March 8, 2026, The Third Sunday in Lent, Reflections on John 4: 5-42 by the Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

A Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

There’s a small town of about 2,000 outside of Houston called Kemah. It’s one of those places where everyone knows everyone else.  So when a man that no one knows appears on a street corner that gets people’s attention. Everyone wants to know who he is.  He’s there every day, every night, rain or shine. He’s always there. He’s pacing around as though he’s looking for someone or something. And this goes on for nearly three years. People want to know but no one asks.   

Finally one day, a café owner named Ginger decides that she will ask. She figured that she had passed him at least four times a day in her comings and goings over the last three years.  And it was time to know what was going on with him. So she pulled up to him. And before she could say anything, he extended his hand and said “Hello, I’m Victor.”

At that moment he became a man with a name, a man with a story to tell. Victor struggled with mental health problems. He had never completely well. He lived with his mother in Houston.  When she reached the point where she felt she could no longer care for him she drove him out of town, to that corner, dropped him off and left.  And because he didn’t want to miss her when she came back, Victor stayed on that corner waiting and waiting and waiting for his mother to return. 

When Ginger hears this story, she gets ideas about how Kemah can wrap their arms around this stranger.  She gets the word out on social media that he needs everything especially access to doctors and therapists and medication. Victor gets what he needs. Victor was transformed – healthy and whole he was able to communicate.  He gets on his feet, gets a home and then needs a job. Ginger thinks “well, I have a restaurant” and puts him to work.  And Victor turns out to be one fantastic cook. And people love to come and eat his food.

This all happened because one woman stopped in the midst of her life to find out what was going on with a stranger on the corner. And when she did that, she didn’t just bless him.  She brought God’s blessing on an entire community that rallied together to make a difference.

The story of Victor and Ginger and the town of Kemah is a wilderness story and not all that different from the story from John’s gospel that we hear today, of ancient people in their own wilderness and the need for living water.

The people in Sychar in Samaria have no expectation of seeing a Jew at their well. Jews didn’t hang out with Samaritans. We know from all of our ancient historians that Jews and Samaritans really didn't get along terribly well. And even though Samaria right in the middle between Galilee and Judea, and the most direct route between them was through Samaria, Jews were more likely to take a long detour out of their way. They would go out of their way to avoid an encounter with Samaritans.

Factor in Jesus. Instead of taking a detour, Jesus goes straight through the heart of Samaria. This unexpected Jewish man at the well in Samaria where he encounters a Samaritan woman. She's not expecting to see him. She's not expecting any Jewish man to be at that well -- let alone one who's asking her for a drink of water. Because she knows their purity laws probably just as well as they do.  So, of course, she is stunned when this man asks for a drink of water. “Are you kidding? You'll be defiled if I touch water that’s consumed by you.”

And here comes the moment that he introduces her to something entirely different. He starts talking to her about living water. Clearly she has a story -- because the thing women did was to come to the well first thing in the morning to get their water for their chores. They wouldn't be coming in the middle of the day.

But Jesus begins to tell her all about her life, her deep wilderness – all the wrong paths, all the pain, all the abuse that has made her an outcast. The gospel writer doesn’t give her a name, she’s a nobody – but not to Jesus.  He engages her in conversation, takes her seriously and spends several days in her village. 

Whatever hurtful things others have said, however she has been treated - or mistreated - by anybody else, it’s not what she encounters with Jesus. He will not turn her away. Jesus looks upon her with compassion with kindness and patience. Jesus has looked upon her with this invitation to be immersed into God living, into life with God and being found in the Holy Spirit.

She’s so excited by this encounter with Jesus, she goes back and tells anyone who will listen, “you need to come and meet this man, this extraordinary man, who I do believe is the Messiah. I believe he is the Promised One. Come and see for yourself.” And notice that it’s essentially an unfinished sentence: “He told me everything I have ever done...” she says. The end of the sentence is unspoken but clear: “… and he loved me anyway.”

That’s the good news of living water, the very presence of God. This is what Jesus offers her in himself – this constant wellspring of life-giving presence of God that cares not one whit about what has happened in her past but desires only for her the blessings of forgiveness, mercy, compassion, love - if she will only accept it in humility and gratitude recognizing it for the gift that it is. No one has ever offered this to her before. This is her way out of her wilderness.

Her problems are not going away. She’s still a Samaritan woman living a hard life. But now, with the gift of living water, she has the knowledge of God’s powerful love for her to sustain her. And that changes everything. This is her story, this is our story. And it’s the story we need to tell.

Like the Samaritan woman, we all come to the well over and over again to draw water. But I wonder if we think we’re doing this alone, if we don’t see the man sitting at the well or hear his message. Can we see that Jesus does not look down on her. Instead Jesus says that the Samaritan woman has something that he needs. There is something she can do for him.

Hearing this news she is liberated from all that weighs her down. He enters into a relationship with her first. He gives her value. He gives her purpose. He gives her new life by simply letting her know there is something she can do for him. We wonder if we might approach the poor and broken-hearted as he does. Just as Ginger approached Victor – and find his hand extended in greeting.

As we move steadfastly toward Holy Week we remember that as the story nears its conclusion on the cross, Jesus is still thirsty. He is still thirsty today. And we are that Samaritan woman. We come to the well again and again. And again and again Jesus asks us for a drink.

We know the kinds of things for which he thirsts.  Are we ready to bring him a drink? Are we ready to talk with him? And make our full commitment to him?  Jesus is sitting before us right now. He is tired, very, very tired. He asks us to give him a drink. What will we do?

Amen. 

March 1, 2026, The Second Sunday in Lent celebrating the Feast of Saint Matthias, Reflections on John 15: 1, 6-16 by the Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

Feast Day of St. Matthias 2026                                                     John 15:1, 6-16

Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.”

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

Today we are celebrating the Feast Day of our namesake, St. Matthias.  His actual day is February 24th and the anniversary of the dedication of our current church building by the Bishop of Winchester, England.  There’s a stained glass window in the narthex that memorializes this.  Why a Bishop from England?  No one is sure, but a quick review of weather in Winchester and Whittier on the 24th showed a significant difference: 30 degrees and freezing rain in Winchester; 89 and sunny in Whittier.  Who can blame the poor English bishop for wanting to spend the feast day of St. Matthias, and perhaps the whole winter, in sunny southern California?

But let’s see what we can learn about Matthias.  It doesn’t take too long to exhaust what we know about him from scripture – he’s mentioned in only a few verses in the Book of Acts that we heard today.  Essentially, the Apostles felt the need to keep their number at 12, the number of disciples chosen by Jesus. Judas was dead.  After they had prayed for divine guidance, Matthias was chosen by “casting lots” – a term for throwing dice, flipping a coin or some method through which the Divine Will was believed to act.

Beyond that, what we know – or more accurately what we speculate - about Matthias comes from tradition.  And a muddy tradition it is. Even his name is variable: the historian Eusebius calls him "Tolmai" instead of Matthias. In various texts he’s confused with Zacchaeus or a follower of Paul named Barnabas. And some scholars believe that Matthias is the same person as Nathanael in the Gospel of John who Jesus spotted sitting under a fig tree.

Like many of the early apostles, Matthias was reportedly arrested for publicly preaching  Jesus Christ as the son of God.  Jewish leaders seized him and sent him out the city where he was stoned or possibly beheaded.  Another version of his life story says that he lived a long life and died a peaceful death.

Whatever or whoever he might have been in ancient times, Matthias currently is known as the patron saint of various disparate groups.  He is the patron saint of gamblers often depicted holding a pair of dice referring back to the way he was chosen.  He is also the patron saint of tailors, carpenters and miners. Why is a mystery but ions of him often show him holding an axe. And he is associated with hopefulness and perseverance, an anchor of faithfulness in the establishment of the church and so is pictured with an anchor.   

While we will never know actual facts of the life or ministry or the circumstances of the death of our namesake with any certainty, we do have a chance to look through the eyes of faith at the portion of scripture where he’s selected as an apostle and in the absence of facts perhaps we can learn some truth about his story.

We know that he was chosen after Jesus had ascended into heaven leaving his disciples with the Great Commission: to go into the world to make disciples of all nations.  In Luke it says that the disciples observe Jesus ascending into heaven and return to Jerusalem joyfully.

What awaits them there?  They have become, through the betrayal and suicide of Judas, a group of eleven.  They are facing what we might call “the terror of the empty chair,” being in the presence of the chair that had been Judas’ during 3 years of Jesus ministry. One of their own is gone leaving an empty space, lingering traumatic memories and feelings of sadness, confusion, and even anger. Ancient Judaism strictly forbade suicide. Life as they understood it was a divine gift. We do not belong only to ourselves, they believed, but to God making self-killing an infringement on God's ownership and an affront to God.

Jesus does not instruct them to find a replacement for Judas. But he does emphasize their relationship to him and to each other. In the lectionary reading for St. Matthias, from John 15, Jesus calls them his friends in a tender message the night before his death, virtually the last time they are all together. He tells them not to be downhearted. He assures them that he is going to God who sent him, that he will prepare homes for them.  He calls them friends.  In calling them his friends, he wants them to be Christ-minded even more than likeminded. This is love in action but is not unique to Jesus and his immediate circle of followers. It is characteristic of all of Jesus’ friends - even those outside the immediate circle of and extending to other followers of Jesus.  People like Matthias.

There’s a lovely story about a mom who was driving a van full of teenage girls to Camp Stevens for the week. It was a long drive with lots of traffic on a Friday afternoon. The girls were really hyped up, sassy and a little geeky.  After a few hours of this, the mom had to admit she was looking forward to the quiet ride home.

They had stopped for snacks and supplies. And when they arrived at camp, she insisted that the girls take the many bags of groceries into the kitchen.  From there, she assumed they’d be off without a word to find their rooms and claim upper bunks. Instead, she found them in the kitchen putting everything away, snacks organized, beverages in the fridge.  She said, “I’m impressed – good job!  And thanks.”  “It’s okay,” the ringleader replied flipping her hair and striking a pose, “that’s what friends are for.” 

That is what friends are for. Friends are gifts given by God who cleverly and persistently loves us in the ordinary settings and everyday people of our lives.  Friends accept us, care for us, make us laugh, challenge and even inspire us to be better.  In telling his disciples that he no longer calls them servants but friends, Jesus is suggesting, I think, that even as he leaves, relationships matter and friendship is a primary setting in which we love one another and grow in the skills needed to refresh the world with our way of life.  Jesus as friend models the best of human love.

So Jesus never specifically instructs them to replace Judas and become 12 again.  But in the midst of the trauma of Judas’ loss, there is work to do and healing is needed.  The terror of the empty chair needs soothing. And I have to wonder if Matthias wasn’t the one chosen to fill out their ranks, because he was just the perfect person to take that chair, that he had a personality that exuded care and concern, that he could bring a spirit of comfort and healing that the other candidate could not. 

There is real healing in friendship. Genuine connections provide emotional support often serving as a buffer against anxiety, loneliness, and depression. Friends help process trauma, offer perspective, and provide a safe space to rebuild trust. This was the role created by the Holy Spirit for Matthias.

Most of us would accept help unpacking groceries any time or an invitation to be friends on social media, but the richness of being a friend of Jesus in relationship with other friends of Jesus provides the setting for learning together the various practices of Christian love.

We’re invited into that kind of relationship. I can’t help but wonder if the most important aspect of Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationships we maintain and the accompanying influences, life qualities and connection in love produced by those friendships.

As he lay down his life for his friends, this is what Jesus asks us to give our attention to: growing in the love and goodness of God, able to astound others with our Christ-centered way of life; loving others as we have been loved. That’s what friends are for.   Amen.

February 22, 2026, The First Sunday in Lent, “IF YOU’RE TIRED OF SIN, STEP IN”, by Reverend Jeannie Martz

I’ve always been a big fan of the Arthurian legends, the stories and tales of the first king to unite Britain, especially as these stories have been expanded upon by contemporary writers such as Mary Stewart and T.H. White.  Weaving together the pagan worship of Old Rome and the emergence of Christianity in post-Roman Britain, the legends of Arthur are stories about human nature, about our gifts, our flaws, and our dreams – and as such, they are stories that are timeless.

          Using the vehicle of Broadway, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s 1960 musical “Camelot” is a retelling of a portion of Arthur’s story, and its original cast included Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, and Robert Goulet.  I mention all this because one of the songs from “Camelot” provides such a marked contrast to the Great Litany and the season of Lent that I feel bound to tell you about it.

          The song is called “C’est Moi” – which is French for “It is I”.  “C’est Moi” is the introductory song for Robert Goulet’s character of Sir Lancelot, and in this song Lancelot sings about the characteristics, both physical and spiritual, which are to be desired in a knight of the Round Table; all the while, of course, identifying these characteristics in himself.  Having said that a knight’s soul should be restrained and immune to the ways of the flesh, Launcelot asks, “But where in the world is there in the world a man so untouched and pure?”

          “C’est moi, c’est moi; I blush to disclose, I’m far too noble to lie.  That man in whom these qualities bloom – c’est moi, c’est moi, ‘tis I.  I’ve never strayed from all I believe, I’m blessed with an iron will.  Had I been made the partner of Eve, we’d be in Eden still!  C’est moi, c’est moi the angels have chose to fight their battles below – so here I stand, as pure as a prayer, incredibly clean, with virtue to spare…the godliest man I know – c’est moi!”

          This is a classic song from a character who is blind to, and therefore doubly vulnerable to, the dangers of temptation; and in fact, in the legends as well as in the musical, Lancelot falls in love with Guinevere, Arthur’s queen, and she with him…and in their love, and their betrayal of King Arthur – which neither of them wanted – in these, lie the unraveling and the downfall of Camelot, the end of Arthur’s united peace, and the death of the dream of the Round Table.

          One author has suggested that “Lenten penance may be more effective if we fail in our resolutions than if we succeed, for its purpose is not to confirm us in our sense of virtue but to bring home to us our radical need of salvation.”  Before his story was done, and much to his own surprise, Lancelot’s iron will and his sense of virtue both lay in shreds; and he found that, like all of us, he too was in radical need of salvation.

          Temptation, sin, and the lasting consequences of sin – plus a glimmer of hope - are the themes of this First Sunday in Lent.  

Scripture talks about temptation in two different ways.  The first is as a “strong inclination to do evil,” evil being understood quite starkly as any action that is contrary to God’s will; “a strong inclination to do evil” even though, and even when, we know that God wills good.  This is “the temptation of Adam,” the temptation of pride, the temptation for us to go our own way, do our own thing, assert our own will, rather than God’s; to claim our own will as being the greatest good – at least for us!

          The second kind of temptation in Scripture is testing, the testing of the strength of our commitment to God.  This test of spiritual strength is Lancelot’s temptation, and it’s also the temptation that Jesus wrestles with in the wilderness in Matthew’s Gospel today.

          We know from all the Gospel accounts that throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus was constantly dealing with crowds and disciples who completely misunderstood the nature of his messiahship.  He too has had to wrestle with his messiahship and come to a resolution about it – and this forty days in the wilderness immediately after his baptism is the time and the place of his struggle.

          Will he be the messiah that the people are waiting and praying for, the messiah of power and of conquest? Will he be the political zealot who will rebel against Rome and take Israel back to independence and glory?  Will he be the Son of God who commands armies and goes into battle, supported by the adulation and the worship of the people?

          Or will he be the Son of God who listens to his Father and who lives the opening words of the Shema, Israel’s ancient confession of faith:  “Hear, O Israel:  The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”  Will Jesus be a servant messiah, a suffering messiah, a spiritually powerful but politically power-less messiah who will lead people not to the world’s glory, but to the glory of the cross?  Which set of desires, which set of expectations will Jesus fulfill? 

          The point has been made that even though the Gospels describe Jesus’ temptations as separate events that seem to happen consecutively, like scenes in a play, it’s far more likely that these 40 days were filled with continual testing, continual temptation, a continual going back and forth, with Jesus being surrounded by what one author has called “a kaleidoscope of possibilities” as to his identity as Son of God.

          This kaleidoscope of possibilities is much more what we face in our lives too.  Rarely are we “assaulted” – to use the wording of the collect – rarely are we assaulted on only one front at a time, and rarely are our choices as clear as Jesus’ seem to be today.

          Along the lines of clear choices, the story is told of the Anglican vicar who noticed that his Evangelical minister neighbor was having some success at drawing new people into his church through the use of an outside notice board with various slogans or exhortations on it, and the vicar decided to try the same thing.  He put up his own board and, after a great deal of thought, wrote on it, “IF YOU’RE TIRED OF SIN, STEP IN.”  You can imagine his distress when he went outside the next day and saw that someone had added “BUT IF YOU’RE NOT, PHONE PADDINGTON 04655.”

          In our own temptations, we don’t usually get the luxury of choosing between the lady and the tiger, between clear good and clear evil.  Our struggles tend to be more along the lines of bad versus worse, or good versus better.  Which of several is the least of the evils?  Which of our choices will lead to the least harm or the most good?  Ethical positions get murky in these days of sharply divided politics and national interests; of emerging AI technology and how to use it to do good rather than to harm; of the noise and the reach of podcasters and social media influencers; and of increasingly sensitive economic and global relationships; and I think for many of us, the path of responsible Christian behavior in the midst of all the conflict and all the chaos can sometimes be difficult to discern.

          Loving us, God has given us freedom, the freedom to give in to, as well as the freedom to resist, temptation; and in this freedom to choose our own way, we are constantly being challenged by the world around us to remember and claim our baptismal identity and values, as well as to remember and claim our responsibility to the world around us; responsibility that our identity, our values, and our freedom bring.

          C.S. Lewis has written, “All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual:  the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting; the pleasures of power, of hatred.  For there are two things inside me,” Lewis says, “competing with the human self which I must try to become.  They are the Animal self and the Diabolical self.  The Diabolical self is the worse of the two….Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.”

          As Jesus did literally, during these forty days of Lent each of us is called to go into the wilderness spiritually, the wilderness of solitude where we have no one to confront, no one to struggle with, but ourselves and our temptations:  our Diabolical selves, self-centered, rationalizing, putting ourselves forward at the expense of others, strutting about in pretense and illusion.

          This call into the wilderness can be scary, and I’m just as reluctant to take the plunge as anyone else.  On the plus side however, in 1 Corinthians 10:13 Paul says that “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone.  God is faithful, and [God] will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing [God] will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”

          This is a reassuring promise that Paul makes, but it’s also challenging.  It’s challenging because this promise that we’re not alone in being tested, and that God will see us through our time of testing; this promise means that none of us has a legitimate excuse not to go into the wilderness…but at the same time, herein lies the single biggest temptation we face as Christians:  as we perhaps reluctantly turn towards the wilderness armed with Paul’s words, we’re faced with the temptation to not believe him and to not believe the promises of God; to not believe that God is with us in our test, or in our illness, or in our loneliness and our pain.  We’re tempted to believe that “God’s there” for everyone else but not for us, tempted to believe that we won’t in fact find God “mighty to save.”

          It’s been said that the Devil’s greatest triumph is convincing people he doesn’t exist.  I’d say rather that the Devil’s greatest triumph is convincing us that God’s grace doesn’t exist for us.  Because Jesus tells us again and again not to be afraid, the Devil’s greatest triumph is, in fact, our fear:  convincing us not to pray because of our fear that God might not be there to listen; convincing us not to give to others because of our fear that we won’t have enough for ourselves; convincing us not to come to church, not to receive communion, not to live as a member of the Body of Christ, because of our fear that at the end of the day, we’re not good enough for God to love us.

          “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” says Paul…and the Devil’s greatest triumph is convincing us that Paul is a liar.

          But Paul doesn’t lie; and God doesn’t lie.  It’s the Devil who is the liar and the father of lies, and we have the whole witness of Scripture and the life of the communion of saints to testify to that, and to support us in that. 

The wilderness, both literal and spiritual, is a place of risk and of fear…but we are the baptized; we are marked as Christ’s own forever, and if we dare to enter this wilderness during these forty days, we will never be alone.

          “IF YOU’RE TIRED OF SIN, STEP IN” – step into the wilderness, step into Lent -- because in the wilderness of Lent…lies hope.

                                                              Amen. 

February 18, Ash Wednesday, Reflections on Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21 by the Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

Ash Wednesday                                     Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

Jesus said, "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

"So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

It’s been about 15 years since I helped my father move. He and my mother had lived in the same house for 35 years. But their lives had changed. Our family had changed.  My mother was in an assisted living facility where she could get the care she needed.  My father was isolated in their big house with maintenance he just wasn’t interested in taking care of. So it was time to sell it and “rightsize.”  We used that term – rightsize – rather than downsize. They were blessed in this house with an abundance of closet space and storage space and places to tuck away those precious things that had always seemed like necessities, things we all clung tightly to, that no one could bear to part with.

35 years is a really long time to be in one place. And so when we began the rightsizing to move my father to his new home, we realized just how much stuff they had managed to collect. Too much stuff!  All had to be sorted -- stuff to go with him, stuff to go with my brother, stuff to go with me, stuff to be given to my mother’s friends, stuff to be donated, stuff to be sold, stuff to be trashed. A decision had to be made about Eevery. Single. Thing. And as we opened those large, spacious closets and began taking out things that had been tucked away, there were just armloads of things that I knew would not survive this move. Of course at the time that we were accumulating them, it seemed like we could never rid of them.

Faced with our new reality as a family and wondering “what are we really going to do with all this stuff?” the only answer was - it was time to let it go, it was time to shed ourselves of it. It was time to rid ourselves of it.  So that all of us – my father, my brother and I - were taking to our respective homes only the things we would actually use. And we were sharing the things we no longer needed with others.

But there was one more really big benefit to all this purging and shedding. And that was when we got to my father’s new place, and we began looking around, we thought you know that chair that’s always been in the living room, what if we recovered it and put it in the bedroom?  That could go somewhere else. Wouldn’t it be nice if that table that used to be in the den found a new purpose in the office instead? 

And suddenly we realized that all these few precious things that we had that had survived the purge, when we were faced with a blank canvas, that they had a new life and a new purpose. And that we had a new way of seeing them and a new use for them.

We hear the words from the prophet Joel in our Old Testament lesson today reminding us of the of the coming of our Lord, a wrathful time, a hard time, a day of gloom but a day for us to remember something important.  And that is that our Lord is slow to anger and abounding in great mercy and love.

And that what we are to do, Joel tells us - Joel tells the people called Israel -  we are to repent and return to the Lord. We are to be intentional – very intentional - about how we live and walk with our God. We are to shed those things that separate us from a close walk with God. And surround ourselves with those things that make it possible for us to know and love God and our neighbor even better.

And so as we begin this Lenten journey, there are questions that we have for ourselves. To take this 40 day walk with Christ, what are the things that we have that should not survive this journey?  What are the anxieties and fears and things that have stressed us that keep us from the kind of relationship with God that we truly need? How do we purge those, how do we shed them?

How do we shed from ourselves any anger, and bitterness and rancor and hatred and suspicion that we feel towards others?  How do we strengthen relationships that have been fractured?  How do we go from pushing away to hands reaching out. 

How do we shed those things that cause us to walk a path that is not God? How do we dig out of the crevices of those closets the hurt, the bitterness, the wounds – the things that have separated us from loved ones and neighbors. How do we take those out of the closet once and for all and put them away? 

This is the time, during these 40 days, for us to be intentional about how we live in relationship with one another and with our God, determine for ourselves our new reality.  And the amazing thing about purging those things that cause us to live in ways that we should not, is that we make room in our lives for God to fill us.  We make room for God to give us a new canvas – a new way of being and a new way of seeing. So that we can strengthen our relationships. So that we can know more about what it means to walk in love.  So that we can love what God loves, the way God loves – fully, joyfully, fearlessly.

What do you need to shed during these 40 days?  And how can we re-imagine ourselves whole, complete, walking with our God, walking in love and community with those around us.

Having shed these things, having “rightsized” ourselves and made space for God, preparing ourselves for the Easter Feast to come, with what can we fill this space? I believe we are invited to take on…

There are many versions of this practice but Bishop Jose Luis Bhupesi suggests this path:

We can fast from “gossiping”. But don’t stop there. Take on making an effort to talk well about the person you were going to gossip about;

Fast from “using rough words or a rough tone” and take on “speaking gently” to the very people who might be intimidated by you because of your past relationship with them;

Fast from “complaining about everything and everyone” and take on making sure you “count your blessings”;

Fast from “any type of violence or violent speech” and take on “being gentle, being a peacemaker;”

Fast from asking “what’s in it for me” at the time someone needs your help and take on “being supportive”, a selfless supporter of those who will benefit with it;

Fast from “the need for revenge” and take on “praying for your enemy” as Jesus expects from his disciples.

The God of steadfast love and abounding mercy and grace continues to invite us into these “take on” relationships.  God implores us to walk the path that is the God path.  To find our meaning through love. Amen.

February 15, 2026, The Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Reflections on Matthew 17: 1-9 by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

There are a lot of what we call “mountaintop experiences” in scripture.  They are places where God is revealed to a pillar of our faith. So it’s appropriate on this last Sunday in Epiphany as we’re getting ready to go into the season of Lent that our texts are all about these revelations of God on a mountain top.

Remember that it was at the top of Mt. Ararat that Noah’s ark came to rest. And Noah received a covenant from God that never again would God flood the world and cause such total destruction.   

And then there’s Abraham at the top of Mt. Mariah thinking that he is sacrificing his second son, Isaac. Instead God provides a ram in the thicket and Isaac was spared. That’s certainly a revelation of God on a mountain top. 

Elijah has a couple of those revelation experiences on a mountain top. First on Mt. Carmel where Elijah that the God YHWH, his God, is the one true God.  And then again at Mt. Sinai, in the silence, Elijah has a revelation of God and of God’s plan for his life. 

Moses gets a couple mountain top revelations of God.  He receives the law on how the people called Israel will live in relationship with God and one another. He goes up into this consuming fire, incredible brightness to be in the nearer presence of God where the law is revealed to him. But it’s also on a mountaintop, Mt. Kisco, that Moses goes to find the land that has been promised to the people, to be able to look upon it and learn from God that he will never enter it.

There are many mountaintop revelations of God. So today we hear about how God is being revealed on a mountain top to some disciples who climb up the mountain with Jesus. 

Peter, James and John have gone with Jesus not expecting this to be an unusual day. But suddenly Jesus is before them – his clothes are dazzling white – and they realize that some deeply felt change has happened to their teacher. 

So this is one of those moments when we can put things into our own context.  What do we do when we’re in a moment that we are surprised, in incredible moments that are not going to be repeated? We know it’s the most incredible moment ever -- what do we do?  We take a selfie.  We grab our phone.  We want to do our best to record the moment. Well, today we hear Peter’s version of a selfie: “I got it Jesus, I’m going to build three booths. We need to capture this moment.  You’re on this mountain with Moses and Elijah.  We need to capture this so we can remember this moment forever.”

And it sounds really great, because we do want those awesome moments to live on.  But sometimes we are so busy capturing that moment that we forget to actually be attentive to what’s going on. We lose the very essence of what is happening in that moment.

But in mid thought, just as Peter’s trying to figure out how he’s going to construct these three booths, God starts speaking words that are very familiar to us because they are the exact words that God speaks in Matthew’s gospel when Jesus is baptized. “This is my beloved, my son with whom I am well pleased.”  The exact words are heard again.  Suddenly everything’s been interrupted by God’s very presence with them. It’s so incredible that they are literally knocked off their feet.  Now they are fearful. 

So God has told them to listen to my Son and what’s the first thing Jesus tells them? Don’t be afraid. If our response to being in the near presence of our God is to be fearful, then the reminder for us in this gospel to us all is not to be afraid.  The reminder to us all is to allow God to speak to us fully so we can hear, so we can know what it is that God wants us to do. Because God has great plans for all of us. 

And as much as Peter and James and John might have wanted to stay on that mountain and just be in the presence of Moses and Jesus and Elijah and see these pillars of their belief in that transformed state - as much as they might have wanted to linger in that moment and not let go of it, they couldn’t. Every mountain top experience needs to come to an end. 

Several years ago I attended a retreat weekend when we still had the Benedictine monastery in Santa Barbara – and I met two ladies there that spent every weekend and some entire weeks on retreat.  They just so loved that mountaintop experience that they would find a church, or some organization who was doing a retreat and sign up.  They had applied for a retreat in New Mexico at Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation.  Apparently in their application that had proudly listed the many retreats they had attended. The response they got from the Center for Action and Contemplation lived up to the “action” part of their name.  It was a rejection and an encouragement to them to “come down off the mountain.” 

Peter, John and James had to leave, they had to go back down that mountain. And what they had to go back down the mountain to the throng of people waiting for Jesus. They need him. They want to be healed, they want to be made whole. So they’ve got to come down the mountain to the people waiting for Jesus, for just a touch from him.

They had to come down from the mountain to Jesus’ reminding to them yet again I’m only going to be with you a short while longer. I will die and rise again. I’m going to be betrayed by the people I love. They had to come back down the mountain to that.   

They had to come down the mountain, back in their own existence to live among the ones who want to persecute them and take their lives just for being followers of Jesus. 

Coming back down the mountain is not always a wonderful thing. We don’t always want to come back out of the high, out of the euphoria, out of all the wonder – we don’t always want to come out of that to live in reality. 

But yet, that is what we are called to do. We are called to come back down the mountain, no matter how wonderful that moment has been.  What’s awaiting us is the work we are called to do by God.  And sometimes it’s not a lot of fun. Sometimes it’s lonely. Sometimes it’s frightening to be surrounded by all the things that face us when we come back down. 

There are so many people who are counting on us.  There are people counting on us who have had that mountain top experience, who have been filled to overbrimming with the presence of the Holy Spirit and to have come to them transformed into new beings and ready to walk God’s walk with them.  We’re setting an example for those who do not yet know our God.

That’s what it means to live faithfully in this life. They’re watching us, they’re watching our every move. How do we live after we have enjoyed that moment, how we share God’s love on this planet with all of God’s creation after we have enjoyed that mountaintop.  That is what God calls us to do, to be examples, to be disciples to make disciples. This is how we finish Matthew isn’t it? With the great commission – go out and preach and teach and make disciples in my name.

So today we come back down, we come off the mountain. We’re going to spend the next 40 days with Jesus:  a little of it in the wilderness, a little of hearing him preach and teach and heal.  We have a chance to be really intentional in our relationship with our God.  Setting an example for the faithful to follow us.  We will share the story of God’s goodness and grace. We will walk in the goodness of God’s love.  Amen. 

February 14, 2026, Saturday Evening Healing Service, Reflections on Saint Valentine's Day by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

Who was St. Valentine?  A 3rd-century bishop or priest or perhaps a wealthy citizen in Rome. Today is his feast day which is associated with a tradition of romantic love.  His story is a sweet and sad one.

He was from Terni, in central Italy. While under house arrest of Judge Asterius, and discussing his faith with him, Valentine told him about Jesus. So the judge put Valentine to the test. He had a daughter who was blind. If Valentine succeeded in restoring the girl's sight, Asterius would believe and he would do whatever he asked. Valentinus, praying to God, laid his hands on her eyes and the girl's vision was restored.

Immediately humbled, the judge asked Valentine what he should do. Valentine replied that all of the idols around the judge's house should be broken, and that the judge should fast for three days and then be baptized. The judge obeyed and went so far as to free all the Christian prisoners under his authority. The judge, his family, and his forty-four member household of adult family members and servants were baptized.

Valentine continued his ministry to persecuted Christians, though, was later arrested again. He was sent to the prefect of Rome, to the emperor Claudius himself. Claudius took a liking to him until Valentine tried to convince Claudius to convert to Christianity. Claudius refused and demanded that Valentine either renounce his faith or he would be executed.

Valentine refused to turn away from his faith. So he was executed on February 14, in 269 CE.  Before his execution, Saint Valentine wrote a note to Asterius's daughter, the girl whose sight had been restored, which was signed “from your Valentine” which is said to have "inspired today's romantic missives".

That story is pretty much lost to history. What survives is the cultural pieces that go into acknowledging the day.  Now it’s a lot more about Hallmark and See’s Candy and 1-800-FLOWERS than St. Valentine.

As a child growing up in the 1960’s, it was an annual ritual to give little cards with cute pictures and clever sayings to school classmates.  I put a picture of those on the cover of the bulletin. Like so many things now, you can find photos of them on-line if I include in the search the word “vintage.”

I remember the excitement of going to the drug store with my mom and picking out a box of these little valentine cards.  There were a few sets of 30 or so cards to choose from – it was such fun picking them out.

It was fun – picking out the cutest card for your best friend, picking out a card with a cat for your friend who liked cats.  Writing that note – “to my best friend Lucy from your best friend Carole.”  There always came that moment – when you had to address a card to a classmate you really didn’t like.  Or you thought didn’t like you. 

What to do…?  Just skip them figuring that they wouldn’t notice that a card from you was missing? Or just go ahead and write “to Chuck from Carole” and steel myself for the fallout. Chuck was loud and a bully. And I was shy and sort of artsy. I tried to stay away from him. And hope for the best.

On Valentines Day all the kids brought show boxes they had decorated with a slot in the top. We all played mail carrier, delivering a valentine to the other students.   And that night I remember sitting on the floor of the living room opening each little card, reading who it was from.  It was amazing being surrounded by these colorful little missives of care free fun and “love.”

I wonder if they still do this in elementary schools – this practice of love. I know how it made me feel, but what do children think about love?  And why does it matter?

A group of researchers asked that same thing.  And then they asked seven-year-olds, “what does love mean to you?”  The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone might imagined. See what you think...

“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."  (That’s from 6-year-old Nikka – I could have used that advice when I was addressing that valentine to Chuck.  We could use a few more Nikka’s I think.)

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Bradley Cooper. But she’s fibbing."

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you."  What an image!

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget to do that."

So children talk about love as tangible actions, deep feelings, and simple, powerful actions. Love is made manifest to them through acts of service, about feeling safe, about deep comfort and shared presence like smiling even when you’re tired. They express love through hugs, kindness, sharing, and simple gestures, learning from family examples and pets, seeing it as warmth, safety, and unconditional acceptance.

Why is this important to us?

Jesus encouraged us to "become like little children." In little ones we see the necessary “heart posture” for entering the kingdom of heaven: total humility, dependence on God, and trusting faith instead of self-sufficiency. In a culture that prizes status, Jesus highlights that the greatest in heaven are those with the humility of a child.

Just as little ones depend on parents for survival, we must rely on God for strength, provision, and spiritual life, crying out to God for God’s strength and wisdom and peace when faced with fear or weakness.

Jesus was not advocating for childishness or immaturity, but rather a "childlike" spirit—a shift from pride to humble dependency.

In doing so we might just fine that Love is the ultimate medicine.  Science and ancient wisdom agree: love is a powerful force for healing. Whether it’s through heartfelt connections, mindful breathing, or simple acts of kindness, love has the ability to reduce stress and strengthen your heart.

The HeartMath Institute has discovered that the heart sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart—influencing emotions, thoughts, and even physical health. In fact, research shows that your heart’s rhythm changes based on emotions like love, compassion, and gratitude.

The heart produces oxytocin, a powerful hormone associated with bonding, emotional healing, and stress reduction. Whether you’re hugging a loved one, practicing self-love, or expressing gratitude, you’re actively supporting your immune system, lowering blood pressure, and even improving digestion.

Love isn’t just about romance—it’s also about self-compassion, forgiveness, and connection. Practices like meditation, gratitude, and heart-centered breathing can help us recover from the emotional bruises of PTSD, anxiety, and emotional wounds. Engaging in acts of kindness and compassion allow our bodies to respond with a surge of positive biochemicals that boost well-being.

Research suggests that people who regularly practice love and kindness have healthier hearts and longer lifespans.  That’s the way God made our bodies, that’s our incredibly compassionate God in action, accompanying us through times that are difficult to help us recover from times of grief.

So today, take a deep breath, focus on your heart, and let the love of God lead the way. Amen.

February 8, 2026, The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Reflections on Matthew 5: 13-20 and Isaiah 58:1-12 by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

Fifth Sunday in Epiphany                                                      Matthew 5:13-20

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Isaiah 58:1-12

Shout out, do not hold back!

Lift up your voice like a trumpet!

Announce to my people their rebellion,

to the house of Jacob their sins.

Yet day after day they seek me

and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness

and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgments,

they delight to draw near to God.

“Why do we fast, but you do not see?

Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,

and oppress all your workers.

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

and to strike with a wicked fist.

Such fasting as you do today

will not make your voice heard on high.

Is such the fast that I choose,

a day to humble oneself?

Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,

and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast,

a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover them,

and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

and your healing shall spring up quickly;

your vindicator shall go before you,

the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

If you remove the yoke from among you,

the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

if you offer your food to the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

then your light shall rise in the darkness

and your gloom be like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you continually,

and satisfy your needs in parched places,

and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water,

whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to live in.

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

We don’t often hear during sermons about our Old Testament readings but I thought we’d spend some time with Isaiah today.  Biblical scholars date the last chapters of the book of Isaiah to the time that the people called Israel were returning from their exile in Babylon. So the text that we have from the Old Testament today is part of those eleven chapters that tell us what was going on in this community as the people return to their land.

It’s hard for us to imagine in our context what that life must have been like.  These people who are called Israel who were exiled when Babylon took over their land, are coming back to a place some 70 years later that is ravaged. For the oldest among them, home is not the home they remember any more.  For those born in exile, it is nothing like their elders described to them.  The temple that had been the center of their life and their worship is gone. Communities have been destroyed.  Friends and family may have resettled somewhere else and are unlikely to come back.

So they are beginning all over again on this land.  And trying to figure out what the world will look like for them now that they’re starting all over. But one thing that is a constant for them is the practice of worship.  Even coming back into this ravaged place, they begin to do the rituals of worship that have become the rhythm of their lives – not unlike they have a pulse and a heartbeat.

But something seems amiss for them. Because they step back into this rhythm of worship and it seems like God isn’t paying any attention.  “Why aren’t you listening to us? Don’t you see we’re fasting, don’t you see that were doing what we’re supposed to do? That we’re giving ourselves to you in worship? It seems, God, like you’re not paying attention to us.”

And God has a lot to say in response to that. God says “Yes, you’re fasting. You are going through the rhythm of the ritual of worship.  But is also seems like you’re quarreling and fighting among yourselves, it seems like you are oppressing your own workers.” That’s not what giving yourselves to God is supposed to be about. 

What happens when these people start going through the motions, but they forget who God is and what God is?

I want to take a moment and go back to the first offering to God that is recorded in scripture.  And how sometimes our best intentions don’t go the way we think they are supposed to go.

Remember the very first act of offering recorded in scripture is Cain and Able. Cain who is the one of the two brothers who grows things from the ground, of his own volition, kind of out of nowhere, we’re not told what his motivation is, he decides that he’s going to give an offering to God out of the things he has grown from the ground

So off he trots with the fruit of his labor to offer to God.  And Able sees his older brother and decides to do the same thing. Able raises animals, so he takes a fatling and offers it to God. “Here’s my offering, here’s my act of worship.” 

And what happens?  It seems that God likes Able’s offering a little better more than God likes Cain’s offering. And God warns Cain not to allow himself to succumb to this darkness that is in his heart. “Don’t do it!” But he does. Cain gives in to the darkness, to his anger. And he takes his brothers’ life. All of this around an act of worship that somehow has gone all wrong. 

Even from that very first offering, our own motivations aren’t always kept in check are they?  So we go through our lives, we go through the ritual. We do what we are in the rhythm of doing but do we ever stop to ask consider how God might react? 

God tells us in Isaiah, God isn’t really interested in how we go about the rhythm of our worship.  What DOES God ask?  To look around, to be aware. Do you see any hungry folks around you that haven’t been fed?  Do you see any workers around you that are being oppressed? Do you see folks around you that need clothing? Do you see someone around you who is suffering from injustice. Do you see…? Because that’s the act of worship I’m looking for, God says, I’m looking to see how we love one another, how we respond to those around us who are in need.  And God says “if you do that, well then you have honored me.”

Something else – God makes some very weighty promises around that. You will be the light. Your light will shine forever. People will know what I’m about. People will know my goodness, my love, my grace because they will see that light emanating from you.  That’s what God says.  God promises that the people called Israel. “I will be with you, I will guide you I promise that.  I will make you the foundation for generations to come.  I promise that. But I’m counting on you.  I’m counting on you.” 

I’m not sure that there has been a point in our world history where God is counting on us more than right now. God needs the light and love of God to be radiating throughout the world.  It begins with every one of us.  It begins with everyone of us every day.  What have we seen that we knew down to our very core that was wrong and yet we fail to speak?  What bad joke did we hear at the expense of marginalized people and we failed to say no, that doesn’t work for me.  When did we see people who were being cheated, who were being pushed aside, when did we see that - and not speak up?  When did we see someone in need around us and think next time...  

What God wants from us is our hearts, what God wants us is for us is our commitment.  What God wants from us is to see the world as God sees it – filled with God’s creation made in God image and likeness and worthy of God’s love. That is what God wants us to see.  It’s what God implores us to see every single day. 

Because we are tasked with being the light in the world.  We hold so much in our hands and there is so much for us to do to show God’s love to everyone.  And every day becomes a new day for a new commitment from us – individually, and as a community. Every day becomes a new day for us to say - we are standing with those in need. We are standing with those who have been pushed to the margins. We are standing with those who do not know the love of God.  Because our light makes a difference. Our light draws them in. Our light brings them home. 

So today I ask you -- think as you go out into the world about the faces of God’s children that you see.  How can we be light?  How can we be love?  Because every day there is a new opportunity for us to show God’s love, to show God’s mercy, to show that God has been faithful and loving to us from the beginning of time. Someone you’ll meet today needs to know that.  From us.  Amen.

February 1, 2026, The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Reflections on Matthew 5:1-12 by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

In 1950 a tiny hospital in the deep south, somewhere in Alabama opened its doors to patients.  What was significant about this tiny hospital – it only had 9 or 10 beds - was that it was the only hospital in the state of Alabama at that time that had been created to serve the medical needs of African-Americans - in the entire state.

It actually was formed when the Catholic diocese of Alabama decided that it was long past time for there to be a hospital that would serve people of color in the state.  And so, it was founded largely through the efforts of that diocese.  And they named it after St. Martin de Porras, a Peruvian man, who had himself given much of his life for the care of others.

De Porras story is a complicated one: his father was a Spanish nobleman and his mother was a slave.  So he belonged to no world.  He didn’t belong to the world of European nobility nor did he belong to the world of enslaved people.  But everywhere he went he was immediately judged and rejected based on his outward appearance that revealed that his mother was of African descent.

His heart was a heart that longed to help others even as a child. When he saw others who had even less that he had, he would feel compelled to try to help them.  And by the time he was a teenager he just knew he was called to the priesthood. So he presented himself to the Dominican Order in Lima, Peru and said, “God has called me and I wish to become one of your brothers.”   They looked at him with the skin and features that once again revealed that his mother had been a slave and they said “no.”

Martin was determined and continued to believe wholeheartedly that this is what God called him to do and be.  He kept going back and kept going back to them.  And finally they said, “okay we will make you a lay brother of this Order.”  And so he lived out his life with that Dominican Order cooking and cleaning and laundering.  But he was never ordained a priest.

His commitment was to those who had nothing.  He saw them with eyes and a heart that made him want to help everyone he encountered them.  And so he gave food to the hungry. He took care of the sick.  And he took away all those distinctions around race, and ethnicity and social class.  If you had a need, he was going to take care of you.

This was how he lived out his life, making visible to the church, those had been invisible to those who had been marginalized church, those who had never been known to the church.  That was the way that St Martin de Porras lived out his life.  So it’s no surprise that this tiny hospital in Alabama that was created to serve invisible, marginalized people was named for someone who committed his life to doing that work.

The poor, the sick, the disenfranchised are always around us.  But so often they are not visible to us. We move about living our lives and far too often, the invisible among us continue to be invisible.

So for a few minutes I want us to step into the first century world of Jesus Christ.  He starts his ministry by calling a few fishermen to come and join him. And the first thing he does is not to go to the temple authorities, to the elite, and schedule meetings with them and say, “I’m here, let’s get on with taking care of everyone.” No, that’s not what he does.

His first order of business is to go among the poor, and the sick and the marginalized and the disenfranchised who have been put down, pushed away and ignored – that is his first order of business. 

And what an incredible message he has for them: blessed are those who are poor in spirit, blessed are those who are mourn, blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty, blessed are those are being persecuted in this oppressive society in which we live.

Blessed are you.  Because if you have been living your life believing that you are invisible, if you have bought into the idea of this narrative that you are unimportant, unloved and uncared for, there is good news – the good news is that you are not invisible to God. The good news is that God sees you, God knows you, God loves you.

Jesus has delivered this incredible message that those who have believed that they are not part of God’s plan, now he tells them they are legitimate, they are part of God’s plan.

That had to be one of the most dangerous messages that the Roman empire could expect someone to deliver.  Because when you have subscribed to the theory that you are no one and that your life matters to know one, you make the oppressors’ job really easy. But the oppressor’s job isn’t easy when you truly believe that you are a child of God and that your presence and your voice matters. 

And Jesus has become an enemy of the state from Day I for delivering the message that no one in the empire wants to hear.

How do all these people who have been pushed aside for so long, how did they hear that good news “I am somebody, I am a child of God” when the whole of your life you have heard the opposite?  What a joyful day that had to be for the throngs of people who have come to Jesus to be healed, to be made whole and to be restored to community.

The saints who have come before us have dared us to see the world with compassionate eyes. They have dared us, as the church of Jesus Christ, to see the world as a place filled with God’s beloved. To see the world as a place where we are stakeholders with our sisters and brothers and where we are called to lift the fallen, to love those who have believed that they are unlovable and to share the message of God in Christ.  They have dared us to be that bold.

Are we? Are we bold enough to follow saints like Martin de Porras? Are we bold enough to look upon those who are being told they are nothing and nobody and to say to them, “your life matters.  And because your life matters to God, it also matters to me and I will put myself out there.”

In light of the violence that so occupies our hearts and minds these days, the Bishops of our Episcopal church published a letter yesterday morning. It’s written to all Americans and signed by more than 150 Episcopal Bishop’s.  It addresses the events happening in communities across the country but especially in Minneapolis. 

Many of you have expressed concerns about what you are seeing and how, as people of faith, we are to respond.  So I want to share a portion of this letter from our Bishops who ask what they believe is the core question facing America — whose dignity matters?  Here’s what they say:

“What happened a week ago in Minnesota, and is happening in communities across the country, runs counter to God’s vision of justice and peace.

We cannot presume to speak for everyone or prescribe only one way to respond. For our part, we can only do as Jesus’ teaching shows us. We call on people of faith to stand by your values and act as your conscience demands.

We must keep showing up for one another. We are bound together because we are all made in the image of God. As bishops in The Episcopal Church, we promise to keep showing up — to pray, to speak, and to stand with every person working to make our communities just, safe, and whole.

Every act of courage matters. We are committed to making our communities safer and more compassionate:

So children can walk to school without fear. So families can shop, work, and worship freely. So we recognize the dignity of every neighbor — immigrant communities, military families, law enforcement officers, nurses, teachers, and essential workers alike.

In the face of fear, we choose hope. Safety built on fear is an illusion. True safety comes when we replace fear with compassion, [replace] violence with justice, and [replace] unchecked power with accountability. That’s the vision our faith calls us to live out — and the promise our country is meant to uphold.

The question before us is simple and urgent: Whose dignity matters?

Our faith gives a clear answer: Everyone’s.

Retired Bishop Steven Charleston wrote of his desire to recognize that we are living through a time when anger and blame are epidemic. And he offers something we can all do together: being Spiritual Medics.

“I have committed myself to be a Spiritual Medic in these days of chaos. I hope you will join me and become one too. If you do, here is what you will commit to for the duration of the turmoil:

To sustain the healing of creation.

To connect with others with intentionality.

To pray protection each day at noon.

To help diminish suffering.

What these four commitments mean will be up to each of you, and every other medic, to decide. There is no hierarchy. All are welcome and all needed.”

So on this day of blessing, we look upon our sisters and brothers with the teachings of Jesus in our heads and hearts, with the saints behind us cheering us on and saying “let them know how much God loves them, let them know how much God cares. We all have value, we all have worth.”  Amen.

January 25, 2026, The Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Reflections on Matthew 4:12-23 by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,

on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—

the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,

and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to hear the account from John's Gospel of the call of the first disciples. We had John the Baptizer playing a very prominent role in that account as he literally pointed the way to Jesus “this is the lamb of God” for those who had been following him around in the wilderness.

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

Today we have a very different look from Matthew's gospel. Today we see Jesus returning to the Galilee after he has learned that John the Baptizer has been arrested.  And now Jesus carries on the message that John had been proclaiming on Jesus’ behalf telling everyone to repent because the kingdom had come near. Just to put this in context, we are at the very beginning of Jesus earthly ministry. We start to get insight into the particular, unique kingship of Jesus that we’ll see develop through the season.

We hear that he withdraws – not out of cowardice or self-preservation – but forming an alternate vision of kingship which is nonviolent and nonretaliatory. He is both the Messiah and the Son of Man who has nowhere to lay his head. Jesus, the King of the World that is and is to come, is a displaced person in this world.

But more than anything else, this gospel is a call to ministry story.  We find Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee where he calls the first of the disciples: “come and follow me.” He's out walking by the Sea of Galilee and he seems to see some unlikely people to call as his first disciples.

They are fishermen - first Simon Peter and Andrew.  And then James and John.  They're in the midst of their living their lives, just getting ready for another day fishing. Just as many generations of their families before them had done, and just as they always expected they would do.  But that Jesus calls with a mysterious, cryptic invitation, “follow me I'm going to make you fish for people.”

And the account that we're given is that they just walk away. They walk away from the boats and the nets. James and John walk away from their father.  And we hear that and we think and we’re amazed from our 21st century mindset that that could happen.

But it might have been even crazier sounding to Matthew’s first century listeners because family was everything in their culture. You didn't walk away from your family. It’s counter intuitive. What would make four rational people walk away from everything to follow Jesus? 

There are theories that the four had known Jesus for many years, they knew this was coming. But none of the gospels say that.  And if we make that assumption we’re cheating ourselves and minimizing God’s capacity to call us out of what we plan for ourselves and into God’s plan.  God who knows out gifts, our strengths and fears better than anyone, better than ourselves.

 The 4 fishermen already have something useful and important to do. They’re not looking to make a change. They’re not looking for a new life. They don’t seek Jesus, he seeks them.  The call of Jesus doesn’t fill an obvious need in their lives. Like the call to the prophets in the Old Testament, it is intrusive and disruptive.  

So perhaps they say “yes” and follow Jesus because this invitation in like nothing they’ve ever known.

Call stories are amazing and uplifting, call stories like we hear from Carson:

"During high school,” a young man named Carson, says “I became very sick and ended up with liver failure. I was in orchestra and was supposed to be in advance music composition and had an internship in conducting my junior year, but I ended up being too sick to commit to the course of study. The next year, senior year, I had a bunch of open hours in my schedule, so my guidance counselor told me I should take the EMT class. I became enthralled with medicine and went straight from high school to paramedic school.

Carson gave up a full-ride scholarship in music to Illinois University that he had worked towards most of his life. He gave up the path that he had set in place years before to go do what he has a true calling for - work on an ambulance, for poor pay, and exposure to people on the worst day of their life.

“However, when you join EMS,” he says, “you gain a family that will support you through anything. I wake up (almost) every day happy to go to work. It's not a job if you love what you do, and that can't be more true for me. That was thirteen years ago and I haven't looked back. I still love music but being a paramedic and helping my community is what I was born to do.

Some individuals know from a young age they are destined for a specific path, often described as a "tug" or pull toward a purpose. Others like our paramedic friend Carson find their calling accidentally, after discovering a passion. This highlights that a "calling" often feels like a pull toward a specific purpose rather than just a job.

I know many of you have your own amazing call story. You are teachers, nurses, parents. You’ve felt that pull, that compulsive tug. And I can’t help but wonder if the disciples didn’t feel that also.

We can be sure that these four men know everything everything about fishing. But who had valued them, in the course of their lives, for something other than what they bring to market?  Jesus sees something else in them. Jesus sees gifts in them that perhaps no one else has ever identified. They are valued, they are respected in a way that they have probably never experienced.

For someone to have that kind of confidence in them and say “follow me I'm going to take these great gifts that you have to get fish and I'm going to help you fish for people with me.” That's an invitation it would be hard to turn down.

So they walk away from everything that they have known, literally and figuratively, to follow Jesus.  And Jesus immediately, we're told, goes out and begins proclaiming the good news and curing all of these sick people.

Now what all four Gospel accounts share, even though they all have very different details about how it is that Jesus went about calling the first disciples, is that Jesus really doesn't start his ministry until he calls these disciples. Let’s think about how this plays out.  From his first moments with those who will share ministry with him, he is forming them for the last moments, for the time when he will no longer be with them and their discipleship will be needed more than ever.

So off they all go. And as soon as Jesus starts preaching and teaching and healing, he’s almost instantly rock star status.  Because all of these people who have been so sick, all of the people who have been in need, who have been without hope, have now found the light.  Throngs of people are following Jesus everywhere he goes. And the disciples are probably thinking initially this is a pretty good gig, this is pretty good. Because we're welcome everywhere we go.

But it doesn't take long before they start to get really weary. Throngs of people clamoring for Jesus make for days that are long and hard. They start quarreling among themselves. Jesus’ teaching can be confounding. They realize that this call business is not easy.  They're up close and personal when the tide of public sentiment turns against their beloved teacher. His life is in danger and by extension their own lives are in danger. It’s enough to make one of them even deny that he knows Jesus.

And that could have been the end of the story. But it's not. It's not the end of the story because even though they may have been disheartened, even though they may have wondered in their own minds, “what was I thinking, why did we ever say yes to this?” God’s call is there. It never gives up on them, God only strengthens and affirms their call through the message of the empty tomb.

The message from the empty tomb: “he's risen! Don't give up! Don’t fall away. Love lives.” And we see them come back to make that choice all over again - to follow Jesus, to proclaim the good news, to pick up his ministry, continue the message of love and God’s salvation all over the world. And ultimately to give their own lives for that message.

This whole business of being disciples is not easy not easy. Because the days are long and the work can be tiring. And other folks may look at us and think, “what's wrong with you? Don’t you see what a mess the world is in? Why are you wasting your breath talking about love? Why are you talking about caring about God's people? Why are you showing up in places where people are hurting? Where justice and mercy are in very short supply. People may think we as the church are nuts.

It’s what we are called to do and be every single day of our lives. God doesn't give up on the world or on us as individuals. God is always there to remind us with just those little glimpses, that what we do matters, that what we do is important, that our call to serve is real and valid.

There's still a lot of sickness in our world that need God's healing - the sicknesses of division and strife and war that need God's healing. And that starts with us, with every act that we hate that starts with us. As we open our doors and invite others to come with us on faith journeys. Because God still needs all of us he needs us as individuals and God still needs us as a church - just as we are with the gifts that we bring, God needs each of us.

And every time those doors open and someone else comes into this place to journey with us in faith, every child who is taught here every time someone comes in our midst to learn with us and grow with us to bring about healing in God's world.  The church is more important now than ever.

We can't forget that.  We can't forget how important we all are to the delivery of God's message in this world. So if we start to feel disheartened, if we start to feel that we're tired, may we be reminded always that those first disciples didn't come with any special equipment, or special skills. They didn’t come with anything more than the grace of the love of God. And that grace and love is upon all of us as we answer our own call to go forth to bear the message of the good news to everyone that we need.  Amen.

January 18, 2026, The Second Sunday after the Epiphany, "What are you looking for?" Reflections on John 1: 1-9 by Reverend Jeannie Martz

The Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A

January 18, 2026

St. Matthias Episcopal Church, Whittier, CA

The Rev. Jeannie Martz

          “I have a question for you.”

          This simple statement can have quite an effect on us.  The nature of the effect varies with context and setting of course, but the statement itself still puts us on notice that something is going to be asked of us, something will be required of us.  Whether the question is a mental challenge or part of a game, a simple request for information or the one card that will cause the house to fall down; even if it’s the greatest fear of most Episcopalians:  “What if I mention my faith in public and someone asks me a question??” – to be told a question awaits us, any question, calls us to attention.

          No one asks better questions than Jesus and so today I want to focus on three of his most important ones:

          What are you looking for?

          What do you want me to do for you?

          Do you want to be made well?

All three of these questions appear at least once in the Gospels, and in each case the person at the receiving end of the question has never encountered Jesus before.

          The third question I listed, “Do you want to be made well?” comes from the fifth chapter of John, a little further along from today’s reading.  While Matthew, Mark, and Luke in their Gospels have Jesus traveling to Jerusalem only once as an adult, a journey that will end at the cross, John places the adult Jesus in Jerusalem three separate times.  This conversation takes place during his second visit:

          John writes, “Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes.  In these lie many invalids – blind, lame, and paralyzed.  One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’”        

          In this morning’s Gospel reading, John the Baptizer specifically says that he didn’t recognize Jesus as the one who is “greater than he” until he witnessed the revelation of Jesus as the one on whom God’s Spirit remains.  In this Gospel, revelation precedes recognition, and the man in the porticoes at Bethzatha – also known as Bethsaida and Bethesda – this man has received no such revelation.  To him Jesus is just some stranger who has stopped by the mat he’s been lying on for thirty-eight years and has asked him a question that seems to be a bit of a no-brainer.

          But questions in John’s Gospel operate in more than one dimension.  They operate first in the dimension of the story where they’re part of the flow of the narrative; but they also have a spiritual dimension – so that Jesus isn’t just asking the man if he’d like to be healed physically; he’s asking both the man and everyone who hears this question in any time or place, any century, any fellowship, including us, if we want to be healed, to be made whole; if we want salvation, because in the Bible wholeness and salvation are two sides of the same coin.

          At the story level, the man may have heard Jesus’ question as a reproach, because his response is more an explanation than an answer.  The footnotes in the NRSV say that some of the other ancient manuscripts of John include the sentence, “…an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.”

          With this in mind, it makes perfect sense for the man to say to Jesus, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”  Yes, the man wants to be made well, he’s been trying to be made well; but he can’t get to the water by himself.

          Every time we hear this question, “Do you want to be made well?” we need to ask ourselves if we have the same courage this man has, because to be made well is to be transformed; to be made well is to receive new life; and to set aside all the wounds, large or small, that may have defined us in the past; all the wounds, large or small, that we may be clinging to, allowing their familiar pain to shape our identity, to frame how we see the world and how the world sees us.  If Jesus makes us well, if we become whole, then who are we?  Then what do we do?

          To the man, Jesus says, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”  “At once,” says John, “the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.”  (Jn. 5:2-9)  In the man’s healing, and in ours, is the revelation of who Jesus is.  Within the revelation of who Jesus is lies the imperative for us to respond.

          The second question, “What do you want me to do for you?” is a popular one in retreat and meditation settings.  Included by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Mark’s version reads (Mk. 10:46b-52):

          “As [Jesus] and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.  When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’  Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’  Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’  And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’  So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.  Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’”

          As I said, these days, encountering Jesus and hearing him ask this question is often the climax of a guided meditation, or perhaps the focus of a prayerful reading of Scripture.  In such a guided meditation – and this is a general example - the facilitator slowly leads us, within our own minds, to a place of beauty and safety, sometimes a favorite place of our own that we’re encouraged to visualize.  Very gradually, we’re invited to see a figure standing before us, or sitting next to us, shadowy at first, but then recognizable as Jesus, face to face.  Radiating love, Jesus looks deep into our eyes and asks, “What would you like me to do for you?”  The answer, coming from the depths of heart and soul, is ours and ours alone to give.

          One of the ironies in Mark’s story, of course, is that from the very beginning, the only one who really sees the face of Jesus, the only one to whom Jesus’ identity as the Messiah has been revealed, is the blind man.  While he’s shouting “Son of David!” – a primary messianic designation – everyone else is trying to keep him quiet.  When Jesus asks Bartimaeus what he wants, because he already knows Jesus to be the Messiah, Bartimaeus doesn’t hesitate to ask for wholeness.  In response to Jesus’ question, he promptly says, “My teacher, let me see again.”

          “Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’  Immediately [Bartimaeus] regained his sight and followed [Jesus] on the way.”

          In complete faith that Jesus is God’s Messiah, Bartimaeus asks him for healing, for transformation and new life – and receiving what he has asked for, he goes forth into his new life as a disciple.

          We sometimes say, “Be careful what you ask for, or be careful what you pray for, because you might get it.”  We say it tongue in cheek, making a little joke out of it because we know it’s true, and because we know it’s scary:  as we pray, as we encounter Jesus face to face and hear this second question, we might find ourselves faced with the invitation to be transformed, to receive new life.

          The third question, the one we heard this morning, is the greater context for the other two.  “What are you looking for?”  These are the very first words that Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John.  “What are you looking for?”

          At Christmastime the shepherds were looking for a newborn.  At Epiphany the Magi were looking for a king.  Today, in this season of God’s ongoing self-revelation, John’s disciples are looking for the Messiah, and in response to Jesus’ question, they ask him where he’s staying.

          True to form, this question also operates on two levels.  On the level of the story, John’s disciples are literally asking Jesus where he’s staying.  They’re near Jerusalem, near the Jordan where John has been baptizing, and they want to know where they can find Jesus again.

          At the spiritual level, this is a deeper question about discipleship.  In the words of John the Evangelist, John the Baptizer says that he saw God’s Spirit descend upon Jesus at his baptism and remain upon him – the Spirit is permanently with Jesus; it won’t come and go, leaving him sometimes in the power of the Spirit and sometimes not.  In the same vein, the two disciples are now asking Jesus if and how they too can share in this relationship that he has with God through God’s Spirit.  In John’s Greek, asking where Jesus is staying is the same as asking where Jesus is remaining.  And Jesus says to them, “Come and see,” a response one author has called “an offer to see Jesus with the eyes of faith.”  (NIB, 531)

          Another author has said, “You will see the kingdom of God, but it will not be what you expected to see.  And you will see the day when you will rejoice that [the kingdom] was so much more than you could have expected.”  (Christian Century, 12/21/16, p. 21)

          What are we looking for?  When we come together in this place, when we come together to worship, what are we looking for?  Fellowship?  A sense of belonging?  A place to give, to serve, to do the Loving Thing and make a difference in our community and in the world?  Certainly these are aspects of our life together here at St. Matthias, but they’re not unique to this parish or even to the Episcopal Church.  Each of these things can be found and experienced in other organizations as well.

          What would we tell Jesus we’re looking for?  That we want to know and feel God’s love?  That we want to show the world a new way of being and living together, a way that honors and values all people?  That we want to share in a life that has eternal significance?  Yes, and more.

          C.S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters purports to be an exchange of letters between Screwtape, a senior demon in the Nether Regions, and his young nephew Wormwood, a junior demon stationed in the world and charged with winning human souls for Hell through what are disconcertingly ordinary means.  The “patient” (as he’s called) that Wormwood is currently working on has recently had a conversion experience and is a new churchgoer, filled with faith and idealism, and Screwtape gives his nephew the following advice:

          “Wormwood, the Church is a fertile field if you keep them bickering over details, structure, money, property, personal hurts and misunderstandings.  One thing you must prevent: don’t ever let them look up and see the banners of victory flying, for if they see the banners flying then you have lost them forever.  Never let them see the Glory of God.”

          What are we looking for?  We are looking for transformation and new life; we are looking for a relationship with Jesus and with each other in the presence of God and in the power of God’s Spirit.

          We are looking to carry Christ’s banners of victory and transformation into the hurt and pain of this world, so that all of us may see the Glory of God everywhere. 

“Teacher, where are you staying?”

“Come and see.”

Amen.

January 11, 2026, The First Sunday after the Epiphany, Reflections on Matthew 3:13-17 by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

One of the oddest stories of baptism was told to me by a priest living in Montana – where it snows a lot this time of year. Her two boys were very young -- 4 years and 18 months.  Her 18-month-old, Jamie, had been baptized on Epiphany Sunday a few days before.  She picked them up from preschool, strapped the youngest into his car seat while 4 year old Stephen – she thought – stood nearby.  Then he got into the car and into his booster seat – and threw a snowball at his little brother.  And asked “Jamie, did that remind you of your baptism?” Of course, mom was shocked but no harm was done.

And so today we come to another odd baptism story, another moment that is shocking: Jesus, who was without sin, who has no need of repentance or change of life practices, whose death saved us from our sins, presents himself to his cousin, John, to be baptized in the river Jordan. It’s been the subject of mystery and controversy pretty much since it happened. Imagine it in more modern setting: 

It’s kind of like running into Jesus at the St. John the Baptizer traffic school. You know, the school for people who need a second chance before their driver’s license is taken away.

So, of course, we all show up ready to do whatever it takes to hold onto that precious piece of ID.  And to our surprise, Jesus is there when we arrive – not teaching the class as we might expect; not passing out donuts and coffee to sustain us. Not even being the tech guy who gets everything going.  Nor is he the judge who commutes all of our sentences.

What we don’t expect, the oddest thing of all, is that Jesus - who we know never ran a red light or went faster than the speed limit  - is that Jesus is in the seats alongside of with us. In other words, it doesn’t make sense.  What is Jesus doing in the water, in the mud, with the riff-raff who need cleansing of their sins?  And why do we hear this story every year right after Christmastide and at the Epiphany?  The heavens burst open and the voice of God is heard. And the spirit in the form of a dove comes to rest upon Jesus. “This is my son, the beloved. In him I am well pleased.  We don’t understand it. But we don’t have to. It just is.

And it is a message counter to most of those we hear all the time, counter to the voices of our culture even those we claim not to hear. One expert has calculated that the average American encounters over 2,000 advertisements every day. It adds up over time – it adds up to something like an entire year of our lives – a year when we are prompted and prodded and inundated with messages that tell us that plastic surgery and Botox will make us more loveable.

That same expert, Jean Killbourne, authored a documentary called Killing Us Softly. It details the damage that these kind of messages inflict upon our souls, our identities and our way in the world.  So much so, she says, nearly that nearly half of all girls ages 3-6 years old worry about their weight. Think about that - 3 to 6 years olds.

Where can we look for the antidote for these messages?

Opal Singleton created “A Million Kids” a non-profit organization dedicated to halting the on-line trafficking of our children. She says that just four simple words from any adult or all the adults in our children’s lives are the most powerful antidote to these harmful messages.  Four simple words: “I believe in you.” 

Today’s story of Jesus’s baptism is an Epiphany story. It is a revelation in the moment of baptism when the true identity of Jesus is revealed. Not to reign from some far away heaven, but by taking the plunge with all of us, in the water, in the mud, in the flesh. And so it is also our story. We are reminded of our own identities in Christ. An identity that can never be revoked or taken away.  We remember that Jesus’ ministry is our ministry. The Holy Spirit is poured out upon us and we receive spiritual gifts to last a lifetime.

And God has a few simple words for us too: “You are my beloved.  In you I am well pleased.”

I used to visit someone who had a picture of an old time revival baptism where everyone’s gathered at the river’s edge. And all the church ladies are there dressed up with their hats and gloves on. There’s someone in the water and people ready to dunk him. I admired it on our visits.  My host said it always reminded her of the moment we join our spiritual ancestors in saying yes to God. “It reminds me, she said “of becoming a place where God happens. Of claiming my identity.” No matter what the voices of our culture say, in baptism those are drowned out with the only voice that really matters: “You are my beloved… in you I am well pleased.” 

Whatever was before is no more.  Wherever we may have been doesn’t matter.  Whatever messages the world sends us, we emerge from the waters of baptism a new creation, forever changed, forever a place where God happens.

Through baptism we grasp the presence of God and live in it. Through baptism we live at God’s hand, trusting God’s purposes. We find joy where many think that joy cannot be found. We find meaning and grace that make our total lives stronger than death itself. Living at God’s hands. Should God ask great things, God will supply great means.

In a few minutes we will renew our own baptismal covenant. The liturgy is in your bulletin. I invite you take it home with you and choose one of those promises to focus on during the Epiphany season. Pray about it daily and invite it to work on you. If you do, I promise that your spiritual life will be transformed. Perhaps you will focus on

·       Continuing the apostle’s teaching, the fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. 

·       Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever – not it, whenever you fall into sin will you repent and return to the Lord?

·       Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Jesus Christ?

·       Will you seek and serve Jesus Christ in all persons loving, loving your neighbor as yourself?

·       Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?

Let it grow within you. The rest of the sentence – is the key.  Can you say with your whole heart. I will.  I will with God’s help.

Ultimately this is about what God through Jesus Christ has already done for us. Jumping onto the waters of the river of life and all for love of us. 

However odd this baptism story is, it is our story even if we think it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It just is.

It’s the story of creation formed out of such dark waters as these.

It’s the story of a young Jewish woman visited by God in a way that confounded her fiancé but made her sing. 

It’s the story of a wild man out in the desert proclaiming a new kingdom of water and fire.

It’s the story of one without sin who was baptized with sinners like us whose death will save us.

It may feel like a snowball in the face. But it is our chance to claim Jesus who first claimed us. The one who never asks us to go anywhere he has not already been. From dust to dust, and ashes to ashes. From the cradle of the waters of baptism to the grave he knows what we are up against and has shown us how to live so that life never ends.

Choosing to go God’s way, choosing whatever will bring us closer together and above all, choosing all the things of the earth – doves, water, mud, flesh, love – to carry out the purposes of heaven.  And murmuring to us over and over again: “You are my beloved.  With you I am well pleased.”  Amen.

January 4, 2026, The Second Sunday after Christmas, Reflections on Matthew 2:1-12 by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

“In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

`And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.

On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

This very rich and interesting gospel lesson this week gives us a chance to look at the qualities and character of two very important men in the story – Herod, King of Judea and Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus.

Let’s start with Herod. By all historical accounts, he was a brilliant man. He was responsible for much building in Israel. Those who have traveled there have had the opportunity to see what still remains of his efforts, the ruins of many of the things that Herod built. There is evidence that he was remarkable, a genius, a smart man -- who for a brief time, had so much potential to do all kinds of good.

Matthew’s is the only gospel that talks about the Magi’s visit. This story jolts us with a cruel reality that Luke’s gospel does not. Luke’s gospel is full of lovely images of angels singing and shepherds with lambs kneeling before the newborn baby. Matthew’s story, though, has all the intrigue of a Hollywood blockbuster -- rampant ambition and greed, fear and lust for power with a lead character who was so insecure that he executed his mother, his wife and three sons because he feared that they were plotting to take his throne. Herod’s encounter with the Magi on their quest to find the infant king triggers his cruel behavior once again.

This one encounter with some wise men who had journeyed a long way and who tell Herod that somebody else has been born King, is bad, bad news for Herod. Because Herod, in his insecurities and paranoia, and in his need to be the only King, is willing to sacrifice the lives of all the male children in the kingdom to ensure that one baby is no longer a threat to him.

That's a destructive course for a man who's had so much potential, a man whose coming to Judea could have left a productive legacy. It’s believed that Herod whose ancestors had converted to Judaism and who had been raised in its beliefs and traditions, could have had the interest of his God and the interest of his people at the forefront of his thinking.

But instead, through the choices he made, he became a destructive force among the people that he was charged with governing. Because he lacks something vitally important at the time we find him in Matthew's gospel: he lacks character and he lacks an understanding of what it means to walk with his God.

          So then we have Joseph - who has been put to every kind of test and whose character is revealed in the decisions he’s made. He's had to face the shame of his people in taking a wife who was already with child, a child that wasn't his. He is now being told by an angel messenger who comes to him in a dream and tells him to leave the land of his people and to go to a place where his people were once enslaved. Joseph must have known all of that history and tradition. 

What must have gone through his mind?  Can’t we just imagine him thinking, “you're asking me to go to Egypt. And what I know about Egypt is that my people were once brutally oppressed there. You want me to believe that this is a safe and good thing?  You want me to believe that I am called to go there, to take this young, new mother and child whose welfare has been entrusted to me and to go to a frightening sounding place.”

Whatever questions may have been going through his mind, Joseph is obedient. And he gets up and he goes by night to take his wife and this child to safety.  

In reflecting on this text, we remember that Abraham's descendants had not become the numerous and strong family that God promised they were going to become until they had gone to Egypt. It's only after a boy named Joseph of many, many years earlier, a son of Jacob, is sold by his brothers into slavery and taken to Egypt. Genesis chapters 37-41 tell us this important story.  

It was only after Joseph’s father and those same brothers had followed him to Egypt because their lives were in danger, that they risked starvation during a famine if they stayed home. It's only when they get to Egypt that these descendants, promised to Abraham, become a numerous people on a foreign soil far from home.

In Matthews account of this story, this is where Joseph is being told to take this child. Yes back to the land where his people were enslaved. But also back where they grew in number and in strength. And this child named Jesus would begin to be formed in a place that held so much meaning to all the descendants of Abraham.

So what is the difference in these two characters that we are encountering today in this text? Herod who presumably has every advantage and immense power and authority to bring whatever he desired to fruition and ought to be faithful is not. And Joseph, a working class man not known beyond his own tribe, who has little power and few options in life but proves always to be faithful to God in every way that God asked of him.

The difference between how these two men see their relationship with God and neighbor is what author David Brooks talks about in his book, “The Road to Character.”  Brooks talks about character in a refreshing kind of way distinguishing between external achievements, which he calls résumé virtues, and internal character strengths which he calls eulogy virtues. Resume virtues are things like being a hard worker, having marketable work skills and achieving awards.

Eulogy virtues are qualities like honesty, kindness, courage, and love. He emphasizes developing a closer relationship with God through cultivating those eulogy virtures. Strong, enduring character is built not by shying away from but by embracing opportunities for internal struggle, self-restraint, and contemplating a sense of one's own limitations rather than impulsive self-expression. 

And so when we see Herod’s concern play out as “how great can my Empire be? How long can I rule? Will I be remembered as a strong ruler?” it's all about Herod.

For Joseph, it's all about something else. It's all about taking care of the child who has been entrusted to him. It’s all about putting himself last. It's all about following the guidance of God. It's all about being able commitment to the ideal that nothing he does is more important than giving everything he has for this child, Jesus.

So here we stand today at the beginning of a new calendar year. And I know folks are thinking about new year’s resolutions. We love to make resolutions and we have the best of intentions when we do. I have a few I know I need to make. And keep.

But I wonder if perhaps somewhere in all of that thinking about what we would like to do and be in this coming year, we’d do well to reflect on character. Given the choice, don’t we want our lives to look more like Joseph than Herod? 

What if our resolutions for the new year mirror Joseph’s actions that we hear about today:

I will do whatever I need to do to stand for Jesus.

I will do whatever I need to do to make certain that Jesus comes first.  

I'll suggest to you that when our reflection becomes, “I need to live for the sake of the one who came to live among us, for the one who came to show us God's love,” then all of God's people can be cared for.

 When we are willing to pick up and go even to a place that is uncomfortable, that may seem counterintuitive to us, we will take on the capacity to love unconditionally. We will have depended on the kindness and the love and the welcome and the mercy of strangers, and we will have the capacity to extend that same to others.  

So we sit at the beginning of this year with lots of blank pages to write in our 2026 book. How will we write them? How will we fill those pages? I don't know about you but I want my pages to look more like Joseph than Herod. I want my pages to be pages of faith and obedience. I want my pages to be pages of love. And I know you do too.  Let’s do that together. Amen.

December 25, 2025, Christmas Day, Reflections on Isaiah 52:7-10 / Ps. 98 / Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12) / John 1:1-14 by J.D. Neal, Postulant for Holy Orders

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”

Today is Christmas. Today Jesus Christ is born — God enters the world in a new and startling way. This baby boy, born to a poor family in occupied Judea, born, as far as the world can see, as a child of adultery from a backwater town, forced to flee his homeland as a child to escape political violence — this baby boy is truly, fully, utterly God.

We talk about the incarnation often in Church. We recite the creed each week and remind ourselves and each other that Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God”, and in our familiarity it can be easy to lose sight of what this means. Now, I’m not going to pretend that I can stand here and unravel the full implications of the Incarnation in the next 5 minutes, but I want to at least try to enter into one aspect of this great mystery while we are gathered for a moment this morning.

What comes to mind when you think of God? What images fill your mind? A ‘bright blur’? A bearded man on a celestial throne? A father? A mother? What attributes come to mind? Power? Knowledge? Wrath? Wisdom? Love? What does this God in your mind expect from you and others? Purity? Holiness? Perfection? Good morals? ‘Traditional values’?

All of us carry around these ‘god-images’ within us. We build them up from our formative experiences as a child, from the things we learn to think of as ‘good’. Often we take images of people who have shaped us and project them onto God, or we take whatever we think of as good — our values — and blow them up to God-size in our minds. Whatever we’ve learned to think of as powerful or beautiful or valuable — take that and multiply it by 1000x — and there’s our ‘god’. Sometimes this is shaped by our experiences with our faith, with church, with the Scriptures, but often those are only a piece of the image.

This means that all of our images of god are a bit different — sometimes very different — from one another. Sometimes our god-images just aren’t compatible, because what I think is good and true and beautiful is actually opposed to what you think of those things. Sometimes when this happens and we come into conflict with one another, we wave our hands and say, ‘God is infinite; God is unknowable. Who can say what God is really like?’ And sometimes there’s some truth and humility in that statement.

But here’s the thing: Christmas means that we don’t get to wave our hands like that anymore. On Christmas, God enters in, bodily. Emmanuel — “God is with us”. Jesus is not a really ‘godly person’, Jesus is God. This means that there’s not some other, bigger, vaguer, more mysterious God ‘behind’ Jesus that we don’t really get to know. As the author of Hebrews says, Jesus is “the exact imprint of God’s very being.” “The Word was God.” “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

Despite Jesus’ love of parables and sometimes cryptic seeming sayings, he doesn’t spend his life acting as some kind of vague, mysterious figure, cloistered away from the public, shrouded in mystery. He lives publicly, ministers to huge crowds, gathers students, teaches, performs signs, gives sermons to thousands. He doesn’t leave us to wonder what God is like, he speaks and lives what God is like before our very eyes. And his witness, his revelation of what God is like is so rich that there are four gospel books and a whole New Testament chock full of his followers recording it and trying to tease it out for us.

The incarnation means that if we want to know what God is like, definitively, we are not left in the dark — we look at Jesus. We read the gospels from the lectionary each week because our tradition knows this. It knows that there is nowhere else for us to go, if we are going to encounter God clearly. The birth of Christ means that we are left with no excuse. God has come into the world bodily and told us who he is, and he’s there for all of us to see. We just have to decide if we’ll listen.

And this is a big ‘if’! In Jesus, God comes into the world in ways that don’t look like what we expect. God’s power is revealed in Christ’s suffering. God’s glory is revealed in Christ’s humility. God’s wrath is revealed in Christ’s self-giving love. We look for a king, for a glorious leader to give us security with his wealth and power, and Christ comes to knock on our door as a migrant carpenter, with no home to lay his head. We look for a teacher to give us neat definitions and clear do’s and don’t, and Christ comes as a prophet and a healer who confronts our definitions and asks us to love our neighbor. We look for someone to tell us we’re right, and our enemies are wrong, and Christ comes with his misfit band of followers of all kinds and tell us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

This is the mystery of the incarnation. This is the revelation of God that shatters all of our images of him, all of the idols that we make and carry around with us. Christmas reminds us that, if we are to be Christians, to be Christ’s people, we must make sure we are looking at Christ, learning from him first what God is like, allowing our images of God to be shaped by the way that God makes himself known in Christ.

“The goodness of the Lord is the kindess of the Lord / The glory of the Lord is the mercy of the Lord / The beauty of the Lord is the suff’ring of the Lord, / is Christ upon a tree, stripped of dignity. / The power of the Lord is the meekness of the Lord / who bore humanity with brave humility.”

God has given himself to us in Christ on Christmas Day. May we have the courage to meet him there, and the humility to be continually transformed by the encounter. Amen.

December 21, 2025, The Fourth Sunday of Advent, Reflections on Isaiah 7:10-16 / Ps. 80 / Romans 1:1-7 / Matthew 1:18-25 by J.D. Neal, Postulant for Holy Orders

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

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Today is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent, the season of preparation and anticipation for Christmas, for the coming of Christ into the world. I know that you hear this every Advent season, but (along with today’s Collect) I want to remind us that Advent is not only about looking back and remembering the coming of Christ as a baby in a stable in Bethlehem 2000-some-odd years ago — nor is it only about looking forward with anticipation to the Final Coming of Christ, at the end of the age, to do away with death forever and make all things new. Advent is also the season where we learn to watch, day after day, for the coming of Christ here and now — for ‘God’s daily visitation’ —  for the moments where the Holy Spirit overshadows us, presses in upon our lives, and calls us to faithfulness, to join him here and now, in bringing God’s life and love into our world.

I think Joseph is an excellent image of this kind of faithfulness to God’s ‘daily visitation’. The narrator clues us in that we should pay attention to Joseph’s actions in today’s gospel by telling us right at the beginning that he is a ‘righteous’ man. What does that ‘righteousness’ look like? Well, when we meet Joseph, he is facing a crisis — one of those moments of disruption and decision, where the future we imagined for ourselves has shattered, and we’re not sure where to go from here.

Joseph has just found out that Mary, his betrothed, his beloved, is pregnant and, so he believes that she must be an adulterer. As far as he knows, he has been betrayed by the one whom he has committed his life to, the woman who he has (literally) been building his future around. I’m told that it was the custom among Jewish families of this time that, once a betrothal had been confirmed, the families entered into a time of preparation before the marriage was consummated, much like the period between an engagement and a wedding in our day. Rather than this period being just focused wedding planning, however, the groom would return to his home (which was often the family’s ancestral property), and begin to ‘prepare a place’ for his bride. He would build a new home (or an addition) on the property for them to live and raise their new family in. As far as Joseph knows, this home will now stand empty, a public monument to his grief and shame.

Yet Joseph does not respond as many of us would to this betrayal. Remember that in this time, marriage was not primarily a private, romantic affair between two individuals; it was a public arrangement between two whole families with big financial and legal ramifications. One of the 10 commandments forbids adultery and elsewhere in the Torah, the punishment for adultery like this could escalate all the way to death. At this point, Joseph believes he has been deeply and publicly wronged, but he does not respond by taking Mary to task in front of their community. He does not demand restitution or accuse her of adultery before the scribes and Pharisees. Joseph understands that Mary is far more vulnerable than he is, that the life of a young woman with a child born of adultery would be at best a life of insecurity and struggle, shame, and likely poverty. Mary’s reputation is already ruined among her community, but instead of ruining her life further, Joseph decides to do what he can to save her from as much harm as possible and to divorce her quietly. Even in his grief and pain, instead of insisting that he get ‘justice’ for the betrayal, or insisting that the Law be upheld and Mary punished accordingly, he decides to prioritize Mary’s well being and the life of her unborn child. He decides that extending care to this vulnerable woman, even though he believes she has wronged him, is more important than ‘getting what he deserves’ or even enforcing the Torah’s laws in his community. This decision, Joseph’s choice to choose compassion and humility in the midst of crisis, this, it seems, is what makes him ‘righteous.’

But it doesn’t stop there. As he makes this choice, Joseph has a dream where an angel visits him and tells him — as though he is a character in one of the ancient stories of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob — that he has not been betrayed after all. Mary’s child is not only a miraculous baby boy like the one Sarah had in her old age, but something infinitely more: the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who was coming to save God’s people from their bondage and sin, the one whom prophets like Isaiah foretold hundreds of years before. Remarkably, when he wakes up, Joseph says ‘yes’! He does not dismiss the dream or insist that it’s impossible. Somewhere along the way, Joseph has become the sort of prayerful, discerning person who recognizes that this was more than just a crazy dream from someone in the middle of a big life crisis. He’s become the sort of person who’s willing to listen and act on what he believes God is telling him, even though it would have been easy to explain it away.

He receives Mary as his wife after all, despite the fact that, in the eyes of his community, she is an adulterer, Jesus will be seen as a child of sin and shame, and he will be seen by many as a pathetic enabler of one of the biggest sins in Jewish Law. Joseph would also know that, if this baby really is the Messiah, it means that he is saying ‘yes’ to making himself a target for the powerful rulers and leaders in the land who might not be so happy about someone claiming to be the promised king of Israel — and this is exactly what happens with King Herod in the chapter after this. But Joseph  says ‘yes’ anyway, he accepts God’s invitation, risking his reputation and later his life, to be faithful to the call that he heard in a dream. And this decision, this ‘yes’, along with Mary’s ‘yes’, is how Jesus comes into our world and brings the kingdom of God with him.

This is what God’s ‘daily visitation’ looks like. Christ comes to us not only in joys and little moments of kindness and love, but also in the crises in our lives — in whispers and intuitions and dreams when things are not easy or clear — at moments when saying ‘yes’ might require taking a path that seems strange or shameful to many around us. Joseph shows us what it looks like to receive Christ’s coming in the midst of our lives here and now, what it looks like to be righteous: Becoming the sort of person who is prayerful and attentive enough to God’s presence that we hear the invitation and take it seriously, rather than filling our lives so full of distraction that we can hear nothing at all. Choosing courageous, humble love in the face of pain and crisis. Choosing to obey when there are so many excuses and ways to dismiss the call, when we don’t fully know what it will cost, but we know it won’t be easy. And look what Joseph’s ‘yes’ brings into the world — the Messiah, salvation, the presence of God among us, transforming everything, showing us all the path into abundant life and unbreakable joy.

We cannot know what God will birth in us, in others, in the world around us as a result of our daily decisions to choose compassion and humble love, and we often don’t get to see the fruit that that our choices might bear, but the Holy Spirit just might bring new and surprising life into our world if we learn to say ‘yes’ to God’s ‘daily visitation’, to look for and to receive his ‘coming’ in our life here and now. With Mary and Joseph, we also might help Christ enter our world through our courageous choices of love and faithfulness — we might become like new Bethlehems — ourselves and our communities becoming the spaces where Christ is born anew and from which his love spills out into the lives of those around us.

May it be so in us. Amen.

December 14, 2025, The Third Sunday of Advent, Reflections on Matthew 11: 2-11 by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written,

‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’

“Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

I was at an event on Friday and ran into some friends I hadn’t seen in quite awhile. Of course I asked about their families. One friend told me that earlier in the week, his wife had called him about noon and asked him to pick up their daughter when her ballet rehearsal ended at 4 o'clock. So my friend says okay I'll leave work a bit early pick her at 4 o'clock.

At 3:05, my friend receives a call from his seventh grade daughter who says “dad, rehearsal ended early. Can you come get me right now?” My friend said, “all right I’ve got to wrap up some loose ends, finish a Zoom meeting. And then I’ll come get you.”  The distance between seventh-grade daughter and the church where he’s serving is about a 10 minute drive.

At 3:15, my friend receives another call from his daughter, “Dad, where are you?” “I think,” my friend said, “I need to help my daughter reset her expectations.”  And I thought of Advent and John the Baptist and our gospel today.  That’s a great way to look at Advent, this season of expectation in which we find ourselves.  But also one where we are invited in to examine and even reset our own expectations.  

Our lessons this morning, I think, reinforces this. First we hear about the relationship between the people of Israel and John the Baptist. Israel expected the prophet of the Messiah to come in and confirm them - confirm their righteousness to comforting them because of their heritage and rich traditions. But instead, they are summoned to the wilderness where they are confronted and challenged and called to repentance.

Today I think we’re also hearing Jesus help John the Baptist to reset his expectations. We find John in prison, a stark reminder of how his prophetic witness had been received. In the first century, prison was a way station and not a final destination.  People were kept in prison awaiting trial until they were exonerated, exiled or executed.  During their incarceration, prisoners could have contact with supporters and so be able to keep up on the news of the day. So it’s John likely heard from his own disciples of Jesus’ teaching and healing.

John, as he sits in prison, most assuredly knows that his own path on earth will likely end there. There is no realistic scenario that will allow him to continue preaching and proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God. And it seems he is having a severe existential moment about his life's work. He's hearing things that run slightly contrary to his expectations of the Messiah. This is very common and understandable. All the gospels report that those who encountered Jesus were regularly confused about who he really was. Jesus himself eventually asked his disciples “who do people say that I am.” They think you are Elijah.  They think you are Moses the answers came.

Do we now find John questioning his lifelong path and wondering did he misunderstand from the beginning what Jesus was about?  So John sends his disciples to Jesus to ask that crucial question – “are you the one we’ve been waiting for?”

In response, and so lovingly, Jesus replies with a blessing. John knows the prophecies of Isaiah and Jesus reminds him: the blind see, the lepers are healed, the dead are raised.  It's already happening, Jesus tells John’s followers. And in doing so, Jesus helps John to see and to hear that the kingdom of God is always nearer than we expect. It's more likely nearer to the street corner where the needy gather than it is to the great halls of power. Just like today: the Kingdom of God is a lot nearer every weekday from 3 – 4 on our patio than it is 2 blocks away at Whittier City Hall.

In our epistle lesson written about 12-15 years after the death of Jesus, James is helping the church itself to reset its expectations. This entire letter is written to a church in conflict but it's a conflict that James sees as a positive. It's what happens when the church decides it’s serious about wanting to be agents of peace and ambassadors of reconciliation, that it really wants to be the sacramental presence of Jesus Christ in the world. Which is complicated stuff.

And so there are going to be disagreements. There are going to be differences of opinion. But James writes to the church: are you going to grumble against each other just because you're going through conflict and you've got some bad actors who are misbehaving? Are you going to turn on one another? Or are you going to work through it together remembering you share the same mission? James likens them to a farmer who has to wait between the rains - between the early rain and then the late rain. The farmer is situated in between, during a season that requires a lot of work and a lot of faith and a lot of patience. It's a dry time. But the rains will come.

This morning, the third Sunday of Advent, we lit the candle of joy the candle. It represents not so much the joy that we have but the joy that we hope for. It's not so much the joy we possess as the joy we are promised. This is not the joy you get from clicking and ordering something and the next day - with free 2-day shipping - it shows up on your front porch. All that is fine. But it’s different. Joy that we're reminded of through these lessons. It is the joy that Christ comes to us in forms of healing and repentance, in recommitment and renewal calling us to reset our expectations in faith, to help one another have faith between the rains.

It is James after all who sets expectations in his letter this way: consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you endure the testing of your faith. For the testing of your faith produces endurance and endurance will have its perfect end: our maturity and our completeness in Christ. That’s a sweet promise.

But it was that hard question that John’s disciples posed to Jesus that really grabs our attention today. John’s question is for Jesus but also for all of us perhaps to help us discern why are we here at this time and in this place today:  Are you the one we’ve been waiting for?

Are you the one whose service to others is going to give them new insight into what it means to be a servant of God? 

Are you the one who is going to identify the yearnings of the world, bring them into the church and challenge people there to respond with energy and love?

Are you the one who will bring the compassion of Jesus to heal the hearts of family and friends, even when your own heart is breaking?

 Are you the one that will so beautifully, so joyfully reflect the light of God into the world that others say to themselves, “I want that, too.”

Are you the one who will stand with victims of abuse, who will find the voice to speak for those who cannot speak?

Are you the one who has no idea what you’re being called to do but is willing to be open and receptive to the workings of the spirit confident that you will see, that you will hear just what that is?

This Advent season we wait for the tiny infant who will teach and inspire and startle and redeem all our longings, and give life to all our questions and inspire us to answer them.   Amen.   

December 13, 2025, A Blue Christmas Homily by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

There are times in life when hope is hard to find. Perhaps this is one of those times for you, or for someone you love. If it is, my heart goes out to you. I am so sorry that you are having to deal with such pain and distress. Please know that you are not alone.

For so many of us, this is the first Christmas after a major life event, such as the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, the loss of a job or a home, a natural disaster, or the onset of a life-limiting physical or mental illness for ourselves or for a loved one. And I know that so many of us this Advent are grieving multiple losses at the same time. The relentless refrain that “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” just rings false.

There is a disconnect between our actual feelings and what we imagine we should be feeling at this time of year. That’s why we call it a “Blue Christmas.” What we crave today I think is hope and hopefulness.

In my own experience of trying to hold onto hope, in the midst of darkness, I have found it helps to remember that hope is not the same as optimism. As David Steindl-Rast notes, “To have hope is to remain open to the possibility of surprise when everything turns out worse than we could ever imagine. Despair assigns reality a deadline, whereas hope knows that there are no deadlines.”

Sometimes we need others to help us remain open to that possibility of surprise, to find the hope when we cannot find it ourselves. In her autobiography, Color is the Suffering of Light, poet Melissa Green offers a beautiful image of how we can help one in difficult times. Green invites us to imagine a shadow-woman sitting in a rowboat, gazing at the shore and watching the city in which she has lived collapse around her.

The shadow-woman weeps to see the destruction of all she has known, though it has cost her dearly to live there. In that excruciating moment of pain, she becomes aware that someone else is in the boat with her, someone she calls “The Beloved Companion.” The Beloved Companion says, “I know you are in despair and cannot see where this journey will take you. I will hold the hope for you until you can hold it for yourself.”

“I will hold the hope for you until you can hold it for yourself”–  what a powerful description of how we can be as Christ to each other in difficult times.

So what does holding the hope look like in practice? This year, I’d like to invite you to prayerfully consider three questions that can create a space for hope while acknowledging the reality and the pain of loss. You can use these questions for yourself, or you can share them with someone else.

If you would like to try out this practice now for yourself, there is a post-it in your bulletin and pencils in the pews for you. If you are joining us on Facebook, take a moment to find a pen or pencil and a piece of paper. And don’t worry–this is just for you. We won’t be sharing them in the service.

One more thing: this is completely optional. If it is just too hard to think about right now or if this exercise just doesn’t speak to you, that’s fine. There are times in life when we just need to be, without any doing. Feel free to just rest quietly here. You are among friends.

But if you’d like to try this way of holding the hope for yourself or for another, here are the 3 questions to ponder:

What has been lost?

What remains?

What is still possible?

Take a couple minutes to jot whatever comes to mind for you.  We’ll take them one at a time, and I will give you a minute or two to think and write before moving to the next one.

The power of this exercise is that it creates a space in which grief and hope can co-exist. It is important to be honest with ourselves and with God about what we have lost, and to grieve those losses. And it is equally important that we take time to consider what remains and what is still possible. It is a reminder that we do have some agency in how we respond to things that happen to us.

 I imagine that Mary and Joseph had their moments of doubt, perhaps even despair–moments when hope was hard to find. But the Good News is that God is with us at all times, in all places, and in all experiences. We are never truly alone. We can bring our pain, our anger, our grief–all of our sorrows as well as all of our joys–to the God who loves us so much that He chose to dwell in a human body, experiencing all the joys and sorrows of earthly life.

I find my hope in the faith of Mary and Joseph, who said “yes” to the unknown, who trusted that God would be with them in their darkest moments, who held the hope for each other.  Jesus–Emmanuel, God with us—remains. As the Gospel according to John reminds us, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” The story of that first Christmas reminds us that even when the world is a very dark place, there is light to be found.

May we all share that light, holding the hope for each other, inviting one another to consider what remains and what is still possible.

And so in the midst of our helplessness and deepest grief, let me share with you a prayer by Bishop Steven Charleston-a retired Native American Bishop of The Episcopal Church. He writes “Fill me again, God of the universe, God of resurrected life, with all that I need to make it through this life of mine. Fill me with the vision I need to see clearly and with the strength I need to keep going, to sail on.

My faith is a great sail. When it is filled by the breath of your Spirit, it takes me all around creation as I search for a deeper wisdom and discover the sacred in ordinary places I would never have encountered.

My ship is my heart, what I love and respect, the values of a lifetime gathered in joy and sorrow. I trust the deck beneath my feet for I have weathered many storms, guided by the stars of my ancestors, brought home by the anchor of my tradition.

We who love you and are devoted to you are mariners of hope sailing the mystery that surrounds us. Grant us tonight a little courage and lot of wisdom, as much hope as you can spare…please bless us again, dear Spirit, for I use up your blessings so quickly in these dark  times. Please come into my life once more and fill me up that I may thrive on hopefulness and then empty my heart each day in gratitude for what you have given me. Amen.

December 7, 2025, The Second Sunday of Advent, Reflections on Matthew 3:1-12 by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

Just for a moment, I’d like you to imagine with me a scene from the busy streets of Manhattan. Just an average summer afternoon: lots of people coming and going, rushing around, doing all the things that people do in the course of a normal day -- going to work, to school, just running errands. I’d like you to image that typical busy day in New York City. And then I’d like you to imagine for a moment that from somewhere a voice is heard that sounds something like this:

(singing)  “Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”

It's just a singular voice but a clear one with a distinct message, one that the people cannot ignore. Imagine that you start to see people beginning to respond to the voice. They stop what they're doing. Office workers drop briefcases, students toss backpacks aside, a waitress takes off her apron, a messenger leaves his bicycle. And walk purposely… but towards what…?

They begin to follow that voice until they arrive at a fountain in Central Park. And there they see the singer – an odd-looking fellow in very bizarre clothes singing those words of invitation in the middle of a huge fountain. And they’re all drawn there – the office worker, the student, the waitress, the messenger and many more to jump into the fountain to be immersed and to be cleansed.

Their joy is clear -- with all kinds of hope and expectation and celebration they jump out of the fountain they shed themselves of all of the remaining stuff that they had, all the burdens that they had before they came to that fountain. And they head out now preparing the way of the Lord.

If you recognize that little tune you might know that it comes from the musical Godspell which is based on the Gospel of Matthew. And it is John the Baptizer, who is always wearing odd clothing, always going to look a little unusual, he’s the one who's standing in the middle of the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park singing his heart out, singing the invitation to get ready. And these disciple kind of folks arrived so filled with hope and expectation to prepare the way of the Lord. At the end of the scene, off they go – cleansed and filled with joy to do just that.

So I hope you’ll keep these images in your mind as we begin to unpack our lesson from Matthew's Gospel today. Because as I was praying about it and studying it, that scene just kept coming back to me. I kept seeing these joyful people prepare the way of the Lord. Not frightened, not anxious, not worried, not stodgy and judgmental - but joyfully preparing the way of the Lord.  

And it made me wonder about all those folks who were coming to meet John the Baptist out in the wilderness by the Jordan River. I wonder if they were joy filled. I wonder if they were being filled with hope and expectation.

This introduction that we're given to John the Baptist in Matthew's Gospel is very different than the one we’re given in Luke's Gospel. This is not the John the Baptist who was leaping for joy in his mother’s womb when Mary came to visit. This is not the John the Baptist that Zechariah, his father, dedicates to God.  No -- this is the John the Baptist who just kind of appears in the wilderness and begins preaching repentance. He is preaching repentance because the Messiah is coming. And people need to hear what he has to say – hard as it is, strange as it may seem. 

 They need to be reminded that the Messiah is indeed coming, to be ready because you don't want judgment to come if you know you should. Turn it around now. This is the hour, this is the time.

And I wonder about all those folks who have come out into the wilderness to an uninhabited place, to the quiet place, to the place where they can actually stop and be reflective. They come to that place away from the noise and the hustle and the bustle to where they can actually hear God and be reflective enough to ask, “what does my God require of me?” The prophet Micah probably said it better than any of the prophets: “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.”

So here is John the Baptizer out in the wilderness.  And so many people go out to see him there. But what were they looking for? What were they hoping for? What were their hearts hoping to find? Were they hoping for reassurance? Were they hoping that someone would tell them one more time what they needed to do and be? For what were they hoping?

But I guess more than anything, the question is how they left him. Because John doesn't mince words with them. “Oh by the way – being descendants of Abraham doesn’t give you a free pass. Don't rest on that one because what’s required of you, is what has always been required of God's people.”

So did the people leave their encounter with John with the same kind of hope filled joy we was portrayed in that one scene in Godspell “I'm ready to go do it God!” Or did they leave more somber, less secure, less certain? Were they asking questions: have we lived faithfully? We're here, we're repenting -- but have we really done what God would have us do?”

Matthew probably more than any of our Gospel writers, links the world of the prophets of the Old Testament prophets and the world that is to come. Matthew shows us the tie back for the people called Israel, shows us that the promises then of God with us are still God’s promises. And that the Messiah will come, that the world will be made right when the Messiah comes. And also that the Messiah will be our judge and so will have questions. The Messiah is coming to ask questions about who we are as God’s people. And have we lived faithfully according to what God requires of us. Did you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength? And did you love your neighbor as yourself?

And even today as we sit in this space, we ask ourselves those same questions: have we lived faithfully into what God requires of us? How have we as individuals, how have we as the church, lived faithfully into what God requires of us?  There have been some times in the history of the church that it did not live as faithfully as it could have lived. That there have been some times that the church was less than faithful in its work.

That doesn't mean that we can't live better every day. That doesn't mean that we can't redress our own wrongs and admit our faults. The great Maya Angelou said, “when you know better do better.”  We can say “we are preparing the way of the Lord in the way that we walk, in the way that we talk, in the way that we engage with God's people every single day.”

John the Baptist's knew hearts needed to be changed. There's still some preparing to do in our hearts. There are things that we know that we can stand against. We can stand against notions of hatred and bigotry and recognize that we are all God's people made in the image and likeness of God. We can stand against separatism that would break us apart and recognize the fact that together we do more. And we can stop and look at the one who has fallen next to us and but I can support you. We can stand against anything that does not foster a sense of loving God and loving neighbor. Those great Commandments. And we can truly begin to look at one another in ways that we may never have looked at one another before and to commit again that nothing - nothing - will separate us. Because the love of Christ is what makes us one.

Let’s go back to that scene from the beginning to Godspell and remember all of those joyful people rushing out of that fountain. And I think they're on to something. Because it's that joy, that exuberance, that kind of hopefulness that helps us understand what it means to prepare the way, to shed the baggage that we don't need and recommit ourselves to our relationship with God. Advent is the time to do that, to be on the path to God. We prepare so others can prepare.

And for everyone who does not know our God, who does not know what it means to believe in the coming of the Messiah, we are part of their story. We are part of the ever unfolding story of God's mercy and God's love and God's grace reflected in and through us to a world there needs to see God's light.  Amen.

November 30, 2025, The First Sunday of Advent, Reflections on Matthew 24:36-44 by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

Jesus said to the disciples, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

You may have heard a story that re-circulates now and then. A story we might call “The Story of an Unfortunate Intruder.”  A man in Rochester New York decided one night he was going to break into the home of home of a person who lived there. It was an unfortunate choice on his part in a couple ways – first because he chose the home of a woman named Willie Murphy. Willie was a petite lady of 82 years young – emphasis on the young – and a trained body builder. 

And so she heard a knock at her door late at night and heard a voice saying, “please open the door, I need you to call an ambulance for me.” She didn’t open the door. She called 911 instead to report someone at her door. In the meantime, the would-be intruder decided to break in.

 That’s his unfortunate choice number 2. Don’t mess with an 82-year-old body builder grandma. So the intruder comes into the house and the body builder grandma started working him over - throwing at him anything she could get her hands on to protect herself – started with a broom handle, threw a table at him, even sprayed shampoo in his eyes at one point. She was a highly courageous and resourceful person. The intruder had clearly underestimated the petite powerhouse that was Willie Murphy.

And when she was done working him over, she was able to drag him out of her house and deposit him in her driveway for the police to put him in handcuffs. It might be the last time he decided to mess with an 82-year-old body builder grandma. One wonders if the intruder wasn’t happy to see the police.

When we hear this story, the first thing we think of is that there’s nothing pleasant about the idea of someone breaking into our home   No one wants to face that, to be in the midst of that with an intruder. So why does Jesus, in our lesson from Matthew’s gospel, use this as imagery to talk about the unexpected nature of the coming of the Son of Man?

Because even if it’s unexpected, since we can't know the day or time, to say that someone could be coming into our home, a thief sneaking into our home, the thought of us trying to figure out how to prepare to prevent or resist that creates for us imagery that is uncomfortable. We don't like that imagery because we certainly don't want to be the ones to have to fend off a would-be intruder.

But I don't think Jesus is talking about fending off anything. This idea of being prepared is a different kind of idea indeed. And so we stand here today on the first Sunday of Advent and we can think about all of those things that we are preparing ourselves for over these next 24 days. And most of that imagery is around an infant in a manger and beauty and hope and expectation. Yes, of course it is.

But Advent is a season during which we recognize that there’s more to it than just the coming of the Christ child. We also recognize the second coming, that coming again of Christ. We say in the Nicene Creed “he will come again to judge the living and the dead.” I'm focusing us on that word – judge. He is the one who will come to judge”.

We probably don't love that word “judge” a whole lot. If we’re honest, we’d like to sort of skim over it and go right to “his Kingdom will have no end.” We do love the imagery of that child in a manger. And we love the imagery of grace and love and mercy. We’re okay with pushing aside that notion that when Christ comes again, it is to judge.

Today is a good opportunity to ask ourselves how we can get a little more comfortable and a little less anxious with this idea of Christ as our judge. Advent it a good time to do so. We have this incredible window of opportunity during which we are to prepare. And preparation is the antidote for fear.

Now Willie Murphy the 82-year-old body-building grandma prepared by going to the gym every day. What a good idea – I bet many of us would like to be able to do that wouldn’t we? She prepares by going to the gym every day to strengthen her body and probably to strength her mind as well. But what do we do when we're trying to prepare for the coming of Christ?

Because we can tell ourselves all kinds of things about what we think that looks like. And we can have all kinds of really good intentions. But the reality is, the coming of Christ is something for which we have to be preparing all along. We actually have to be in the process of preparing -- just like going to the gym daily, or just like we might read scriptures regularly, or pray at a set time each day. It is a constant work of preparation for us to grow in the knowledge and love of God, for us to do and be what God wants God's people to be.

It's not a seasonal “add on” to our schedule that we’re going to take on someday, or one of those things we think we can just do that tomorrow. It’s a pattern and habit of life. Because that's the way we humans are. The way we learn, how we grow and make new habits.  This is our time of preparation.

 So it's not a time to settle for a life of fear. That’s not what God wants for us. It's a time of preparation when we have the opportunity to choose to get up every day and ask ourselves what is it that God calls us to do and be, to ask ourselves how do we grow stronger in that knowledge and stronger in that work so that when Christ comes, he finds us ready with our spiritual muscles built up like 82 year-old Willie Murphy’s muscles built up from having spent that time in focused preparation for doing God's work.  

This muscling up in some ways is counterintuitive. It makes us consider Advent in totally different ways of thinking. We might find ourselves thinking not about what we want, but how we support others. There are reminders throughout the scriptures about taking care of the most vulnerable among us, turning our focus away from ourselves and instead out into the world.

I saw an interview with a young woman on Black Friday at The Citadel. She was carrying several shopping bags. The reporter asked her whether she’d found good deals. Yes! she gushed and described all the things she purchased. They were all for herself. At the end of the interview, she said a little sheepishly that she was going to do some shopping for gifts for her family that day too. You could practically see her make that transition from thinking inwardly to outwardly. 

Advent is our chance to turn inwardly and ask, “how am I part of the coming of the kingdom” and then to rededicate the outward work of our hands and hearts giving ourselves wholly to the work that God has called us to do. The world needs to see us do that: to see the Christ in us, to see our commitment to those in needs, to see that we are able to push aside those things of the world that would distract us, to distance ourselves from divisiveness and instead refocus on coming together in love to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give strength and support to the grieving. In filling these 24 days until Christmas with this discernment, we strengthen ourselves and one another.

It's how we keep one another going and growing in the love of God. So this time of preparation, we don’t want to think of it as the fear of pending judgment but a process of strengthening our spiritual muscles – how we have muscle memory for love and commitment to service.  Because that muscle memory is what we will call on and return to over and over and over again as we commit ourselves to one another and to our God.  

This day and all of our days, we grow together. We prepare together and we anticipate together. And we hold one another accountable because when judgment does come - we say that every week when we affirm our faith  - when judgment does come we hold ourselves accountable to one another so that we can each learn what it means to be godly. But also to see the God in one another. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen

November 23, 2025, Christ the King Sunday, Reflections by Reverend Carole Horton-Howe

This is the last Sunday in the church year commonly called “Christ the King” Sunday.  There was a time when people paid as much attention to the church year as they did the chronological year.  And what marks the difference, is that secular calendars track chronological or sequential time -- day by day by day. 

But the church calendar goes by Kairos time, that is to say God time.  All times belongs to God, of course, but the church calendar marks time in seasons that focus on our tradition and our spiritual life.  Today we conclude Pentecost the season of hearing about the teachings, the healings and miracles.

Today we will celebrate Jesus as King of Kings. We’ll sing “rejoice the Lord is King, your Lord and King adore.”  And I think it’s worthwhile today to think about how we live that out. How do we express our adoration? Show our devotion to our King? Maybe it starts by letting Jesus in.

Musician and former Beatle Paul McCartney was being interviewed by Howard Stern who asked Paul about a time when a guy named Jesus came to his house. “Yes,” Paul says, “the Beatles were in the middle of a recording session at my home when there was a knock on the door.” “And instead of calling police,” Howard says, “you let him in?”

 “Yes,” Paul says. “I asked him what he wanted. It was just an average looking bearded guy. And he said ‘I’m Jesus.’ So I said to him, ‘well you better come in.’”  Paul fixed him a cup of tea and started chatting with him. And he thought well he’s probably not Jesus. He might be a hippie, maybe he’s schizophrenic. But you never know.  “And I’m not going to say ‘go away Jesus,’” he told Howard Stern.

So he says to Jesus, “look I’ve got this session going on and you’re welcome to hang out with us.” Apparently Jesus thought he would do that. So Paul said he went into the others who were there, the other Beatles and the recording crew, and tells them “he says he’s Jesus and I don’t know if he is or he isn’t. But I’m not going to take any chances here. Is it okay if he just sits in the corner?” And Paul tells Jesus “just sit here and don’t say a word, okay? Just be Jesus.”

Just be Jesus. Howard Stern leaves the story there but I have so many questions. I wonder what Paul had in mind when he said to him “just be Jesus.”  What was the expectation?  What would any of us expect if we thought it was possible that Jesus was standing right in front of us?  It doesn’t sound like he looked or acted much like a king.

But then what we know about Jesus, what we have heard him say and seen him do through out this season of Pentecost – as we have seen and heard him “be Jesus” there’s no evidence of what the world considers to be kingly.  The point is, that in spite of everything Paul let him in.

In the events leading up to today’s gospel, Pilate asks Jesus a most intriguing question, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Pilate really wouldn’t have known much if anything about the history of the people called Israel. He may have heard the names of some of the kings.

There was the first king, Saul; then David who was mighty in battle but personally deeply flawed. There was Solomon that built that first temple. But Pilate’s only concern is if Jesus truly poses some competition to the Roman Emperor.  Beaten and bloody, Jesus bore as much resemblance to a king as the guy who appeared on Paul McCartney’s doorstep.

The great priest and prophet Samuel warned the people called Israel that they didn’t want a king – “you really don’t want a king,” he told the. “Because human kings will fail you. They will take everything you have and then they will enslave you. You really don’t want a king.”

They did though. They wouldn’t be talked out of it. They wanted a king because they wanted someone to lead them into battle and avenge the terrible things that had been done to them by their enemies.  And so they waited – and waited and waited – for that king to come and make everything right.

Except Jesus was not the king that anyone was expecting – including those who engineered the events that bring us to the gospel reading today.  Pilate knew a whole different meaning of empire and kingdom.  Pilate understood hierarchy, and power and authority which served those who were at the top of that hierarchy and commanded power and authority by fear. But Jesus came to serve not to be served.

 Pilate understood an empire that used violence and intimidation to keep everyone in line and obedient to the emperor. Jesus came wielding peace, calming storms, feeding hungry crowds and creating a whole new understanding of what is good. 

Pilate’s empire knew sickness and disease and poverty.  Jesus brought healing to the sick in body mind and spirit, to make what was broken whole.

That wasn’t what Pilate or anyone else was expecting in a king. Jesus had come to live among us, to be among us and to show us a different path. To show us what being whole and well could mean. To show us what community could mean if we could just love God and love our neighbor.

But old habits are hard to break. And loving God’s way and envisioning God’s kingdom takes some energy and focus and practice.  It is not what is reflected in the secular world around us that we must live in. Jesus was here to show a kingdom like no other, a kingdom centered in the needs of our neighbors and being willing to step into the breach to service those around us that God calls us all to embrace, even when it makes us uncomfortable.

So we ask ourselves this Sunday, this Christ the King Sunday, who is really the king in our lives? To what and to whom have we really given our devotion? Have we let Jesus in?  Are we devoted to the King of peace and love? Or have we given our devotion to something else – to secularism, to popular culture, to tribalism, to speaking instead of listening? 

Have we given our devotion to healthfulness and concern and care?  Or have we given it to destruction or neglect?  Have we let Jesus in?

Because at the end of the day, what gets reflected into the world is how those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus live our lives and show his love back out into the world.

Can people look at us in the way we live our lives, in the way we serve our neighbors, in the way we care for everyone around us -- can people look at us and say “yes, I see the reflection of God’s love coming from that person?”

That’s the question for us – this day and every day: how does the world see the love of God radiating from us?

We pray together at each Eucharist “thy Kingdom come.” And God’s kingdom will come through us – individually, corporately as the body of Christ that is St. Matthias – that’s the beginning of God’s kingdom come. And it comes through the way we live and love and serve.

Today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday by recognizing and recommissioning members of two of our ministries here at St. Matthias that have committed themselves to reflecting the light of Christ back into the world: our Stephen Ministers and Daughters of the King. In doing so, we send them into the world with our blessing, rejoicing that they have answered their call to serve God, to reflect God’s love into a hurting world.

Stephen Ministers offer a one-on-one ministry to those in our faith community who are going through difficult times, whether long or short, they are committed companions for the journey. Stephen Ministers are spiritual caregivers, not to try to fix problems, but instead focus on the caregiving process in which God is the cure giver.

Our Daughters of the King pledge to live a life of prayer, service, and evangelism. They make a lifelong commitment to follow a personal "Rule of Life," which includes praying daily for the church and for others, and engaging in service within their parish and community. Their motto is one that especially resonates today:

For His Sake…

I am but one, but I am one.

I cannot do everything, but I can do something.

What I can do, I ought to do.

What I ought to do, by the grace of God I will do.

Lord, what will you have me do?

So it’s a good day for us to ask ourselves to whom and to what have we given our devotion. It is a good day to ask ourselves if we have fully let Jesus into our lives, if we’ve let him be Jesus?  It’s a good day to ask ourselves can the world see his love reflected through me?  Amen.  

November 16, 2025, Pentecost 23, ‘By your endurance you will gain your souls’, Reflections on Luke 21: 5-19 by J.D. Neal

Our story begins this morning in the Temple, where Jesus has just praised a poor widow for giving her last two coins to pay the temple tax, in contrast to the many rich who were giving opulent gifts to the temple out of their wealth and excess. The disciples, not quite getting the message, have begun talking amongst themselves, expressing awe at the beauty and grandeur of the temple buildings, which are adorned with gold and silver and many fine gemstones. Jesus, of course, notices where their attention has gone, and responds with the following: “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” The disciples didn’t expect to hear this, and you can almost hear the shock and horror in their voices as they frantically respond, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?”

Now, Jesus has spoken to them before about the coming of the Son of Man and the great destruction that would take place in those days, but this is the first time he tells them clearly that this apocalypse is coming for them, for the people of God, for the very temple where they believed that God’s presence dwelt. How could this be? The Temple was one of the greatest building projects of that era of the world. It was massive, opulent, and imposing — built like a great fortress that would protect the people of God and their holy places. The first Temple, Solomon’s temple, had been rejected by God and destroyed in the exile many centuries before, but God had proclaimed through the prophets long ago that he would raise up a new Temple that would never be destroyed! This was God’s house, wasn’t it? How could it be thrown down?

The disciples, and most of the Jews of Jesus’ day, saw more than a great building when they looked up at the Temple. They saw the place where they believed God met his people, the center of his presence and power and protection in their midst. Here they offered their sacrifices and tried to fulfill the Law, here the priests and scribes and pharisees preached and taught (and fought) about what it meant to be faithful to God. Here millions of them would come, three times a year, to meet God together in celebrating the great festivals and to remember their history as God’s people. As long as this building stood, they could believe that all would be well, that they were God’s special people, that they would one day be lifted out of their troubles and their enemies crushed beneath their feet. This was, in short, the center of their trust, the place where they pinned their security, the object of their faith.

But here’s the thing: Jesus’ words reveal that this building was never meant to be the place where they placed their trust — was never actually the place where God would dwell forever. This Temple, like Solomon’s before it, had a dubious history. Everything the disciples marveled at had been built just a few decades before by Herod the Great, the same Herod who is famous for murdering the innocent children of Bethlehem in the wake of Jesus’ birth. Herod the Great, we are told by the historians of this time, had a penchant for grand building projects. You see, he wanted to make a name for himself, to be remembered, to be ‘Great’, and he saw his biggest opportunity to do this by rebuilding the second temple, transforming it from the modest original building constructed after the exile into the huge and elaborate building that the disciples ogled at. However, gigantic, gold-encrusted buildings are expensive, so he built the temple by imposing crushing taxes on the people and reinstating the temple tax on top of the building taxes. Herod even marked the signs that stood at the entrances to certain parts of the temple, so it was impossible to forget who was responsible for this grand building. This temple existed at least as much for the glory of Herod’s name as God’s, and the exploitation of the poor and vulnerable was built into the very walls. It’s no wonder, I think, that Jesus goes to ‘cleanse’ the Temple of the money lenders and temple tax collectors as soon as he enters Jerusalem in Luke’s gospel.

After proclaiming the destruction of the temple, Jesus goes on to tell them that not only would the temple be destroyed, but a time of great violence and instability would be coming. Nation would rise against nation, natural disasters would ravage the lands, and even they themselves would be persecuted — arrested, imprisoned, even some of them killed — by their own people. A time was coming where it would seem like everything the disciples knew and trusted would be shaken and even Jesus’ own special followers would not escape the trials and tribulations to come. This was not what they expected, not what their teachers had promised them. When Messiah arrived, he was supposed to deliver them from their troubles, bring wealth and plenty, establish and secure the Temple forever — I think their shock and confusion is understandable.

So Jesus begins to speak to their anxieties; he tells them that in the midst of the instability and turmoil to come, God will not leave them alone. The destruction of the Temple does not mean that God is abandoning them. When they are persecuted, He will be with them, putting words in their mouth and wisdom in their hearts to witness to the truth and love of God in the face of the hatred and fear that will surround them. They will not escape the pain and insecurity of the coming days, but God will guide them through this time — will be their companion and their teacher — protecting the very hairs of their heads, sustaining their souls with life eternal even as they seem to be surrounded by death. “By your endurance, you will gain your souls,” Jesus says.

In retrospect, we know that it was in the fires of this time that the church was forged. The destruction of Jerusalem pushed the church out into the rest of the world. The persecution of Christ’s earliest followers, and the way that they continued to witness to truth and love in the face of that persecution, is what drew people throughout the known world to join them and encounter the presence of God in their midst.

In this moment in the gospel, however, the disciples haven’t yet come to realize that Christ’s body, of which they would become a part, is the true Temple, the place where God had come to dwell with his people forever. Herod’s Temple had become an idol to power and security, it was never meant to hold the people’s faith and trust. God’s dwelling place was coming into their midst, within and between them as they came to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to love one another with Christ’s love. God’s presence could not be taken away from them, even when everything they thought was safe and secure and sacred became uncertain. 

And this is where we find ourselves as well. We also are a part of Christ’s body. In our baptism, at this table, and most importantly in our love for one another, we are joined to Christ and God is revealed in our midst. We also face a time of uncertainty and instability, a time when many of us feel alienated from and at odds with those we have known and loved, and when many of the institutions we have trusted (in our society and in the Church) do not seem quite as steady and stable as they once did. We also hear reports of ‘nation rising against nation’ and ‘kingdom against kingdom,’ and in the Episcopal Church we have even seen some of our own clergy under fire in the public square from the ‘kings and governors’ of our time. Christ’s words to the disciples are for us in these days too. We may not be able to avoid the trials of our time, but we will not be alone in them. Like the disciples, it is our job to keep telling the truth, to keep loving our neighbors and our enemies, to keep witnessing to the love of God, no matter how scary things get. If we endure, if we keep the faith together, Christ’s words and wisdom will remain with us, and we will see the presence of God shine forth even in the darkest of places.

May we come to know and to trust that God remains faithful, that God is with us, even when it feels like everything else is falling apart.

Amen.