Those angels outside Bethlehem could have been Jewish Jedis when they came with their greeting that was essentially, “May the Force be with you” — that is, may the Peace or Shalom of God be with all upon whom God’s favor rests (cf. Luke 2:14)!
The very name Epiphany carries a wonderful abundance of connotations: revelation and realization and disclosure and manifestation, all with an element of surprise – a illumination of insight in which everything is transformed.
To all God’s beloved living in the United States today, Paul would write urging us, like the church in ancient Rome, to be a set-apart people, setting up little beachheads of Christ’s eternal kingdom right here and now in the swamp of partisan politics and idolatrous nationalistic sentiment.
Why are so many Christians caught up in the goings-on at Caesar’s palace on the week our hearts and minds should be making their way to Bethlehem’s manger?
These small dry packets contain the raw materials that come alive and reveal their true taste and color when steeped in a hot cup of water. This is an apt metaphor for spiritual formation.
Her life was forever changed the night the healing and soul-cleansing water from above came looking for her in a lonely laundromat on the wrong side of the tracks at midnight in the pouring rain.
