3rd Epiphany 2021, I and Thou

 3^rd Epiphany

John 2:1-11
 
On the third day, a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
 
When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
 
And Jesus answered her, "What

Woloschina

shall be done by me and what by you, O Woman? [ or, "A power in common works between you and me, O Woman.] [or, "Something still weaves between you and me, O Woman."] The hour when I can work out of myself alone has not yet come."
 
Then his mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
 
There were six stone jars set up there for the Jewish custom of ceremonial washing, each containing twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with fresh water."
 
And they filled them to the brim. And he said, "Now draw some out and take it to the Master of the feast. And they brought it to him.
 
Now when the Master of the feast tasted the water that had become wine, not knowing where it came from—for only the servants who had drawn the water knew—he called the bridegroom aside and said to him, "Everyone serves the choice wine first, and when the guests have drunk, then the lesser; but you have saved the best until now."
 
This, the beginning of the signs of the spirit that Jesus performed among human beings, happened at Cana in Galilee and revealed the creating spiritual power that worked through Him. The disciples' hearts opened, the power of faith began to stir in them, and they began to trust in him.

3^rd Epiphany
John 2:1-11
January 24, 2021
 
“What shall be done by me and what by you, O Woman?…and the disciples’ hearts opened; the power of faith began to stir in them, and they began to trust in him.” John 2:4 and 2:11
 
This time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, much is dormant. But when the sun’s rays shine again more strongly, they will stimulate something, and nature will respond with green and growth and blossom. Mother Nature, we call her, and she is the mother who, together with the power of the sun, creates new life.
 
But besides Mother Nature and our own birth mothers,

we are related to another mother, the mother within. She is our own soul. Sometimes she too lies asleep, dormant. But when we awaken her, and she is pure and open to the spiritual sun, she also can bear a Son of Promise, just as Mary did at Christmas. In time our own soul mother and our soul’s Spirit-Son mature, and a delicate interweaving begins, a conversation, a working together. The soul mother’s attention expands. She notices and expresses another’s emptiness, another’s need. And the soul’s Spirit-Son knows what to do: He begins to shine, to radiate, and to stimulate a kind of greening in the hearts of those around Him.
 
The weaving between soul-mother and Spirit-Son is the first step toward creating a new life for humanity. The power weaving between mother and Son ripples outward on waves of light and begins to stir in human hearts.
 
He who sat as in the sun
Would have thee know
See: I am what am beginning
But thou art the tree.*
 
 
Rilke, “Annunciation” in The Book of Pictures, transl. by M. D. Herder Norton, p. 91.

2nd Epiphany 2021, Truth at Every Moment

2^nd Epiphany

Luke 2:41-52
 
Every year his [Jesus'] parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they took him with them. Now, after they had gone there and fulfilled the custom during the days of the feast, they set off on their way home. But the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know this; they thought he was among the company of the travelers. After a day's journey, they missed him among their friends and relations. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. 

Durer

After three days, they found him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the
teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And those who heard him were amazed at his mature understanding and his answers.
 
And when they saw him, they were taken aback, and his mother said to him, "My child, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress."
 
And he said to them, "Why did you look for me? Did you not know that I must be and live in that which is my Father's?"
 
But they did not understand the meaning of the words he spoke to them. And he went down with them again to Nazareth and followed them willingly in all things.
 
And his mother carefully kept all these things living in her heart. And Jesus progressed in wisdom, maturity, and grace [or, favor] in the sight of God and humans.

2^nd Epiphany
January 17, 2021
Cynthia Hindes
 
You are likely familiar with the fairy tale in which what was raised as a duckling turns out to be a swan. In today’s gospel reading, the boy Jesus undergoes the first of his many transformations.

William Holman Hunt

He comes into his own swan-hood: wise, mature, and beautiful. His parents don’t understand how unexpectedly he could turn into something so different from what they had known him to be.

There is a part of all of our souls that is like the boy. Our parents, our family, our society has laid certain expectations on us. But our true identity is swan-like. The boy Jesus is the archetype for how we deal with the possible conflict between the imperatives of our higher, our developing swan-nature, and the demands of our family and surroundings.

The young Jesus willingly follows both. And we too can firmly tread the path of our own higher development. And at the same time, we can respect and honor those to whom we are responsible.

Soon enough, the boy will leave home and embark on a world-shattering journey. But for now, despite a dawning self-awareness, he continues to develop quietly, inwardly. Perhaps he prays the words of Psalm 121:

I look deep into my heart,
to the core where wisdom arises.

Alexsandr Antonyuk

Wisdom comes from the Unnamable
and unifies heaven and earth.
The Unnamable is always with [me] you,
shining from the depths of [my] your heart.
His peace will keep [me] you untroubled
even in the greatest pain.
When [I} you find him present within [me] you,
{I} you find truth at every moment.
He will guard [me] you from all wrongdoing;
he will guide [my] your feet on his path.
He will temper [my] your youth with patience;
he will crown [my] your old age with fulfillment.
And dying, [I] you will leave [my] your body
as effortlessly as a sigh.*
 
* Psalm 121, (adapted) from A Book of Psalms, trans. and adapted by Stephen Mitchell

1st Epiphany 2021, Uses of the Stars

1^st Epiphany

Matthew 2:1-12

Tissot

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea—during the time of King Herod—
behold: wise priest-kings from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is the one born here, King of the Jews? We have seen his star rise in the east and have come to worship him."

When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. And he assembled all the high priests and scribes of the people and inquired of them in what place the Christ was to be born. And they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it was written by the prophet: 

And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

Are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah;

For out of you shall come forth the ruler

Who will be shepherd over my people, the true Israel." 

Then Herod, secretly calling the Magi together again, inquired from them the exact time when the star had appeared. He directed them to Bethlehem and said, "Go there and search carefully for the child, and when you find him, report to me, that I too may go and bow down before him."

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen rising went before them and led them in its course over the cities until it stood over the place where the child was. Seeing the star, they were filled with [or, there awakened in them] an exceedingly great and holy joy. 

Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother; they fell down before him and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and offered him their gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh. 

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their country by another way.

1st Epiphany

January 10, 2021

Matthew 2:1–12 

"In the beginning,. . . darkness was on the face of the deep. . . and God said, 'Let there be light.' " Thus the very pattern of the world was stamped with one of the primal pairings—light and dark—like day and night, life and death.

It lives on in us as the pattern of our souls, which swing between love and hate, hope and fear, good and evil. Herod represents that dark capacity in all of us, which fears a loss of position, a darkness that instigates our capacity for calculating secretiveness and destructiveness. 

Yet, we also have the Three Wise Kings in us to balance out our inner darkness. They are the soul's capacity to see the starlight of higher wisdom; to be devoted to God's guidance; to willingly acknowledge the necessity of sacrifice.

The wise guidance of the star leads the Kings first to Herod, then to the Christ Child. It prompts the gift of gold.

Their devotion to God's guidance, sent to them also through the words of their warning dream, accompanies the gift of frankincense.

Their willingness to recognize the Child's coming sacrifice prompts the gift of myrrh.

The darkness of fear contends with God's light in all of us. Darkness leads us to destruction. But God's light leads to a great and holy joy. In the words of the poet Max Ehrmann we pray:

Lift up my eyes

from the earth, and let me not

forget the uses of the stars.

….Let me not follow the clamor of

the world, but walk calmly

in my path.*

 

*Max Ehrmann, "A Prayer," in The Desiderata of Happiness