The Magi

Now as at all times I can see in the mind’s eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary’s turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.

-- William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), from The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)

Arise, shine! An Epiphany Benediction

Arise, shine!
See, and be radiant!
Offer your gifts to the world,
in the Name of Love Incarnate,
who draws the world into his embrace.
May the light of Christ shine within you
and draw all around you to the love and knowledge of God.
And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
rest among you, and give you peace and hope.

Amen.

--The Rev. Leslie Scoopmire, Epiphany 2018,
based on Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10:14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12

Epiphany Benediction

Go now as a light to the nations.
Honour the Lord;
preach what you know of the risen Christ,
and fulfil all righteousness.

And may God strengthen you and bless you with peace;
May Christ Jesus bring forth justice for you and among you;
And may the Holy Spirit alight on you
and affirm you as God’s beloved ones.

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.

--Nathan Nettleton, found on https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2014/01/benediction-epiphany.html

Based on Isaiah 42:6, Matthew 3:13-17, Acts 10:34-43 (Epiphany 1A)

Benediction: Epiphany

Go in peace; love and care for one another in the name of Christ;

and may the Spirit of God which filled John and Jesus, 

fill your hearts, souls and minds; 

may the power of God which upheld them, 

strengthen you for each day; 

and may the love of God which directed their every action 

be your guiding light and your shining star, 

both now and forevermore.  Amen

— written by Rev. Richard J. Fairchild, and posted on his Kir-shalom website

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean –
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down –
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

--Mary Oliver (1935-), from House of Light, 1990

Migratory God

Migratory God
who uprooted Abraham
and led him into a foreign land
provide rest for your people
the stranger and alien
the refugee and wanderer the one seeking sanctuary
settling in an unfamiliar place

Migratory God
who travels great distances
to become human
and live among us
dwelling in us
help us see that we all are restless
searching and seeking
finding that place of being and belonging
to lay our heads as you who had no place
except with your people

Migratory God
who has crossed borders and boundaries
to be born a stranger
fleeing from country to country
feet moving for miles, over desert and dry places
into the Jordan River
where you cross from one land to the other
in the waters of baptism
where you wash off ties to nation and citizen
so we might enter into a newkingdom and country  

Migratory God
who accompanies us in our journey
remind us of where we’ve been
from where we’ve come
so we might not forget
that we all traversed great distances
to find the place that our hearts seek to settle
that place all of us call home

--Phuc Luu, found at http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/migratory-god

Gold

I don’t want to make too much of this,

but because the bedroom faces east

across a lake here in Florida,

when the sun begins to rise

and reflects off the water,

the whole room is suffused with the kind

of golden light that might travel 
at dawn on the summer solstice

the length of a passageway in a megalithic tomb.

Again, I don’t want to exaggerate,

but it reminds me of a brand of light

that could illuminate the walls

of a hidden chamber full of treasure, 
pearls and gold coins overflowing the silver platters.

I feel like comparing it to the fire

that Aphrodite lit in the human eye

so as to make it possible for us to perceive

the other three elements,

but the last thing I want to do

is risk losing your confidence

by appearing to lay it on too thick.

Let’s just say that the morning light here

would bring to any person’s mind 
the rings of light that Dante

deploys in the final cantos of the Paradiso

to convey the presence of God,

while bringing the Divine Comedy

to a stunning climax and leave it at that.

--Billy Collins (1941- ), from Horoscopes for the Dead: Poems (2011)

Open Unto Me

Lord, Lord, Open Unto Me

Open unto me, light for my darkness

Open unto me, courage for my fear

Open unto me, hope for my despair

Open unto me, peace for my turmoil

Open unto me, joy for my sorrow

Open unto me, strength for my weakness

Open unto me, wisdom for my confusion

Open unto me, forgiveness for my sins

Open unto me, tenderness for my toughness

Open unto me, love for my hates

Open unto me, Thy Self for myself


Lord, Lord, open unto me!

--Howard Thurman (1899-1981), African American theologian, educator, Baptist minister and civil rights leader

Annunciation

Annunciation, Merode triptych, Workshop of Robert Campin (Netherlandish, ca. 1375–1444 Tournai)

We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,
almost always a lectern, a book; always
the tall lily.

       Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whom she acknowledges, a guest.

But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions
courage.

       The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent.

         God waited.

She was free
to accept or to refuse, choice
integral to humanness.

                  ____________________

Aren’t there annunciations
of one sort or another
in most lives?

         Some unwillingly
undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.

More often
those moments
      when roads of light and storm
      open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from

in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
                                 God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.

                  ____________________

She had been a child who played, ate, slept
like any other child–but unlike others,
wept only for pity, laughed
in joy not triumph.
Compassion and intelligence
fused in her, indivisible.

Called to a destiny more momentous
than any in all of Time,
she did not quail,

  only asked

a simple, ‘How can this be?’
and gravely, courteously,
took to heart the angel’s reply,
the astounding ministry she was offered:

to bear in her womb
Infinite weight and lightness; to carry
in hidden, finite inwardness,
nine months of Eternity; to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power–
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.

                     Then bring to birth,
push out into air, a Man-child
needing, like any other,
milk and love–

but who was God.

This was the moment no one speaks of,

when she could still refuse.

A breath unbreathed,

                                Spirit,

                                          suspended,

                                                            waiting.

                  ____________________

She did not cry, ‘I cannot. I am not worthy,’

Nor, ‘I have not the strength.’

She did not submit with gritted teeth,

                                                       raging, coerced.

Bravest of all humans,

                                  consent illumined her.

The room filled with its light,

the lily glowed in it,

                               and the iridescent wings.

Consent,

              courage unparalleled,

opened her utterly.

--Denise Levertov, A Door in the Hive, 1989

Annunciation, Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1898)

 Links: Some Artistic Reflections on the Annunciation
Scripture Reference: Luke 1:26-38 

Annunciation

Annunciation, by Janet McKenzie