The Twelve Days, and Epiphany

These are the days within a high season of the Christian year. We are amid intriguing feasts. To fit the meaning, our hearts would soar with singing angels from Christmas Day through the Feast of the Epiphany, because the significance of this stretch of days overall is our healing. We recall now that the only begotten Son of God chose to join with the rest of us, daughters and sons of earth. As the Christina Rossetti poem/hymn puts it (Hymn 84):

Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, love divine;
love was born at Christmas: Star and angels gave the sign.

Exuberant joy fits these days. Still, one of the messages of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word is God came into the reality of the world and the human round. This includes grit, grime, tragedy, and cruelty. Reality is the perpetual mixture of things, painful and joyful. To quote another hymn, one we will sing at this Sunday at the 11:00 A.M. Eucharist, (Hymn102) “…with the poor, the scorned, the lowly, lived on earth our Savior holy.” Incarnation conveys God’s sharing of the whole of human existence, this impact is further expounded as we sing verse four:

For he is our lifelong pattern; daily when on earth he grew,
he was tempted, scorned, rejected, tears and smiles like us he knew.
Thus he feels for all our sadness, and he shares in all our gladness.

You see, the Savior shares in our pain, achieving solidarity with us, joining our lot to heal the human race from within by love. He assumed our nature to heal us fully by his divine nature. This process announces the beauty of holiness meets the ugliest edges of our brokenness. Through the two weeks from Christmas Eve through the Epiphany, we embrace anew the wonder that restorative divine love penetrates the wounded human experience.

The Christmas story itself from Luke signals how the presence of the holy interfaces with cruelty. It was the power of Rome, occupying the territory of Judea that called for all citizens of the realm to enroll for Roman taxes. This included the peasants of Nazareth, Mary, and Joseph, who were compelled to travel hurriedly to Bethlehem. It did not matter that it was a long way, It did not matter young Mary was in the third trimester of her pregnancy. The dehumanizing force of the overlord demanded the trip. So rushed, they had no arrangements for their stay, and they settled for shelter among the animals.

What about December 26th, 27th, and 28th. The church observes them, and the particulars of these three days in Christmastide have that same cord of human suffering running through them. The feasts of Saints Stephen and John, and the solemn day of Holy Innocents all deal with Holy Love sanctifying life undiminished even in the context of the broken world. Nothing, it appears, diminishes the love of God.

The Feast of Stephen, Deacon, and Martyr is December 26. Tucked into his martyrdom is the story about how fear and insecurity are seeds of inhumanity. His was a life of compassion. When the expanding task of proclaiming the Word of God outgrew the capacity of the apostles in Jerusalem, they turned to seven trusted Christians to assist them in responsibilities of care for the poor, hungry, widowed, and orphaned folk. The apostles laid hands on Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicholas of Antioch, and Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. The Christian apostolic community sought specialized ministry because it cared. There were many marginalized souls in their midst. These seven are called deacons, which means “servants” because they serve Christ by serving the poor.

Yes, they served, and they also preached, taught, and spread the Good News. The Way of Jesus, this new movement within the Jewish tradition was met with resistance and suspicion. Again, fear spawned hatred, blame, and cruelty. The practical wisdom and spiritual force with which Stephen spoke felt threatening to lead Jewish leaders, so they confronted him. Stephen brilliantly painted in broad strokes. with elements of the scriptures, the picture of God, moving all toward Jesus, the Son of God. So caught up in sharing the truth was he that evidently, it affected even his appearance. The Sanhedrin officials looked intently at him as he taught, and said his face appeared to them like the face of an angel. Stephen, in the throes of his proclamation, was granted a vision of Jesus standing at God’s right hand. The intimidated religious authorities were undone by this heavenly power, rooted in love. They responded by stoning him to death. Before he died, a remarkable final ministry took place. Whom does this sound like?

Stephen called upon God, and said, “Jesus, Lord, receive my spirit!” Then, on his knees, he cried in ringing tones, “Lord, forgive them for this sin.” And with these words he fell into the sleep of death. (Acts 7 59-60 - J.B. Phillips translation)

Human fear, mixed with the intoxicant of human power often results in oppressive action. We learn again on the Feast of Saint John, December 27 the Roman Emperor, probably Domitian who ruled through AD 96, banished John to the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. This Apostle, forcibly restricted produced the gorgeous Gospel with its emphasis to believe in the Son of God is to receive eternal life. He produced the three Epistles we have from him with their emphasis that God is Love and the one who loves is born of God and knows God.

The next day, December 28, Holy Innocents Day, the church is reminded again of how power and fear twist the human spirit. Herod the Great, hearing from sojourning astrologers about the birth of a king in Judea, for they had seen a remarkable star, orders hideous, vindictive precautions. He sent soldiers to kill all the male children of two years and under in Bethlehem and the surrounding district. Joseph, Mary, and the baby, Jesus, escaped, as God warned Joseph in a dream they must flee to Egypt.

The implications of the Incarnation declared in the season of Christmas and the Day of Epiphany is that God has joined us in the most troubling events of this existence. God’s love moves, operates, and saves us despite all that threatens us. The created order is sanctified by God who has joined himself to it. What we creatures face within the creation is not a barrier but a bridge to immortality. We are moving toward the consummation of God’s new creation in which we will be remade. All will be remade. The Word was made flesh brings a message of restoration, not escape. The prayer of the church is that we all find ourselves embraced by arms of Love, by the Savior who came alongside us, by God who keeps company with us.

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face. Thank you, O Love Divine. Thank you, O Light of the world.