Reference

John 1:[1-9] 10-18
Christmas Love

Happy New Year! We gather, virtually, around Word and Sacrament to continue our celebration of "God with us", Emmanuel! We are in day "9" of the 12 days of Christmas, officially called the Second Sunday of Christmas. Yes, we actually have the 12 days of Christmas and if you follow the song of the same name, the "true love" ends up with 50 people, 23 birds, and 5 golden rings!

The Day of Epiphany is always January 6th and next week we celebrate the first Sunday of Epiphany honoring the Baptism of our Lord. Epiphany is not a word we use much in our culture but has to do with the activities of the ministry of Jesus. Formally defined as the "manifestation of our Lord" we will walk for several weeks through his ministry of healing and loving God's people.

This Sunday the lessons have to do with us being among the chosen ones from God. In Jeremiah we read "The Lord will heal the people and bring them to the land of the north causing us to give praise and dance!" From our Second Reading in Ephesians: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ....who chose us before the foundation of the world." In the Gospel reading from John we see how God chose Jesus for our salvation in verse 1: 14: "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth." And all God's people say "Amen!"

A blessed start to Epiphany and the New Year this week to you all,
Pastor Doug