RSVP – it stands for “Répondez s’il vous plaît,” a command that says (nicely), “Please respond.” Throughout the season of Epiphany (starting January 6 and ending this year on February 17), we will be using those four French words as the unifying principle of what we’re talking about in worship and beyond.
The idea of the Church Year is that we can see different “movements” or periods in the life of Christ. In Advent, that “movement” was waiting for Jesus to arrive (pre-Jesus). In Christmas, the movement was 12 days of reveling in the fact that He was born as a human among us, joining us. The movement of Epiphany focuses on the “manifestation” of Jesus – the part of His ministry where it starts to become clear who Jesus is and what He has come to do.
As we consider who Jesus is and what He has come to do, we see that Jesus has come to seek and save the lost. He has come to preach the good news. He has come to deliver invitations to something new. The Kingdom of God is coming in grace, paid for in the work of the Cross, and delivered to all people. As His grace is delivered, it evokes from us a “joyful response.” This response, something fueled in us by the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith, embraces the goodness of what God has come to deliver to sinners.
This coming Epiphany we will be talking about the grace of God delivered to us, and we will be talking about how we respond to that gift – not being forced to do things, but following the inclinations that the Spirit has put in our hearts. A part of this will be talking about how we can look around and see people in our lives who need the Gospel – and how we can engage them in this good news that is delivered to them as well.
We look forward to engaging with you around this idea of “RSVP” as we consider what Christ has done for us, putting us “on the list” of His Father’s world-wide Resurrection party, and how we can begin to party now with the invitations in our hand.