Christmas 1B, 31 December 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

• Isaiah 61:10-62:3. You shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.
• Galatians 3:23-25, 4:4-7. So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
• John 1:1-18. No one has ever seen God.

O God of our sacred story, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

First a poem by Irish theologian Padraig O Tuama, called “Narrative Theology #1”.  [1]

And I said to him
Are there answers to all of this?
And he said
The answer is in a story
and the story is being told.

And I said
But there is so much pain
And she answered, plainly,
Pain will happen.

Then I said
Will I ever find meaning?
And they said
You will find meaning
Where you give meaning.

The answer is in the story
And the story isn’t finished. Continue reading →