Dear Friends, 

This past Friday and Sunday we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany. Friday we enjoyed an evening of pizza and bingo. Sunday we gathered in worship when we brought the feast day forward from its set date, January 6th. I much prefer to keep with the date’s tranditional association as the Feast of the Epiphany, rather than its current replacement, the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol.

It may be quite a while before we can say the state of our political and social environment has improved enough so that we will return to first read and hear the good news story of stars, kings, and Love decended to be among us in a dark world. Or maybe we don’t have to wait.

As the story of the Magi’s journey tells us, the Good News is always before us and with us and in us. We might carry it, much like the gifts of the Magi carried their gifts to Jesus. It was not a smooth journey for them. The world for them was filled with as much conflict and danger as today. And still there was, there is, good news.

The Good News

They don’t publish
the good news.
The good news is published
by us.
We have a special edition every moment,
and we need you to read it.
The good news is that you are alive,
and the linden tree is still there,
standing firm in the harsh Winter.
The good news is that you have wonderful eyes
to touch the blue sky.
The good news is that your child is there before you,
and your arms are available:
hugging is possible.
They only print what is wrong.
Look at each of our special editions.
We always offer the things that are not wrong.
We want you to benefit from them
and help protect them.
The dandelion is there by the sidewalk,
smiling its wondrous smile,
singing the song of eternity.
Listen! You have ears that can hear it.
Bow your head.
Listen to it.
Leave behind the world of sorrow
and preoccupation
and get free.
The latest good news
is that you can do it.
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Happy Epiphany, Dear Ones. Be, see, and listen to the Good News around us. We can do it.

In Peace,
Dina+