Today is Epiphany, the day the church marks the journey of the Magi to find Jesus. Every year in worship, we choose star words to follow, reflect on, ponder in the coming. year. January 2020 seems like another lifetime somehow, but the word I drew last year was “overflowing”. It’s not an unknown word to…
An Epiphany sermon preached Jan 3, 2021 at Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, California. Matthew 2:1-12 Isaiah 60:1-6 Today we are celebrating Epiphany. This is an ancient Christian celebration, dating at least as far back as the 300’s. Epiphany is one of my favorite days in the year of church life. This word comes…
This weekend in worship, we will be drawing our new star words on Epiphany. You can read more about star words here. This past year’s word has been beloved. It is a lovely word. In truth, it is the sermon I preach again and again and again. We are God’s beloved children. So are the…
My STAR word for 2018 was “favor”. Noah is said to have found favor with God in the book of Genesis, before the ark project begins. And Mary, the young girl from Nazareth is greeted by a divine messenger and told “Greetings, favored one!…. You have found favor with God”. She goes on to (spoiler…
My word for 2016 has been “WONDER”. You can read more posts about our stars here. In the years we’ve been doing this at church, my words have been PRACTICE, ADVENTURE, PLEASURE, and MIRACLE. I was excited about my word in January. The year was ahead of me and it felt hopeful. I tried…
In addition to the STAR words passed out in worship on Epiphany, this week I’ve drawn stars for over 150 people who have requested them on the blog or on facebook. It is a good spiritual practice for me. With each word I draw, I say a prayer for the person receiving it. Some of…
My STAR word for 2015 is MIRACLE. (You can read about our congregation’s tradition in a number of posts at the “STARward” tab at the top of this blog). Since we started passing out words on Epiphany, my words have been PRACTICE ADVENTURE PLEASURE and now MIRACLE I know it is a “churchy” word, describing…
My STAR word this year was Pleasure. I’ve reflected on it here and here. What’s not to love about pleasure, right? It’s been a good word. I had a good life before I drew the word, but I recognize I was more intentional about noticing pleasure in random moments of my life this year. I…
I used to be the person who warned about setting resolutions that weren’t attainable. And I’m thankful we still have those reminders out there. Because I’ve set resolutions at the New Year and I’ve abandoned them by Jan 4. (This may be the best article I’ve read about this lately–“Forget Setting Goals. Focus on This…
So, each year on Epiphany, the day the church celebrates the wisemen’s visit to Jesus, our congregation passes out stars that have words written on them. People are invited to pray through the word on their star and see what God has to say to them in the process. I’ve written about it before. (At…
Glass Overflowing 