CEC Breaking News:
…Jane Barnett will be out of town this Sunday and she invited The Rev. Lee Jefferson to lead us in Holy Eucharist January 26, 2020. Please come and welcome Rev. Lee as he leads us in worship.
…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, 2020.
…Our annual congregational meeting was held January 19, 2020. At the meeting the 2020 budget was presented and we elected the vestry for 2020: Tru Goldman, Sonny Clark, Cecil Evans, Brenda Funderburg, Jane Barnett, Faye Corson and Margaret Godfrey. Faye will continue to serve as Vestry Secretary and Brenda will continue to serve as our Treasurer. The 2020 vestry met following the annual meeting and elected Tru Goldman as Senior Warden and Sonny
The Rev. Lee Jefferson:
(Father Riley's homily from January 19, 2020)
2 EPIPHANY - A - 20 JOHN 1. 29-42
Last week the church celebrated the baptism of Jesus. It was the Epiphany of Christ’ divinity and the beginning of his earthly ministry.
John’s testimony of Jesus in today’s gospel as the “Son of God” is in response to God’s promise to John that he would meet and recognize messiah. The divinity of Christ was revealed to him as he witnessed the dove descending and remaining on Jesus and hearing the voice from heaven proclaiming Jesus as God’s beloved Son.
One cannot underestimate the importance of John as the forerunner of Christ; however, he knew that he was only a voice crying in the wilderness. His role was to prepare the people to receive the long expected messiah, the one, John said, “that ranked before me, for he was before me.”
I am certain, than, that he was not surprised nor dismayed that two of his own disciples, upon hearing his declaration of Jesus as the one who would take away the sins of the world, suddenly got up, left his side, and followed Christ. Undoubtedly, John received the revelation of Jesus as the “Lamb of God” sometime after Christ’s baptism.
What did John’s identifying Jesus as “Lamb of God” mean to Andrew and the other disciple? Did they understand that this Jesus was to be both Savior and victim? John’s naming Jesus as “Lamb of God” prefigured Christ’ death at the hands of the Jews at Passover. Then and there, he would be sacrificed for the sins of the world on the hardwood of the cross.
No, they had no idea where their following Jesus would one day lead them. At this point, they simply accepted his invitation to “come and see.” If it was their curiosity that led them to leave John ad follow Jesus, the day they spent with Christ listening to his teaching more than satisfied that.
I have often wondered what wonderful things Christ must have told them concerning God and the kingdom that convinced them to believe that he was indeed the one whom God had sent to redeem Israel.
Whatever it was, it moved Andrew to go and find his brother Simon and bring him to Jesus. No longer did Andrew take the Baptist’s word for whom Jesus was; now he knew for himself that this Jesus was indeed the Christ.
Isn’t that what evangelism is all about? Our going and telling others about Christ? Isn’t that what each of us is supposed to do?
However, there is a prerequisite. None of us can help bring another to Jesus until we have come to know him for ourselves. Not just, know about him, but discover his true identity as the Son of God, and in that discovery accept him as our personal Savior and Redeemer.
Evangelism is all about going and telling but only after having the eyes of our hearts enlightened as to whom Jesus really is and who we are in relationship to Him. That is the gift of revelation.
The season of Epiphany is all about light and revelation. In John’s prologue, Jesus is identified as the “Light of the world.” In our first lesson for today, the prophet Isaiah foretold that God would send one who would be “the light to the nations” and bring salvation to all.
In Jesus Christ the light has come that enlightens every man. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus, as is John’s witness to his disciples. God has sent his Son into the world to illumine our hearts and our minds by His word made manifest in Jesus. Sadly, some prefer darkness rather than light.
Darkness comes in many forms. Ignorance is a form of darkness. Rejection of the truth is a form of darkness. Refusal to believe in Him whom God had sent is a form of darkness. To live one’s life without Hope is to live a life of darkness.
Throughout the scriptures of the Old Testament leading up to the coming of Christ, God has made himself know through revelation - as a light in the darkness - a light that gives Hope. Revelation continues to be a gift that rekindles Hope in the hearts and minds of those who are open to receive it.
It was in the darkness that revelation came to the Jewish shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. A great joy, the angel said, had come to all men in the form of a babe born in a manger.
This revelation moved the shepherds to leave their flocks and to go and see for themselves if what the angel had told them was true concerning the Christ-child.
The Magi followed a star that lit up the darkness of the night sky hundreds of miles from where the Christ child was born. The star revealed to these Gentile wise men that something extraordinary had occurred in the life of the world. They were open to God’s revelation of that event and to what it might possibly mean for them.
The star moved them to seek the newborn king. Its light led them on their way and revealed his whereabouts by resting over the place where the child lay. Upon finding him, they knelt and adored him laying their precious gifts before him.
Now John Baptist has revealed to those who were following him in the hopes that he might be the one to redeem
God reveals himself to those who seek him, and who are open to receive His revelation. Sometimes we are surprised by it, as were the shepherds. At other times it comes to us after having diligently searched for it as did the wise men.
The star of
God’s revelation, then, is an invitation to “come and see,” to come and know more deeply Him whom God has sent to be the Light and Life of the world, even Jesus Christ our Lord. His presence alone dispels the darkness of sin and death and opens to us the way to eternal life.
May we who have chosen to follow this Jesus, learn to walk in His light, and by God’s grace strive to make Him known by living the new life to which we have been called to the honor and glory of His name. AMEN+
(1st reading: Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-12; 2nd reading: 1Corinthians 1:1-9; Gospel: John 1:29-42)
No comments:
Post a Comment