The First Sunday After Christmas Day:  Isaiah 61:10—62:3  Psalm 147:13-21 Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7 John 1:1-18   Scriptural references to light, are about God-given wisdom and insight. They are about fearless searching for truth, about self-knowledge, unveiling what is hidden, and brightening the shadows. This is the light to which we are all end. Holding that commission and understanding tenderly, I need to now turn to the shadow cast by the Israel-Gaza war, and our own call to witness to light in the darkness. We are not in Gaza or Israel, and most of us are not in Gazan or Palestinian or Israeli families. If there is one thing we can do to witness to light in the darkness, it is to join those who have laid down their arms for the cause of peace in this pledge jointly written by Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost loved ones to war: https://parentscirclefriends.org/pledge/