St. Luke Anglican Church

To mark the Fourth Week of Epiphany, James teaches us that the knowledge of God's Kingdom reality revealed to us through Christ Jesus is for the purposes of 1) loving God, 2) navigating our own world and reality, 3) not supporting a "you do you" mentality within us, and 4) loving others. James reminds us that power and freedom grow proportionally to our knowledge, but that can often be a dangerous thing to the consciences of others who understand reality differently. Revealed knowledge is not to be used as a tool to cut things into the shapes we want, rather to restore relationships through Grace that honors the faithfulness of others, even when it looks different than ours. By this, our love can be a creative force.

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The idea of Manifestation is sweeping through our younger generations. But trying to satisfy the longing to see real change in life to avoid despair and hopelessness is nothing new. We have been taught that we have to make things happen, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, or risk being swept up by life. But the reality is this: Jesus calls us, we don't have to call ourselves. We have reason for hope, not because we have attuned our energies towards good things for ourselves, but because there is goodness all around us and we have been called to behold it and take part in it. This is our orientation, our horizon, and our purpose: we get to do and be within an eternal story that is not conditional or dependent upon our ability to actualize it, and we're not alone in it!

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In this the Second Week in the season of Epiphany, Kimberley draws our attention to the call narrative of Philip and Nathaniel in the Gospel according to John. Kimberley highlights the way that Jesus finds Philip, the way that Jesus sees Nathaniel from afar, and the way that Jesus calls them both to invite them into the promise of the reality of the unity between our world and God's kingdom. God came from in the most unexpected fashion to summon the most ordinary people to himself to be his hands and his feet. God calls us, too, in ways that defy all our expectations. All we have to do is be just who we are and receive, just as God sees us, finds us, and calls us.

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The season of Epiphany marks the fulfillment of God's promises. The narrative of Scriptures reveal that God establishes covenantal relationships with his people by being at once Promise-Maker and Promise-Keeper, and in no greater way is this story told than in the baptism of Jesus as found in the Gospel of Mark. James encourages us to pay attention to the unremarkable details of our lives, for that might be exactly where the glory of God is being manifest.

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On this New Years Eve, James asks: As the year closes and a new 2024 dawns, do you know God more, and know about God more, than you did a year ago? Where in your life do you need to know God more? Where do you need to receive Christ as Truth and extend the sweet and costly Grace of Christ? May these Realities be the Lens through which we live and move and have our being this new year.

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This Christmas Eve, James reminds us that the mystery of the Divine Presence is imminent with us in the discomfort of our present situations. We are invited to hold Life, the Divine Source, living and breathing together through all the pain, frustration, and confusion of our existence. This is the Incarnation we celebrate at Christmas, God is with us and has made his home among us, moving into our lives.

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Link: "Honest Advent" by Scott Erickson

This Advent season, we have been focusing our attention on our Psalms readings. Why? The Psalms serve to prompt us to remember both our tears of sorrow and of joy. Most importantly, they remind us of those ultimate moments in our waiting and deepest sorrows when God unexpectedly shakes up the story and suddenly, in the place of grief, is the deepest of joys. Kimberley reminds us that, indeed, this is the meaning of Advent and the Christ-birth.

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What happens when the attachments that define us, and have defined us for generations, are ripped from us and we find ourselves longing for "the good old days?" It's pretty easy to point fingers at a perceived enemy in the name of protecting "when things were better" and say, "There can be no peace between us." The reality of Christ tells us this does not prepare us for his coming. The way of reconciliation, the Way of Christ, is hard-fought in surrender, earth-shaking love, and genuine concern for the welfare of those we are taught to hate.

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What does it really mean to struggle, to experience absence or need? Hunger and waiting is the deep and collective condition of our hearts. When will God deliver us? Can God even do anything about your situation? Is God angry at me? James ushers us into the season of Advent by reminding us that immanence of Christ and his entrance into our darkness and presence among us is our very deliverance. Jesus' light that shines upon our struggle restores, returns, redeems and rehumanizes the dignity of every person.

"The Christ of the Breadlines," Fritz Eichenberg

https://www.reliefjournal.com/blogposting/2015/04/10/fritz-eichenberg

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The tide of the world ebbs and flows in waves of prosperity and woe, and this creates a desperation and a fear in us all. These moments show us what it is we really crave, our deep personalities. The fear of loosing what we deem too important to let go of can lead us to trade our faith and allegiance to Christ Jesus the King for something to placate our anxiety and make us feel "safe." On this Christ the King Sunday, Kimberley challenges us that surrendering to Jesus as Lord gives way to liberty and gratitude, while placing our faith in other figures and systems that promote control leads to deeper fragmentation.

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