Epiphany Sermon

Merry Christmas, Happy Epiphany!

Most of our country has moved on from the holidays, but we end our 12 days of Christmas with the Epiphany, the arrival of the three magi to the manger, in parts of Latin America, today is El Dia de los Reyes, the day of the Kings.

We know from the 2nd chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that wise men from the east (Gk. Magi) came looking for the baby Jesus following a star. King Herod is frightened that they are looking for a baby born “King of the Jews”… The wise men, leaving Herod, continue to follow the star and find Jesus with Mary and pay him homage and offer their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They are warned in a dream not to return to Herod so they return home by another road.

Later tradition says there were three wise men or three kings (think of the hymn!) because there were three gifts, and the names of Gaspar, Balthasar and Melchior gets attached to them in the Middle Ages. The gifts they offer, recognizing Jesus and in anticipation of his life, are symbolic with gold for a king, frankincense for the son of God and myrrh for his death as a human being. But those were not the only gifts. The birth of Jesus was a gift not only to the Jewish people but to the world.

His manifestation to the wise men (gentiles), symbolically reminds us that this gift was to be shared with the world, for the light of God has come into the world. The journey that took them to Jesus also led them by a different road home. The Journey they took is remembered in TS Eliot’s poem, Journey of the Magi:

'A cold coming we had of it,
just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'

But this arduous journey, a long winter’s journey, with a fearful and murderous king, the joy of finding Jesus and the different road they went home by, reminds us, that each of us takes a journey with Jesus. Like their journey, our journey is not always easy, sometimes we have to take different roads then we had planned, some of the people on the way are not whom we would like to meet, and yet it is the journey that brings us close to our creator who came down to us in a little child, a child who is the light that has come into our darkness. We all have a journey to make…

In the Broadway musical Into the Woods, composer Stephen Sondheim and playwright James Lapine recast the familiar stories of Jack in the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and an original tale about a baker and his wife who are childless. In the beginning of the story, all of the characters express their wishes for happiness: a handsome prince, a warm home and enough to eat, a child to love. But in order to realize those dreams, the characters have to travel "into the woods" to confront the wolves and witches and giants and charlatans that thwart their dreams.

In their journeys through the woods, the characters discover that life is not a fairy tale: some characters die; others see their fairy tale lives disintegrate. No one is particularly happy. They discover that the line between dreams and nightmares is a fine one. They also realize that the real monsters we must defeat are selfishness and greed, that the most potent spells we have to break are fear and self-deception.

The woods is a dangerous place, the company learns, but the way of happiness is marked by humility and generosity. As one of the characters sings at the end, wishes come true - not free.

The Epiphany Gospel recounts a similar journey: like the fairy tale characters seeking "happily ever after" in their trek 'Into the Woods,' the magi set out to find the Messiah- the King the world longed for in the land of Judah.

Every human life is a journey: in our journeys through the time God has given us, we seek signs of God in our midst; we seek happiness that is authentic and real. In the end, we come to realize that it is love in all its joy and sorrow, in all its demands and gifts that make us real and whole human beings.

In encountering the Christ, the magi behold the love of God in their midst (a love that the self-absorbed and fearful Herod cannot see); in taking on the monsters and witches within themselves, Cinderella and Jack and company conquer the dangers of the "woods" and begin to live lives of true happiness and meaning.

May our encounter with Christ - in the Sunday gospels of this new year, in our everyday lives of both struggle and grace - be a constant epiphany of re-creating and transforming our lives in the love of God with us (Emmanuel). As we celebrate this day, and leave here in awe and wonder for the gift given to us, that the light that has entered the world, let us in turn share our gifts on the journey and help spread that light in the darkness today.

Let us pray.

Light of the world, we bow before You in awe and adoration. Bless us and our simple faith seeking understanding. Epiphany means manifestation, lifting the veil, revelation. Reveal to us then what we need to know to love You, and serve You, and keep Your word with fidelity and truth, courage and hope, as we travel on our way, this day and always. Amen.  (prayer by Miriam Therese Winter)

Christmas Sermons

4:30 PM - Christmas Eve


The stars that shine at Christmas
Shine on throughout the year,
Jesus, born so long ago,
Still gathers with us here,
We listen to his stories,
We learn to say his prayer,
We follow in his footsteps,
And we learn to love and share. Amen.
(Lois Rock & Alison Jay)

Tonight we think about who? Jesus. It is his stories we tell.
But I know you all are thinking about someone tomorrow… Santa & Presents!

I wonder what Santa’s story would be…

Santa’s Favorite Story by Hisako Aoki & Ivan Gantschev

What we give is important, how we learn to love and share speaks to how that Christ child has entered into our hearts and how we honor the gift of Christmas to us. As one of our beloved carols puts it:

How silently, how silently,
the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming,
but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive him,
still the dear Christ enters in.

Follow that star. Celebrate the birth. Remember that Love was the gift of the first Christmas. Amen.

7:30 PM


On this most Holy Night, as we have listened to the words of Scripture telling us of salvation, as we have sung the carols and listened to the anthems that make our hearts glad, I am reminded that we need to go beyond mere enjoyment but make embrace what Christmas is all about. In the words of Martin Luther:

See to it that you do not find pleasure in the Gospel only as a history, for that is only transient; neither regard it only as an example, for it is of no value without faith; but see to it that you make this birth your own and that Christ be born in you. This will be the case if you believe, then you will repose in the lap of the virgin Mary and be her dear child. But you must exercise this faith and pray while you live, you cannot establish it too firmly. This is our foundation and inheritance, upon which good works must be built.

If Christ has now thus become your own, and you have by such faith been cleansed through him and have received your inheritance without any personal merit, but alone through the love of God who gives to you as your own the treasure and work of his Son; it follows that you will do good works by doing to your neighbor as Christ has done to you.

Therefore it is through faith that Christ becomes our own, and his love is the cause that we are his. He loves, we believe, thus both are united into one. Again, our neighbor believes and expects our love, we are therefore to love him also in return and not let him long for it in vain. One is the same as the other; as Christ helps us so we in return help our neighbor, and all have enough.

On this most Holy Night and for all the days hereafter “make this birth your own that Christ may be born in you” so that this celebration is not just one night but one we continually live by what we do throughout the year so everyone may have enough. Amen.

10 AM (Christmas Day)

I talked about the painting "Adoration of the Shepherds"

You can find info: here and here.

Christmas/Epiphany Blessing

May the joy of the angels,
the eagerness of the shepherds,
the perseverance of the magi,
the obedience of Joseph and Mary,
and the peace of the Christ child be yours this Christmas.
And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

Prayer for Artists

God bless the artists and keep them safe,
Praise the Creator and those who create,
Touch the senses, strike the chord,
Sound the trumpet, praise the Lord.
Guide the potter's mystic touch,
The painter's brush, the actor's heart,
"Dance the steps" to magic music
Grace the motion, move the spirit.
Guard the artists' cosmic gifts.
May they proclaim
God's great creation.

God bless the artists and keep them safe,
Praise the Creator and those who create,
Touch the senses, strike the chord,
Shout for joy and praise the Lord. Amen.

Prayer by Priscilla Dewey Houghton (C)

Choosing Religion for One's Children

In the NY Times, KJ Dell’Antonia of the Motherlode blog has a new post: ”Children, Choosing Their Religion.”  Her take (an excerpt):

There’s nothing wrong with raising children outside of a religious tradition, and that upbringing doesn’t preclude them from being part of a community or later finding a community of their own…

One unsought result of a family identity based in part on shared religion is that throughout history, families have struggled to accept the children who don’t remain within the religious fold. It’s less important that teenagers embrace the community their parents have chosen for them than that they find some community themselves, and as they grow up, what matters most is that we as parents embrace the communities and identities that become a part of our children.

in her blog post, You Choose Your Child’s Religion, the Rev. Nurya Parish offers a rebuttal (an excerpt):

I discarded the secularism of my childhood for any number of reasons. Here are a few:

    Contrary to Dell’Antonia’s assumptions, “Religion” and ”community” are not synonyms. Religion is a way of making meaning of life. Religions endure because they successfully enable generation after generation to celebrate the beauty and wrestle with the agony of human existence. Nothing else – not shopping, not good friends, not even great dinner parties – substitutes.
    Religious communities are not an end in themselves. Their purpose is to practice the religion they profess. By the practice of their faith, they seek a depth of soul and connection to the Divine that is impossible to achieve any other way. Religious communities exist to connect human beings with God, the Eternal. (Religious communities forget this at their peril, but that’s another post.)
    Religion provides a connection not only with God but also with the hundreds of human generations who have told the stories, sung the songs, and practiced the rituals over millennia of human existence. A community which transcends time and space and exists for the purpose of intentional spiritual practice is unlike any other.
    Religion provides a countercultural force to the militarist greed which is the curse of 21st century America. Religion teaches that you are not defined by your fame, power or fortune, but by your faith: what is your relationship with your Creator?

I am raising my children in a religion because I believe that I would deprive them of something as necessary as food or water if I did not: I would deprive them of a language for life.

As you might guess, I agree with Nurya and as I typed this, I saw the Huffington Post Religion Twitter Feed:

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life - Buddha

Hmm...

Outcasts at the Manger

"Outcasts at the Manger" is a blog post by Andrew Marr, who is a monk of St. Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan, a Benedictine monastery in the Episcopal Church.

Here is an excerpt from his blog:

We like to be insiders and hate to be outsiders, don’t we? Well, let’s look at some insiders and outsiders in the Christmas story. The people who stayed at the inn in Bethlehem were insiders. A betrothed couple and their newborn baby were outsiders. Shepherds were outsiders, hated and distrusted by all. So why would the angel of the Lord show such bad taste in revealing the birth of the Savior to them?

The Magi were highly-placed insiders in their own country, most likely top advisers of royalty. So why would they travel to another land where they were outsiders? If the star was up there for all to see, why did these foreigners from without and outcasts from within Jewish society respond when others did not?

and he ends with this paragraph:

The greatest irony is that Christ was born to save all people, to make insiders of all of us. The problem is, we don’t want to be insiders with those who are outsiders and we certainly don’t want outsiders to join us. After all, what would we do if there were no outsiders?

I encourage you to read the whole post here:

http://andrewmarrosb.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/outcasts-at-the-manger/ 

Praying for our Government

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has joined other religious leaders from the National Council of Churches in calling for a commitment of daily prayers for the President, Vice-President, United States Congress and elected officials beginning January 3 until January 21.

January 3 is the first day of the new Congress; January 21 is the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori has offered the following prayer:

O Lord our Governor, bless the leaders of our land, that we may be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations of the earth. To the President and members of the Cabinet, to Governors of States, Mayors of Cities, and to all in administrative authority, grant wisdom and grace in the exercise of their duties. To Senators and Representatives, and those who make our laws in States, Cities, and Towns, give courage, wisdom, and foresight to provide for the needs of all our people, and to fulfill our obligations in the community of nations. To the Judges and officers of our Courts give understanding and integrity that human rights may be safeguarded and justice served. And finally, teach our people to rely on your strength and to accept their responsibilities to their fellow citizens, that they may elect trustworthy leaders and make wise decisions for the well-being of our society; that we may serve you faithfully in our generation and honor your holy Name. For yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Amen. BCP p. 821

http://faithandpolitics.org/call-to-prayer/

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