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As Valentine's Day approaches we are inundated with visions of love. While this love tends to focus on one special someone, we can also take the opportunity to reflect on all those we love in our life, to make sure that we remember how important our interpersonal relationships are. To remember to Love Our Neighbor.

This Sunday, and for the next several Sundays, we will be taking a fresh look at the powerful words of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7. These well-known teachings have comforted and perplexed, humbled and empowered people for centuries - and they still do. They are glimpses of what it is like to live in the Light of the Kingdom of God here and now.

We'll start off with the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-10, and see how those surprising words about what makes for a "blessed life" turn our world's assumptions upside-down.

Today you may have watched the Inauguration ceremony, witnessing one of the strengths of our nation in the peaceful transition of power from one President to another.

Following the ceremony, as a helicopter carried the former President and First Lady away from the Capitol building, one television commentator noted that they would be moving to a new residence in the area, and President Obama would be "coming back to Washington simply as a citizen." 

Earlier this week, college football completed its season with a surprising finish in the final minutes. Sometimes in life, things do take us by surprise. John the Baptist was surprised that Jesus asked him to baptize him. After all, this was Jesus. But why would Jesus need to be baptized? What does it mean that God got wet with mud between his toes and fully put on our humanity? What does it mean that Jesus got immersed in the river and we get immersed in Jesus? Together in worship this Sunday we will think together through some of these ideas.

It's very possible that it may have escaped your attention, but today, January 6, is Epiphany, a special day in the Church year. It's the day we officially remember the visit of the Magi to the child Jesus, and celebrate their journey of curiosity, frustration, faith and discovery that in many ways mirrors our life journeys. It's the day that the Christmas Season officially ends, and a new season, the Epiphany Season of paying fuller attention to the ever-present Light of Christ in our world, begins.

And it's the day some Christians "chalk their doors."

What a glorious sight it was to see so many at church on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas morning to celebrate together the birth of Jesus Christ.

As we finish up this week of celebration and vacation, we turn our sights to the Epiphany, which marks a visit to the baby Jesus by The Magi also known as the Three Kings or Three Wise Men. In my sermon this Sunday, I will use words from three different scriptures to highlight three kinds of Kings we find in the Bible.

I hope you will join us on Sunday morning to ring in the Epiphany and the New Year.

This week has brought us a burst of winter with freezing temperatures and snow, snow, snow. Next week may bring us more of the same, but it also brings us Christmas, the celebration of the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. In worship this Sunday, I will focus on the Christmas story from Luke 2:1-7. I will tie it into the ways we find God's glory active in today's world. So while Sunday promises to be a chilly day, we hope that the fellowship of worship and our warm welcoming sanctuary filled with beloved Christmas carols will entice you to come hear a new twist on an old story.

Wasn't it great to receive the gift of the Chancel Choir's Cantata last Sunday - A Carol Trip Around the World. We heard Christmas music in so many global styles - some almost somber as they expressed the hopes for healing and new beginnings promised in the Christ Child; some practically boisterous in their celebration of God with us.

In these weeks before Christmas, we find ourselves hauling out our ornaments and decorations, which spend so much of the year stuffed away in boxes, now ready to transform our homes for the holiday season. We  find city streets filled with holiday lights, wreaths and Christmas trees turning ordinary streetscapes into festive boulevards. Everyone puts out their finest spread because, after all, the Christmas story is extraordinary and we want to be prepared to receive it.

Greetings, All:

It's Thanksgiving Day in Copacabana, and we’re feeling reflective.

We send our thanks to all of you who have supported us and the communities we serve here, over all these years. This past year has been no exception.