Extra Epiphany
Aka what didn't make the sermon
Hi all! Below you’ll find some of the content that didn’t make the sermon on January 7, 2024. The text was Isaiah 60:1-6 and it is the Sunday we traditionally celebrate the journey of the Magi.
Poetry
Just a reminder poetry is meant to be read out loud. Even if you just read it to yourself!
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
BY WALT WHITMAN
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Epiphany
Unclench your fists
Hold out your hands.
Take mine.
Let us hold each other.
Thus is his Glory
Manifest.
Madeleine L’Engle
from The Weather of the Heart, p. 17
THE CHURCH YEAR
excerpt:
“The church is Epiphany,
We are the Magi, searching,
resplendent in this world’s accouter
of knowledge and wealth and achievement.
But we search for something more.
And-of all unlikely places-
in a stable
the Deity appears.
The morning of our Lord
bursts in upon our ordinary lives
like fireworks in the snow.
Only God would send a little baby King,
and we are on our knees,
where we are within reach of our full personhood.”
From Kneeling in Bethlehem page 80 by Ann Weems
Music
Thanks to Diana Butler Bass and her Substack The Cottage for turning me onto this piece of music Take Us Home By Another Way by Christopher Grundy.
Art
I did talk about how the Magi’s gifts were for Mary not Jesus. Gold financed the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-23). Frankincense was a calming incense (perhaps similar to giving a new mom essential oils today). Myrrh was used in the ancient world for postpartum healing. I love the icon below that depicts Mary.
The artist states the image was inspired by the following poem by Sr. Ilia Delio:
"What do the stars say?
The light that meets our eyes after millions of years summons us to look beyond.
The dark that hovers over us is filled with light.
That underneath the appearance of the stable heavens is the bubbling energy of the universe.
We are forming, forming, forming and nothing can stop us.
There is a palpable power of attraction, pulling us toward we-no-not-where.
Love alone is the guide of the universe and the whole universe is in the human heart.
Tend to the heart and the power of love will name itself as God."
If you want to explore more of Kelly Latimore’s work click here.
Blessing
For Those Who Have Far to Travel
If you could see
the journey whole,
you might never
undertake it,
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.
Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping,
step by
single step.
There is nothing
for it
but to go,
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:
to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;
to keep an open eye
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions,
beyond fatigue,
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.
There are vows
that only you
will know:
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.
Keep them, break them,
make them again;
each promise becomes
part of the path,
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel
to offer the gift
most needed—
the gift that only you
can give—
before turning to go
home by
another way.
—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace
Be wise. Be kind. Be you!
-Pastor Jennifer