Today, the First Sunday After Christmas, is also the Sixth Day of Christmas, and today the Church celebrates the mystery of the Incarnation. The Gospel reading for today, which is duplicated (with additions) from the Third Mass of Christmas Day, for those who didn't have one (!), is the Prologue of the Gospel of John. Possibly one of the most sublime passages in all the New Testament, it's John's take on Jesus as the existing-before-Creation Word of God, active and real in the universe before time and space began. It happens to be one of my favorite passages too.
I presided today at St. Thomas's Episcopal Church in Vernon NJ, while they are awaiting the arrival of their new vicar. I'll be there through all of Epiphany. St Thomas's is on the Appalachian Trail and has a great ministry to the hikers - in the summer they run a Hiker Hostel program in their undercroft. You can read more about it in their Winter Newsletter. They need help running in next season, so if you are near the sky country in NW New Jersey, check them out.
I'm posting this remotely and so I'll post my sermon - It's All About Stuff - as soon as I can.
RFSJ
PS - The Icon is "God as Architect" - on short notice it's the best I could come up with for the Incarnation, since I used Light on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist. Anyone got any better ones?
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