jodygreenwood

Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA

2nd Sunday after Epiphany – RCL Year A

Isaiah 49:1-7, 1 Cor 1:1-9, John 1:29-42

If you were here on Christmas morning you heard me talk about God breaking into our lives with the coming of Jesus into the world. I shared my own tendencies through the years to keep my life “safe and unchanged” within the comfort of darkness. But Jesus’ presence was God’s way of turning on a new light, and once we are exposed to this light, the world appears differently and we are called to respond differently in it.

Now, with the Christmas season behind us, we face the weeks between Epiphany and Lent. It’s a time in the church year when we focus on the revelation of Jesus as the Messiah. This is a central theme of the Gospel of John, where Jesus is explicitly revealed, right up front, as the one who was sent by God and was with God from the very beginning.

In the first verses of Genesis, when darkness covered the face of the deep, God said, “Let there be light; and there was light.” And now, in John’s gospel the creation story is retold:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God… In Him was life and the life was the Light of all people. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (Jn 1:1-2,4-5, NASB).

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