Happy New Year – I pray for a healthy, safe, and productive new year for you all. Most of all, I pray for a new year wherein we all take up the work of compassion, justice, grace, and love once again. And that God gives us what we need to do this work that God gives us to do each day, to be Gospel people, Resurrection people, the Easter people (months before Easter), to show in our words and actions the love of God, the good news of new life, and to continue to carry the light of the world in our hearts and souls, wherever we go.

We begin now at the Season after the Epiphany. We’ve heard the story of the magi, the star, and the baby. This coming Sunday, we will take part in the chalking of the door at Calvary during the 10:30 service.  We’ve done this liturgy for 5 years now – a version of the house blessings that are common during Epiphany. We will change the dates over the ambulatory door to 2025 and ask God’s blessing on everyone who comes through our doors or into our gardens in 2025. This year we will also offer pieces of chalk for you to take home, along with a simple liturgy, so that you can do this service in your own home.

The Epiphany season is the time we acknowledge the spreading of the Good News of Christ out into the world – news that started with the shepherds and the magi. House blessings are traditionally done in the Epiphany season – I think because faith formation begins at home, and then, fed and nurtured, we leave our blessed homes, and our church, and go out into the world ourselves, magi of 2025, to bring Christ’s light to others.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord shines all around you.”

In God’s peace,

Beth+