St. Bartholomew Church

Today is all about an encounter with God.  2000 years ago the magi set out deliberately to find him. We come here week after week to do the same.

But this is, generally speaking, easy for us to do.  It doesn't usually take a whole lot for us to get here.  ( even though it would seem that the multitude who found there way here on Christmas, have since gotten lost - Sharpsville's a big place you know) .

But what about outside of these walls - what about encountering God in new and perhaps unexpected ways in the course of our everyday lives.  

I don't know about you, but those unexpected encounters with God tend to be the most memorable and the most influential ones for me.  They serve as a wakeup call, they shake me out of my complacency.  

If this year is going to be different for us, how about trying to be more open to how God may be trying to speak to us - through others.

We don't need to follow a star, we just have to be willing to see Christ in one another - and sometimes that is simply the hardest thing to do and the longest journey to make.  

And God having the sense of humor that God does, He usually chooses odd ways to speak to us through others; and it's usually through someone we would never pay attention to, someone that disgusts us, and even someone we can't stand.  It's usually through that person that we would just rather completely ignore, or the one we would rather just punch in the face - those are usually the people that God chooses to use to send us a message.  

    The challenge is this I suppose, to keep coming to Church, to keep encountering God here in this holy place, but then once we leave, to be willing to encounter Him where we might least expect to find him - like in the 2015 equivalent of a manger.  

    This day let us all pray for the grace of the wise men - to be open to encountering Jesus, however he may choose to manifest himself to us in the coming year, and then (and this is the key)  to be able to live our lives differently once we do encounter him.  God help us all. +