Who are the saints that you are grateful for this day? Who helped set you on your spiritual path?

So, the question before us is how might we be God’s hands in the world, now and in the years to come? What do you want, what do you desire for this parish? What is your prayer on your heart for this place that you wish to offer to God?

“What golden calf might I let go of, so that I can take on something new in my walk with Christ in the coming year?”

We hope that each and every person takes the time to reflect on how you serve here in your spiritual home. Each of you has a place here. Each of you has something unique to offer.

How can we be the best allies we can be to all whom we meet?

We will not see our enemy -- all our uncertainties -- swallowed up into the sea, but we will be delivered by our God. That is the promise of God to the Israelites, and that is the promise of God to us through the waters of our baptism.

Like the Israelites wandering through the desert who longed for a return to comfort and security of the old ways, there is something deep within us that also desires a return to our old ways.

And so it is for us, as that promise and covenant has been renewed in Jesus, where we walk the way of Christ hand in hand with God.

Pharaoh tries to make the Nile River, Egypt’s main source of water and life, into an instrument of death. Yet the three women allies succeed in making the river a place of rescue and life.

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. Holding a grudge imprisons you. Forgiveness sets you free.

When have you been like Joseph’s brothers and fallen to group think or turned a blind eye to protect your own privilege at the expense of another?

Through this process of transformation, we shed the distractions, the addictions, and all that seeks to separate us from God.

And if we do find ourselves, like Esau, in positions of privilege, in positions of power, benefitting from the entitlements of our society, which is not an inherently bad place to be, but if we do find ourselves like Esau, will you perhaps share from your abundance?

And when, with this community of faith surrounding us, we do finally recognize God’s leading, may we, like Rebekah, respond eagerly “we will go.”

Something changes between Abraham and God that day. Abraham learns to trust and fear God. And God proves that God can be trusted.

Reconciliation is the pathway towards restoration, and the restoration of creation is at the heart of the mission of God.