Dear Epiphany People,
Hope, life, and light to you all!
When we open the scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks through them to us. Over the years while almost exclusively using our lectionary calendar I have come to expect the appointed biblical passage, specifically the Gospel lesson, to be timely and appropriate for the day. This is a main reason why we insist on our centering exercises and weekly small group focus to be the appointed Gospel reading for the coming Sunday.
Look at last Sunday. On a day when Rev. Nancy Yancey, the CEO of Rainbow Village, preaches to our congregation, the appointed text comes from Luke 4 and what is called "Jesus' agenda according to Luke." Jesus is in his hometown synagogue, gets up to read the lesson for the day, and the lesson gives him Isaiah, where Jesus reads,
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Imagine your Haiti immersion team arriving into Haiti 10 days ago and making the journey over to Jacmel. As the first full day was coming to a close, we were all gathered in the Hotel Florita's public space and doing our evening centering. The above passage was our centering passage. Here we are in Haiti and the scriptures read, "He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor." The immediate relevancy of our group being in the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere was certainly obvious. But what also got some reflection was the word "anointed." The Spirit has anointed me .... Click here to continue reading
pastorrick@epiphanysuwanee.org
