January 17, 2016 | Second Sunday after Epiphany Year C

Getting back on track—Epiphany continues.

Reminds me of this Mark Strand poem. One of my favorites.
The Coming of Light.

Isaiah 62:1-5

Psalm 36:5-10

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

John 2:1-11

We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. this day and will read this excerpt from one of his sermons in place of the epistle.

This is the power that God gives you. He doesn't say that you're going to escape tension; he doesn't say that you're going to escape disappointment; he doesn't say that you’re going to escape trials and tribulations. But what religion does say is this: that if you have faith in God, that God has the power to give you a kind of inner equilibrium through your pain. So let not your heart be troubled. "If ye believe in God, ye believe also in me." Another voice rings out, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden." As if to say, "Come unto me, all ye that are burdened down. Come unto me, all ye that are frustrated. Come unto me, all ye with clouds of anxiety floating in your mental skies. Come unto me, all ye that are broke down. Come unto me, all ye that are heartbroken. Come unto me, all ye that are laden with heavy ladens, and I will give you rest." And the rest that God gives is the rest that passeth all understanding. The world doesn't understand that kind of rest, because it’s a rest that makes it possible for you to stand up amid outer storms, and yet you maintain inner calm. If the church is true to its guidelines, it heals the broken-hearted.

 —from the Guidelines for a Constructive Church sermon by MLK, June 5, 1966

Dream by Priscilla Ahn

Human by Christina Perri