Today is the occasion of St. Cyprian's Annual Congregational Meeting.  I usually give my report from the pulpit, but before I do there is some unfinished business from last Sunday's gospel reading.  If you will remember, last week Jesus stood up in the synagogue of his hometown Nazareth and read a portion of the Book of the prophet Isaiah. 
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,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18-19)
 
And then the Gospel reading last week ended with the two verses that began our reading this morning … well almost.  Last week they left off the question, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

In 587 BCE the city of Jerusalem … and the Jewish Temple … were destroyed by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, and the brightest and the best of the Jewish people were shipped off into exile in Babylon. Fifty years later King Cyrus of Persia defeated the Babylonians and freed the Israelites to return to their home.  It was an act of restoration and renewal, but the exiles returned to a city that had been devastated … and their social and religious structure of those who had remained behind had also been shattered.  To survive their exile the Jews in Babylon had strengthened the practice of their faith, while those who had remained in Israel had relaxed theirs.  Thus, the story in our first reading this morning is about the priest Ezra reading the Torah to ALL the people of Jerusalem as the city was being rebuilt, and it forms the backdrop for the reading from Luke’s gospel this morning.

Some of you may have heard about this, but this week there was a meeting of primates of the Anglican Communion in Canterbury, England.  The Anglican Communion is made up of an affiliation of all the Churches that have their roots in the Church of England.  This includes the Episcopal Church in this country, and also Churches in Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere where missionaries established churches when England had colonies around the world.  The primates are the heads of those Churches … our Presiding Bishop, the Metropolitan and Archbishop of Nigeria, the Primate of Canada, etc.

On several occasions I have had people asking me about our church with a curious question, “What denomination is the Cyprian Church?” or “Tell me about the Cypriot Church?”  Obviously they did not see the “Episcopal Church” designation in our title, and some assumed that the church was somehow related to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus.  Of course, I explained to them that St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church was part of the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Episcopal Diocese of Florida and is related to the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion.  I also tell them that our patron … our namesake, Cyprian … was a third century bishop in Carthage, North Africa in what is now Tunisia.  Cyprian … the man … was martyred in 258.  He was killed by the Romans for not renouncing his Christian faith … the faith into which he was baptized.  A number of traditionally Black Episcopal churches … as well as some Catholic churches … are named after Cyprian because it is assumed that he was a person of color.

Today is the Tenth Day of Christmas, the Second Sunday in our Christmas season.  Some years we only have one Sunday during these twelve days of our Christmas season, but this year we have two.  The Gospel readings in this season have moved from the birth of Jesus in a stable with the manger, and angels and shepherds of Luke’s gospel on Christmas Eve; and the “Word” … the “Logos” … of John’s gospel on the Sunday after Christmas; to the story contained in Matthew’s gospel that we heard read this morning.  I imagine most of you noticed that there are actually three options for the gospel reading this morning … the story of Joseph’s dream in Matthew’s gospel … the story of Jesus at his bar mitzvah in the Temple at Jerusalem in Luke’s gospel … and then the story of the wise men in Matthew’s gospel.  I’m going to be preaching from the two readings from Matthew.