Faith in Progress

January 18, 2015 (1 Samuel 3:1-10, John 1:43-51) Epiphany 2, Year B Some people might get burning bushes and parting seas and dreams of angel-laden ladders reaching to the sky.  Some people might be hit as if by lightening with remarkable and astounding happenings that are clear signs from God.  Epiphanies that are obvious and indisputable. But I think most of us probably have fig trees.  Or voices that sound a whole lot like those of our friends and mentors.  Most of us are more likely to experience subtle epiphanies that might only make sense to us.  Even those are enough, but they are awfully easy to miss.  For most of us, it’s hard to catch our attention. Like Samuel.   Samuel was in a pre-sleep haze when a voice called his name.   Three times, Samuel assumed the voice was that of the only person he knew to be nearby, his mentor Eli.   He didn’t yet know the Lord, we are told, and it didn’t occur to him that God might be...

January 4, 2015 Epiphany Matthew 2:1-12 While the Feast of Epiphany doesn’t officially fall until Tuesday, we get a taste of it in our Gospel today, the last Sunday of Christmas.  Dante referred to God as “the love that moves … the stars” and that’s where we begin in our story this morning of the wise magi who followed a star from a far-away country all the way to Bethlehem. The light in the sky was for the magi an epiphany - a manifestation of God.   The inclusion of the magi in the story magnifies what was already a shocking story of God’s incarnation.  Early on, we watched as Mary, a humble, young, unmarried woman said yes to the invitation to be the mother of God.  Next we breathed a sigh of relief as her betrothed, Joseph the carpenter, agreed to stick with her and save her from social exile.  And then we held our noses as the lowbrow, dirty shepherds were picked to hear the tidings of good news and become Jesus’ first visitors.  But these...