Notes from the Pastor

Rev. Dr. Reginaldo P. Braga, Jr

Happy New Year! We arrived to a whole new year with quite a lot of challenges and hopes. Both as a nation and as a church we have challenges and hopes. As a country we face one of the worst financial crisis of the past decades; we face one of the biggest levels of unemployment since the 80's, that not mentioning our ongoing concerns for security, immigration, social security, health care and more. These months we have been in despair, for many and, for some of us, in repulsion, over the numbers of federal bail outs to the sectors of our economy that were guilty either by bad management or shear greed in our finacial, automobile and real state markets.

On the other hand, millions of US citizens voted and billions of fellow human beings celebrated the election of our first African American President. The hope for change is undeniable! And with such hopes comes the call for responsibility and engagement.

Our local and Christian Church enters the year with Epiphany, and this is notable for this year. This year very vividly we can see that the hopes and the waiting of 400 years that found the advent of Obama cannot sustain itself with disengagement and apathy. Epiphany is indeed more than GOD with us, it is GOD with US! Reformed theologian Jurgen Moltman in The Crucified God reminded us that with the incarnation the history of humankind became the history of God, and thus, the history of God became the history of humankind. There is little sense in speaking of Epiphany without a people! You see, that which we can be impacted as revelation is experienced in history, in time and in context. Thus our coming as a nation and as a group-of-called-ones (ecclesia, church) is an integral part of the Epiphany. The Sacrament of Communion in the true sacrament of Life highlights our engagement, responsibilities, and actions in a direct reversal of both apathy and despair. A reformed stand on Epiphany is one that charges that God is with US, at this time, and at this table. God is with US, with all the foreclosures, credit card debts, immigrants, gays and lesbians, poor, and discriminated. If God is with US NOW, whatever can be constructed of who God is (Epiphany) behooves each one of our decided choices and actions. In this Epiphany, as well as in this new government, who God is, is what we do.

To Him only the honor in our lives! Amen.