Grace and St. Stephen`s Episcopal Church

Grace and St. Stephen’s
Episcopal Church
Artist, Gerard van Honthorst (1590–1656), “The Adoration of the Shepherds” 25 December 1622
Seasonal Journal
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 Introducing the Seasons: Advent, Christmas, and
Epiphany
By the Rev. Stephen Zimmerman, Rector
4 An Advent Meditation
By The Rev. Linda Seracuse
6 Editor’s Note: John Donne’s “Annunciation” and
“Nativitie” and the Paradoxes of Christ’s Birth
By Joan Klingel Ray
9 Christmas Day sermon, Washington National Cathedral (2012)
By The Very Rev. Gary Hall
12 “What sweeter music can we bring?”
By Deke Polifka, Organist and Choir Master I
12 Our Children During Advent, Christmas, and
Epiphany
By Helen Hazleton, Director of Children’s Education
14 Understanding the Incarnation and Grace Church’s
Outreach Efforts
By Father Nick Myers
15 Stewardship of our Bodies
By Irma Crepps, RN and Cindy Page, RN, Grace and
St. Stephen’s Parish Nurses
16 Encountering Scripture From Advent Through
Epiphany
By Father Steve Zimmerman
17 An Epiphany Message Preached at the Collegiate
Church of St Peter Westminster, London, By The Very
Reverend Dr. John Hall, 38th Dean of Westminster
INTRODUCING THE SEASONS: ADVENT,
CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY
By the Rev. Stephen Zimmerman, Rector
This issue of the Seasonal Journal covers
three seasons of the Church Year: Advent, Christmas,
and Epiphany. The Church Year developed over centuries, as a way to sanctify time. Instead of marking the
passing of time by changes in the position of the earth
to the sun, the Church year relates different seasons of
time to events in the history of revelation. Thus, the first
half of the year—the seasons of Advent, Christmas,
Epiphany, Lent and Easter—celebrates the Son of God
incarnate in Jesus Christ. The second half of the
Church Year, the season of Pentecost, celebrates the
Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. Of course, the Holy
Spirit is present in the life and ministry of Jesus, and
the Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of Jesus, and bears
witness to Him. So the focus on one person of the Trinity always includes the other Persons. God is One: a
Holy Communion. Nevertheless, each season of the
Church Year has its own focus, themes, liturgical piety
and color.
The Season of Advent
The Church Year begins with the Season of
Advent, which consists of the four weeks before Christmas. The color of the season is purple, which is associated with royalty and with penitence. Some churches
use blue, instead of purple, which is associated with
truth and with the Virgin Mary. On the First Sunday of
Advent, Inquirers in the Faith-Seeking Journey are admitted into a period of formation by reflecting on the
Sunday Lessons, as Seekers with us of life in Christ.
Advent is a season of anticipation and preparation. Throughout Advent, we anticipate the coming of
Jesus, in our hearts, in history and as the End of all
things. As we anticipate His coming, we prepare to re-
Joan Ray, Ph.D., editor;
Pam White, MBA, graphics and layout editor
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ceive Him to celebrate His birth, not only by commemorating His birth in Bethlehem, but also His birth in our
lives, through faith. Our anticipation and preparation
naturally includes self-examination. And so, inevitably
Advent sounds a penitential note, within the broader
themes of anticipation and preparation.
During Advent, we hear of John the Baptist, the
greatest of the Old Testament prophets, who announces
the One who is to come: Who will baptize with the Holy
Spirit. We also hear of Mary, who receives the message
of the Angel, and conceives the Christ child. John calls
us to repentance. Mary calls us to receive the Word of
God.
color of joy and purity. The themes of Christmas are
incarnation and God-with-us, which is the translation of
Immanuel. Giving gifts to others is one of the major
ways we celebrate Christmas. God is a giver. God gave
His Son for us. God gives us Life. God gives the Holy
Spirit to all who ask Him. As we receive the "gifts of God
for the people of God," God's love is poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit, and we naturally (or supernaturally) become givers, too.
The celebration of the birth of Jesus lasts twelve
days. Each day should be an opportunity for joy, celebration and generosity. Think of what it would be like to
have twelve days of joyful fellowship and generosity after a
Many customs have grown
season of anticipation and prep“God is One: a Holy Communion. Nevertheup around the season of Advent,
less, each season of the Church Year has its
aration. Think how that would
such as making Advent wreaths
own focus, themes, liturgical piety and color.”
change our prepaand decorating Christmas Trees.
The Rev. Stephen Zimmerman, Rector
ration and our celebraEven shopping is a part of our Adtion. Too often, our preparavent preparation, as we think of
tion is frantic, and our celebraothers, and of the gift of the Christ
tion is brief. When it is over we are left with the “holiday
child to us all. As God so loved us that He gave His only
blues.” Why not celebrate for twelve days? Leave the
begotten Son, so that we might have Eternal Life, so His
Christmas tree up until Epiphany and give someone you
gift to us inspires us to become givers, too. And as we
love a gift each day during Christmas.
become more generous, we become more like Him, who
loves us, and gave Himself for us.
The Season of Epiphany
The Season of Christmas
The season of Epiphany begins on January 6th,
when we celebrate the manifestation of Jesus as the
Light of the World to the Gentiles with the visitation of
the three Wise Men. The word "epiphany" means manifestation. The first Sunday after the Epiphany is the
Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, and one of the four days
appointed for the celebration of the sacrament of Baptism in the Church.
The Season of Christmas begins with the Feast
of the Nativity, on December 25th, and includes Holy
Name Day, January 1st. The Bible does not tell us when
Jesus was born. Christians began celebrating the birth
of Jesus on December 25th sometime during the Fifth
Century. December 25th is the winter solstice in the Julian calendar, used at that time. Pagans celebrated the
day as the feast of the birth of the Sun god. Christians
baptized the pagan festival by celebrating it as the birth
of Jesus, the true Light of the world.
The liturgical color of Christmas is white, the
The season of Epiphany ends with Ash
Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Because Lent is
the forty days before Easter, the season of Epiphany
varies in length. This year, Easter is late, so Epiphany
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will be long. The liturgical color of Epiphany is green,
which is associated with life. During Epiphany, we hear
of the ministry of Jesus, his teachings, and his miracles. The themes of Epiphany have to do with living
into our baptism, as disciples of Jesus, and celebrating
Jesus is the Light of God's Truth revealed. During
Epiphany, we practice seeing God at work in the world,
and in our lives, by praying for God to open the eyes of
our faith, so that we might behold Him in all His redeeming works. And, as we see Him more clearly, we
pray that we might “love Him
more dearly, and follow Him
more nearly” into Eternal Life.
As we read the quoted words,
we may hear the familiar tune
from Godspell in our minds’
ears. But they are historically
ascribed to Richard, Bishop of
Chichester (1197-1253), who is
said to have prayed these
Bishop of Chichester
words on his deathbed.
AN ADVENT MEDITATION
By The Rev. Linda Seracuse
Among our liturgical resources is the Book of
Occasional Services, which includes the Advent Bidding Prayer: a bidding prayer is an informal intercessory prayer. I pray this when I light the candles on my
Advent wreathe, and I encourage you to do this. Here
is the prayer:
Dear People of God: In the season of Advent,
it is our responsibility and joy to prepare ourselves to hear once more the message of the
Angels, to go to Bethlehem and see the Son of
God lying in a manger. Let us hear and heed
in Holy Scripture the story of God’s loving pur-
pose from the time of our rebellion against him
until the glorious redemption brought to us by
his holy Child Jesus, and let us look forward to
the yearly remembrance of his birth with hymns
and songs of praise. But first, let us pray for
the needs of his whole world, for peace and
justice on earth, for the unity and mission of the
church for which he died.
... And because he particularly loves them, let
us remember in his name the poor and helpless, the cold, the hungry and the oppressed,
the sick and those who mourn, the lonely and
unloved, the aged and little children, as well as
those who do not know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. …let us remember before God his
pure and lowly Mother, and that whole multitude which no one can number, whose hope
was in the Word made flesh, and whom, in Jesus, we are one for evermore. AMEN (BOS,
2003, pp. 32-33)
This Advent Bidding prayer touches on important aspects of preparing our hearts for the coming
of God into our midst: preparation for the remembrance of the first coming and for the future second
coming.
It makes clear that we actively wait and prepare ourselves through prayer. We, as Christians,
have committed ourselves to daily prayer. We, as
Christians, are called to heed Paul’s exhortation to
“Pray always!”
This time of year I find many people coming to
me to talk about lives that are in disarray. When I ask
them about their prayer life, the stock reply is, “My
prayer life? I barely have time to eat. When am I supposed to find time to pray?” I would suggest that there
is a connection between the two: between the chaos of
our lives and our unwillingness to set aside time to be
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with God in prayer. We know that we do make time for
all manner of other activities. We daily make choices
about how we spend our time.
that.
We’ll be too busy singing!
This year will be different! (Weems, 65-66)
We all know what happens when communication breaks down in a relationship. When we shut off
communication through lack of attention to conversation with God through prayer and time with the Word,
God waits patiently. In this time of waiting, God, too, is
waiting – waiting for us, for our response to the gift of
love. But we cannot reap the benefits of this patient
love when we choose chaos over quality time resting
with God.
This year can be different if we choose to focus on the meaning of this liturgical season, instead of
on the trappings of a secular world with its focus on a
different “bottom line” from ours as devoted Christians.
Advent is a season of Faith. Faith lies in the
land of a radical conviction of God’s redeeming love.
In prayer and reflection our faith is strengthened even
as the days grow shorter.
Advent is a season of Hope, which comes in
an atmosphere of faith. Hope does not have easy sailing. Courage is necessary to confront the buffeting
winds and waves of life. Even in the winter times of life
God does not leave us without comfort. Hope empowers us to face the future with determination and fortitude.
Advent is a season of Love – an experience of
God’s love for us and for the world. Even as the days
lose more and more of their light, we are given this light
of grace, a light of love to counter the darkness and
anxieties of life. God’s love makes us lovable in an
active sense, empowering us to love. The one essential gift we can give this season is love.
Advent is a season of Compassion. Our God
comes to us again and again because our suffering
and troubled lives are known in heaven. This embrace
of our human situation and this participation in our sorrows and joys are the result of divine compassion.
Compassion gives meaning to life. Advent is an invitation to take upon ourselves the burdens of others just
as our God came to be with us and bear our burdens.
It is easy to say that there is no time for anything else
in this season; however, let us remember and respond
with compassionate hearts.
Advent is a season of Truth – the astounding
truth that God is with us in Jesus. We need to hear it
In her book of poetry, Kneeling in Bethlehem
(John Knox Press, 1987), Ann Weems, a Presbyterian
Elder, speaker, liturgist, and workshop leader, speaks
to this in her poem, “This Year Will be Different.” I
share a portion of this with you:
Who among us does not have dreams
that this year will be different?
Who among us does not intend to go
peacefully, leisurely, carefully toward Bethlehem
for who among us likes to cope with the
commercialism of Christmas
which lures us to tinsel not only the tree
but also our heart?…
Who among us does not yearn
for time for our hearts to ponder the Word of God?
moments of kneeling and bursts of song?
the peace of quiet calm for our spirit’s journey?
This year we intend to follow the Star
instead of the crowd. …
And this year
let’s do what Mary did and rejoice in God,
let’s do what Joseph did and listen to our dreams,
let’s do what the Wise Men did and go to worship,
let’s do what the shepherds did and praise and glorify
God
for all we’ve seen and heard!
As for the Advent frantic pace, we don’t have time for
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and tell it to others. Advent is a season for us to share
the Good News with a hurting world that needs to hear
it.
Advent is a season of Courtesy. It is a hospitality that emerges from trust and deep love. By God’s
grace we are hosts for those who need the Lord.
There are many occasions in this season of Advent
when courtesy would be a welcome gift. May we seek
to be the courteous ones.
This brings us back to where we started. Advent is a season of Prayer. We are to give God quality
time as we seek to deepen our bond of unity with our
Creator. We need personal and public prayer; we need
the quiet of the heart and the gathered assembly in
worship. I invite you now into a time of silence and
prayer to contemplate how we are preparing in this
Season of Faith, Season of Hope, Season of Love,
Season of Truth, Season of Courtesy, Season of Prayer.
Let us pray, using the words and thoughts of
the Rev. Ted Loder, a retired Methodist Minister, from
his book Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle
(Fortress Press):
How silently
how silently
the wondrous gift is given.
I would be silent now,
Lord
and expectant…
that I may receive
the gift I need
so I may become
the gifts others need. AMEN
EDITOR’S MESSAGE
John Donne
John Donne’s “Annunciation” and “Nativitie” and
the Paradoxes of Christ’s Birth
By Joan Klingel Ray
Like the slightly younger George Herbert, John
Donne (1572-1631) was an Anglican priest, rising to
serve as Dean of St. Pauls’ Cathedral, London, where
unlike Herbert, who resided in and preached to a small
country village, Donne preached to the wealthy and
powerful. Donne’s poetical style, later identified as the
metaphysical style, influenced Herbert’s. Unlike Herbert, however, Donne wrote both secular and religious
poetry. The latter includes a series of seven interconnected sonnets (14-line poems) called La Corona,
meaning the crown (1608-09), that tell the story of
Christ’s Life. Beginning with an introductory poem, La
Corona’s subsequent six sonnets are titled (in Donne’s
spelling) “Annunciation,” “Nativitie,” “Temple,”
“Crucifying,” “Resurrection,” and “Ascention.”
The interconnectedness of the sonnets is not
simply because each sonnet tells of a successive event
in Jesus’s life. Rather, the final or 14th line of each sonnet is repeated as the first line of the subsequent sonnet, continuing throughout the seven sonnets. Then to
form a structural circle (and a crown is circular in
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shape, of course), the final line of the final sonnet is the
first line of the first sonnet of the series.
Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,
For this issue of our church Journal, I am presenting the second and third sonnets of La Corona,
“Annunciation” and “Nativitie” because the journal covers both Advent and Christmas. Granted, we celebrate the Annunciation by Gabriel to Mary that she will
bear our Savior in the spring (Luke 1: 26-35). But because Donne’s “Nativitie” echoes ideas from
“Annunciation,” I am including the annunciation poem,
too. This is appropriate I suggest, for Advent. The Latin
adventus comes from the Greek word parousia meaning the coming again of Christ. Advent (from the Latin
word adventus meaning, "coming") is a season observed in many Western Christian churches. We think
of it as being our time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas. It is that, and more.
In prison, in thy womb; and though He there
The Latin adventus is a translation of the
Greek word parousia, which means Coming Again of
Christ; a Second Coming. As Christians, we believe
that the season of Advent is a reminder of the Hebrews’ longing for the birth of the Messiah, but also it’s
about Christians waiting in expectation for Christ's return.
Before we examine these poems, note that the
sonnets of La Corona use the Italian sonnet format,
wherein the first eight lines (called the octave or octet)
rhyme ABBAABBA. The final six lines of a Petrarchan
sonnet vary in rhyme scheme, but they do not repeat
the As and Bs of the octave; for this sonnet the final six
lines rhyme as CDCDEE.
Annunciation
Salvation to all that will is nigh;
That All, which always is all everywhere,
Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,
1
4
Lo, faithful virgin, yields Himself to lie
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He will wear,
Taken from thence, flesh, which death’s force may try. 8
Ere by the spheres time was created, thou
9
Wast in His mind, who is thy Son and Brother;
Whom thou conceivst, conceived; yea thou art now
Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother;
12
Thou hast light in dark, and shutst in little room,
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.
14
The poet announces that salvation to all who
want it, who will it, who act to achieve it, is near. God
is “That All.” As Paul writes in Ephesians, “There is one
God and Father of all, who is over all and through all
and in all” (4:6). God is infinite; He is transcendent; He
is omnipotent; He is omnipresent; He is omniscient.
God cannot sin (1.3), but ironically as Christ He will
bear all sins. God is infinite, yet (l. 4) as Jesus, He
must choose to die. Notice how the poet emphasizes
the Unity of the first two entities of the Trinity.
In line five, the speaker addresses Mary, telling
her that God (“That All”) is willing to be in her womb,
which he also says is a “prison.” Dating from Medieval
times, the body was considered a prison, for it imprisons the soul. While her human body is thus a prison,
she will not infect or affect Him with human sin. Yet He
will take from her body the fleshly form of a human being (rendered as clothing: “He will wear”) (l.7). And as a
human being, made of flesh and blood, “death’s force
may try” or test (“try’”) him—as death will on the Cross.
Line 9 begins the sestet, whereby the poet
offers a cosmology. Using the Ancient and Medieval
view that the cosmos consisted of a series of consistently moving concentric spheres, each sphere carrying
a heavenly body (what we would call planets, stars, the
moon, the sun, etc.), the poet refers to Aristotle’s stat-
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ing that time is caused by the movement of the spheres
when he writes, “Ere by the spheres time was created.” Before the spheres created physical time, you,
Mary, were created in the mind of God. Now come
some paradoxes: a paradox is a figure of speech in
which a statement that appears to be contradictory is
not.
Seest thou, my soul, with thy faith’s eyes, how He
Mary’s son, Jesus, is the Father’s Son, and all
God’s creatures are brothers. Thus, the human Jesus
is Mary’s Son and Brother. And also paradoxically, the
baby Jesus, whom Mary conceived, also (as God) conceived her (“Whom thou conceivst, conceived”): for
Mary is a child of God. The unity of the Father and the
Son is implicit in these lines.
In the opening line, “Immensity cloistered in thy
dear womb,” the poet repeats the paradox that was the
final line of the previous sonnet. God is Infinite—
“Immensity”—taking human form as the Baby Jesus in
the womb of Mary, who is addressed at the poem’s
opening: “thy dear womb.” Again consider this paradox: God, the Infinite and Omnipotent, in the form of
Baby Jesus, is within a human womb, the most private
of places, and about to emerge as a human baby, the
most helpless of human beings. Mary’s womb is His
protective cloister, a sacred place. In Mary’s womb,
God, the All-Powerful, the Omnipotent, intentionally
(“His intent”) took on human form, thus making Himself
“Weak enough” to come into the world as a mere human baby.
Pregnant with Jesus, Mary is paradoxically, the
“maker” of her Maker and the Mother of her Father
(again because of the Unity of the Father and the Son).
In her physical womb, which is dark, she contains light,
for “God is light” (1 John 1:5). And her womb—again
paradoxically—is the little room that cloisters (a cloister
is a protective enclosure) “Immensity,” or the Infinite
Being, God, in the body of Jesus.
The next sonnet, “Nativitie,” addresses a brief
and specific chronological event (the physical birth of
Jesus) in a specific humble location (the stable) that
has timeless and universal significance. The final six
lines rhyme as CDDCEE.
“Nativitie”
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb,
1
Now leaves His well-belov’d imprisonment,
There He hath made Himself to His intent
Weak enough, now into the world to come;
4
But O, for thee, for Him, hath the inn no room?
Yet lay Him in this stall, and from the Orient,
Stars and wise men will travel to prevent
The effect of Herod’s jealous general doom.
8
Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie?
Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high,
That would have need to be pitied by thee?
12
Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go,
With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe.
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Beginning in line 5 and continuing through line
8, the poet refers to familiar elements of the Nativity
Story: there being no room at the inn (Luke 2:7), the
star that guided the visiting Wise Men (Matthew 2:1-2),
and King Herod’s ordering the Massacre of the Innocents (Mathew 2:3-16). Notice that Donne brings together the Nativity stories of Matthew and Luke.
Line 9 begins the sestet (group of six lines)
and signals a turn or volta: the speaker now addresses
his soul, asking it a rhetorical question: do its (his
soul’s) “eyes of faith” see how the Infinite (God, Christ)
—“Which fills all space” (l. 9) because God is transcendent and omnipresent—has no space to be born
other than a stable? He continues: Because of Jesus’s
“wondrous high” pity for us, he died for our sins; there-
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fore, shouldn’t we pity this little baby Jesus who is born
in a stable? Here, then, is another mysterious paradox
of the Nativity: God’s pity for us humans invites us to
pity the Baby Jesus’s nativity circumstances.
known as Washington National Cathedral. Called the
The closing couplet directs the poet—and perhaps another human being actually at the scene of the
Nativity, Joseph —to kiss the Baby Jesus and go with
him to Egypt, which is where the Gospel of Mathew
(2:13-15) says the Holy Family fled to escape Herod.
For Joseph1, like the poet, and like each of us, is a
mere mortal involved in the great historical event of the
birth of Jesus.
Gerald Ford were held there, as were the Inaugural Prayer
“spiritual home of the nation,” the Cathedral may be familiar to you even if you have not been there in person: the
televised state funerals of Presidents Ronald Reagan and
Services for Presidents Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan,
as well as for both Presidents Bush.
On October 1st, 2012, the Very Rev. Gary Hall was
installed as the Cathedral’s tenth dean. This Christmas Day
sermon and accompanying photo of Dean Hall are printed
with permission from Washington National Cathedral.
Charlie Brown goes to his front door, where
Snoopy stands offering him a Christmas present. “For
me?” says Charlie Brown. “Thank you very much.”
Then he opens the gift card: “For the rounded-headed
kid . . . Merry Christmas.” As he looks toward the departing Snoopy, Charlie Brown observes, “It would be
nice to have a dog who remembered your name.”
Epiphany's 2010 Advent Wreath
—————————————
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The next poem in La Corona, “The Temple,” begins with
these lines:
With his kind mother, who partakes thy woe,
Joseph turn back
CHRISTMAS DAY SERMON FROM
WASHINGTON NATIONAL
CATHEDRAL
By: The Very Rev. Gary Hall,
The Washington National Cathedral
Editor’s Note: Many of us have had the privilege of
visiting The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint
Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, DC, better
I have few secret passions in life, but one of
them is Peanuts, the Charles Schultz comic strip featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the gang. I started
reading Peanuts in the daily paper in fourth grade, and
I have followed the cartoon through all its developments—Linus’s struggles to quit the blanket habit; the
birth of Charlie Brown’s sister, Sally; the introduction of
Snoopy’s bird friend, Woodstock; the arrival of the first
African American member, Franklin; the search by
Snoopy’s brothers Andy and Olaf for their desertdwelling sibling, Spike.
This season my bedtime reading has consisted
of working through a book that collects all the comic’s
yuletide cartoons, A Peanuts Christmas. The strips are
memorable: Linus agonizing over having to recite the
Christmas story . . . in front of the PTA; Sally writing to
Santa and rhapsodizing about the joys not of giving but
of getting; Lucy slugging Linus because he shows her
up by writing his thank-you notes more quickly than
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she does; Charlie Brown putting up Snoopy’s Christmas tree in his doghouse and asking if Snoopy would
rather unplug the TV set or the clock radio. Peanuts is
so much a part of my life that I cannot imagine Christmas without it. “It would be nice to have a dog who remembered your name.”
And part of why I love Peanuts so much lies in
the way it combines a sincere appreciation of childhood’s joys with a frank assessment of the pains and
struggles of life. It would be nice to have a dog who
remembered your name. I fantasize that our two terriers know who I am, but when I’m
realistic about it, I realize they probably think of me only as the big guy
with the leash and the treats. We
look for fulfillment where we probably shouldn’t hope to find it. “It
would be nice to have a dog who
remembered your name.”
What both of these biblical passages are trying
to say is that, in Jesus, God has come right into the
midst of human life. That’s a hard truth for [us] humans
to take in. We are prone to think of God as someone or
something remote, distant, far away, removed from
human experience. But for Christians, and for all people of faith, that way of thinking is wrong. God made
human beings in God’s own image and invested us
with divine significance. The Word became flesh and
lived among us, full of grace and truth. The one at the
center of creation is born in a Bethlehem stable.
Whether we know it or not, we are
steeped in and surrounded by radiant holiness. That is the perception
at the heart of all the world’s religions. It’s what Christmas is really
about.
To burnish my reputation as
an intellectual, I’ll add that in addition to reading A Peanuts ChristToday is Christmas Day,
mas, my other bedtime reading has
and for most people in our culture
been the poetry of William Blake.
the celebration of the season is
(You ought to see my nightstand. It
The Very Rev. Gary Hall,
coming now to a close. In modern
Washington National Cathedral
looks like a used bookstore.) Blake
America, Christmas begins on
was a visionary eighteenth-century
Black Friday and ends at around
English poet and engraver, and one of his best-known
noon today, when the carols suddenly leave the airpoems (“Auguries of Innocence”) gives voice to this
waves to be replaced by pop hits. For those of us who
universal perception that we’re steeped in holiness. It
live by the church’s calendar, though, the Christmas
begins,
season is just beginning, and the next twelve days will
open for us a series of abiding gifts, each one more
surprising than the last. Last night [at the Cathedral] we
heard the story of Mary and Joseph giving birth to the
baby Jesus in a stable. Today we hear not that familiar
story again but a reflection on what it means. From the
beginning of John’s Gospel:
And the Word became flesh and lived among
us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his
glory, glory as of the only Son from the father.
[John 1: 14 RSV]
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
Anywhere you look, says Blake, anything you
pick up is charged with that holiness. But the poem
doesn’t stop there. Here is how it ends:
God appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night
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But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day
Here’s how John’s Gospel puts it: “And the
Word became flesh and lived among us, full of grace
and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only
Son from the father.”
The pain of being human is that we live, as
Buddhists tell us, in illusion. We think too much, and
when we think we fall prey to the idea that we are
alone, cut off, walking around in darkness. Worse than
that, we fall prey to the illusion that God and we are
somehow separate from each other. Christmas is the
antidote to that illusion. The Word has become flesh
and dwells among us. God displays a human form to
those who choose to live in the daylight. The world is
precious. You are precious. All your human brothers
and sisters, all created beings are precious because
they participate in God’s holiness. As a spiritual director of mine once said, “We are holy because God is
holy.”
One of my favorite living poets is a Buddhist
woman, Jane Hirschfield, who lived for three years at
Tassajara, a Zen monastery in California. She not only
writes poems, she writes about poetry and the spirituality of it. Here is something she said about what her Zen
practice has taught her about the holiness, the preciousness of the world:
What is, is enough. You don’t have to add anything to reality to feel awe, or to feel respect, or to see
the radiance of existence. Radiance simply is. . . It
may seem simplistic, but I truly believe that if you put a
person in a prison cell with nothing but the chance and
the desire to pay attention, everything they need to
know about the radiance of the world is there, available. (Jane Hirschfield, “Think Assailable Thoughts or
Be Lonely,” Poetry, February, 2012)
mystic insight. That’s the truth at the center of Christianity. The Word has become flesh and lived among us,
full of grace and truth. The great gift of Christmas for
you and me . . . is a further revealing of what the birth
of Jesus means for us. In John’s words, that birth
means that we have been given “power to become children of God.” To William Blake it means that God now
displays a human form. To Jane Hirschfield it means
that radiance simply is. The Word has become flesh
and lived among us. You, your life, your household,
your community, your world—all display the meaning
and purpose and radiance of God. The One whom we
welcome at Christmas is not a strange visitor from another planet. The One we welcome at Christmas is us,
and we are him.
As you go about your life in the next twelve
days, try to pay attention to signs of this radiance and
blessing as they reveal themselves both within and
outside you. See that radiance when you look in the
mirror. See that radiance when you attend to the creation. Be open to that blessing when you encounter others, perhaps in surprising and unexpected places and
ways. Christmas opens us up, as Blake says,
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
The Word has become flesh and has lived
among us and lives among us now. You and your
world and your life and relationships are holy in ways
we can only now begin to imagine. Snoopy may think
of Charlie Brown as the “round headed-kid,” but if
there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that the God we know
in Jesus remembers his name. Amen.
Everything we need to know about the radiance of the world is there, available. That’s not only a
11
“WHAT SWEETER MUSIC
CAN WE BRING?”
By Deke Polifka,
Organist and Choir Master I
I know that many of us look forward to the
beautiful music during Advent, Christmastide and
Epiphany. The progression of expectation, joy and celebration is echoed in our music. This year, we began
Advent with Lessons and Carols, a service that celebrates the coming of Christ to lead us from darkness to
light. Here is one text from one of our Advent anthems
that I particularly love:
Lo, in the time appointed the Lord will come,
the mountains and hills will break forth in singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their
hands: for the Lord shall come into his everlasting kingdom and on the throne of David he
shall reign forever. Alleluia.
From a Sarum antiphon
During Advent, our custom is not to sing
Christmas music; rather, our liturgy and music delight
in the magnificent feeling of anticipation which characterizes the season.
As I write this article, our choirs are working
diligently to prepare for Christmas. This year, the St.
Nicholas and Cherub choirs will sing for the 4:30 pm
Christmas Pageant and Holy Eucharist on Christmas
Eve. The St. Cecilia choir will sing for the 7:00 pm service, and will offer a beautiful anthem entitled
“Stars are for those who lift their eyes,” accompanied by cello/piano. Both the 7:00 pm and 11:00
pm services feature Schubert’s beautiful Mass in
G, utilizing a group of nine string players, organ,
choir and soloists. The choir/strings will also combine
for John Rutter’s lovely anthem “What sweeter music”
and Leo Nestor’s inspired setting of “Silent Night.”
Our excellent handbell choir (directed by Laurie Cox) will perform twice in the coming months: on
December 8th and January 5th. Their Christmas selections include settings of “O Little town of Bethlehem,”
“In the bleak midwinter ,” and “I heard the bells on
Christmas Day.”
As we embark on the beautiful journey that is
to come, let us make room in our hearts for Christ:
What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!
We see him come, and know him ours,
Who, with his sunshine and his flowers,
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome him. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart.
From “What sweeter music” by Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
OUR CHILDREN DURING ADVENT,
CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY
By Helen Hazleton,
Director of Children’s Education
The journal that you are reading will include
articles that cover Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.
These church seasons come in quick succession and
upon reflection sum up our Christian experience of
waiting and anticipation, receiving, and sharing. Advent is a time of waiting and preparing for the Christ
child. We do this throughout the year in our spiritual
lives by preparing for a life in Christ. We wait and listen in prayer; we study and reflect upon God’s words
and anticipate His promise of new life. In a child’s life,
12
Advent wreathes and calendars are a perfect way to
mark the day, in anticipation of Christ’s birth. Special
prayers or scripture readings at dinner or at bedtime help
children learn about God’s special promises.
Christmas is the fulfillment of God’s promise. In
this season we celebrate His perfect gift to us. We live in
response to that gift everyday by promising to be His
people. We worship together and strive to live out His
commandment to love one another as Christ loves us.
We are compelled to be a people of giving and generosity. Children are often at the receiving end of things during this season. Encouraging them to give is a gift that
you can give your child in this season. Helping out at a
soup kitchen, giving toys to needy children or making
gifts for family members teaches children that because
we are blessed, we are called to bless others.
Epiphany is the season when we celebrate the
arrival of the Wise Men and the manifestation of God’s
Son to all the peoples of the earth. In our Epiphany service we symbolically take the Light of Jesus into the
world as we exit the church with lit candles. The second
Sunday after Epiphany, we pray, “Grant that your people,
illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with
the radiance of Christ’s glory.” We proclaim the Good
News by sharing our faith with others and shining God’s
light in the world. Children can be encouraged to do the
same by being kind, treating others the way that they
would like to be treated, inviting a friend to church and
being a good example to others.
As we live through the seasons surrounding the
birth of Christ, let us pray that God grant us the patience
to seek Him, receive Him and share His Truth. Whether
you have children or just remember being one, experiencing Advent, Christmas and Epiphany with a child or
through a child’s eyes might be a new and special blessing this year.
Dates to save for the Advent/Christmas/Epiphany
Season
Sunday, December 1 - Advent Festival and Service of
Advent Lessons and Carols 3:00 p.m. Taylor Memorial
Concert, featuring Grace and St. Stephen’s Choirs followed by a reception and delightful Advent Crafts. Bring
your Advent wreath rings to make your Advent wreath
with fresh greens. Advent rings and candles will be available for a small donation. We will also be decorating the
IHN tree with handmade decorations.
Friday, December 13 – Build-A-Bear, Chapel Hills Mall
6:30 p.m. Bring the whole family to the Build-A-Bear
store at Chapel Hills Mall, to make a bear to put in the
pews of Grace. Bears and stuffed animals will be collected throughout Advent to give to First Responders so that
they can give them to children in crisis. Bears range in
price from $10 up.
Saturday, December 14 – Caroling to Grace Shut-Ins
2:30 p.m. Meet at the Choir House to assemble in groups
and receive instructions. Please bring a treat to share
for a hot chocolate/cookie gathering afterward.
Saturday, December 21 - Pageant Rehearsal 10:00
a.m.-Any child 3-13 years old interested in being in the
Christmas Eve Pageant should be at this one hour rehearsal. Please have children in their designated Sunday School classrooms a little before 10:00 to get their
costumes. Parents may stay and partake in pastries,
coffee and a little quiet time in Parish Hall.
Tuesday, December 24 - Christmas Eve Pageant 4:00
p.m. The Christmas Eve Pageant features lessons and
carols and our own Grace children playing the parts of
the Christmas story.
Monday, January 6 - Epiphany Feast of Lights ServiceCelebrate the visiting Wiseman this Epiphany, at the
Feast of Lights service at 7:00 p.m. This service will feature the St. Nicholas Choir followed by a candlelit reception. All choristers are asked to bring special homebaked goodies for the reception.
13
UNDERSTANDING THE
INCARNATION AND GRACE
CHURCH’S OUTREACH EFFORTS
among the poor, the marginalized, the persecuted, the
suffering—those persons who have experienced the
injustice of our world. From this bottom-up perspective,
we have a better chance of encountering our Lord.
By Father Nick Myers
The theology of the Incarnation tells us that
our movement toward those in need is not a decision
There is no more central theological belief in
we make, but that our God has made. In Jesus, God
Christianity than the Incarnation, which we anticipate
has chosen to “humble himself,” to live and die as one
and celebrate this season of Advent and Christmas.
of us, to reconcile us to himself and to one another. We
The Incarnation is the belief that God has entered into
are those in need and it is God who reaches out to us
our world and time and space in the person of Jesus of
in healing and reconciliation. As God has come to us in
Nazareth; the Incarnation is the trusted belief that the
need, so must we turn to our neighbor in need if we are
Word of God was made Flesh in Jesus the Christ; the
to become more like our CreaIncarnation is a belief that God
tor. This is the foundation of our
became human so that we might
become more like God. The Chris“The Christian teaching of the Incar- reaching out to our neighbors.
tian teaching of the Incarnation is
nation is the powerful foundation for
Our outreach work is
the powerful foundation for our
our outreach efforts at Grace and St.
rooted in not only the Incarnaoutreach efforts at Grace and St.
Stephen’s. The Incarnation is God’s
tion—the expectation and reaStephen’s. The Incarnation is
work of reaching out to us - a bearson for this Christmas season—
God’s work of reaching out to us—
ing with, suffering with, joining with
but also in
a bearing with, suffering with, joinwhat it means to be human. “
God’s very being
ing with what it means to be huas shown to us in
Father Nick Myers
man. In the Word made Flesh in
Christ. We love, because
Jesus, God chooses to stand with,
God has shown us and given us
to be with humanity in a unique way. Knowing this, our
this love. If we are to become the Body of Christ we
understanding of ourselves, our world, and our neighmust empty ourselves, risk our lives, and find our God
bor is greatly influenced.
in the lives and faces of people who are poor, people
Indeed, how we view ourselves, our world, and
our neighbor depends upon where we stand. If we
stand with those with power or riches, we will see ourselves, our world, and our neighbor from the heights
that power, wealth, and privilege provide. If, however,
we stand with Jesus, we begin to see ourselves, our
world, and our neighbor from a new perspective. We
will have to go where Jesus clearly says he can be
found—among the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the
naked, the sick, the imprisoned—among those living
on the margins of society. Jesus says he is to be found
who are in need, people who are living on the margins
of our neighborhood, city, and world. As God does in
the Incarnation, we are called to bear with, suffer with,
and join with the brokenness of our world.
God is active in our outreach work and life together. During this season we have our Manger Mission, which is our combined efforts to provide supplies
for families who are in need of supplies to care for their
children. We strive to care for the little ones among us,
as a reminder that we live in a world that found no
room for the infant child and his wandering family. Al-
14
so, during the third week of December we will host
families who are experiencing homelessness through
our support of Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN). Last
year over 70 parishioners provided more than 400
hours of service, over 300 meals, and donated more
than $1,000 to care for the families in need. We will do
this again with even more shared support—I am sure
of it. It is life-giving work, producing in each of us a
sense of compassion, thankfulness, and openness to
the lives and stories of those who are often overlooked and under-served. Through our work with IHN
we will proclaim that there is room enough here for
families in need. During this season of Advent and
Christmas, as we wait in great expectation for the coming of God among us, I pray that we too might become
expectant for how we can join our God in the healing,
reconciling, and life-giving work of reaching-out to all of
us who are in need.
STEWARDSHIP OF OUR BODIES
by Irma Crepps, RN
and Cindy Page, RN,
Grace and St. Stephen’s Parish Nurses
As we enter the season of Advent and prepare
for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus, we can also
prepare to be good stewards of our bodies. This includes our physical, mental and spiritual health. By
integrating these three aspects of health, we can begin
to take steps toward a wholistic approach of well-being.
We are fortunate to live in a time when modern medicine can detect, diagnose and treat diseases and trauma that was truly unheard of in the past. But unfortunately, we also live in a time when physical, mental
and spiritual health have often been separated instead
of included in the treatment plan. The last two centu-
ries have given us a tragic and ironic analogy. We
have machines, computers and highly trained health
care professionals to treat our physical and mental
health, but little attention is paid toward our emotional
and spiritual being as these affect our physical health.
Widely respected Lutheran Pastor Reverend
Granger E. Westberg (1911-1999) is credited as a pioneer of religion, medicine and “wholistic health”: the
idea that health care needs to be concerned not only
with the body and mind, but also with the spirit. From
1952 to 1964 he served on both the medical and theological faculties of the University of Chicago. He was
the founder of Parish Nursing in the 1980s, believing
that nurses were the bridge between churches and
hospitals. Rev. Westberg launched several Wholistic
Health Centers to provide a team approach to both
wellness and illness using clergy, physicians, nurses
and social workers. He observed that nurses provided
a vital link between the congregations and the medical
system. Westberg wrote:
We believe that as long as we don’t get sick,
we are healthy. In the Christian tradition, however,
health is seen as an ongoing process which gives us
the energy and vitality to serve and love others, and
thus good health is seen in the context of purpose.
He went on to say:
From a biblical perspective, healing is a part of
the process of living. Health is on-going, it is not a state
that is reached because there are no symptoms of disease. With this in mind, it seems apparent that healing
is an activity that is not reserved strictly for the sick.
Healthy people need care, too. Healing needs to be an
everyday occurrence.
So what does that look like at our beloved
church? We have found that behind the scenes there
are many caring individuals that keep an eye and an
ear out for those that are in need of a friend from their
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fellow parishioners. What better way is there to express our gratitude we feel for God?
As Parish Nurses, we have re-established the
Parish Friends Program as a supportive network to
connect those-in-need with a friend in the congregation. We are developing a Health and Healing Cabinet
comprised of medical professionals and clergy. Last
but not least, with the help of our dear parishioner, Barbara Yalich, we are launching a year-long monthly
speaker series titled, “Growing Old Gracefully,” to address the needs of our senior parishioners. The series
starts November 21st with the Executive Director of
Silver Key, Patricia Ellis, speaking about what they
have to offer our community. The series is held monthly at 10 am before the Thursday Healing Service.
Please join us and bring your spouse, friends, and family.
Throughout the New Testament Jesus emphasized the ministry of teaching, preaching, and healing.
Westberg wrote: “Christ never dealt with a body apart
from the person’s spirit. But he also never dealt with
the spirit apart from the body. He was always dealing
with whole people…we have turned the body over to
the scientists “and we have said, ‘You take care of the
body, and we’ll take care of the spirit,’- as if you could
separate the two.” As Parish Nurses, our job is to help
parishioners integrate their faith and health and enhance the vital wholeness of body, mind, and spirit.
ENCOUNTERING SCRIPTURE FROM
ADVENT THROUGH EPIPHANY
By Father Steve Zimmerman
Starting on the First Sunday of Advent, December 1st, our Adult Christian Education Committee
(ACE) will offer an adult Bible Study, which I will lead,
at 9:15 a.m. in Room 111. The class is one response
to the survey conducted by the ACE Committee last
year, and the Parish Survey that was part of our Strategic Conversation, during the Listening Stage last
spring.
For us, as Episcopalians, the Bible is the primary source for our knowledge of the event of revelation in Jesus Christ. We believe the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all
things necessary for salvation. We believe that all that
is necessary for salvation is to believe in Jesus Christ,
and to confess Him as Lord and Savior. We believe
that the Bible bears witness to the Christ who is to
come, in the Old Testament, and that Christ has come
in Jesus of Nazareth, in the New Testament.
In his book, People of the Way - Renewing
Episcopal Identity, Dwight J. Zscheile writes:
Renewing the identity of the Episcopal Church
requires us to go deeper into the core narratives that shape us as a people, and those
begin in the Bible. It is vital that congregations
acknowledge openly that the Bible is not an
easy book to make sense of—that it indeed
contains challenging stories, and that we need
to read it carefully and prayerfully together in
community and in light of the wisdom of diverse viewpoints.
We hope that the ACE Bible Study will help us
to go deeper into the core Bible narratives. The class
will be open to everyone. No prior knowledge of the
Bible is necessary. There will be lots of time for questions and conversation. ACE will also continue its popular lecture series, so there will be lots of choices for
spiritual growth and enrichment, during the seasons of
Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.
16
AN EPIPHANY MESSAGE PREACHED AT
THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST PETER
WESTMINSTER, LONDON
By The Very Reverend Dr. John Hall,
the 38th Dean of Westminster
An Epiphany Message Preached at the Collegiate Church
of St. Peter Westminster, London, better known as Westminster Abbey
The Very Reverend Dr. John Hall, BA HonDD HonDTheol
FRSA HonFCollT, Dean of Westminster, preached the following sermon for Epiphany on January 6, 2013, 11:15 am.
We reprint this sermon by kind permission of the Dean of
Westminster. We also thank Duncan Jeffrey, Head of Communications for Westminster Abbey, for his kind and efficient assistance.
About the Dean of Westminster:
A priest in the Church of
England since 1975, the
Very Reverend Dr. John
Hall became the 38th Dean
of Westminster on December
2, 2006. Dean Hall was
born in South London, educated at the University of
Durham, pursued his clerical training at Cuddeson
Theological College
(founded near Oxford in
The Dean of Westminster, the
1854 by Bishop WilberVery Reverend Dr. John Hall, by
force), and served parishes
kind permission of the Dean &
in Kensington, Wimbledon,
Chapter of Westminster
and Streatham. From 1998,
he was Chief Education
Officer for the Church of England. But readers of this journal may know his name and face best from his officiating at
the wedding of Price William and Kate Middleton.
The visit of the Wise Men from the East who
come to worship the Christ child, the story told by St.
Matthew [2:1-12] that we have just heard read in the
Gospel, is, I imagine, familiar to us all. St. Matthew’s
account of the birth of Jesus is not, though, as wellknown as the story recorded by St. Luke in his Gospel.
For us, that narrative is more closely linked to the celebration of Christmas, the feast of the Nativity of Christ,
since we hear it read on Christmas Eve at the Midnight
Mass. And, it is St. Luke’s account that forms the basis
of nativity plays in schools and churches all over the
country. It is the story of Christmas.
St. Matthew’s is the story of Epiphany. The
word “Epiphany” means showing forth or manifestation
or revelation. We may think of an Epiphany as a moment when something suddenly becomes clear: we
see something afresh; the penny drops; suddenly we
get it, in a way we failed to earlier. In this case, it is the
Wise Men who have the Epiphany, who come to see
things afresh – so that we might see things afresh, too.
And yet the two celebrations, Christmas and
the Epiphany, are really one. Or to put it slightly differently, they are two variations on the same single
theme. Indeed the Holy Orthodox Churches of Greece
and Russia, and of Eastern Europe, the Middle East
and North Africa, many of which look to the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Patriarch of Constantinople, as their
leader, focus the entire celebration of the Nativity of
our Lord on this very day. So today we should pray for
our brothers and sisters of the Orthodox Churches, as
they celebrate their Christmas, many of them living
lives of great risk, facing persecution for their faith, and
yet persevering and remaining faithful.
Preaching on Christmas Eve at the Midnight
Mass, I aimed to identify two or three ideas that St.
Luke was determined his hearers should grasp about
the meaning of the birth of Jesus. Taking the same
approach, looking at the message behind the story, or
the story within the story, what do we learn from the
birth narrative of St. Matthew? Can we in the same
way identify two or three things that St. Matthew really
wants us to know and understand?
17
First, it is important to recognize that we can
see much in the Lucan and Matthean narratives that is
the same. For both, the birth is miraculous without the
intervention of a human father; for both, the birth is
accompanied by a revelation from God via his angelic
messenger; for both the birth takes place in Bethlehem
of Judea in the days of Herod the King.
and again, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, we hear, “All this
took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord
through the prophet” (1:22-23). God’s planning from
the beginning was now coming to fruition in the birth in
Bethlehem. St. Matthew would go on to show throughout the Gospel how all that Jesus did and preached
was coherent with what God had already revealed. In
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “I have come
not to abolish but to fulfill the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 5:17). Jesus is a second Moses and
Elijah; as a baby fleeing Herod he
would go down to Egypt so that like
Moses he would emerge from
Egypt, bringing freedom from slavery to sin for God’s holy people.
For St. Matthew, as for St. Luke, it is clear that
Almighty God has planned the moment and foreseen it
from the beginning. The Gospel of St. Matthew begins
with an extensive genealogy.
Starting with Abraham, it traces
the descent to Joseph, the husband of Mary. St. Luke has a
genealogy too, which works in
the opposite direction and ends
What else does St. Matwith Son of Adam, Son of God.
thew wish us to grasp? The first
Both genealogies speak of God’s
visitors in his account, the Wise
long preparation for this decisive
Men, are utterly different from the
moment. St. Matthew sums up
shepherds. St. Luke, a Greek phyhis account: there are fourteen
sician recounted the visit of poor
generations from Abraham to
Jews to worship our Lord. St. Matthe Dean of Westminster, the Very
David, fourteen from David to the
thew, by contrast, a Jew particularReverend Dr. John Hall, by kind
deportation to Babylon, and fourly interested as we have seen in
permission of the Dean & Chapter
of Westminster
teen generations from the deporthe fulfillment in Christ of the Mosatation to the Messiah. Seven is
ic and prophetic tradition of old Isfor the Jews a particularly holy number. The genealogy
rael, tells of wealthy and wise men from the East, perrecounts three pairs of seven, six sevens: the birth of
haps Persians. We may say that both St. Matthew and
the Messiah, surely St. Matthew implies, takes time on
St. Luke recount a birth narrative that seems to run
into eternity, the seventh seven, with the fulfillment of
counter to their own particular preoccupations and prehopes in the arrival on earth of the incarnate Lord, the
dispositions. Both the evangelists speak, each in their
Son of God and Son of Mary, Jesus the longed-for
own way, of the wide importance of what they recount:
Messiah, God’s long-planned moment of full selfnot just to people like them but to people markedly difdisclosure.
ferent. Both the evangelists in this way tell of the manifestation in Christ of God to the wider world.
In our Gospel reading this morning we heard
King Herod enquiring of his learned men how the birth
of this child fulfilled the expectations of Israel, the Old
Testament, in relation to the coming Messiah. Time
An eighth-century text, ascribed probably inaccurately to the Venerable Bede,1 perhaps dependent
on a sixth-century tradition, described the kings this
18
way: “The first was called Melchior; he offered gold to
the Lord as to his king. The second, Gaspar by name,
offered to Jesus his gift of incense, the homage due to
Divinity. The third, of black complexion, was called Balthazar; the myrrh he held in his hands prefigured the
death of the Son of man.” None of this later legendary
material is in St. Matthew’s Gospel. The detail is not
very important; what matters is that the worldly-wise,
the learned, see that their earthly wisdom is as nothing
before the revelation Christ comes to bring. We may
recall St Paul’s words, “Jews demand signs and
Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
God” (1 Corinthians 1:22). And Christ is for the whole
world, for all people, for the Gentiles not just for the
Jews.
ship is humble service. For us who follow him, it must
be so too.
Very particular to St. Matthew’s account is the
role of Herod, called the Great but in fact no more than
a client king of the Roman Empire, who had been given by the Emperor the title King of the Jews. He was
afraid for his throne and in St. Matthew’s account saw
the news of this child who “has been born king of the
Jews” as a terrible threat. There is heavy irony in the
request of Herod to the Wise Men that they should
bring him word “so that I also may go and pay him
homage.” He had no intention to do so, and only
wished to seize this baby and destroy him. This world’s
kings and rulers must in the end pay homage to our
Lord Jesus Christ, who is a King, indeed the King of
kings, but one who understands his kingship quite differently from the lordship of earthly kings. About our
Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, St. Matthew
says, “This took place to fulfill what had been spoken
through the prophet, saying, ‘Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey’” (Matthew 21:5). For our Lord Jesus Christ, king-
—————————————————————
The Wise Men followed the star God had sent
to guide them and came to worship the Christ child.
They offered him gifts. As must all the rulers of this
world, they laid at his feet their self-reliance and their
human wisdom, to discover from him a better way. So
must we lay at his feet our self-reliance and our human
wisdom. If we offer the gift of our whole selves, what
we receive in return will be incomparably greater.
We, like them, in St. Paul’s words from this
morning’s second lesson, must come to see “what is
the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who
created all things; that through the church the wisdom
of God in its rich variety might now be made known to
the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:9-10).
The Venerable Bede (672/3-735), an English monk and historian
of the Church, is best known for his The Ecclesiastical History of
the English People, which led to his being deemed “The Father of
English History.”
1
Thirteenth century wall painting of
St. Richard in Black Bourton Church Oxfordshire
19
Artist, James Tissot (1836–1902) "The Journey of the Magi" 1894
Grace and
St. Stephen’s
Episcopal Church
20