The Work of Christmas in Epiphany

The Work of Christmas in Epiphany

“When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone, 

When the kings and princes are home, 

When the shepherds are back with their flock, 

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost, 

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry, 

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations, 

To bring peace among brothers [and sisters], 

To make music in the heart.”—Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations

From InwardOutward/ Church of the Saviour Washington D.C. inwardoutward.org.

at Epiphany service

Carrying the love that came down at Christmas with us for the rest of the year is now our calling. Thurman calls it the work of Christmas. I need something to help me remember this. I have a Christmas tree pin I will keep in a dish with other jewelry that I cannot help but notice as I prepare for the day. I may even wear the pin if I have difficulty carrying Christmas love with me during the day.

 Anthony de Mello in Sadhana, A Way to God, Christian Exercises in Eastern Form, gives us other suggestions in “Exercise 18: The Joyful Mysteries of Your Life.” He tells us to keep a memory book of times we felt loved or experienced the Christ child within us. De Mello tells us to return to these times and relive the scene, as Ignatius Loyola would have us do. They both suggest we can experience the scene even more vividly in our memory. We could not enjoy it as much at the time for many reasons. Memories of Christmas love are especially meaningful for this exercise. We may have negative experiences at Christmas. We can work on these later with other de Mello exercises (“Exercise 24:Healing of Hurtful Memories”).

Reliving a loving memory can increase our capacity for love and joy. It can overcome our unconscious, instinctive resistance to happiness and love. As we go deeper into the memory, de Mello calls us to look for the presence of the love of the Christ child in the scene. This memory meditation becomes a way to recognize the love of God right beside us at all times. 

Responding to the Epiphany Storming of our Capitol

Responding to the Epiphany Storming of our Capitol

“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea.”—Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

It is still painful to think about and respond to events at our Capitol on Epiphany, January 6th, 2021. First, it was disbelief that it was happening in the country we so love.

I go to the safest place in our house, our bedroom, and lie down. Then, the fear that lives in my body about having the COVID-19 virus before we can get the vaccine transfers to the stability and safety of our country. A group of men and women without masks carrying metal pipes, chemical irritants, and other weapons are breaking windows and doors to enter the sacred halls of our country, where our Congress is meeting to certify the presidential election.

All the tasks ahead of me for the day have lost energy. My entire energy goes to fear. Our daughter, who has been in tears, soon calls. We share the news. We are powerless. We both decide to have some soul food while we try to re-center. Popcorn.

 Will our government be overturned and taken over by people like those we see on television? They tell reporters this is only the beginning. They will be back. I see anger and fear on their faces. We both share fear. They mirror my fear.

Preparing for the Epiphany service that night slows down my fear. First, I sit quietly in St. Mark’s for over an hour before the service. Then, slowly, I become less anxious. I honestly believe the prayers of the many people who have worshiped there in the past calm my soul. I have put myself in a place where many before me have gone to meet God. Their prayers and their love begin to heal me.

Family Systems dynamics teach us that if we can maintain a state of having the least anxiety during any conflict in a relationship with others or be a non-anxious presence, we will contribute to keeping any tensions from growing and eventually solve the difficulty. Unfortunately, I know few people who can remain non-anxious, for it is not a human trait. Staying less anxious, however, is a real possibility.

With Grace, we may be the least anxious presence in a situation. In that case, we can keep the arteries in our body from tightening up, taking minutes or weeks off our lifespan, pushing us to become more fearful, maybe even violent.

Believe we can go to the place inside or outside our body, where an inner and outer presence leads us to become calmer. There we can become a vessel to become part of the relationship or situation that can solve any problems we encounter.

 This is my only offering from that day. Go literally or figuratively to a place of healing in the past, where you have met God, and perhaps where so many have done the same before. Sit, just sit, and be enveloped by a presence that goes by the name of love.

It may not be in a place of worship. It may be by the sea where the waves’ rhythm or the sea’s stillness slows down our anxious hearts. It may be a walk where the trees photosynthesize our energy back to love, back to a presence attributed to Julian of Norwich where “all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

So, we search for our sacred space, where we may find the strength to meet the day, reach out to others, and become the less anxious presence who can hold together in love the people of our family, our community, and our country.

Epiphany Remembered and Going Forward

Epiphany remembered

“Arise, shine; for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”—Isaiah 60:1.

John Harmon Bishop Elect as 14th Bishop of Arkansas, ordained and consecrated today

Epiphany, the revelation, the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles-us, you, and me. Christ is manifested to me almost sensuously at Epiphany. It first happened in the mid-fifties when I attended my first Episcopal service, the Epiphany Feast of Lights. I was around eleven and went to the small Virginia church in my hometown with a boyfriend and his family. I still remember the unfamiliar liturgy, the candlelight, and the haunting mystic melodies.  As we walked out of the small-town church on that bitterly cold January night, carrying our candles, we were surprised by the winter’s first snow.  I knew that night God spoke most clearly to me through this tradition. 

 A decade later, I again encountered the beauty of the Feast of Lights at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Memphis, with their choral procession of the costumed wise men bearing their splendid gifts. Soon, we were able to bring the service to Little Rock. 

 Here in Little Rock at St. Mark’s, we again usually experience Epiphany’s haunting call at their evening service at 6:30 on January 6th. The wise men will visit us again. Our bishop often celebrates, and there frequently is a guest preacher. Recently, it was the minister of Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, Dr. John Robbins. There will be a choir and candlelight recessional out of the church into the dark night, which is always breathtaking.  I watch the beautiful, often familiar faces of those walking ahead of me. Their expressions seem to ask, “What will we encounter next in the night? Will this light be enough for me to see?” This service empowers us to think about carrying our small candle out into the world.  As the candlelight service concludes, we realize we can only see our path because of the light from so many others before, beside, and behind us.

The service should also be available online through St. Mark’s Facebook page.

I encourage those at home to have a candle by you during the service. The candle will remind all of us of Christ, the light of the world, still reaching out to us at both good and challenging times.

I would love to hear what new epiphanies come to you during this epiphany season that is so different. As the angel told the wise men in a dream, “We will be going home by a different road.”

May this new year be full of many epiphanies on new roads for you and those you love.

This year at Saint Mark’s, the wise men will appear at the Sunday service at 10:30 on January 7th. We will not have the usual Epiphany service on January 6th, due to the ordination and consecration of John Harmon as the next bishop of Arkansas on the Feast Day of Epiphany. This will also be a beautiful service. Instead, we welcome prayers for him and our diocese on that day especially.

Ed Seward