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Happy New Year! With this New Year’s greeting comes a reminder that we still are in the season of Christmas. Modern convention has changed the way most celebrate Christmas, with the weeks leading up to Christmas becoming known as the “Christmas season,” but according to the Church Year, Christmas begins with our Christmas Eve liturgy and lasts  until January 6, the day of Epiphany. Prior to Christmas Eve worship, we remain in the season of Advent, the season of hope and promise and expectation. In thinking about these three distinct yet associated seasons, there seems to me to be a theme that holds the tension of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany together. That theme, for me, is light. We light advent candles during Advent to remind ourselves that even in the midst of darkness, God’s light of hope shines  through. Christmas, of course, is the season of light. During the darkest days of the year, we shout out to the world that God is doing a new thing in Emmanuel, the God who chooses to be with us. The light of Christ shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Epiphany is the season of sharing the light. Epiphany literally means  manifestation or appearing.” In the season of Epiphany we hear about how this Emmanuel becomes active in the world, making himself, and through him God’s work of redeeming love, known to the world. We claim that the light of God in Jesus is moving forward to cut through the darkness and to enlighten everyone.

With this theme of light, I am reminded of Psalm 27. The psalm begins:
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

Perhaps it is good for us to ask this same question as we enter a new year and make plans and order our days ahead. If God is for us, who can be against us? Moving through the coming days, weeks and months it is helpful to recall that God is our stronghold whose presence and promise speak over our lives.

Later in the psalm, we read the following:
One thing I asked of the LORD;
this I seek:
to live in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the LORD,
and to inquire in his temple. (v.4)

Our theology tells us that we are most likely to find God where God promises to be, with promise being the operative word. Where do God’s promises of presence come to us? In Word (promise of forgiveness and life) and sacrament (where Christ promises to be) we are where God is found, in the communication of the Gospel, that God is Emmanuel, with us always, and that God’s promises never abandon us. As the body of Christ, we manifest this Word in our loving action for the sake of the world.

Also, in the psalm we read:
Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path (v. 11a)
And later we read:
I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! (vs 13-14)

In the God who is revealed through incarnation, who brings light into our lives even in the midst of darkness, and who shows ultimate and unending love to the world in cross and empty tomb we are given the path to follow… loving service. Knowing God’s love is our strength, giving us the courage to enter boldly into life, where we become instruments of God’s amazing love unleashed for the world. My wish is for a happy 2025 for each of you, with enough ways in which God’s love touches you and in which you are able to share God’s love with others so that you will know that our God walks with you every step of the way.