We are now over a month past the longest night of winter. Already we’ve added something like an hour of daylight. Yes, we still have the coldest month ahead, and with the changing climate who knows what it may bring. We came close to having to call off services a couple of weeks ago but went forward anyway. But stay tuned . . . Spring is coming. There is light at the end of this tunnel. 

In the meantime, we continue in the liturgical calendar, to celebrate the season of Epiphany, that season which runs between Christmas and Lent, that helps us focus on how to show forth the light of Christ to a world that too often remains in bondage to evil, hopelessness and despair – a darkness that greatly needs the light of Christ’s liberating presence. War is raging in Gaza and Ukraine and Sudan and threatening to break out in a dozen other places. Our own nation is divided economically and politically in ways that threaten to plunge the us into chaos.

But we continue to gather weekly and some more often than that, to find our hope, not in political philosophies, but in that “true light that enlightens the world” who came to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And as a congregation, we have not merely survived the winter of transition but have begun to find new light and hope and a renewed energy.

These are days that call upon us to let our light of unity in Christ shine brightly. These are days to show this community that “our hope is based on nothing less that Jesus and his righteousness” as the hymn puts it. And this light of Christ is showing itself in some amazing ways!

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