What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? To follow him on the way of love. This love that Saint Paul says is the only way to get through the challenges and the conflicts the community in Corinth is facing. This way of love that Jesus calls us to at this time also. This way of love that we need to get through these challenges that we face as a community, the political divisions, this pandemic, racial injustice. All of it can only be gotten through if we follow the way of love, love for our neighbor, love for the other, the way of love that Jesus came to show us.
The call of Jonah. The call of Love.
We also see that call to love in God's response to Jonah, because the story is also of God's profound love for Jonah, a love that is going to call him in the first place, a love that is willing to follow him out to sea and bring him back and save him when Jonah ignores God. This call of love calls Jonah a second time, and then the love that God has for Jonah is shown by his continuing to work with Jonah after he becomes obstinate and grumpy while waiting for God to destroy the city. There is a profound love that God has for Jonah that keeps pursuing him when Jonah isn't doing what God wants.
Click “Read More” to read or listen to Bingham’s entire sermon for the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany.
On the Centrality of Love
“All of these readings are weaving together this image of love. All this scripture weaves together this complex image of love. Love is not sentimental. Love is not easy. But love is God’s vision for this world because it was in love that God made this world. We face many challenges as a community, as a nation, as a world, and as followers of Jesus, as followers of God in this way of love, we know that that way of love is the path we must keep on taking, even when it is hard. That is the path that God has called us to follow. Follow Jesus on this way of love.”
Click “Read More” to read or listen to Bingham’s entire sermon for the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany.
The Waters of Baptism
“When we are baptized, we are spiritually, but also physically joined to the Children of Israel escaping slavery, to the Children of Israel entering the Promised Land, and to Jesus himself at his baptism.”
Click “Read More” to read or listen to Bishop Neff Powell’s entire sermon for the first Sunday after the Epiphany.
The Transfiguration
the event we hear about in today’s Gospel, when three of Jesus’ disciples saw him glowing white while talking with two of the most important people in the sacred story of the Hebrew people, clearly describes a different sort of transfiguration. While the Biblical account certainly describes a dramatic change in Jesus’ appearance, it was only a fleeting change, not a permanent one. There is no indication that from the point that they came down from the mountain Jesus looked any different than he ever had. No, I believe that rather than Jesus taking on a whole new look, it was how his followers saw him, their perception of him, that underwent a permanent change.
You Are the Light
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and there was darkness over the deep. And God spoke and said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw the light was good. From that moment on, the light coming from God has never failed to shine in the darkness of this world. The creation story tells us that God created two great lights: the greater light for the day, and the lesser light for the night, the sun and the moon, a powerful reminder that even in the darkness of night there is still a light that God has provided for us. As we look back on history and the ways God has been working in this world, we see God has continued to shine light in the midst of our darkness.
The Importance of Sharing Our Faith
For the past several weeks we have been hearing stories about Jesus as an adult, his baptism, the beginning of his ministry, and the calling of his disciples. But our Gospel today takes us back to Christmas. It takes us back to his infancy when he was just forty days old. In some traditions, today is the end of Christmas. They have been singing Christmas carols, and have kept their decorations up until today because, as you heard at the end of the Gospel reading, today is the day Mary and Joseph went to the temple and then returned to Nazareth. This whole time they have been in Bethlehem, and some traditions celebrate that. It is not our tradition here because we have put that all aside after the Epiphany and have focused instead on the early years of Jesus’s ministry. But today we go back to his infancy. It might help us, as we hear the story, to get back into the Christmas mindset when we hear how Jesus was taken to the temple by his parents and is presented. We hear all the interesting details about that: they did what was customary under the law and offered a sacrifice of two turtledoves or two pigeons. This is an interesting detail, because it means they didn’t have quite enough money to get the lamb, but could only afford the bird offering.
