By Rev. Steve Greene
We have journeyed through the seasons of Advent, which bears a new liturgical year, with new thoughts, new expectations and with new reasons to celebrate the First and Second Coming of our Lord and Saviour.
We have celebrated the birth of our Lord and Saviour. With the Christmastide, we were and are summoned to a God who comes to us and intimately understands us. Today, like the Magi, we come bearing our gifts. We come as well with new hurts, new heartaches, new concerns, struggles and new obstacles.
The season of Epiphany calls us to the manifestation of Jesus. An appearance that speaks again and again through our Holy Scriptures on Jesus’ intentionality, His call for us to change, be changed and assured that He is The Way, The Truth and The Life! Amidst His Word, Will and Kingdom, we live in a world where the busy-ness of life, work, family, friends and bills inundate us. We are in the throes of a new year, yet we are still welcomed into the Ever-loving and Ever-living grace, love, mercy, power and presence of a King who serves and sacrifices!
Most assuredly, we must deep dive into the readings that proclaim and profess Jesus’ unveiling. Jesus calls and comes to us. We must come to Him. We must arrive, in our beautiful spaces and places of music, merriment and ministry, with the hopeful expectations that Jesus is the Great I AM.
We come with our hurts and habits; Jesus assures us His holiness and wholeness (Ephesians 4:24). We come with fatigue and moments of fault; Jesus comforts us with His faithfulness and friendship (John 15:12-17). We come discouraged of the things we did and did not do; Jesus hold us and speaks deliverance (Psalm 34:4, 2 Corinth 10:3-4). We are to come as we are and He will come, each and every time bearing His peace, comfort, strength and forgiveness.
As we walk in His faithfulness and salvation, let us come with the extravagant hope of our Lord and Saviour. Let us enter our churches, His holy presence, our lives with the awesome expectations that we serve and worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Gift of God, Emmanuel.
Rev. Steve Greene is AFP Huron Executive.
Illustration: Laurel Pattenden, Mother