Today we gather together to celebrate. We celebrate Epiphany – a day that, in our tradition, recounts the journey the wise ones from the East took to seek and find the Christ child. Today we also celebrate the journey we, as a congregation, have been on for the past year to explore scripture in creative ways through our take on the Mennonite Church’s 12 scripture project. The two celebrations compliment each other quite well.

The wise ones, having witnessed an astrological anomaly, set out on a journey to take part in whatever it was that this event in the sky proclaimed to have been set in motion. They chose to step out on the path in search of what their research told them was the birth of a new and special king – a messiah.  We didn’t so much see a sign in the sky that moved us to set out on our 12 scripture project path, but we did make the choice to engage in the journey – our research indicating that perhaps we would find a deeper sense of community identity and connection through the scriptures.

It was in community that the wise ones travelled, perhaps in a caravan that was part journey of exploration and part trade expedition. The caravan formations of that time served several purposes. Travelling in groups aided in defense against possible bandits on the path and travelling with a group also allowed for more and diverse goods to be brought along on the journey increasing trade possibilities and profits along the route.

Our journey also happened in a group – we chose to engage the scriptures with each other and with the world around us. We did this in part because many of us have found previous encounters with scripture to be a very rocky road and so journeying together added a sense of safety and protection. By travelling together we also experienced the benefits of the diversity of experience, insight and creativity that each of us individuals bring to the collective community.

The wise ones took the journey, not fully knowing what they were to encounter, they set off with the information they had at hand and opened themselves up to whatever it was that their journey would uncover. We too stepped into the 12 scripture project without a clear understanding of what we would encounter along the path or even what that path would look like. Now here we are one year later and we can look back and see where we have come from, what we have come through and reflect upon where our journey has brought us.

To aid in this time of reflection, let’s first think about where we started. One year ago on Epiphany, Cindy and I sat here on the platform and introduced this journey to the group. On behalf of the Church Council, we asked the congregation to join together in a year-long adventure of sorts…a scripture adventure. An adventure that would challenge us as a community to engage with scripture in intentional and creative ways for 12 months.

The inspiration for this project came from an on-going Mennonite Church USA initiative called the 12 Scriptures Project that encourages congregations to come up with 12 scriptures that speak to the core beliefs of their community. We were not quite ready to jump in and identify 12 scriptures that inform our activities as a congregation, but we were intrigued to take a further step in exploring scripture together in intentional ways.

Exploring scripture together is something we have done for a long time – our Sunday worship includes reading and discussion of scripture each week, yet this project seemed to offer us a challenge to refresh that encounter and to acknowledge that encountering scripture is not the same encounter for all of us. As we reflected then, some of us have found moments of refuge in scripture and some of us have, in moments, taken refuge from scripture.

It was particularly in light of this mixed bag of experiences with scripture that it seemed important for us as a community to be intentional and creative about encountering scripture during this past year so that we could have the opportunity to acknowledge together that we have experienced the Holy in scripture while also finding it sometimes hole-y (with holes or discrepancies). The 12 Scriptures project was, in part, an attempt to spend some time exploring the wholeness of the Bible while openly welcoming the encounters with both the hole-y and the holy that the wholly Bible (the Bible as a whole) offers.

In seeking the wholeness of the Bible, we are challenged to read the stories, or the poems, or the accounts of genealogy written in the Bible and to see them as they are written, to acknowledge what we may or may not like about what is written, to look at the context in which they were written and the context they have come out of while being aware of the context that we bring to encounters with scripture. Then, we are challenged to look beyond all of that.  Beyond our initial questions and concerns, beyond the words on the page, beyond the story that is presented, so that we can begin to hear the story beyond the story.  The theological message that each scripture passage is pointing to, some more literally than others.  It is in moving beyond the page that each message is found, the reminders of love, hope, grace, inadequacy, relationship, peace, justice, anger, pain, comfort, humanity, healing, triumph, inspiration, frustration…the list could go on and on.  The Bible offers accounts of God’s movement in the world and accounts of people encountering God. Accounts that contain wholly, holy and hole-y expressions and reminders of the nature of God, humanity, and what it is for humanity to be in relationship with God and each other.

The 12 Scriptures Project offered us 12 months in which to explore these holy and hole-y accounts in creative ways and this is what those 12 months looked like:

January – Held the kickoff of the project with an open mic sermon time that allowed the congregation to offer reflections on the scripture of the day. January also hosted a scripture themed potluck with foods inspired by and referenced in scripture.

February – Offered an opportunity to explore scripture at home daily through a take home calendar based on Psalms 139 that celebrated God’s Wonderful Works.

March – Saw the beginning of the Scripture Spotting Photo Challenge, an opportunity to be on the lookout for references or allusions to scripture in the world around and to capture those images for posting in an album on the church’s Facebook page. This challenge lasted the rest of the year and found us spotting scripture in our local communities, various states, 3 different countries, and even on an airplane. The album can be perused on our Facebook page and has also been made into a printed book format with 2 copies that can be flipped through out in the foyer.

April – Found us reading scripture together during Holy week at Maundy Thursday and Good Friday gatherings.

May – A Scripture & Arts retreat was held at Rolling Ridge where scripture was explored through listening to poetry and the creation of visual art projects.

June – Dramatized reading of the book of Jonah during worship.

July – Offered another opportunity to explore scripture at home as people took home swatches of fabric to write scripture on in the shape of fruits and vegetables which came together into the Scripture Garden Banners hanging here today.

August – Scripture game night offered us an opportunity to play together, testing our knowledge of the order of the books of the Bible and letting us laugh together in our attempts to describe scripture related topics during a round of Bible Taboo.  We also held another scripture conversation sermon time in August for the gathered community to listen to a scripture passage and openly reflect on it together.

September – Gave us the opportunity to explore the book of Romans in a creative way as we used passages of it to write a letter of encouragement and love to those from our community, Mark and Judy, who were spending an extended period of time in Rome.

October – Our annual retreat was a time for us to explore scripture in an interactive way through the lens of improv. We were challenged to step just outside of our comfort zones and to work together to explore scripture outside of its normal box. We also explored the idea of Jesus as an improv artist through a series of paper cutouts – which you can also take a further look at in the foyer today as well.

November – Scripture & Arts Café which featured poetry, dance, visual art and musical performances which referenced or were inspired by scripture.

December – Youth & Children created a Christmas pageant video based on the Biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus.

Scripture small groups met throughout the year to read and talk about scripture together in informal settings and all the while we continued to explore scripture together each Sunday during worship continuing to have lively response times during the service when scripture struck us in different ways.

If you can tell from all of that, it was a busy year, but it was an exciting year. Like the Wise Ones we remember on Epiphany, we didn’t know where all this project would take us when we started out on the journey a year ago but the path has felt full of opportunities to see scripture in fresh, fun and challenging ways.

It has been a community journey and so to fully celebrate it as a community it only seems right that before I wrap up the sermon time we once again open the floor to brief spontaneous reflections. Did you encounter scripture in a new way this year? Did something surprise you? Challenge, frustrate, or inspire you?

———– Open Reflections ———-

While at the beginning of this project we were not ready to pick out 12 scriptures that defined our congregation, the course of this project has encouraged our committees to do some thinking to select a core scripture that informs the work of that committee. Not all committees have finalized a scripture selection, but once they do we will find a way to share those selections with the congregation as a continuation of our desire to actively engage scripture in our worship and our work.

The celebration of Epiphany is one that honors not only the journey taken by the Wise Ones, but also the revelation of Christ to the world beyond his parents and his own religious community. Upon encountering the baby they had come so far to find, the Wise Ones saw in the little one a reflection of God a God that comes into the world to be found. Exploring scripture is just one of the ways we can open ourselves up to seeing the reflection of God in the world today. I am hopeful that our adventures with the Bible in this past year have reminded us that there are many, many ways to seek and find glimpses of God in the words on the page and in the stories beyond the stories of scripture.

As we draw this project to a close, our journey with scripture is not over. Just as the Wise One’s continued their journey after seeing the Christ child, we as a community of faith will continue to grapple with the holy and the hole-y that we find in the verses of scripture in the hopes that by continuing to seek we too will have opportunities to come face to face with the divine.  Being able to proclaim, with the many places that it is voiced in scripture: Give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good. God’s steadfast love endures forever.