Jesus sees the Divine law of love — for God, ourselves, and our neighbors — as a plumb line we can use to construct our lives. It requires us to move beyond platitudes and performative gestures and take action to alleviate the suffering all around us. Radical grace commands us to stay curious and build relationships based on listening and learning, across borders and divisions that separate “us” from “them.” 

St. John of the Cross once wrote, “Silence is God’s first language.” So in times of silence, trust that God is here. Some of us might have memorized the line from Psalm 62 that says: “For God alone my soul waits in silence.” But that indicates it’s us waiting on God to show up. Instead, Teresa and John might point us to Psalm 95: “O that today you would listen to [God’s] voice!”

So how does the unified Body of Christ dissent when confronting inequitable demands? … By re-interpreting Christ’s message of love to a fractured humanity, even as we cherish God’s promise of its future rebirth.  

Spiritual teacher Esther de Waal wonders if in God’s realm, “there is a great room, rather like a vast property office, filled with parcels of every shape and form, unclaimed blessings, that God has given us and we have failed to notice, to receive and make our own.”

Maybe the most faithful thing we can say is: “Who am I to hinder God?”

I wonder what would happen if we approached something as ordinary as breakfast, or work, or a conversation with a friend, or going to the beach, as a sacred space to commune with Christ.

The kind of time we spend most of our lives in is one of schedules, appointments, and calendars. It’s chronological from the Greek work “chronos”, the idea of linear time … But there’s a different kind of time; time measured in moments, not minutes. In the Greek, it’s kairos.

I challenge you, in the weeks to come, to not only look for ways to stand for justice, but to also intentionally look for hope, and places where your laughter might smuggle in a sense of hope.

Jesus doesn’t do these things—doesn’t live these ways— just so that we might retell the story of what he did. Jesus was, and is, continually modeling for us and inviting us to try out his ways, so that we can continue to be the hands of God in this world.

Jesus invites us to rewrite the world’s tired narrative of isolation and exclusion into a glad song of radical reconciliation with God and each other.

As we keep journeying with God our hearts can open, our perspectives can shift, and our very lives can become an offering to God. We just have to keep walking.

The [Christian Nationalist] movement is neither Christian, nor patriotic. Instead, this movement is the politicizing of Christian beliefs and the co-opting of Christian terminology and symbols, to promote what is essentially White supremacy.

Consider how you’ve seen the light of Christ shining through the faces around you. Next, wonder about how you’ve been Christ’s light to those around you.

Love is the only true antidote to all that's going on in our world.

May we let go of our ego attachments, so that we may be met with our deeper spiritual need. May our longing and yearning uncover God’s longing in and for us, and our spiritual hunger lead us to what will really fulfill us. And may our radical love and works of justice enable all people to live under God’s blessing.

If we look at these call stories closely, we see five themes that can guide us to a greater understanding of how the Holy Spirit is moving in our lives.

We mark these life passages together in community so that we can be a light to each other, so that when one of us doesn't feel so strong in our light, somebody else can shine God’s light in our direction.

Mary understands something profound about Jesus—he can transform moments of emptiness into abundance, bringing healing and fullness where there is need.

All last month, we talked about waiting for the coming of the Christ-child, then we celebrated the birth of Jesus, and, finally, last week we observed Epiphany, when the announcement of that birth was shared widely, out in the world. Today, we jump ahead in the life of Jesus, to when he himself was baptized. 

Our world today seems as dark and perilous as the one through which the Magi traveled. But we can arise, shine, and find God in hidden places – perhaps in the space between breaths, or through the whispers of the waves on the shore. We too can choose the compassionate road and offer refuge to those who, like the holy family, are excluded and afraid – those searching for shelter, healing, identity, connection.