Has there ever been more excitement about ending one year and starting another?
I'm sure you're as anxious as I am to get rid of smelly face masks, work-from-home, school-from-home routines, and that pestiferous phrase, "We can't hear you, you're muted."
Yes, 20/20 was a terrible year for too many people.
If you take a moment to do an end-of-year inventory, yours was probably rife with missed concerts, graduations, sporting events, and worship services, if not even worse: bouts with sickness, unemployment, bankruptcy, or even death, as we all did our best to stay sane, safe and healthy.
Staying safe is something we’ll hear about this weekend when we see what motivated Joseph and Mary and the newborn Jesus to leave their normal lives behind and flee to Egypt.
The story of the Holy family's flight is what we hear in marking the season of Epiphany, which is the churches' word for opening ourselves to newness.
And how appropriate is that?
Newness.
Joseph and Mary did this not once but twice: in traveling first to Egypt, then to Nazareth. Their openness to trusting their instincts - having faith in an unknown future - and holding on to hope - and the possibility that God would work things out.
This is an inspiration for you and me - as we too stand at the precipice of what will certainly be a very, very new time for us.
2021.
A fresh, white sheet of possibility and opportunity is before us.
A new dawn to pursue healing, reconciliation, charity, justice, contentment, and fulfillment is breaking.
Our icon is the star.
And the meaning of that star is hope...
And hope is the heartbeat of our faith.
The changes you and I want to see in the year ahead start there.
They will not come out of hopelessness and apathy, but out of a sincere belief - hope - that things can get better.
You may be as exhausted as I am after living through 2020 - and have very little to bring.
But don’t worry - stay seated, stay centered - we can hold hands and hold on to hope.
But don’t worry - stay seated, stay centered - we can hold hands and hold on to hope.
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