Texts: Isaiah 63:7-9, John 1:1-18

Today’s Gospel reading is the opening verses of the Gospel we call John - a gospel that is considered to be written later than the other gospels, primarily because of what is called its “high Christology” – like all the Gospels, it was written to answer the question “Who was Jesus and what does that mean for us?” I love John’s Gospel, and part of why I love it is because of those issues – it is a gospel that grapples with the who, why, how of Jesus at both the head and heart levels. A case can certainly be made that it is the most theologically sophisticated of the Gospels – on almost every page the gospel wrestles with who Jesus is, and what that means for us. Everyone who encounters Jesus in this Gospel - disciples, Pharisees, ordinary women, kings – is trying to figure Jesus out. But this is not the kind of intellectualizing that holds Jesus at arms’ length. This is a Gospel that is all about relationships – the relationship between Jesus and God, the relationships between Jesus and those who are hostile to him, and the relationships between Jesus and those who would follow him. To the latter, to us, Jesus says in this Gospel: abide in me. And he reminds us that how we relate to him will impact how we relate to others: Love one another as I have loved you.
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Texts: Isaiah 9:2-7, Luke 2:1-20

Every fall, when the weather begins to get colder, it seems we have a new problem with mice in our garage. We begin to notice evidence of their activity, and so we set traps, and more traps and more traps – in fact we end up buying a special jar of peanut butter, just for mouse traps – and for a while, it seems like we have a subscription to mice. Every morning another is delivered. Despite all the ways we try to discourage them, still somehow, the mice creep in. They don’t need much of an opening at all.
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Texts: Isaiah 11:1-10, Matthew 1:18-25

Carl and I were on vacation this week – we went to Oklahoma City to watch a horse show – a big, western horse show – in which my brother was competing. We had a grand time, and Jon rode well, so it was really fun to get to see that. And it was fun to get more of a glimpse into his world – my brother is a cowboy. He and his wife own a ranch in Arizona where they have a horse business – they buy and sell horses, they breed and raise horses, and for fun, my brother rides horses and competes in a particular type of precision Western riding called reining. While we were at the competition, we had the opportunity to go to a horse auction, which was certainly a unique experience for me. I kept remembering an episode from the old Dick Van Dyke show (by the way, did you know that Dick Van Dyke is a Presbyterian elder?) – an episode in which he and his staff visited an art auction and kept accidentally bidding on art, until they had bought something. So I sat very still, not even scratching my nose during the bidding, so that I wouldn’t accidentally come home with a horse. Anyway, my sister-in-law was explaining things to us about the auction, and showed us the catalog of the horses. And in each listing, there is something called ‘black type’ – a section of the listing that is in bold-faced print. Typically, it shows the achievements of horses related to the horse for sale, and sometimes it tells highlights about the horse itself. When my brother and I talked about it later, Jon noted that the black type doesn’t tell the full story of what a horse can be – he said, “Of course, what I like to say about genetics is, ‘My full sister is a Presbyterian minister, and I’m a horse trader…so obviously genetics isn’t everything.’”
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Texts: Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 1:1-17

We are more used to beginnings of a different sort: In the beginning…, or Once upon a time…, but a genealogy is also a traditional beginning, especially in antiquity, and establishes the credentials of the person whose story will be told. And so this one is interesting. First, we need to remember that when this Gospel was written, it was not in the Bible. I know that sounds obvious, but the beginning of the story is, nonetheless, placing this person Jesus squarely in the context of the Biblical story. I remember hearing a young man telling some other teens about his experiences learning to read the Bible. He said he thought it was going to be boring, but when he began with the Gospel of Matthew, he got excited because it sounded like the beginning of an epic adventure! And of course, this epic adventure is actually the continuation of an epic, told in many ways by many different people, and gathered in the Hebrew Scriptures, which we call the Old Testament.
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Texts: Luke 17:20-21, Luke 23:33-43

In the church year, today is Christ the King Sunday – the last Sunday in the church year, also called the liturgical year. And so a new year begins next Sunday, with the first Sunday in Advent – and so every year we get this odd Sunday, about 5 weeks before Christmas, when we revisit Good Friday, as a way of celebrating the kingship of Jesus, which is either ironic or confusing or both.
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Texts: Luke 20:27-38, Haggai 1:15b-2:9

“What happens when we die?” Many of us wonder about this from time to time, so of course we hear the conversation between Jesus and the Sadducees through that lens. But we should understand that the conversation between Jesus and the Sadducees was not a simple theological conversation. This conversation took place in Jerusalem, after Palm Sunday, and was one of a series of confrontations that occurred that week, leading up to the arrest and execution of Jesus.
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Texts: Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4; 2 Corinthians 9:6-9; Luke 19:1-10

The story of Zacchaeus is one of the more familiar to those of us who grew up going to Sunday School, Vacation Bible School or church camp. I remember our son Jason as an 11-year-old playing Jesus in the church camp musical production of this, called “Hurry on Down”, and a cute Jesus he was in his tie-dyed t-shirt, bleached-blond summer hair, and boy soprano voice. But, in our continuing mission to learn what the Bible is really saying, we find (when we take a close look) that this story isn’t really as we have heard it most of our lives.
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Texts: Joel 2:22-32; 2 Corinthians 9:6-9; Luke 18:9-14

One of the questions kids get asked by adults most often is “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Of course, as I remember from my own childhood, it’s a question that kids are asking themselves, too. Who will I be? What kind of job will I have? What will I look like? What will my family be like? For most of elementary school, I wanted to be a doctor. Obviously, that’s not what I ended up being – but I did end up in a profession where I care about people, and work with them when things aren’t going well, including when folks are sick.
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Texts: Jeremiah 31:27-34; 2 Corinthians 9:6-9; Luke 18:1-8

Okay, I have to give credit where credit is due.  Those of you of a certain age will know anyway that the sermon title is not original with me.  It was actually the title of a John Denver song – John Denver was a popular singer during the 70’s and 80’s who died young in a plane crash about 15 years ago.  Continue...

Texts: Jeremiah 29:1-7, 2 Corinthians 9:6-9, Luke 17:11-19

Christianity is for grown-ups.
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Texts: Colossians 1:15-20, Psalm 19

Today is our last Sunday in this year’s Season of Creation – it is Cosmos Sunday, and as I’ve reflected on the Cosmos over the past couple of weeks, anticipating today, I keep coming back to the idea of bigness. When I think of Cosmos I am struck by the bigness of the universe, and the complexity of the science around cosmology. Including astronomy and physics, cosmology reaches well beyond human history to understand the cosmos – its beginning and its trajectory. It’s a field of science that seems particularly opaque to the dilettante: its complexity, and its range both create a sense of there being almost too much to consider. And that’s not only true in regard to the cosmos – inquiry into almost any subject yields the same unmanageable quantity and diversity of information. At a time when there is more information, and more access to information, than at any other time in history, there also seems to be less wisdom, less understanding, and certainly less certainty, than any of us can remember. Continue...

Texts: 2 Timothy 1:3-7, Luke 18:15-17, Deuteronomy 6:4-10

Every family has its stories. One of my family’s favorite stories came about in 1968-69 when my grandmother was living with us. My aunt was visiting at the time, and the dinner table conversation was, as usual, lively – sometimes with a side conversation or 2 as well. Everyone in my family can really talk. At some point during the meal, my Dad said something that my aunt didn’t hear, and so she asked him to repeat it, saying “What was that, Chuck? I didn’t hear it.” And my grandmother responded to her question with unusual sternness saying, “Well, if you didn’t hear it…you missed it.” And that response has come down through the family as a kind of all-purpose comment – if you didn’t hear it, you missed it. Continue...

Texts: Numbers 22:22-38, Psalm 104:1, 10-30

A guy sees a sign in front of a house "Talking Dog for Sale." He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog is in the back yard. The guy goes into the back yard and sees a mutt sitting there.

"You talk?" he asks.

"Yep," the mutt replies.

"So, what's your story?"

The mutt looks up and says, "Well, I discovered this gift pretty young and I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA about my gift, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, ‘cause no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running.

"The jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings there and was awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. The owner says "Ten dollars."

The guy says he'll buy him, but asks the owner, "This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him for $10?"

The owner replies, "He's such a liar. He never did any of that stuff."

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Texts: Psalm 29, Luke 8:22-25

Thursday, a day of storms tore through three boroughs of New York City. The storms included 2 likely tornados, and a microburst, and together the storms destroyed approximately 2,000 trees, and damaged many more.

This weekend, Hurricane Igor is bearing down on Bermuda – the island is expecting a direct hit which will come sometime later today. Continue...

Texts: Daniel 1:1-17; Luke 8:4-15

Here we are in the second week of the Season of Creation, and it seems appropriate to remember one of the reasons for the Season of Creation – it is critically important for us as people who take the Bible seriously to be people who are in relationship with the natural world. It has only been recently that more than half the world is living in or near cities – as this urbanization continues, natural images will be less and less effective as points of reference. Agricultural metaphors will be decreasingly meaningful. For example, there is an expression that probably every one of us here has heard often: a tough row to hoe. This example is drawing from agricultural or gardening imagery. It describes a row of plants that is (for whatever reason) difficult to hoe. The idiom describes a difficult challenge – although it appears that these days what’s difficult is to get the metaphor right. Again and again I hear people say something about a “tough road to hoe” – whatever that would mean. I heard it again this week from a gubernatorial candidate in another state – who really is having a challenge if she is trying to weed asphalt with a garden hoe. Continue...

Texts: Job 38:1-18; Luke 5:1-11

Today we begin the Season of Creation – a six-week season in which we reflect on God’s Creation, and upon God as Creator. Much of the Church year is defined in relation to the life of Jesus, and so we focus on Jesus for Advent, Lent, and indeed, much of Ordinary Time. During Pentecost, and especially on Pentecost, we reflect more fully on the Holy Spirit. But there really is no place in the liturgical year where we focus particularly on God, and especially on God as Creator. And so we at Frame have included the Season of Creation since 2006 – this is our 5th year. And a foundational premise of the Season of Creation is that just as we regard the Bible as revelatory – that is, the Bible reveals God to us – so too is God’s handiwork, the created world, revelatory. We can learn about God by studying the world that God has made. As it happens, the Bible also states this perspective and we’ll look at one of those passages in particular on our last week of the Season of Creation. Our six weeks this year will be: Ocean, Flora, Storm, Fauna, Generations, and Cosmos. Continue...

Texts: Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 10:25-37

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

It's a neighborly day in this beautywood,
A neighborly day for a beauty,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

So let's make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we're together, we might as well say,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?

Won't you please,
Won't you please,
Please won't you be my neighbor?
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Texts: Luke 1:1-4, 2 Peter 1:16-21

As most of you know, I issued an invitation at the beginning of the summer for folks to suggest sermon topics – I should say, I didn’t make a big deal out of this and it would have been easy to miss, but 2 members emailed me their questions. Last week, I preached on one of them; this week, the sermon is on the other. The question, in part, was: "The organization of our Bible into the books we find today comes to mind. I wonder at the differences in the time line of the writings, especially Revelation. As for choosing the writings of Paul, was he the Christian rock star of his time and that's part of why so much of his writings were chosen? Even the four gospels were not written at the same time; how did that happen?” Essentially the question is – how did the New Testament come to be? Let me acknowledge right now that this is far too big a topic to be adequately addressed in a single sermon, so I will be providing a simplified version. Continue...

Texts: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 14:25-35

This is one of those texts that people gently describe as “the difficult teachings of Jesus.” It would be exhibit A in my presentation on Why It Is Inaccurate to Think of Jesus as Nice. Jesus isn’t “nice.” Jesus loves, Jesus calls, Jesus cares, Jesus is brilliant, Jesus speaks truth to anyone who will listen, and thus, we can’t call Jesus nice. Jesus won’t say things just to make people happy. Jesus doesn’t refrain from speaking the truth as he understands it, regardless of how others will respond. Continue...

Texts: Psalm 85, Luke 11:1-13

There was a minister who lived near Seattle, Washington. One day, the minister stepped out his back door only to notice a tiny kitten, meowing, stuck in a tree in the minister's back yard. Now the tree was young and small, but not young enough or small enough for the kitten to be reached. Even with a ladder, the kitten was beyond the minister’s grasp. The tree was too fragile to be climbed. The minister tried everything he could to coax the kitten down, but the poor thing was too frightened to move. It clung to its tiny branch, still meowing.
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Texts: Luke 10:25-37; Deuteronomy 30:9-14

Often during the summer, people gather in family reunions.  When I lived in and around Chicago, you could often on the weekends see signs at parks anywhere in the area: Hamilton family reunion, Kitowski reunion, Cummings family picnic.  I’ve only been to one family reunion – 24 years ago Carl, Jason, and I went to the Schendorf family reunion – the gathering of my mother’s father’s family.  My mother’s father, Winfield Schendorf, was the firstborn of eight, and so this was a large family.  The thing that made the reunion a little odd for me was that I had only met one person there (other than Carl and Jason).  For a few reasons, the kinds of reasons that sometimes develop in families, we didn’t have much of a relationship with my grandfather’s family, and yet, we were invited to the reunion, and so I went.  It was a wonderful, and interesting experience.  Although I didn’t know them, many of the people there were my mother’s cousins, and we heard time and time again of how much they loved her.  I kept looking around, trying to see if I looked like any of these people.  Continue...

Texts: Psalms 42 &43; 1 Kings 19:1-15a

Today’s readings are some of my very favorites – I love Psalm 42, some of its verses touch me so deeply, and I love the story about Elijah – it was also the passage that I had to take one of my ordination exams on. And it is a story that really needs to be set in its context, so let me tell the back story. Continue...

Texts: 1 Kings 21:1-21a; Luke 7:36-8:3

These stories are so different, and in this case, the differences between the stories tell us more than either story on its own. Continue...

Texts: 1 Kings 17:8-24; Luke 7:11-17

I have a definite appreciation for the fact that in a week when I was sicker than I have been in almost 20 years, both scripture readings are about healing. To add to this theme, last night, the AMC channel showed two movies: Virus and Outbreak. Really. I skipped TV. Continue...

Text: Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John17:20-26

I was in our nation’s capital two weeks ago for a conference – I was one of 70 religious leaders from a variety of denominations: there were clergy who were Presbyterian, American Baptist, Cooperative Baptist, Episcopalian, Unitarian Universalist, Orthodox Jewish, Jewish Renewal, United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Methodist; there were Catholic nuns, and laypeople from most of the above plus Zen Buddhists and Baha’i. All these different traditions, coming together for the national Interfaith Power and Light conference – Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming, it is an organization which now has chapters in 38 states, including Wisconsin. This is exciting to me – different faith traditions are not known for getting along, yet all over the country, there are interfaith groups uniting around climate change – much as they have around other moral issues, such as the civil rights movement fifty years ago, or child labor 100 years ago. As I said, it is exciting to me to see people of many faiths working together on issues, impelled by their faith to set aside differences and work together. Because usually the world of the church/synagogue/mosque and meeting for worship is a world where our differences often seem more to carry more weight than what we have in common. Continue...

Texts: Ephesians 3:14-21; John 15:1-11

One thing about the long, lovely Wisconsin winter is that spring is really welcome. Although winter can always make a surprise return, as yesterday’s snowfall makes clear. Nonetheless, in our front yard, our garden beds have been full of blooming daffodils and grape hyacinths, and now the other perennials are emerging. Continue...

Texts: Isaiah 65:17-25, Romans 8:19-23a, John 14:15-21

A great deal of the Bible shows that God intended humans and animals to live in harmony: from the creation stories to the many psalms that describe animals, to the Exodus stories where firstborn animals were killed or spared in the original Passover alongside the humans who lived or perished. Our lot, in the Bible, is cast with the fate of animals around us. Continue...

The place I first saw the Sea of Galilee close up last summer was the place that is the traditional site for this story of Peter and Jesus. We don’t know for sure that it was the place, but it easily could have been. It was not too far from Capernaum, where Peter’s home was, and it was a gentle shoreline, easily accessible from the water. It would be a lovely place for a beach breakfast. Continue...

Texts: Isaiah 25:6-9; Luke 24:13-35

It was 1979. I was almost 24, living in Chicago, and my parents had gone to Norway for a vacation. I thought it would be fun to meet their plane when they came home, even though they live outside Philadelphia, so I flew out there, my plane arriving about 30 minutes before theirs. Everything went right on schedule, and soon I was seeing my Mom and Dad walk out of customs. I was so excited at this surprise – and I walked up to my Mom and said, “Hi!” She stared at me… and turned away. I touched my Dad’s elbow to get his attention and said, “Hi!” He looked at me as if I might try to sell him a flower, said “hello…” and walked away. Hmmm, I thought, not at ALL the response I was looking for. Frankly, I felt a little hurt. While I hadn’t seen my Dad for 18 months, I had seen Mom about 6 weeks earlier, and I am their only daughter…. So I followed them out to the curb, waited for them to put down their bags, planted myself right in front of both of them and said, “Mom, Dad…hi!” They looked at me, and then there was a shudder of recognition as they both realized who I was…and we had the joyful reunion I had expected. Continue...

Texts: Psalm 118:1, 2, 19-29; Luke 19:28-40

It’s very hard for us to experience this Gospel story as it was first experienced – we know that Easter is next Sunday, and we know what has to happen before Easter. So for us, there is a certain irony in the Palm Sunday story, a certain poignancy… a wish that Jesus really could ride into the city of Jerusalem in triumph, and that the fullness of the Kingdom of God would follow. Continue...

Texts: Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 18:15-17

As many of you know, I have a son attending college in Minnesota at St. Olaf College. I was driving to pick him up for a visit home in late January, when I noticed that I was losing air in my right rear tire. I stopped in Red Wing, and settled in at the tire store with the dog to wait for the tire repair. While I was there, a man drove in with a van and came inside to inquire about replacing a tire. The store manager showed him a tire, and the man asked “Don’t you have anything bigger?” The manager explained that this was the same size tire as was currently on the van, And the fellow replied, “I’d like something bigger – I want people to know that a MAN is driving.” And as I worked very hard to suppress a giggle, I thought – someone has a self esteem problem.
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Texts: Romans 7:14-25, John 3:1-10

“I’m Susan, and I am an addict” – seven days a week, at all hours of the day, in this community and throughout the world, people at 12-step meetings introduce themselves this way, naming their own addiction: alcoholism, gambling, compulsive overeating, shopping, sex, narcotics, co-dependence, workaholism, and many others. I found one list of 32 types of 12-step groups. There are hundreds of thousands of 12-step meetings every week, empowering people to recover from addiction. Continue...

Texts: Ephesians 4:22-5:2; Matthew 5:21-26

We all know the feeling – whether it’s because of something someone says, or another driver being careless, or hearing a commentator we disagree with on TV or even because of something we ourselves did, or didn’t do, again – suddenly, our stomach clenches, our jaw tightens, our brow furrows, and there may be an inner intensity. We’re angry. And who knows what will happen next? We may say something we regret, or we squash down the words, feeling the tension increase, or we lash out, feeling powerful. And then the consequences roll in – we might be in a back and forth that never seems to settle anything; other people may be upset and/or hurt, and sometimes, things fall apart: a friendship is lost, or violence occurs, or any number of possibilities. As Rabbi David Wolfe of Sinai Temple said on the History Channel’s production of the Anger episode in its Seven Deadly Sins series, “Anger is like a boiling teakettle; when it overflows you have no idea who will get burned or where it will go.” Continue...

Texts: Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 12:22-31

During the First World War, the army fliers developed this philosophy: “When you are in the air you will either be flying straight or turning over. If you are flying straight, there is no cause to worry. If you are turning over, one of two things is true: you will either right the plane or fail. If you right the plane, there is no cause to worry. If you fail, one of two things is certain: you will either be injured slightly or injured seriously. If you are injured slightly, there is no cause to worry. If you are injured seriously, one of two things will happen: you will either die or recover. If you recover, there is no cause to worry; and if you die, you can’t.”
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Texts: Romans 12:1-2; Luke 10:38-42

Going fast was his life, and for Nodar Kumaritashvili, the 21-year-old luge athlete from the Republic of Georgia, it was also his death. Whether it was the track, or his own error that was the critical issue, his death was ultimately caused by what is known in traffic violations as “traveling too fast for conditions”. For quite a while, many of us have found that life often seems to be a constant state of traveling too fast for conditions.
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Texts: 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-36

We hear a lot about information overload these days, and so I was particularly impressed by something I heard yesterday at a Presbytery meeting. The Presbytery’s Associate Executive told us that, quoting Clay Shirky, “There has been information overload since the invention of the Gutenberg press. By 1500, there was more published than anyone could read in a lifetime.” So the information overload problem is not new. Nor is it, Shirky says, the real problem. The real problem is “filter failure” – the failure of systems to screen what information comes before us. Two examples of filters show what he’s talking about – publishers filter information because they don’t publish everything. They make decisions about what to publish so that we aren’t inundated with everything that gets written. However, as the internet has lowered the cost barriers to publishing information, publishers no longer are effectively performing that function, so another example of a filter is found on the internet – the spam filter on our email. It screens emails coming into our inbox so that we don’t have to individually sort all the mail that comes to us. Continue...

Texts: Isaiah 6:1-8; Luke 5:1-11

Although the text doesn’t say so, it seems clear that today’s Gospel story is set in Capernaum, where Peter lived, and where Jesus was based during his ministry. I went to Capernaum last summer, and it was very moving. It is all in ruins, of course, but you get a good sense of the distances. And while many of the sacred places in Israel are known as “traditional sites” (in the sense that we don’t really know whether a story happened here, but the tradition is that it was in this place), in Capernaum, we actually know where some of the primary sites are. So let me take you there…Capernaum is on the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Gennesaret. It is a coastal town. The home of Peter, a stone house, is very near the lakeshore (for remember, the Sea of Galilee is actually a freshwater lake), perhaps 100-150 feet off the shore, with no buildings in between. And as you walk inland from the lakeshore, after passing the home of Peter, you come to the synagogue. Now, the ruins that are there now are the ruins of the synagogue that was built later on the same site where the synagogue had been in the time of Jesus. When we see the synagogue, we are not seeing the actual building where Jesus worshipped, but it is in the same place. Continue...

Texts: Jeremiah 1:4-10; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

There is an old Cherokee tale about a Grandfather whose grandson came to him with anger at a friend who had done him an injustice. The old Grandfather said, “Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. Continue...

Texts: 1 Corinthians 12:4-26, Luke 4:14-30

I heard an interesting story this week– Dan and Diane Dieterich described how several years ago, they went to Disneyworld in Florida. Dan was not, apparently, content to merely watch the fun, but wanted to participate. So he dressed all in white, and carried in a small hand puppet – a black bear named Billy Bear. Billy was somewhat shy and tended to hide in the crook of Dan’s arm, but every so often, especially when he heard small children, he would peer out, over Dan’s arm, and look at the kids, sometimes even waving, as his courage grew. The children loved it. Some of them found the larger animals somewhat intimidating – Goofy is something like 7 feet tall – but Billy Bear was more accessible, and inviting. Continue...

Texts:  John 2:1-11; Isaiah 62:1-5
 
The Bible has a lot to say about justice:
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Texts:  Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 3:15-22
 
Perhaps you’ve heard the old story about the minister who had a problem with squirrels in the church.  And so she consulted with her colleagues, and tried all their suggestions:  she set traps, called in animal control, took her dog to church with her for a while, and still the squirrels stayed in church.  Finally, at a clergy lunch, someone asked her about the squirrels, and she was glad to report that they were gone.  “How did you do it?” her colleagues asked.  “Oh it was simple,” she replied.  “We just baptized them, confirmed them, and we haven’t seen them since.”
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Texts: Isaiah 60:1-6, John 1:1-18
 
Don’t beginnings fascinate us?  Surely we know we are entering a place of wonder when we hear words such as “Once upon a time…” or “In the beginning….”  And our own new beginnings are places of wonder, too – a new year, a new home, a new job, a new chapter in our lives – each of these seems to hold such promise.  There’s a sense of possibility and hope.  And so here we are at the beginning of a new journey around the sun on this fragile planet, and it is a time of new hope for many of us.  And this Sunday, the Gospel reading for our New Year beginning is the beginning of the Gospel of John – a beginning that, in approaching the beginning of Jesus, takes us back to the beginning of beginnings.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.   These verses have inspired many, and also have confounded many – what does it mean? 
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