The Sick Day after Epiphany

We will not be going to church today.  My spouse has been battling a cold all week, and now I'm battling it too.  And while that fact might not be enough to keep us home, if we had only us to consider, we are aware of how many people at our church are older and/or immuno-compromised in some other way.  We are only having one service, and even if we were careful not to touch anyone, we might still cough and spew out our germs.

Plus, we're both tired.  My spouse gets up, moves around for a bit, and then collapses on the sofa again.

So, we'll have another quiet day at home.   We'll eat the Epiphany bread that I made yesterday. 
I made loaves and a pan of rolls:

I'll pack away the Christmas dishes and the decorations.  I'll finish getting the house in order so that I'm ready to face the week to come.

An Epiphany Meditation

Today is the Feast Day of the Epiphany, the last day of the Christmas season. This day is the one where we celebrate the visit of the Magi, the Wise Men who come to visit the Baby Jesus.  The Magi don’t miss the message of the star. They show up to do the work. They’re not lazing about hoping that something reveals itself. They are present and receptive to the message of the skies. They participate in the discovery of the message.

We might prefer the blaze of angel light, the night sky disrupted, the message plain and clear.  We might wish that we didn't have to rely on a lonely star, beaming its speck of light from such a great distance.  The wise men remind us of the Advent message, the value of watching and waiting and staying alert.

Too often, with both our Christmas story and our Epiphany story, we stay with the happy elements:  we focus on the baby in the manger, the arrival of the wise men, the happy crowd, all assembled.  We forget what happened next.  The journey of the Magi plunges the family into chaos, into flight, into refugee status.  These stories are not all sweetness and light.  Herod feels so threatened that he slaughters every boy in Bethlehem who is under the age of 2.  Forewarned, Mary and Joseph take their baby and flee for their lives.

Today is a good day to ponder the shadow side of this story, which is Herod, who stews over this vision that the wise men have given him. We might think about all the ways we turn good news into bad, of the ways that we stew over our thoughts and turn them into poisonous actions. We might make an Epiphany resolution to watch our thoughts carefully and to track our actions even more carefully.  We might resolve to help refugees who are still being plunged into chaos by the actions of despots.

Today is also a good day to think about wisdom, about gifts, about staying alert and watchful.  Let us not forget these important Advent and Christmas messages.  Most of us have already bid good-bye to Christmas and returned to our every day lives. Today is a good day to take one last Christmas moment, to recover our capacity for wonder, to delight in the miraculous, to look for the unexpected, and to rejoice in the amazing Good News of a God who loves us so much that the Divine One comes to live with us.

Epiphany Eve: The Path We Make by Dreaming

Here we are, at the 12th day of Christmas, the day before Epiphany.  Tradition has it that we should take down our Christmas decorations today, to avoid bad luck in the new year.  Hmm.  I've always waited until Epiphany--although if I'm being honest, I often wait until my husband does it, and he usually takes care of the undecorating on Epiphany.

We will likely take down the Christmas decorations tomorrow.  We're having some family members over on Sunday, and we'll need to do some cleaning, which will likely inspire us to put away the seasonal stuff too.

On Jan Richardson's blog post, I read about an interesting tradition, Women's Christmas, which is traditionally celebrated on Epiphany:  "In some parts of the world, Epiphany (January 6, which brings the Christmas season to a close) is celebrated as Women's Christmas. Originating in Ireland, where it is known as Nollaig na mBan, Women's Christmas began as a day when the women, who often carried the domestic responsibilities all year, took Epiphany as an occasion to enjoy a break and celebrate together at the end of the holidays."

She also includes a link to a free download of her Retreat for Women's Christmas, which includes  readings, art, questions--a great resource if you're in the mood for a contemplative treat with a spiritual theme, all done in a wonderful way.

She creates a retreat each year, and the theme for this year's retreat is "The Path We Make by Dreaming."  I love that theme, and I look forward to having time to explore the materials she's created.

May this be the week-end that we see the visions that we seek, even if they twinkle at us from a distance so very far away.  May we have the courage to move towards that vision, even if it requires a great journey or a different kind of leap of faith.

Snow Between Christmas and Epiphany

Snow swirls into the crevices and coastlines rarely affected this way.  Ponds freeze first, and then roads, and in some places, even the surf crystalizes.

We have just celebrated a season of waiting and watching.  We have heard of angels who tell us not to be afraid. 

We have heard of stars that twinkle a secret.  We keep an eye on the skies that deliver us only snow.

We know that the earth only looks cold and dead.  Beneath the surface where we walk, seeds await the signal for rebirth.

So it can be for us.  Soon we will unfurl our sprouts of magnificence.

But for now, let us curl into our hibernations.  Let us wait for that which will warm us.

Meditation on This Sunday's Gospel

The readings for Sunday, Jan. 8, 2018:


Genesis 1:1-5

Psalm 29

The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. (Ps. 29:3)

Acts 19:1-7

Mark 1:4-11

This Sunday marks the baptism of Christ. I can't help but think of all the years that are missing in this cycle--what would Christ have been like, as an adolescent, as a young carpenter?

I love the words of God in this baptism: "Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased." Note that God says this at the beginning of Christ's ministry, before Jesus has actually done much. In fact, in this Gospel of Mark, the baptism scene is our first introduction to Jesus. Mark doesn't give us a nativity story.

Here's the best news of all: God feels the same way about you.

God feels the same way about you: you are God's chosen ones; God is well pleased with each and every one of you.

For those of us who might have grown up with the idea of an angry God, a punishing parent, this message can be quite powerful. God loves you, regardless of what you've done, in spite of what you've done. God's love has nothing to do with what you've accomplished. Certainly God has ideas of how we can live our best lives, in much the way a friend wants what's best for a friend, a parent wants a child to make choices that will lead the child to fulfillment. But regardless of what we've done or not done, regardless of the roads we've taken, regardless of how well we're living our mission to be the light of Christ in the world, God loves us.

This is a powerful message as we start the new year. For some of us, a new year is a chance to beat ourselves up over how much we haven't accomplished. We think of all the past resolutions we haven't been able to keep. We think of all the ways we haven't been our best selves. We think of all the people we've disappointed. We can quickly spiral into a vicious circle of self-hatred and depression.

God knows all the ways we might not deserve it, but God loves us anyway. Again, that's the great thing about being a Lutheran and believing in grace--God knows us completely, and God loves us thoroughly. We don't have to do anything to earn this love. Indeed, we can't.

Look at the great lengths God has gone to to let us know of that love. Think of the Christmas and Epiphany stories. God becomes a little baby, born in a stable--and why? To let us know of God's love. God becomes a refugee because of Herod's jealousy. God loves us so much--the Bible is full of stories that show God going to great lengths to show humanity this love. An observent person might say that God still goes to great lengths to get our attention.

The juxtaposition of Epiphany and the Baptism of Christ also gives us an opportunity to see how differently people respond to this gift of grace and love. Herod is so threatened that he slaughters every child in Bethlehem and the surrounding region. John, on the other hand, tells everyone about the coming arrival of Jesus.

How will you respond to God's great gift of love?

Messiahs, Last Jedis, and Christmas Connections

On our recent trip to San Diego, we went to a beautiful Lutheran church downtown for Christmas Eve service.  We sang almost every Christmas carol possible, and we had communion.  We took our lit candles out into the chilly patio--we sang "Go Tell It on the Mountain," after singing "Silent Night" as we lit the candles; it was that kind of service.

And then we walked the 6 or so blocks back to our swanky downtown hotel.  We saw people sleeping on the ground, and I thought about the Gospel and what it means when there's no room at the inn.  On every block, people settled down to sleep on sidewalks and huddled beside buildings as Christmas Eve moved to Christmas morning.

I prayed for them as we walked past; the act of praying made me realize how many San Diego residents sleep/live out in the open.  I wanted to do more.  I had a vision of passing out Christmas cookies, but I had left them in my freezer a continent away.

I wish I could do more, like providing affordable housing.  But I know that homelessness is a complex issue.  If everyone had a house, we'd need a source of funding to care for the house.  Not everyone can hold down a job.  Not everyone is mentally stable enough to live in a house alone or with family members.  Not everyone wants to stay put.

On Christmas day, we hiked back down the hill to the Gaslamp district to see the latest Star Wars movie.  I'm a different kind of geek, the kind that sees the Jungian architecture, the one who sees everything through my English major lens, the one who can find a theological reading for every pop culture product that comes my way.

How interesting to see The Last Jedi less than 24 hours after Christmas Eve service and after an Advent month of longing--and after a political season that has included shifts I never would have forecast or believed.  I spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of theology the movie presents.  It's an interesting blend of ancient religions and modern spirituality, as always.  I don't believe that the movie tells us that the destiny of humans is pre-ordained--and how interesting that twist is to me.

I love the message of the movie, at least the take-away message for me:  we don't fight evil by adopting the tools of the evil regime, we fight evil by saving what we love.  A parallel message is that we don't have to be part of a spiritual dynasty to join the fight for the future--the Force is available to us all.

I thought of our cultural desire for a Messiah, for someone who will save us.  But we're often doomed by our insistence on being the Messiah--it was interesting to watch this movie with the words of John the Baptist ringing in my head:  "I am not the Messiah."  I'm still thinking about these parallel ideas--how to respond to a world with so much need for a Messiah?  We can't be the Messiah, but people need more than just the promise that a Messiah will come.  I worry that I'm transposing my theological ideas on the movie, but here it is:  the Force (which I've always understood to be God) operates much more effectively in the world when there are spiritually attuned people to help.  Those light sabers and rocks won't move themselves. 

The idea that the Force can be used for good or for evil (or for profoundly mixed motives) isn't one that Christianity traditionally presents to believers, but it makes sense to me.  I don't see God as a parent, but as a partner, albeit a partner who knows more and has more resources than I do.

We left the movie and walked back through the ritzy dining establishments that were open on Christmas day.  We left the Gaslamp district and walked by all the people setting up camp for the night by the city's sidewalks.  We exchanged Christmas greetings.

And again, I prayed for us all.

Renovate 2018!

The sun slowly rises.  The last time I saw the sun I was 30,000 + feet above the earth, as the onboard airline map showed me I looked down on the Mississippi River flowing to the Gulf of Mexico; it was a magnificent sunset as the plane flew from San Diego to Miami.  I reflected on the fact that it was the last sunset of 2017, and I was finishing the last book I would read in 2017, Lauren Grodstein's Our Short History.

I felt a bit weepy, both from the content of the book and the fact that the year was ending and the fact that my vacation was ending.  I'll say more about my vacation in the coming days.  Today, let me do my traditional New Year's Day thing and think about my plans and goals for the coming year.

In some ways, my plans and goals are the same as they always are.  More of what I want to invite into my life:  more writing, more intentional time with friends and loved ones, more healthy practices like eating vegetables and getting some exercise each day.  Less of the things which sap my joy in life:  less anger at the national news, less TV, less consuming of food and alcohol which will leave me less healthy as the years go by.

Some years I try to choose a word that will be a motto or mantra for the coming year.  This year's word is either "Remodel" or "Renovation."  Readers may remember that finishing the house renovations was my goal for 2017--and it was, but then, life (a huge accreditation project at work primarily) and Hurricane Irma, intervened.

A year ago, my spouse and I had decided to renovate the house first, and then with any money left over, to renovate the cottage.  But that was before the hurricane damage; now, we need to have a 2 pronged approach.  Right now, the cottage needs a new AC/heat system and flooring, at the minimum.  The big house needs to have all the floors replaced, a new wrinkle to our plans.  We still need to have a remodeled kitchen, and I'm wondering if it would be wise to rip out the walls in the small laundry room that got soaked from hurricane damage aftereffects.  We need a new fence and gates.

Let me remember the small, bright lights of good house news that came out of the hurricane.  Our roof is in good shape, a fact confirmed by several inspectors.  We have good neighbors.  We have insurance policies that will pay us when we have damage.

I like the words renovate and remodel because they suggest that there's no need to abandon our current lives and spaces.  We have a good foundation--let's build on that for 2018!