Today is a day betwixt and between. We know that Christmas isn’t over – Epiphany is tomorrow, which means this is Epiphany Eve. And while there is no special service planned, we can faithfully engage and encounter this day. You can re-read Matthew 2:1-12. So often with Scripture we think of passages as one and done. But to keep coming back to the stories letting them speak and sing to our stories is a wonderful prayer practice. Second, you can take time holding each of the Wise Ones from your nativity scene in the palm of your hand. The Wise Ones traveled a great distance, like us who have traveled emotionally and spiritually a long way in 2020. The Wise Ones took a wrong turn. Yup, I relate to that a lot! The Wise Ones go to the traditional place of power – the palace of King Herod. How often do I get caught up in going to the same places and spaces expecting to encounter something new? We live the truth of Einstein that it can be insanity to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Eventually, the Wise Ones get back on track, find Jesus in his home with Mary (I guess Joseph had gone back to work?), and give him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. I hold the Bible close to my ear and hear Mary saying, “So glad you have all stopped by unannounced and unexpected. And I was just saying to Joseph to pick up some more myrrh on the way home today.” Seriously, this is a funny scene in many ways.
Epiphany means 'revelation' or ‘divine appearance’. In these early January days, we continue to stay open. The watching and waiting of Advent wasn’t only for Christmas Eve. We engage in that prayer practice in the dwindling of one year to carry the openness with us into a New Year. As Ann Weems said yesterday, “It (hear meaning God’s movement in our midst) isn’t over”.
How is God moving
in your heart and home and whole life today?
What is stirring
and swirling within you?
As you look at the way which lay before you today, how can you keep open to those you encounter and the experiences that fill these hours searching like the Wise Ones for the holy?
May you and I on
this Epiphany Eve continue to find our way toward the One who is with us and
for us always. Amen.
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