The Work of Christmas after Epiphany

The Work of Christmas after 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.

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 to 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. Joyce Dalton sent me a picture of a Christmas pin she uses to remember the love of Christmas.

 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 significant 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. 

The first picture is of Zoe and Mary Anne, who made a surprise visit at the Epiphany service in 2023. I don’t have a picture, but I will carry a beautiful memory of all my family going with me this year to Epiphany on one of the coldest nights of the year. It was my first time back at church after an illness. We filled up a whole back row in the church with love and thanksgiving.

Living as Part of a Symphony

Balbir Matbur: Part of the Symphony

“I plant trees, but I am not the doer of this work. I am the facilitator, the instrument—I am one part of the symphony. I know this symphony has an overall scheme that I cannot understand.

In some way, we are each playing our part. It is not for me to judge or criticize the life or work of another. All I know is that this is my dance. I would plant trees today, even if I knew for certain that the world would end tomorrow.”—Balbir Matbur in Heron Dance interview (Issue 11) from Inward Outward, Daily Words, October 19, 2016, inwardoutward.org 

arkansas symphony orchestra

Our tickets at the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra were in the third row for many years. At times, we felt we were part of the orchestra. We knew who sat where, when someone new was there, or when someone was missing. We learned a few by name. Many orchestra members were still there when we first came to Little Rock over forty years ago.

I especially remember one moment many years ago when the first cellist had a twenty-second solo close to the end of the performance. Suddenly, we heard his deep, melodious sound above the rest of the orchestra, and then, just as suddenly, he faded back into the background to support the other instruments.

If I had been him, I would have been too nervous the whole night, waiting for that brief moment when the soloist’s voice soared above the rest of the orchestra. The professional cellist seemed as comfortable blending in the symphony as he was with his solo. He also continuously maintained direct eye contact with the conductor while playing his brief solo part. I later wondered about the many hours he must have practiced this short solo until it was almost part of his being.

The cellist taught me that we spend most of our lives as members of the orchestra with our unique instruments and talents, blending and giving depth to the composition assigned to us.

Sometimes, we are called to speak out above the symphony’s music. Before we do this, however, we should be prepared by practicing, knowing our part intimately, especially the timing, and keeping our eye on the conductor. Most of the time, we are called to spend our gifts blending, supporting, and, in many ways, encouraging the sounds of others.

Putting on a New Pair of Glasses to Live in the Present Moment

   Richard Rohr, Poe: Seeing and Living in the Present Moment

“Most people do not see things as they are because they see things as they are!” Which is not to see at all. Their many self-created filters keep them from seeing with any clear vision.”—Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation, daily Rohr Meditation.

Edgar Allan Poe also gives us more clues about having a clearer vision in “The Purloined Letter.” The Paris police chief asks a famous amateur detective, C. Auguste Dupin, to help him find a letter stolen from the boudoir of an unnamed woman by an unscrupulous minister who is blackmailing his victim. The chief of police and his detectives have combed the hotel where the minister lives, behind the wallpaper, under the carpets, examining tables and chairs with microscopes, probing cushions with needles, and found no sign of the letter. Dupin gets a detailed description of the letter and visits the minister at his hotel.

Complaining of weak eyes and wearing green spectacles, he disguises his eyes as he searches for the note. Finally, he sees it in plain sight, in a cheap card rack hanging from a dirty ribbon. He leaves a snuff box behind as an excuse to return the next day and switches out the letter for a duplicate.

Rohr is calling us to put on a new pair of glasses, perhaps 3-D glasses, to see the depth of what is in plain sight immediately around us in the present moment.

Guides and friends in our community remind us to meet God in the present moment. They remind us to listen to this call from God to live in the present moment, especially in the stories of the Epiphany season in our Sunday Lectionary readings.

Epiphany means an illuminating realization.

 The season of Epiphany calls us to see more clearly, living in the present moment.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/