Walking Together in the Light
“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?”
We hear in this week’s lessons Christ’s invitation to walk with one another, even as we walk with him. In this connection, the call to “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” is not an individual moralistic pursuit, so much as it is an invitation to “walk in the light, as he is in the light,” and so “have fellowship with one another,” as the Apostle John says (1Jn 1:7).
This is the Chinese American artist He Qi’s Road to Emmaus. It is an image from the other end of the story, of course — but so is John’s call, and Paul’s corroborating admonition we hear in our Epistle for this week, “that there be no divisions among you” (1Cor 1:10). This is because, ultimately, the mode of of our unity is not the strength and success of of our commitment to the unifying principle we profess, but that our many and varied failures with respect to it are forgiven, and that in being forgiven, we learn to walk in forgiveness with one another, being patient with each other in our faults and failings.
Even still, we hear and we see one and the same call: Light has come into the world, and by his grace, we are gathered to that Light, and joined one to another.
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
— Psalm 139:8-9
Third Sunday of Epiphany
Texts for this Week
Prayer
Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Behold how good!
The contemporary American composer Michael Trotta’s sonorous adaptation of Psalm 133 is here beautifully performed by the South Africa based “The Fellowship Choir Ensemble.”
