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​In today’s reading from John’s gospel, Jesus is beginning to put together an entourage and he calls Philip to join him.  Phillip goes and tells Nathanael about Jesus, and Nathanael responds sarcastically with, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth.”  I guess Nazareth had a bad name for itself … a tiny, backwater kind of place.  Anyhow, Philip invites Nathanael to join him and see for himself what this man Jesus is about.  When Jesus sees Nathanael he remarks, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”  Why the author chose to compose the sentence as a double negative, I don’t know.  But, basically Jesus is saying, “Now here is an honest Israelite.  Here is a truth-teller.”  I wonder if that is what Jesus noticed in Nathanael … a truth-teller … and is that why he invited him into his inner circle.

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​
As most of you know, the liturgical season of Christmas is twelve days long.  It begins with Christmas and ends with the Feast of the Epiphany … the visit of the Three Wise Men.  The Feast of the Epiphany is always January 6 … this past Wednesday … this past Wednesday with the Feast of the Epiphany against the backdrop of the violent and unthinkable uprising in our nation’s capital.  Today … the First Sunday after the Epiphany … is always a celebration of the Baptism of Our Lord.  Considering the events of this week, this is not the sermon I had planned to preach.

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Sermon by The Rev. Deena M. Galantowicz

Well, I could imagine that none of us thought we would still not all be together here by this second Sunday of Christmas.  That realization inspired me to find a poem that had been meaningful to me in the past.

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I hope all of you had a blessed Christmas Day.  This was a different kind of Christmas for many of us … seeing family by FaceTime, or Skype, or Zoom … missing the hugs and closeness that this holiday can offer.  If any of you traveled to visit family, I pray that you are safe, and if any of you had family travel to visit you, I also pray that you are safe.  

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The Feast of the Incarnation.  The Nativity of Our Lord.  The birth of Jesus … the Christ child.  Christmas.  It is the gift of God’s Son to the world, the divine presence of God coming alive in human form.  It is God’s blessing upon us so that we, too, might be a blessing in return to God’s world.  What a glorious night, in spite of our isolation from one another during this COVID-19 pandemic.