Read John 1:10-18.
What comes next?
We have reached the end of the Christmas season. Tomorrow is Epiphany and the story expands. It goes beyond this one family and the nearby shepherds.
It goes past the walls of this makeshift delivery suite with braying and lowing animals.
The story gets told and like the ripples of a stone in a pond, the Word makes its way into the world.
It will bring the wise leaders of its world and then the wrath of a scared, angry ruler.
It will see a family take their child for a blessing in the temple and then flee to escape danger.
It will become a story of a young boy who goes into the temple and teaches people much older.
It will become a moment of baptism where two men, called by God, connected by the faith of their mothers, will hear God’s proclamation of Love for Christ and Love for the whole world.
It will become the story of a teacher, a healer, and all the people following him.
It will include moments around tables, but especially the story of one night when this teacher, this healer, this friend to many will take bread and wine and bless it, share it with those beloved friends, and tell them that it was their job to remember and their job to tell the story.
It will be the story of how a sinless person was convicted for crimes never committed and how the world grew dark when everyone thought his death was the final word.
Pray
We know how it starts, we are made in the image of the one who came to earth at Christmas, and now it is our job to decide what comes next. Amen.
Rev. Beth Olker
Pastor
Macedonia Presbyterian Church
Words for Waiting 