Epiphany I: Justice and Joy

 

Good Tuesday morning, good citizens of the Season of The Epiphany, which lasts from January 7th through Ash Wednesday.

Many churches like to return to the liturgical color green but I like to keep things white or gold. I think that's especially important "in the bleak midwinter" and before we are plunged into the ice-cold water of Lent and turn purple.

That said, it is also the case that some feel slaves to the color coding of the Ordo Calendar. Whatever is to be done? I've certainly never felt that was an important argument to have. Indeed, most arguments for liturgical change are often stopped dead in their tracks by The Wall built on the firm foundation of the philosophy of the lament: "But, we've always done it this way."

A servant leader must be very careful about which sword upon which she wishes to die.

Well, and so we've had quite a storm to start off the year 2025. The reports are that, in Sussex County, all the major roads are open but the back roads are iffy. Lots of schools and businesses are closed.

We ain't goin' nowhere no how. Even as we speak, God's Snow and Ice Melting Service is very efficiently and quietly working its magic. You can see it in the picture of the marsh I posted below.

If you look at the second picture you can see our neighbor's roof and deck, especially where the snow has melted and slid off their new metal roof and onto their deck furniture. Betsy said she and her spouse heard a Very Loud noise and the next they knew, their sliding glass door was barricaded by snow.

We can't wait for our turn.

Yesterday, during one of the lulls in the snowstorm, a paddling of a half dozen ducks - Mergansers, I think - came to swim and bob in the cracks of the ice. Their frolicking was absolutely mesmerizing, their unbridled joy was contagious.

I wish you could have seen them. I thought to record a short clip but I couldn't move my feet to leave my spot in front of the window to get my cell phone.

It was a real gift. A manifestation of the glory of God. I mean that both in the theological and the literary sense.

The Cambridge dictionary definition of epiphany describes "a moment when you suddenly feel that you understand, or suddenly become conscious of, something that is very important to you. A powerful religious experience."

Sometimes, those moments defy description words. Even if I had filmed the small baby ducks frolicking in the icy water in front of my home, I don't think that would have been adequate to describe the feeling I had, at that moment - in the very midst of that moment - of watching them.

It's going to be especially important to keep the eyes of our hearts open for the Epiphany. This year, there are 57 days in the Season of The Epiphany, from January 7 through Ash Wednesday on March 5th.

There is something in the wind, something more than the Winter wind blowing 'round that causes a shiver to run through the soul. There is a meanness, tinged with cruelty, that intends to challenge the human spirit to its very core.

There is a demand for change but there is no vision about what that may look like, except not this present reality. It's a vision about something that once was, that suited that time and that place, but has long gone and is no more.

It's rather like a pair of shoes you once wore as a child, the memory of which brings joy to the heart but the fit is painful to the foot and impossible to walk with because you've grown out of them.

There is a demand for change the terms of which are transactional not transformation. There is a demand for change but it is far from subtle; rather, it is destructive, insisting on its own way, benefiting the few, costing the most to those who have the least.

We have the gift of 57 days to train our spiritual eyes to look for the manifestations of God that are all around us. It's especially important, this year, to look for the manifestations of joy. I say that because, as the ancient Celts knew, there is an intimate relationship between the nature of joy and the nature of justice.

Where there is joy there is justice and where there is justice there is joy. The season of The Epiphany is a wonderful time to commit ourselves to the radical, life-changing, world-transforming nature of God-incarnate-in-Christ.

The Season of The Epiphany is a time for miracles - we'll be hearing all about the miracles of Jesus this season - about what can happen when we invite in The Light which is the only thing that can overcome the Darkness.

Here's a meditation from Julian which I am using as a meditation on this first day of The Season of The Epiphany. I hope you find it helpful to you.

A Canticle (Song) of Our True Nature
From Julian of Norwich

God is the ground and the substance,*
the very essence of nature;
God is the true father and mother of natures.

We are all bound to God by nature,*
And we are all bound to God by grace.

And this grace is for all the world,*
Because it is our precious mother, Christ.
For this fair nature was prepared by Christ

for the honor and nobility of all,*
And for the joy and bliss of salvation.

I hope something good happens to you today.

Bom dia.