CEC Breaking News and Father Jefferson's homily from January 26, 2020

CEC Service Schedule Plans:

…Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist February 2 and 16, 2020.
…Mrs. Jane Barnett will lead us in Morning Prayer February 9 and 23.


Father Lee Jefferson's homily:

Third Sunday after Epiphany, 1-26-20          Isaiah 9:1-4, Corinthians 1:10-18, Matthew 4:12-23

Darkness sometimes brings despair. It can give you a feeling of hopelessness and make it hard to see anything but the darkness. Jesus hearing that John had been arrested, withdrew to Galilee and began proclaiming “Repent, for the kingdom of God has come near!” The people of this time would know all about kingdoms and how kingdoms were overthrown. The Romans had taken over their land and had placed King Herod and later his sons to rule over the people of Israel. The coming of a kingdom couldn’t mean anything but that a revolt was in the making. Dark times were still around them
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But Jesus is talking about a different kind of Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, and this kingdom is not just for the Israelites, but for all people. The Israelites would understand and believe that there should be no king but God. The kingdom of God, the Kingdom of heaven is what they had longed for, prayed for, and were prepared to die for and now Jesus is declaring that God’s Kingdom is coming like a freight train! This kingdom meant danger as well as hope. If you weren’t living right, you had better get your act together and do it quickly or you may be in trouble. They needed to act while there was still time, and the word for that was “Repent”!

Repent is sometimes thought to mean that you need to be down on yourself and confess to do better. Jesus is saying to turn around, or stop what you are doing and go the other way. It’s not how you feel about what you are doing but what you DO about it that matters. Jesus believed that they were going in the wrong direction. Their idea of a revolution was of a military kind, or some kind of a movement. The problem with this is that they would be fighting darkness with darkness. Jesus was called to bring God’s light into the world. Isaiah spoke about people in the dark being dazzled by sudden light, a child being born, the coming Messiah through whom God would truly liberate Israel at last. Jesus could see that fighting and killing to stop fighting and killing was nonsense. Jesus is preaching that they should stop all the fighting and killing and instead go the other way towards God’s Kingdom of light and peace and healing and forgiveness for themselves and for the world.

This message is just as urgent for us today. If the light bearers insist on darkness, then darkness they will have. If the peace people insist on war, then war we will have. If the people called to bring God’s peace and love and forgiveness to the world insist on hating everyone else, then hatred and all that it brings will come crashing down around them. This is why we must repent while there is still time.
The kingdom is coming. Let us not stand in it’s way but be a light to light it’s path.
AMEN