Preparing for Epiphany

Some years in church, it's easier to work in Epiphany than other years.  Last year, New Year's Day was on a Sunday, which was a Lessons and Carols Sunday, which meant I could be away.  January 7, the following Sunday, was the Baptism of Our Lord Sunday.  But this year, the Feast Day of Epiphany (Jan. 6) falls on the day after Christmas II; if I had been in charge of the Lectionary, we'd be doing Epiphany tomorrow, instead of the first chapter of John.

Happily, I've thought of a way to make it all work.  I wanted to do a repeat of the Epiphany stars that I did for my Florida church in 2017, and happily, I thought of this possibility before it was too late.  I took advantage of some post-Christmas sales and bought some glittery cardstock.  I downloaded some templates.  I invited some neighborhood Create in Me friends over to play.  

I knew that I would be creating stars for Sunday, and it was fine with me if my friends helped or if they created Epiphany cards to give away.  We had a great time doing a mix of projects, and in the end, I got my stars done in record time.

I wrote words on the back of each one.  As we talked, words came to me, and I used them.  I want to believe it's the Holy Spirit at work, but it may be my own brain.  I had looked at some word lists, like this one, but in the end, I went my own way.

I will be suggesting that members of my congregation use them in a variety of ways.  They're portable, which means they could travel through the year, in a pocket, a backpack, or a car.  We could use the word to inform our reading through the year or to inform the way we view popular media or the news.  We could use the word and think about the variety of meanings, as well as the kind of meditating that we'd be doing if we had pulled a word that meant the opposite. 

But most important, I want us to use the stars to train ourselves to listen for what God might be saying.  We won't always have an angel choir or a John the Baptist yelling at us.  We live in increasing amounts of noise, and a star word might be what we need to focus our brains to look away from what the powers and principalities of our time want us to stay focused on, the stories that cause us to feel fear and pain and powerlessness.

Meditation on This Sunday's Gospel

The readings for Sunday, January 5, 2025:

First Reading: Jeremiah 31:7-14

First Reading (Alt.): Sirach 24:1-12

Psalm: Psalm 147:13-21 (Psalm 147:12-20 NRSV)

Psalm (Alt.): Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14

Gospel: John 1:[1-9] 10-18

When I was younger, the Gospel of John confounded me. What kind of nativity story did John give us? Does he not know the power of narrative, the importance of a hook in the beginning?

I missed the Nativity stories. Where were the humans responding to the good news that the angels gave them? What happened to the baby Jesus?

Look at verse 14, which may be familiar: "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father." As a child, I'd have screamed, "What does that mean? How does word become flesh?"

If we've been alive any length of time, we understand this passage in an intuitive way. Words become flesh every day. We begin to shape our reality by talking about it. We shape our relationships through our words which then might lead to deeds, which is another way of talking about flesh.

Think about your primary relationships. Perhaps this coming year could be the year when we all treat the primary people in our lives with extra care and kindness. If we treat people with patience and care, if we say please and thank you more, we will shape the flesh of our relationships into something different. Alternately, if we're rude and nasty to people, they will respond with rudeness and cruelty--we've shaped the flesh of the world into a place where we don't want to live.

In the past few years, we've seen this passage and the ideas behind it playing out on all sorts of larger stages. We seem to be living in a much uglier world. How can we begin to reweave this frazzled and frayed fabric of our lives?

It's time to think about the New Year, and some of us will make resolutions. What can you do to make your words and beliefs take flesh? How can we do more to make a reality from the wonderful visions that God has for our lives? How can we make God's word flesh in our lives?

Setting Spiritual Intentions for 2025

As you set your New Year's goals and intentions, as you make resolutions, do you also set some religious/spiritual goals, intentions, and resolutions?  And then do you track what you're doing?

I am conflicted over the whole process of making goals and tracking.  On the one hand, I know that the research and the life experience of many of us tells us that making specific goals and keeping track can keep us more focused/disciplined than if we didn't do such a thing.

On the other hand, we can use the process as a way of beating ourselves up, feeling like we're never good enough, and this mental process can lead us further away from the disciplines that could bring us closer to God.  We need less of that, not more.

So here are some ideas that I'm thinking about; perhaps you'll want to join me in these aspirations.

Prayer

--Praying more often throughout the day:  I do a good job of spending some time in prayer each morning.  I use Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours, and I use my church's Facebook site to lead a devotional time.   But I rarely do the other prayers.  I like using the prayer manual because I don't have to be able to articulate my own prayers.

--Writing down my prayers:  I've often thought it would be great to write down my prayers, to have a record.

--Having a prayer partner:  It's the spiritual equivalent of having an accountability partner, someone who helps us show up.

Experiencing Something New

Maybe we want to try a new spiritual discipline.  Maybe we want to go on retreat.  Maybe we want to worship with a new community.  

Or maybe the something new would involve taking something away and seeing what comes to fill the space or how long we could maintain the emptiness.

Charity and Social Justice

I can always do more in this area, and sadly, I don't anticipate the need to do more going away anytime soon.  I'd encourage us to look for ways to share our joys.  If we love to quilt, we can make quilts for a charity group or we can teach children to quilt.

Share Our Joys

The idea of sharing our joys feels like something that deserves its own category.  I have been a bit appalled by how many people are sharing their anger on social media.  Let's share our joys!