Noli timere ...

 

 

 

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

John 1:(1-9) 10-18

 

God’s Authority - “In the Beginning …"

DRUM, Seth

graphic art

 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/slides/Cx_SecondSundayafterChristmas.pdf

 

 

 

 

Noli timere

(Be not afraid)

~ Seamus Heaney

 

 

 

The most important discoveries

will provide answers to questions that we

do not yet know how to ask

and will concern objects

we have not yet imagined.

~ John N. Bahcall

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Tokyo

Junna Yoshioka, Reina Sakakibara, Kei Sakamoto

 

Shuto Sakakibara - 4 months

 

 

No photos this week.  I have self-quarantined since two of the people

with whom I had Christmas dinner now have Covid.

JAK has recovered from his dental surgery.  He loved the Ensure I gave him to drink!

My dental surgery is on Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“New Day’s Lyric”

 

May this be the day

We come together.

Mourning, we come to mend,

Withered, we come to weather,

Torn, we come to tend,

Battered, we come to better.

Tethered by this year of yearning,

We are learning

That though we weren’t ready for this,

We have been readied by it.

We steadily vow that no matter

How we are weighed down,

We must always pave a way forward.



This hope is our door, our portal.

Even if we never get back to normal,

Someday we can venture beyond it,

To leave the known and take the first steps.

So let us not return to what was normal,

But reach toward what is next.

 

What was cursed, we will cure.

What was plagued, we will prove pure.

Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,

Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,

Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake;

Those moments we missed

Are now these moments we make,

The moments we meet,

And our hearts, once all together beaten,

Now all together beat.



Come, look up with kindness yet,

For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.

We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,

But to take on tomorrow.

 

We heed this old spirit,

In a new day’s lyric,

In our hearts, we hear it:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne.

Be bold, sang Time this year,

Be bold, sang Time,

For when you honor yesterday,

Tomorrow ye will find.

Know what we’ve fought

Need not be forgot nor for none.

It defines us, binds us as one,

Come over, join this day just begun.

For wherever we come together,

We will forever overcome.



~ Amanda Gorman

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYEpCgxBTAf/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=781e7371-cd64-492e-8f74-78d35b9dafd0

 

 

 

 

How naïve we were, thinking that just because our struggle was noble and our motives were altruistic, we would govern without many of the flaws of the governments that preceded us. What we have learned the hard way is, corruption and selfishness and greed are not just products of people with white skin.

~ Desmond Tutu *

 

 

 

January 2, 2022 Second Sunday of Christmas Year C

 

Previous OPQs may be found at:

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

 

* In response to Greg Dobb’s question:  "I asked Tutu why fulfillment of the long-held dream of prosperity for South Africa’s black majority had not gone hand-in-hand with fulfillment of the long-denied dream of black majority rule? Why, in everything from housing to education to economics, there still was an impregnable gap between rich and poor?”

https://gregdobbs.substack.com/p/dobbs-we-just-lost-a-giant-among?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyNDc4MDQ0MSwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDYwODU1MTQsIl8iOiJwT1d0aCIsImlhdCI6MTY0MTA2MTIwMiwiZXhwIjoxNjQxMDY0ODAyLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjY1MTUxIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.sc3rss6LLpi2ArZeQsp99n6ye4K52dCyFO9WEapSxrM

 

 

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in. - Desmond Tutu

 

 

 

Sparkling Gold Glitter Happy New Years Gif

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeremiah 31:7–14 

Psalm 147:12–20 

Ephesians 1:3–14 

John 1:(1–9) 10–18

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Reading Jeremiah 31:7-14

7For thus says the LORD:

Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,

and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;

proclaim, give praise, and say,

"Save, O LORD, your people,

the remnant of Israel."

8See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north,

and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,

among them the blind and the lame,

those with child and those in labor, together;

a great company, they shall return here.

9With weeping they shall come,

and with consolations I will lead them back,

I will let them walk by brooks of water,

in a straight path in which they shall not stumble;

for I have become a father to Israel,

and Ephraim is my firstborn.



10Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,

and declare it in the coastlands far away;

say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him,

and will keep him as a shepherd a flock."

11For the LORD has ransomed Jacob,

and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

12They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,

and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,

over the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and over the young of the flock and the herd;

their life shall become like a watered garden,

and they shall never languish again.

13Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,

and the young men and the old shall be merry.

I will turn their mourning into joy,

I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

14I will give the priests their fill of fatness,

and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty,

says the LORD.

Psalm 147:12-20

12Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!

13For he strengthens the bars of your gates;

he blesses your children within you.

14He grants peace within your borders;

he fills you with the finest of wheat.

15He sends out his command to the earth;

his word runs swiftly.

16He gives snow like wool;

he scatters frost like ashes.

17He hurls down hail like crumbs-

who can stand before his cold?

18He sends out his word, and melts them;

he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.

19He declares his word to Jacob,

his statutes and ordinances to Israel.

20He has not dealt thus with any other nation;

they do not know his ordinances.

Praise the Lord!

Second Reading Ephesians 1:3-14

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.

Gospel John 1:(1-9) 10-18

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.