In the sci fi novel series Hyperion, the author Dan Simmons gives us a 28th-century universe in which Earth is gone; it’s been utterly destroyed by the hubris of humankind and what was left over sucked into a manmade black hole. The remaining inhabitants of the planet were airlifted out at the last moment, to colonize distant planets in the universe—beautiful planets, but none of them quite like Earth, their home that is gone forever.

1 John 1:1-2:2

It’s been a long, hard winter. Can I get an amen, Church? It’s been a killing winter, soul-killing and, for some people, body-killing. Every day you and I keep looking outside to see if anything, anything is coming back alive again, don’t we? Is spring even coming? We look and we look, but there’s not much to go on yet. We know spring has to come eventually, but what if it doesn’t? What if everything stays dead? What if this is the year spring decides: nah. I’m moving to Florida!

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Last week in worship the sense of victory over winter was palpable. You were here in droves. There were smiles on your faces. I saw many of you gamboling like spring lambs when you thought nobody was looking.

The other day, I was walking Carmen and her friend to school, when I noticed a guy spinning his wheels, trying to get his parked car out of the ice and snow.

The lectionary reading this morning, the fifth Sunday after Epiphany, comes from the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 1, verses 29 – 39.