have been filled with messages about how awful 2020 has been, there is no reason to expect that we are hitting some kind of cosmic reset button as we mark another trip around the sun.

Nationally, cases of Covid-19 rose dramatically following Thanksgiving. Many families gathered contrary to the guidance of public health officials. Is there any basis to hope that Americans behaved better during the week between Christmas and New Year’s? What do you call this, a spike, on a spike, on a surge, on an exponentially rising infection rate?

Two vaccines have received emergency approval for use in the United States, others are in development. President-elect Joe Biden is going to be more assertive in getting citizens to wear masks, so there is some basis for optimism. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, though we still do not know how long the tunnel is.

As Christmas approached and everyone recognized that this Christmas would be different from all others, a number of commentators lamented the paucity of hugs since pandemic lockdown began in March. Grandparents are Zooming and Facetiming with their grandkids, having been dragged into the 21st century, but no one, no one, has found a substitute for simple hugs. We can gather electronically, we can even livestream worship, but we still haven’t found a way to touch each other, there’s a hunger, no a famine, for physical contact.

Jeremiah, a prophet of doom, foretold what joy the exiles would feel when they finally, after many generations, returned to Judah. There was hope in this message, a promise of renewal, but it came during a dark, dark hour. Jeremiah’s messages came in the midst of a more than century-long period during which more than 3 million of his countrymen were exiled or deported to Assyria. It’s like he was reciting the menu of a lavish feast that was being planned for their descendants. It was far off, but it was hope.

In the News
Covid, Covid, Covid. It’s the only thing in the news. Many of my friends spent the last week speculating on what the Associated Press would name as the Top 10 New Stories of 2020. None of us remembered that less than 12 months ago, for the third time in history, the President of the United States was impeached. What kind of year is 2020, when an impeachment is, at best, the fourth most significant news story? It comes after, in my opinion:

1. Covid-19;
2. The Presidential election and the ongoing litigation and efforts to overturn it; and
3. The rioting that took place in the wake of many Black people being killed by police.

In some ways, naming the top 10 news stories is a futile exercise. If Covid-19 is #1, where on the list would the emergence of two vaccines appear? Perhaps the vaccines should be considered part of the Covid-19 story. The President vetoed the Defense Authorization Bill — the first such veto in 60 years! The President also threatened to veto the Coronavirus Relief Bill before he abruptly signed it (after calling it a disgrace). Unemployment and other benefits expired before they were finally extended. Merry Christmas. Perhaps the seven month legislative stalemate is its own story, discrete from Covid-19.

A less dramatic, more slowly-emerging news story is also unfolding. Educators are finding that children, especially young children, really suffer when denied human contact. In my congregation grandparents are really struggling because they have not been able to hug their grandchildren for more than nine months. The holiday season we just observed — it’s hard to say we celebrated it — was physically-distanced like never before. While I have been careful to say “physically-distanced” rather than “socially-distanced,” families are certainly feeling the effects of physical distancing socially. We long for, ache for, countless things that we used to take for granted. We are suffering, some more profoundly than others, for their absence.

It is not a stretch to find parallels between exile and the age of Covid-19.

In the Scriptures
I’ll focus most of my thoughts on the Jeremiah reading, however, I must call attention to John 1:11. John was written to Jewish readers who were divided over whether Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ. We see some of this tension in Nicodemus’s visit to Jesus after dark in John 3. (Bonus one liner: try referring to him as “Nick at Nite.”) This and some other passages, largely in John’s gospel, are seeds that can re-sow anti-Semitism every time they are read without regard to their original context. Please, preacher, give careful thought to interpreting that verse.

The book of the prophet Jeremiah is extraordinarily difficult to interpret. Jeremiah preached to Judah warning them of coming destruction and berating them for putting their confidence in the physical presence of the Temple of the Lord. Then after the destruction came — as he’d promised — he offered words of comfort, encouragement and solace. Chapters 30 and 31 of the book of Jeremiah are known as The Book of Comfort, a sort of greatest hits collage of his most upbeat oracles. Jeremiah foretells God’s intention to bring the people back from far away. They will return with dancing and rejoicing, crying tears of joy. Note that the blind, the lame, those with children, even those in labor will walk along this straight path by brooks of water. People from far away, people of all ages, of all physical conditions — everyone — will return safely. The Lord is gathering them, reassembling his nation that has been broken into bits, carried into captivity and driven into exile. It’s going to be great! Jeremiah does not say exactly when this joy-filled reunion will take place; he merely describes how the great the celebration is going to be. And preacher, you might want to pay special attention to v. 14, “I will give the priests their fill of fatness.” Maybe that means that when the time comes your congregation will see its way clear to giving you more than a cost-of-living raise. Closer to home, it’s more likely a description of what has become of your waistline because of egg nog and Chex mix. ’Tis the season.

Today’s psalm echoes the great things that Jeremiah described. In nine verses the psalmist lists 10 different things the Lord does or provides. Everything from the city’s security, to peace, to prosperity, to the weather and, finally, the big finish: the Law. Lots of good things come from the hand of the Lord.

The Ephesians reading begins as a standard Hebrew prayer of thanks or praise. It is a departure from Paul’s usual sequence in the composition of his letters, indicating that it was likely someone who came after Paul who composed this letter. Paul’s use of the sense of destiny, that our adoption by God was from before the foundation of the world, gives believers a confidence, perhaps a certainty, that we are considered children of God. And, as Jeremiah foretells, it is the Lord’s desire that all people will be gathered together.

Most of today’s reading from John’s gospel was a lectionary text for the 2nd Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day. Your people have heard it recently; feed them with hope from the psalm and Jeremiah.

In the Sermon
Last week’s gospel reading featured two elderly people for whom Jesus’ birth brought fulfillment. Chances are the congregation that gathers today will skew older as last week’s probably did. We have just concluded the biggest holidays of the year, turning the corner into 2021 without a lot of momentum carrying over the joy the holiday season typically brings. This year many of us are feeling an especially unique emptiness as our traditions were derailed by this century’s pandemic. Lift up the joy, the redemption, the inclusion that Jeremiah described for the Judeans. He did not say when all that would take place, but also did not say if it would all take place. Better times are coming. The pandemic will pass. We may never return to our pre-pandemic lives. Seriously, do you think supermarkets will be able to remove their hand sanitizer stands at some point? Do you think churches will go back to in-person worship only? Will working from home ever be seen as an aberration again? But the Lord’s intention, the Lord’s desire, is that all people will be gathered together, under protection and security like a shepherd provides for his flock. There are two vaccines entering our veins right now. There are other vaccines on the way. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and the tunnel is getting shorter. I promise. More importantly, the Lord promises!


SECOND THOUGHTS
Legos in the Dark
by Dean Feldmeyer
John 1:1-9; Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12 

Busboy’s Epiphany
The first job I had that didn’t involve mowing grass or delivering newspapers was working as a busboy in a steakhouse. I was 15 years old and it was my first experience working in the adult world.

The restaurant was what my mom called “white tablecloth,” and my dad referred to as “fancy schmancy,” and they were both right, though the tablecloths were, technically, red. The upholstery was black vinyl, the music was muted, the waitresses were all middle aged and thoroughly professional. They called everyone, honey. The steaks came out on sizzling platters and the overall atmosphere was romantically dark. If customers insisted on reading the menu they did so by the light of the small candle on the table.

We busboys, dressed as we were, in black slacks, white shirts, black bow ties, red aprons, had lots of responsibilities. We filled the water glasses, delivered those hard Kaiser rolls and butter to the tables, ran errands for the waitresses, and removed empty plates and cutlery as the meal progressed. And we swept away crumbs from that perfectly spotless red tablecloths.

The first time I swept away crumbs I swept them into my hand as we did at home and then I stood there not knowing where to put them. A kindly waitress whispered into my ear, “Just sweep them onto the floor, honey.”

I was silently appalled. Sweep crumbs onto the floor? People would walk on them and grind them into the carpet. Surely this couldn’t be right. But it was. I watched that evening and everyone, busboys and waitresses, all just blithely swept the crumbs and the other small detritus of the meals onto the floor.

At 11:00 pm the restaurant closed and, this being a Friday night, I was there for the unveiling, when the manager turned on the lights. It was like a bakery truck had exploded in the dining room. There were breadcrumbs…well…everywhere. On the vinyl bench seats of the booths, stuck in the folds of the upholstered chairs, and on the floor. The red and black pattern of the carpet was hidden under a thick, snowlike blanket of breadcrumbs and God only knew what else.

We broke out three vacuum cleaners and, within twenty minutes, the place was spotless. But the image never quite left me. All that mess. The darkness of the restaurant had nothing to do with romance or atmosphere. It was an intentional affect, created to hide an otherwise unsightly mess that was visible only when the lights came up.

And that, brothers and sisters, is what this Sunday, the last Sunday of Christmas and the Sunday before Epiphany is all about. It’s about light and dark. It’s about how darkness can be cozy and romantic but can also hide not just messiness but trouble and danger. It’s also about how light illuminates everything it touches, good and bad.

Legos in the Dark
For my grandfather, it was Tinker Toys. For my father, it was Lincoln Logs. For me, it was Legos.

We knew they were there, in the dark, lurking, hiding, waiting for us to venture into the room barefoot or in our stocking feet. Yes, we knew they were there and, for reasons the mind knows not, we refused to turn on the light, sure that this time we would make it from the couch to the kitchen without stepping on one of those jagged, sharp cornered, little landmines of pain.  

We knew that the chances were at least 50/50 that the ottoman had been left in the center of the room and not pushed back up against the chair where it belonged, or that some new piece of children’s furniture or toy collection, a stool, a Barbie Dream House, a Hot Wheel track, a Fort Apache, had been erected and left in the middle of the room to await tomorrow’s imagined adventures. And still, we lumbered through the tenebrous living room, having convinced ourselves that we could turn on the lights when we reached the opposite wall.

Pity the poor mothers who were awakened in the night by our screams of pain, our curses and rants of frustration, our crashes and bangs as we reeled through the room stumbling into furniture, knocking over tables and lamps, sometimes even tumbling to the floor, all the time insisting that we were “fine, just fine.”

All it would have taken to save us was a little ray of light if only we had not so stubbornly and, for whatever reason, clung to the darkness.

What the Magi Saw
Any one of three texts available to us for this day are illuminative.

John:(1-9) 10-18. In the opening verses of the Gospel lesson for the Second Sunday after Christmas (John1:1-8) the author uses light as an extended metaphor for God’s action in the world through Jesus Christ. The world is a dark place, as surely it must have literally been before electric light was the ubiquitous presence with which we have come to live. The contrast of light and dark was especially salient for those early, first century, readers.

For them, the metaphor of darkness and the dangers that lurked there was much more serious than that of bread crumbs and Lego toys. Real life and death dangers lurked in the dark. Robbers and thieves sought out the darkness for hiding, dangerous animals came out to feed in the nocturnal hours. One sought the light because in light there was at least a small possibility of safety.

John presses the metaphor beyond the physical. The dangers he speaks of hide in intellectual and spiritual darkness. God offers light in Jesus Christ. In that light we can find the purpose and meaning that God gives to our lives: love and kindness, joy and peace, grace and reconciliation are all visible, palpable, and available to us not just as imaginings but as concrete realities.

Undoubtedly, some will cling to the darkness — physical, intellectual, spiritual. They will flee the life of grace and peace, sure that they can make it through the darkness without stepping on or tripping over the things that hide there.

Isaiah 60:1-6 invites us to “Rise and Shine.” He uses the metaphor of the sun rising in the morning and chasing away the darkness as a symbol for God coming into the world. Some 500 years later, the writer of the Fourth Gospel will interpret this metaphor to see Jesus writ large within it. God’s glory (light) has come to us and that glory (light) can be reflected through us and into the world.

Matthew 2:1-12 brings us the familiar Epiphany text of the visitation of the Magi, led from far away in the east by the light of a peculiarly bright star.

This year, many of us witnessed the convergence of Saturn and Jupiter when their paths crossed and their combined light stood out above the southwestern horizon. It occurred to me as I gazed upon that extra-terrestrial phenomenon that while it was certainly bright, had I not been told to look for it, I probably would not have noticed it among all the other stars in the sky that night.

In order to see it, I had to be looking for it. And I wondered if that were not the case in the story of the Magi. We are told that they were very likely Zoroastrian astronomers or astrologers who spent much of their time looking for signs in the arrangement and movement of celestial bodies. They were looking for new things in the sky, things they hadn’t seen before. Things that might mean something.

And when they saw that particular light, they did not ignore it; they sought it out. They followed it to the one true light that was Jesus Christ.

Seeking the Light
As we take our first steps into the darkness that is 2021, we would do well to seek out some light.

Physical light, of course, is important. Scientists tell us that Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), depression that comes from the long parade of short days and long nights of January and February can be countered by bathing ourselves in ultraviolet light. But, if UV light is not easily available, any light will do. Increasing the wattage in the lamps in our homes, turning on the lights when we enter a room and leaving them on when we watch TV or do other chores, will help elevate our moods.

Mental/intellectual light is important as well. We might take this time to concentrate on learning a new skill or a new bit of knowledge that we somehow let get past us earlier in life. Want to learn to speak a foreign language? There are ample opportunities online. Educational programs and streaming events abound. You can even learn to play a musical instrument. Or cook. Or whittle. Or understand Shakespeare.

And, of course, spiritual light is what gives all those skills and abilities purpose and meaning. Spending time in Bible study (not just Bible reading, but real study) with learned commentators and other like or differently minded Christians can broaden our spiritual horizons and make us into better disciples of Jesus.

Committing to missional outreach through serving the poor or the sick will also brighten our days. Teaching or reading to children on Zoom lifts our spirits and theirs. Sending flowers to shut-ins not only serves the shut-ins but also boosts local merchants. And Amazon will gladly send cookies, candy, or just about anything to someone you’re thinking of. All of these brighten the spirits of those who send as well as those who receive.

Our national leaders and experts have wasted no effort in warning us that this is going to be a dark and difficult winter. That the days are shorter and colder there is no doubt, and that the coronavirus is darkening our national spirit is manifest, but how we, as people of faith, shall respond to the darkness is given to us by providence as a choice.

In the book, The Supreme Conquest and Other Sermons Preached in America, a collection published in 1907, in a sermon titled, “The Invincible Strategy,” Rev. William L. Watkinson, a missionary to China, speaks of those dark times of loneliness and self-doubt that must inevitably assail the spirit of every missionary when they are far from home. He concludes the sermon with what he identifies, simply, as a proverb that you have, no doubt, heard many times but which wisdom seems even more wise and pertinent as we prepare to walk through the months to come. It says: “It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.”

The challenges now before us are many, brothers and sisters, but primary among them as we endeavor to fend off the darkness of this hour, is the challenge to do that which is profound in its simplicity — indeed, the challenge to light a single candle and to spread a little light.

Light for the body.
Light for the mind.
Light for the spirit.

Amen.


ILLUSTRATIONS

From (new) team member Katy Stenta:

Ephesians 1:3-14
Waiting For Adoption 
There are many great stories of groups of families who go through the adoption process together. Either they meet in support groups for trauma or transracial adoption, because it is never an easy task, or they are simply in the same room at the same time in a different country waiting for the child to be brought forth. One such story is when an ordained male friend of mine and his husband adopted their daughter Ellie. When Ellie was about 8 years old, they learned there was a sister, also in California. They held their breath and arranged a meeting. Would they be accepted? Could they accept the other family? Would the sisters accept each other?

They met up and let out a little bit of air when they heard NPR on the radio. They also discovered the girls were both obsessed with the same popular toys of the moment, and got to know one another. Soon they were meeting regularly for family reunions. What is amazing about this story is that while waiting to adopt the child, the families adopt each other! They become a part of a greater family who meets each other while waiting to make a family. Beyond the beautiful fact that Jesus himself is adopted (and no doubt had to deal with some of the inevitable trauma that comes with that).

We also are adopting Christ! And as we are waiting to adopt him, we are in the waiting room, making friends and making family. Church can be one of these waiting rooms. Rooms where we accept each other as who we are and, if things go well, establish a safe found family with one another and to realize we are co-heirs, because we are adopted by Jesus Christ, who accepts us as a sibling in God! So too are we family, learning of each other, loving Jesus, waiting for Jesus, and learning to love one another as well. 

* * *

John 1:(1-9) 10-18
God is nocturnal?
There is a lot of evidence that God does not mind the dark. God does not slumber or sleep. And the darkness does not bother God, despite the evidence that darkness can be scary and that the night can be long and overwhelming for humans. God can see in the dark. Most nocturnal animals have bigger eyes, and so they are able to see with smaller pieces of light than humans. It makes sense that God's eyes are bigger than ours. Nocturnal animals also have more rods than cones: cones detect details in bright light and rods detect shapes. I suspect God has enough rods and cones to see both the details and the bigger picture. God doesn't have to choose. Finally, nocturnal animals have a membrane that reflects what light there is back out, magnifying it. It's called the tapetum lucidum. When we see the light as absent or scattered, God reflects that light back to us. 

Additionally, though we can see colors we should admit that in our limited human spectrum light is white. We cannot see the full spectrum of the rainbow that is included in the light. How does God bring this light together? We privileged see white as light, but that is due our limited perception. What rainbow, what sign of God's promise, does God see every time God tries to magnify and reflect the light back to us? Truly that is the kind of light we should be searching for in the darkness. 

* * *

Addendum  to nocturnal 
Jeremiah 31:7-14, Ephesians 1:3-14
How much like this gathering after long scatterings is what we await at the end of the pandemic? How much is that bringing together of people and pieces of light and rainbows like the rebuilding of the temple? How is bringing the scatterings like the adoption promises in Ephesians.


* * * * * *

From team member Mary Austin:

John 1:(1-9) 10-18
Searching for the Light
“The light shines in the darkness,” John proclaims, and noted preacher and author Barbara Brown Taylor sees her life as a search for the light. “It started early in my life, a hunger for the beyond, for the transcendent, for the light within the light, the glow within the grass, the sparkle within the water.” And yet Taylor adds, in Learning to Walk in the Dark, “New life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark…I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.” She observes, “If I have any expertise, it is in the realm of spiritual darkness: fear of the unknown, familiarity with divine absence, mistrust of conventional wisdom, suspicion of religious comforters, keen awareness of the limits of all language about God and at the same time shame over my inability to speak of God without a thousand qualifiers, doubt about the health of my soul, and barely suppressed contempt for those who have no such qualms. These are the areas of my proficiency.” The light shines in the darkness — indeed, it needs the darkness as its partner in revelation.

* * *

John 1:(1-9) 10-18
Following the Right Light
The light shines in the darkness, John’s gospel proclaims, and yet we have to be sure we’re following the right light. In Learning to Walk in the Dark, Barbara Brown Taylor tells about finding a sea turtle that lost its way after laying her eggs. “A few years ago, Ed and I were exploring the dunes on Cumberland Island, one of the barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and the mainland of south Georgia. He was looking for the fossilized teeth of long-dead sharks. I was looking for sand spurs so that I did not step on one. This meant that neither of us was looking very far past our own feet, so the huge loggerhead turtle took us both by surprise. She was still alive but just barely, her shell hot to the touch from the noonday sun. We both knew what had happened. She had come ashore during the night to lay her eggs, and when she had finished, she had looked around for the brightest horizon to lead her back to the sea. Mistaking the distant lights on the mainland for the sky reflected on the ocean, she went the wrong way. Judging by her tracks, she had dragged herself through the sand until her flippers were buried and she could go no farther. We found her where she had given up, half cooked by the sun but still able to turn one eye up to look at us when we bent over her. I buried her in cool sand while Ed ran to the ranger station. An hour later she was on her back with tire chains around her front legs, being dragged behind a park service Jeep back toward the ocean. The dunes were so deep that her mouth filled with sand as she went. Her head bent so far underneath her that I feared her neck would break. Finally the Jeep stopped at the edge of the water. Ed and I helped the ranger unchain her and flip her back over. Then all three of us watched as she lay motionless in the surf. Every wave brought her life back to her, washing the sand from her eyes and making her shell shine again. When a particularly large one broke over her, she lifted her head and tried her back legs. The next wave made her light enough to find a foothold, and she pushed off, back into the water that was her home. Watching her swim slowly away after her nightmare ride through the dunes, I noted that it is sometimes hard to tell whether you are being killed or saved by the hands that turn your life upside down.”

The light has to be the right light.

* * *

Jeremiah 31:7-14
Coming Home
The prophet Jeremiah paints a vision of home for the exiles, promising that the people returning home shall “come and sing aloud…and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord.” Attorney Tony Tolbert inspired that kind of joy for a family that had been homeless when he offered them the use of his home for a year. A Harvard educated attorney, Tolbert contacted a shelter for women and children to offer his home, rent free and fully furnished for a year. He moved back in with his parents so he could make the offer. “Felicia Dukes, a mother of four, couldn’t believe the deal when she heard it. “They had a young man that wanted to donate their house to you for a year,” Dukes recalled. “And I’m looking at her, like, what? Like — are you serious?”…she and three of her children shared a single room at the shelter, whose rules prevented her adult son from joining them. Now they’re back together…Dukes tearfully expresses her gratitude. “My heart just fills up and stuff, um ... I’m just really happy,” Dukes said.”

“I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow,” the prophet says, speaking for God. Tony Tolbert says that we can also give people that kind of joyful return home, adding, “You don’t have to be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or Oprah. We can do it wherever we are, with whatever we have.”

* * *

Matthew 2:1-12
Bringing Gifts (Epiphany)
The magi come, bringing unexpected and yet meaningful gifts to the baby Jesus and his family. Laura Grace Weldon tells her own story about strangers bringing gifts.  At first, it was shaping up to be the worst Christmas ever for her family. Her husband had been in a car accident, was still in pain and wasn’t yet cleared to work, and money was tight.  “In addition, my mother was fighting cancer, my brother-in-law was recovering from open heart surgery, and my son was struggling with asthma so severe that his oxygen intake regularly hovered at the “go to emergency room” level. We were broke and worried. But I insisted on a normal Christmas. I put up our usual decorations, baked the same goodies, and managed to wrap plenty of inexpensive gifts for our kids. Everyone else on my list would be getting something homemade.”

She sat at her sewing machine at night, making gifts. Then, on the evening of December 23, she realized that there were no stocking gifts for her kids. Laura Grace Weldon recalls, “I was so overwhelmed by the bigger issues going on that the stocking problem pushed me right to the edge. I don’t know how long I sat there unable to get back to sewing, but when I lifted my head my eleven-year-old daughter stood next to me. When she asked what was wrong I admitted that I had nothing for any of their stockings. Her response lightened up my mood then and still does every time I think of it. “All that matters is we’re a family,” she said. “ I don’t care if you squat over my stocking and poop in it.” I laughed so loudly and for so long that something cleared out in me. I felt better than I had in months.”

The next morning, the phone rang with a call from a friend she calls Katy, who needed to talk to someone. “The mother of one of my children’s friends, she always seemed like a superwoman who did everything with panache. It was hard to imagine her with anything but a big smile...Katy revealed that her husband had been abusive and she’d finally worked up the courage to ask him to leave. He did, but not before emptying their bank accounts, turning off their utilities, disabling her car, and taking every single Christmas gift for their four children. Utility companies had promised to restore power to their cold, dark home but she was left with no money for groceries and no gifts for her kids.” She made a few calls, and another friend showed up with homemade cookies and a card with $100.

“Heartsick at her situation, my husband and I agreed we had to do something. I spent that day in eager anticipation of the plan we hatched. I went through the gifts I’d wrapped for our kids and took out about a third, putting on new gift tags for Katy’s children. I re-wrapped gifts that friends and relatives had sent for me, putting Katy’s name on them…Close to midnight my husband and I loaded up our car and drove quietly to Katy’s street. Snow was falling and the moon was full, like a movie-set Christmas Eve. He turned off the headlights and cut the engine as we coasted into her drive. We quietly stacked groceries and piles of gifts on her porch, then pounded on her door yelling “Merry Christmas!” before dashing to make our getaway. By the time our car was a few houses down I could see that Katy had opened the door. Her hands were up in the air in a classic gesture of surprise and delight.”

Laura Grace Weldon says, “A small gesture of kindness hardly makes up for what Katy’s family endured that Christmas. But as we drove away, my husband and I felt a lift of euphoria that our own circumstances couldn’t diminish. That feeling stuck with us. It held us through problems that got worse before they got better. Even when our situation seemed intractable my husband and I could easily summon the sense of complete peace we felt in those moments at Katy’s door. I’m not sure if a word has been coined that encompasses that feeling: a mix of peace, and possibility, and complete happiness. But it’s far more precious than any wrapped package.”

Perhaps the magi took home the same lesson after they gave their surprise gifts — a real gift touches both the giver and the receiver.

* * *

Matthew 2:1-12
Home by Another Way (Epiphany)
After being warned about Herod’s evil intentions, the magi return home a different way, bypassing Herod’s court. As we ponder our post-pandemic life, many of us are ready to return to “normal” by another way. A poll taken early in the pandemic revealed that almost 90% of the people asked don’t want to go back to the old version of normal life. Opinion writer Kathleen Parker observes, “Everyone wants to return to normal, which doesn’t only mean getting back to work and reviving the economy. Mostly, people just want to be able to hug again, to see their friends and family, to make a dash to the store without having to think about gloves, masks and sanitizers. And yet, my sense from talking with dozens of people is that many Americans don’t plan to return to regular order anytime soon, no matter what the politicians say.” We have been in this mode long enough that masks, social distancing and limited contact with people have become new habits. “I feel safe in predicting that normal isn’t coming back, at least not as we’ve defined it before. Germany is installing vending machines that sell masks. Etiquette books may soon feature social distancing as good manners. Sanitizers undoubtedly will be repackaged in amulets, charms and decorative bottles. It’s likely that first dates on Zoom have already become a best practice. The world changes. We learn and adapt.”

Lewis Dartnell foresees changes in how we live, “and what we are likely to see continuing after the pandemic is many more office staff working from home. Such a system has demonstrably worked during lockdown, and so managers can no longer rely on the traditional arguments against allowing people to work from home. This could in turn lead to a shift in expectations and workplace culture, where employees are valued on how well they meet their deliverable targets on time, not how many hours they sit behind their desk in the office…What may emerge in the longer term is a more dynamic approach to work, combining office hours where necessary — for team meetings, for example — with remote work for solo tasks.” Commuting time will drop for office workers; service workers will see less benefit.

We have changed, too. We cook more, and have discovered new ways to care for ourselves. Instead of dinner from the drive-thru, now we are “carefully choosing a recipe, chopping and stirring ingredients, grinding spices — taking delight in the process of making a meal. On an even more fundamental level, others have been experimenting with creating and maintaining a sourdough starter culture — of playing primitive microbiologist to select the right combination of microorganisms that can perform a miraculous transformation for you: taking nothing more than basic flour and water and turning it into a risen loaf in the oven. A lot more people are also turning their hand to growing some fruit and vegetables for themselves in the back garden, or even just a few herbs in a small box on an urban windowsill. Parents have become embroiled in any number of different arts or crafts or maker projects, while home-schooling their children. Many of us, in our own small ways, have become reconnected with something that is increasingly lost in hectic modern life — of making and doing things from scratch for ourselves, and realising how deeply satisfying and fulfilling that can be.” When we get back to “normal,” perhaps we will hold onto these changes, going home by another way in our own lives.


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From team member Chris Keating:

Isaiah 60:1-6
Speaking of light
Epiphany shines like a cold cloudless day in January. Themes of lightness and darkness abound in the texts for this Sunday and Epiphany (cf. Wisdom of Solomon 10:17, Isaiah 60:1-6, John 1 and Matthew 2:1-12) and throughout scripture. The abundance of these metaphors and symbols can lead us to applying them without thinking of their impact on persons of color. The Bible’s association of lightness as positive and darkness as negative seeps into cultural references like Star Wars and Harry Potter. The pattern has become engrained in our consciousness at such a level that research shows people have a proclivity toward perceiving a person with darker skin as more likely to have committed a crime.

These references are enmeshed into our culture and are used to perpetuate racist ideology. It’s easy to let these words become shorthand for goodness and evil. That is especially true as images of light are pushed to center stage in our Epiphany celebrations, which are also a time of recognizing the universality of Christ. Failure to recognize the pain this causes persons of color results in a predominantly white failing to acknowledge the hope of God’s glory proclaimed by Isaiah.

Notice how Isaiah calls the faithful to see the promise of God extending beyond their own people. The glorious new chapter of Israel’s life will attract the attention of all the world. Both light and dark are aspects of God’s creation, and both are essential. As Barbara Brown Taylor points out in Learning to Walk in the Dark, there are times when darkness offers options daylight cannot provide. Obviously, the point is to not excise references to lightness and darkness. Rather, the gift of Epiphany is the deeper understanding of how the church is called to overcome racist ideas offensive to persons of color. The glory of the Lord that shines on us this Epiphany illumines the tragedies of the past while offering hope for the future.

* * *

Matthew 2:1-12
Herod’s twitch (Epiphany)
Had the magi been wearing body cams, we might have understood why they found an alternative route home. Herod, filled with anger and paranoia over the possibility that another king had been born in Judea, thought he was playing it cool. He summoned the magi, took a deep breath and then tried to ply them with his charm. Science tells us, however, that he was likely tied up in knots, fidgeting nervously. Studies have revealed that there are certain “constellations” of behaviors that manipulative persons often employ when trying to deceive others, including fidgeting, face touching, and leaning away.

Perhaps the study could be repeated with church personnel committees discussing clergy salaries!

* * *

Matthew 2:1-12
Desiring glory and infamy (Epiphany)
Whatever else Herod hoped to achieve as a ruler, it is clear that his primary objective was to secure a lasting legacy — by any means possible.

Investigators in Nashville remain uncertain of what motivated Anthony Quinn Walker to detonate a bomb that killed himself, injured three others and caused widespread damage. It’s possible he was trying to make a name for himself by any means possible, as recounted by one eye witness account.

A week ago, one of Walker’s neighbors spotted him retrieving mail from his mailbox. “Is Santa going to bring you anything good for Christmas?” Rick Laude asked Walker. Laude said that it was only after police named Walker as the bomber that his response made sense. “Oh yeah,” Laude recalls Walker saying with a smile, “Nashville and the whole world is never going to forget me.”



* * * * * *

WORSHIP
by George Reed


Call to Worship:
Leader: Praise God! Praise God from the heavens.
People: Praise God, sun and moon; praise God, all shining stars!
Leader: Let them praise the name of God who created them.
People: God established them forever and ever.
Leader: Praise the name of God whose name alone is exalted.
People:    God’s glory is above earth and heaven.

OR

Leader: God comes into our midst when we are young and when we are older.
People: We welcome God into our lives always.
Leader: We never know who God will use to speak to us.
People: We will be attentive to all so that we can hear God.
Leader: God has a part for each of us to play.
People: We will play our part in sharing God’s love.


Hymns and Songs:
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138/139/140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELW: 618
W&P: 501
AMEC: 52/53/65  

O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH: 117
H82: 680          
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELW: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT 281

All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 88            
ELW: 757

Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
UMH: 229          
PH: 37
CH: 163
LBW: 44
ELW: 276
W&P: 221

Love Came Down at Christmas
UMH: 242
H82: 84
NCH: 165
W&P: 210

O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright
UMH: 247          
PH: 69
NCH: 158
CH: 105
LBW: 76
ELW: 308
W&P: 230

Once in Royal David’s City
UMH: 250
H82: 102
PH: 49
NCH: 145
CH: 165          
ELW: 269
W&P: 183 
STLT 228

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
UMH: 240
H82: 87
PH: 31/32
AAHH: 217
NNBH: 81
NCH: 144
CH: 150
LBW: 60
ELW: 270
W&P: 185
AMEC: 115 

That Boy Child of Mary
UMH: 241          
PH: 55
ELW: 293
W&P: 211

My Master, See, the Time Has Come
UMH: 226 

I Call You Faithful
CCB: 70   

Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
CCB: 55   

Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship

Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who comes among us in our youth and in our later years:
Grant us the wisdom to recognize your coming
so that we may greet you in love;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

OR

We praise you, O God, because you come to us at all stages of our lives. You come to us in our infancy and you come to us when we grow old. Help us to be wise enough to recognize you when you come to us and give us loving hearts to welcome you. Amen.

Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to welcome God into our daily lives.   

People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to make space in our everyday lives for your presence. We are so focused on our own agendas that we neglect to ask for your guidance. We get ourselves into trouble because we don’t follow your ways. Forgive us and strengthen us in your Spirit that we might listen for your voice over the din of the world. Amen. 

Leader: God cares about us and the smallest details of our lives. Receive God’s grace and use it well to listen to God and, especially, to listen for God’s voice in the words of others.

Prayers of the People
Praise and glory are yours by right, O God, because you are the Creator and our Redeemer. Glorious is your Name.

(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)

We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to make space in our everyday lives for your presence. We are so focused on our own agendas that we neglect to ask for your guidance. We get ourselves into trouble because we don’t follow your ways. Forgive us and strengthen us in your Spirit that we might listen for your voice over the din of the world.

We give you thanks for all the blessings of this life. We thank you for this time of preparing for the coming of the Christ into our midst. We thank you for the love that embraces us even as we find ourselves distanced from those we love.

(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)

We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who struggle with the isolation and loneliness during this pandemic. We pray for those who give of themselves as they serve the needs of the rest of community. We pray for those who are struggling with diminished resources and find it difficult to provide food and housing for themselves and their loved ones.

(Other intercessions may be offered.)

All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:

Our Father....Amen.

(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)

All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.

Children’s Sermon Starter
The Gospel story today has several characters in it. Some of them we are very familiar with and some we are not. There are Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, of course, but there are also Anna and Simeon. All of them are children of God and all of them have a part to play. Jesus is just a baby, Mary and Joseph are young adults, and Anna and Simeon are older adults. No matter what our age we can be part of sharing God’s love. It doesn’t matter whether we are known by a lot of people or only a few. We still are important to God.



* * * * * *

CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Important Parts
by Bethany Peerbolte
For Epiphany

The Magi knew what had happened and still traveled the long road to experience the amazing for themselves. They wanted to be a part of the good things happening in the world. We too can make a commitment to be part of the amazing. It will take work, like the Magi, and time, like the Magi, but when we see the amazing thing we have been longing for it is worth it.

In this children’s sermon you will ask the kids for 5 second stories. This is important to introduce first so they know what you mean. When a student is chosen to tell their story you will hold up 5 fingers and slowly put a finger down (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) so the student has a visual as to how much time they have left. I usually introduce it like this.

“In a minute I am going to ask for 5 second stories. These are very short stories so be sure to only include the most important parts. For example if I told you about my Christmas I would say (count your fingers down as you give the example) “my family was there and I got a new book about turtles. I Love turtles!” Did you see my fingers? They will countdown those 5 second stories so the storyteller knows how much time they have left. I think you all can tell some pretty great stories in 5 second but we only have time for a few this week. If I call on you I will put up my 5 second finger timer and when you start telling the story my fingers will countdown. When my fingers are all closed stop your story wherever you are. Let’s try...”

If you are worshiping online you can change the “tell me a story” to “think of a story” or “tell the people in the room with you” then countdown in silence for that time period.

Say something like:

Can anyone tell me a 5 second story of something that happened in their house this week? (Give the countdown.) Great! How about a story of something that happened in our town? (Give the countdown.) Anyone hear about something that happened in our country? (Give the countdown.) Anyone know something that happened in a different country this week? (Give the countdown.)

The story from our house was probably something you experienced yourself, which means you were actually there to see and hear what happened. The stories from far away, however, were not something we knew from our own experience. We had to hear it from someone else. Maybe we heard the story from a TV news station or online article, or from someone else who saw or read about that event.

I’ll also bet it was easy to think of something that happened in our house and a lot harder to think of something that happened far away. The farther away something happens the harder it is for us to hear about. There is just so much happening in the world we don’t get to know about it all.

Up until now our Christmas story has included people who experienced it for themselves. They were actually there at Jesus’ birth. Mary and Joseph and the shepherd and animals all got to know about Jesus’ birth because they saw the baby. But there are more people who knew Jesus was born who weren’t there that birth day, the Magi. We call them the three wise men.

These Magi knew Jesus was born in a completely different way. They were far away from Bethlehem but looked up into the night sky and saw a…(pause to see if any kid remembers what they saw)…a star! This star was something new and they understood that if there was a new star there was someone really important born in the world. So they followed the star. They followed it for a long time. Then finally they found Jesus, Mary and Joseph and got to see this amazing family for themselves.

Have any of you every gotten to travel far away from something special? Maybe someone was getting married, or a special vacation with sites you wanted to see for yourself? It’s so much better when we get to experience something rather than just hear about it in the news from other people. The Magi knew what was happening because of the star but they wanted to see it for themselves.

I wonder what is something you would really like to see. Would you like to see less people arguing? Or maybe you want to see someone help someone else with their homework? Or maybe you would love to see a friend smile. In order to see these things we need to be present and we need to keep our eyes open. You know how we can guarantee we get to see these things? By doing them. If we want people to argue less we need to not start arguments. If we want to see a friend smile we need to greet them with a smile. So take a 5 second break and think of something you would like to see happen in your house or school this week? Now think how will you help that happen.

Let’s pray to make that happen:

Loving God, Lots of things will happen this week. Amazing things, and maybe sad things. We want to experience the amazing. Help us jump in when we can to make amazing things happen. In Jesus’ name, Amen.


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The Immediate Word, January 3, 2021 issue.

Copyright 2021 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.

All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.