Thursday, January 5, 2017

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Epiphany Extravaganza

         On this the eve of the final day of Christmas I say to you, Merry Christmas!

         The liturgical year is moving right along.

         Advent had us preparing for the Light.

         Christmas has us rejoicing in the Light.

         And tomorrow, Epiphany will have us celebrating the Light.

         For those of us who can’t remember, Epiphany means the manifestation of the incarnation—or the revelation of God.

         Epiphany is a church festival celebrated every January 6th that commemorates the coming of the Magi as the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles or, in the Eastern Church, the commemoration of the baptism of Christ.

         Epiphany is often overlooked in our churches.  

         After all, its time to focus our attention on all those resolutions we did or didn’t make. And there’s a reason why the people who created the liturgical calendar called this time ordinary.

         While we could easily fall back into the habits of ‘ordinary’ life, succumbing to the hopelessness the news perpetuates, reducing our concerns to only those who look like, sound like, and align ideologically with us, I want to offer an alternative perspective:  life viewed through the lens of Epiphany.

         Epiphany is the day the world is made known of God’s claim once more on all the earth. Advent (“the prophets foretold the coming of the Light”) and Christmas (“the angels praised the Light”) find their fulfillment in the Epiphany, which invites all the nations of the earth to come and worship the Savior of the world.

         God is with us. God is in us. We can encounter God in the daily activities of our lives just as we did during Advent and Christmas. God dwells in the ordinary.

         Yet, here’s the thing about Epiphany, nothing about it is ordinary. It’s the season of the magi’s discovery, Christ’s baptism, and ultimately, the proclamation that God often shows up where we least expect it.

Epiphany reminds us that God comes to us among the lonely and forgotten, the poor and the vulnerable, the refugee and the stranger—in the life of a child whose parents are terrified refugees.

Tomorrow we read the story of the Magi and the truth of John 1:9 is revealed – the truth of God, coming into the world, enlightens all creation and every person. Every child is an incarnation of our beloved Savior.

         This means, you.

         Yes, you.

         You are a child of God, created in the image and likeness of Love.

         And in the mystery of the Word made flesh, the fullness revealed in the Epiphany, God has caused a new light to shine our hearts. Together we are a light shining in a darkened world.

         Finally, friends, I extend an invitation for you and your families to begin something new. In ancient times, before calendars were easily accessible, it became the practice of the Church on the Feast of the Epiphany to announce the dates of what lay ahead in the liturgical year. Such dates included Ash Wednesday, Easter Sunday, the day of the Ascension, and Pentecost.

         One of the reasons the church did this was to remind the people that though we’ve packed up the Christmas ornaments and placed the poinsettias in the garbage can, the story is not over. To drive this point home the church started a fun tradition known as “the blessing of the chalk.” Probably because of the detail in the day’s Gospel, that the Magi entered “the house” where the Holy Family then resided, the practice arose of blessing chalk during or after church and either the clergy or the people themselves taking that chalk and blessing the house in which the people lived. The mark was placed over the entrance door in the form of the year. So for instance, 2017 would look like this:  20+C+M+B+17. The initials indicated the supposed names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar, preceded by a cross showing their sainthood).
        
         “Chalking the door” is a way to celebrate and literally mark the occasion of the Epiphany and God’s blessing of our lives and homes. With time the chalk will fade. As it does we let the meaning of the symbols written sink into the depths of our hearts and manifest in our words and actions.

         Bet you didn’t know Epiphany had so much going on with it, did ya? See, there’s really nothing ordinary about this time.

         If you want me to come and bless your home with chalk, let me know.

         In the meantime, please receive this blessing on the eve of Epiphany:

May Almighty God, who led the Magi by the shining of a star to find the Christ, the Light from Light, lead you also, your comings and your goings, to find the Savior. Amen.

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

And much happiness to you during these Epiphany days!

A


The initials CMB (lower right corner) has also come to mean,
"Christus mansionem benedicat."
This is Latin for "[May] Christ bless this house." 

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