Passage: Isaiah 60:1-6 & Mark 1:9-12    

  Description: Arise shine, YOUR light has come. On this Epiphany Sunday, it’s like the words of Isaiah are saying to us Christians: “OK, you have passed through Advent and lit the candles of hope, peace, joy and love in anticipation of the celebrated birth of Jesus. You have gathered on Christmas Eve and lit more candles and proclaimed the light of God that even the darkness cannot put out. you have gathered around the manger and pondered the mystery of God’s incarnation—of being born—in the baby Jesus and how amazing that is remembering of course that it’s the tradition’s way of inviting you to be aware that you are also the embodiment of God’s presence—the hands and feet of Christ. Then, if your household is like mine, we collapsed into the week between Christmas and New Years—perhaps still frantically working the kitchen, cleaning, travelling, eating and drinking, enjoying family time. And then we land on Epiphany with Isaiah’s words. It’s as if the prophet is wondering, “OK you have done all that. Now what are you going to do about it? Arise, shine, YOUR light has come. The glory of the LORD has risen upon you…. Lift up your eyes, look around..... While this is an awesome text post Christmas. I think it would be even more fun to read on Groundhog Day imagining the returning spring light as we drift out of winter’s hibernation. But let’s not get too far from the point. I believe that Isaiah’s words are intended to help us bask in God’s light of hope and promise and vision. Our light has come. The Prophet’s invitation is to lift up our eyes and look around. This is especially significant for our congregation. We have weathered the past 5 years of our own version of exile and return post disaster. We have suffered emotional losses, material losses, human losses and physical losses to be sure. We are finding our way home to a new kind of normalcy how ever we understand that and now, in this season of Epiphany—the season when the tradition remembers and points to God’s revelation in the newborn Christ—we enter God’s light arising and shining upon us. It’s the time when we move more deeply and intentionally into our spiritual identity as God’s people living our faith and compassion in community as a congregation. It’s the time when we own what we say and do, proclaim it, and reconstitute ourselves for a life in mission and ministry together.

Passage: Matthew 1:18-25 & Luke 2:1-20    

  Description: Rev. David speaks of the need for quiet space on Christmas Eve to reflect on our faith.

Passage: Isaiah 55:1-13 & Matthew 1:1-12    

  Description: Overwhelmed with joy! That’s how the gospel describes the feeling of the wisemen, when the star guides them right to the house in Bethlehem where they find the child named Jesus. Overwhelmed with joy! Can you think of a moment in your life when you have felt overwhelmed with joy? It is not an every day thing. It is something extraordinary, something more than could be imagined. It is a moment when there is a smile on your face and tears running down your cheeks; a moment when all seems right with the world, even if chaos is all around you. It comes unexpectedly; it is never anticipated or planned or managed. It is a moment that takes your breath away. That’s what it is to be overwhelmed with joy. Our society speaks freely of happiness. Happiness can be an every day thing. I feel happy when I’ve accomplished some work or found an item (on sale!) that I had been searching for in the store. But joy is something so much more. Joy comes even in the midst of sorrow. Joy is not confined to times when life has gone perfectly or easily. In fact, joy often follows a time of challenge or struggle. That’s what it was for these wiseones.

Passage: Psalms 104:1-24    

  Description: A conversation between Rev. David & Rev. Susan about honouring God as the higher power in our lives, why we believe in God, and how science points us in that direction. We bless you today, o God, for you are great beyond imagining. You are clothed with honour and majesty, wrapped in light as a garment, draped in the beautiful deep darkness of space. Your love wraps the earth, underlying all that is. You do not intervene and interrupt the free will you gave us; yet you are always offering the influence & wisdom of your love. You, who are divine, invite us, who are human, to be partners in the mending and tending and repair of this earth. We bless you today, o God, for you are great beyond imagining, and yet, you love and know us, comfort and care for us, calling us to the Way of Jesus, for the healing of lives and planet. You, o God, are our higher power, the greatest gift of all. Amen.

Passage: Song of Songs 2:8-17 & Psalms 150:1-6    

  Description: I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am passionate about living the Way that Jesus taught, finding ways to love neighbours and those perceived as enemies, welcoming strangers and deepening my love for God. I am committed to following the Way of Jesus day by day, and letting that sink deeper and deeper into who I am, transforming me, and hopefully transforming the world. I am passionate and committed to the Good News of Jesus Christ ---and that can be exhausting. For you, for me – all of us committed in our love for Jesus and his Way. Therefore, I hereby give you permission to delight, to play, to enjoy life! Think about it – how often do we promise ourselves that we will do something we really enjoy, once we have our work done. And then, the list is usually so long, that we never get to that part. We just keep working and working. We create a wonderful meal, a beautiful event, put our whole hearts in, and then we go on to the next thing on the list, never delighting in what has been. Now, I’m not against hard work. I know that it is necessary. But the truth is that we need a balance of work and play. That is the wisdom of the book of Ecclesiastes with which we started our fall season. What I see in our society is that we are working harder and longer hours. I see this happening with our children as well. Lunch time and recesses are getting shorter in some schools. After school is filled with homework and activities. Weekends have their schedules. And all of this is work, not play. It might be enjoyable for some, but it is not play. Let me explain. We need play for our emotional and spiritual well-being. We need play to process what we have learned and experienced. We need to play in times of joy and times of sorrow. What do I mean by play, you’re wondering? Play is not outcome based. It does not have purpose or goals set for it. It is not structured, though it does happen in a way that no one will get hurt (emotionally or physically). Play is not for real. It is engaging and spontaneous. It can not be taught. It does not have consequences. It is a time to explore and wonder and try out possibilities.