Epiphany 4

Epiphany 4A: Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 15;

1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12

The Rev'd Margaret Dyer-Chamberlain

February 1, 2026

May the words of our mouths, the meditations of our hearts, and the actions of our lives be acceptable in your sight, Oh God, our rock and our redeemer.

Good morning and Happy February, St. Aidan’s.

A week ago Friday, at 7:30 am, I was deep in prayer.  My twin granddaughters were due to be delivered by caesarean section and so I lit a candle in my home office and prayed to God for a safe and healthy birth for them and for my daughter-in-law Jane.  After about a half an hour, I heard from my son Sam that the delivery was a bit delayed – but would occur soon.  My prayers continued and I thought about other needs to pray for – my mind was on Minneapolis in particular because I had a lot of worries about what was happening there. 

As I prayed, I picked up one of my mainstays when it comes to prayer – Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community by Padraig O Tuama.  Some of you may know it.  It’s a little book, with much to share.  As I awaited news of my grandbabies, I re-read the forward to the book. O Tuama writes:

We turn to prayer in days of joy, and days where our world shows – again – that it is wrapped in a circle of conflict.  We turn to form, we turn to old words because sometimes it is old words that hold the deepest comfort and the deepest challenge.

He has more to say about prayer – and I’ll be touching on that later – but as I prayed last Friday I thought about the ying and yang of what OTuama was talking about – and about how joy and conflict were so intertwined in my life at that very moment.

At 8:45 am, I learned that my twin granddaughters – first Edith Sophie and then Maeve Laurel – were born.  Pure joy.  New life.  Hope.  Love.

It was later – the next day – that I learned of a second American citizen murdered in Minneapolis.  Conflict.  Death.  Fear.  Sadness.

As I’ve been holding all of this over the last week, I was also studying the readings for today.  I was thinking about the ways in which today’s ancient texts might be able to ground us in prayer, help us to understand the world in which we live, and inspire us to think about our next steps.  I discovered that there is no shortage of wisdom for us in these readings.

To begin at the beginning, with Micah 6, we have the prophet Micah exploring and pondering what it takes to be close to God in times of tumult and trouble.  Clearly Micah lived through that kind of time – the fall of Samaria, the expansion of Jerusalem and much political conflict.  “With what shall I come before the Lord” Micah asks, wondering about all kinds of thing – is it about burnt offerings, gifts like calves and rams and oil, firstborn children?  And then we have the “punchline” for which Micah is known, which discloses to us that a life of faith isn’t really about any of those earthly things.  Rather, our marching orders are simple and clear – “He has told you, O mortal, what is good;  and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

This is sometimes called “the Micah 6 commission.”  In fact, the Diocese of New Hampshire has convened a group they have named the Micah 6 commission to explore how specifically to bring these words alive.  These words are our call to action to be just people who love our neighbors, all the while walking closely with God and listening for God’s voice.  Being with God and being in the world are completely intertwined in this call to us – we can’t accomplish one without the other.  Jesus’ teachings give us the wisdom and grounding we need – as we sang in our first hymn – “Christ is made the sure foundation.”

How we become God’s hands and feet in the world is something that we each do in our own way.  As I watched the beautiful video that Cameron created for last week’s annual meeting, I was struck by that.  Whether we are demonstrating, resisting, writing letters, making posters, praying, feeding our neighbors, or tending God’s earth we are, as our letter from Paul to the Corinthians put it “considering our own call.”  We are figuring out what we can do, we are thinking about how to be ready where God need us to be witnesses.  This is not about our accomplishments or our status.  It’s not about what our government, or any government, might be persuading us to believe.  It’s countercultural and it’s about following Jesus who “became for us wisdom from God” as Paul put it.  It’s about a way of life and a journey of faithfulness.

And – particularly at this time in our country and over the last weeks – I’ve been struck that this journey of following Jesus is not without risk and even peril.  In a clergy zoom call just this past week, there was much conversation about Minneapolis and how unsafe life is there, with two American citizens murdered in the last weeks.  Clergy there had organized a large contingent of people of faith to join the demonstrations, and they carefully and sadly noted that everyone needed to be aware that the situation was volatile and changing, and that personal safety was not assured.

The reality of all this caused me to think a little differently about Jesus’ beautiful sermon on the mount, known as the Beatitudes, that we heard today.  I think in the past when I’ve heard this passage I’ve tended to focus on the richness of blessings offered up by Jesus.  I’ve focused, I think, how Jesus describes the dream of God in this sermon - the kingdom of heaven for the poor, comfort for those who mourn, mercy for the merciful, hope for peacemakers, and the like.  This time around, I’m focused more on the last parts – “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” and “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”  I don’t think I ever really internalized that this might pertain to us, people of faith in the Episcopal Church.  But sadly, in America in 2026, persecution is a very real danger.

And so – given all of this – given the brokenness of our world – it is more essential than ever that we remember we are blessed.  We are children of God, God is ever with us, and our journey in life is to make the words of Micah become real.  We need not be afraid.  We are beloved.

This brings me back to where I started this morning, which is all about prayer.  In the book that I mentioned earlier, Padraig O Tuama talks about the power of collects as a form of prayer.  I think we might take collects a little for granted in our worship sometimes.  We hear them every Sunday and we have collects in our book of Common prayer for many occasions we can think of.  O Tuama says this about collects:

The collect has beautiful form, like a haiku of intention.  It has five folds.  The person speaks to God, naming part of the story of God;  the person names their desire – only one desire; then the person gives a reason why this is the one desire they name.  And then the person finishes their prayer with an Amen, or with a small bird of praise.

As I read this description, I found myself thinking that we are living through a time in which heightening our awareness of collects might just come in handy.  I once did a little workshop for families, when I was a seminarian, which was called “Write Your Own Collect.”  And so, if you would indulge me, I’m going to suggest that we at St. Aidan’s think about writing our own collects for this time.  I have little slips of paper that provide a “cheat sheet” for you – and really, these are just a guide.  We can write a collect in any way we wish.  We can even write more than one!

Your collect won’t be the same as mine, and each of us might like to re-write our collect from time to time.  I hope that taking the time to write a collect for this time and place but help us to pray to God.  Because I have to believe that being in conversation with God, journeying with God in this complicated thing we call life, is our foundation and our starting point.  I have a vision of our community’s collects, as we write them, rising and spreading around our troubled world, equipping us to be strong and ready for whatever comes next.  I have a vision of our collects gathering us together to bring the words of Micah to life – preparing us to do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with our God.

Amen.