We don’t think much of it now. Our popular culture is fixated on Christmas and Easter as the two most important days of the Christian calendar. In some sense, this has spilled over to our religious observances too, so that even though Epiphany is considered a principal feast, most people do not know much about Epiphany. And for popular culture, it is totally about Christmas, it is Christmas that matters, much more so than Easter. Christmas presents have really nothing to do with the birth of our Savior. And yes, there is a cultural-religious history that united the winter solstice celebrations with Christmas, and that may explain part of the massive exchange of presents, but it really has a life of its own. This may be your first Epiphany service in quite some time or ever, and that is okay. However, Epiphany became a celebrated holiday even before Christmas did.…

Bishop Rickel’s sermon https://vimeo.com/658777455 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 Psalm 148 Colossians 3:12-17 Luke 2: 41-52  

Merry Christmas! On Friday night and Saturday, we celebrated Christmas with Luke’s version of the birth of Jesus. Those here on a Sunday two days after Christmas Eve almost by definition constitute a well-seasoned, biblically literate crowd and so most know what follows. And even if you aren’t biblically literate, you always get a “bye” at Christmas in terms of Biblical knowledge. Thus most of us know that Luke has the story of Mary with child and Joseph traveling to a stable and a manger, and the shepherds who are visited by an angel and come to see the Christ child. The Gospel Matthew has the wisemen or magi come to visit. Mark, of course, doesn’t have a birth story, but instead starts Jesus’ story with his ministry from the time of his baptism with John the Baptist. And for this Sunday we have the beginning of John’s Gospel. One…

This past Monday night, the 20th, my section for Sacred Ground met on Zoom. All day before the meeting, I kept saying, “ugh, I have Sacred Ground at 6:30.” Please understand that this is entirely atypical for me to complain about this meeting. Four meetings out of ten into this program and the videos, the readings, the discussion that has ensued have all been amazing. Each of us has learned so much more than what we were ever taught about the history of our nation and its history of white supremacy and resulting genocide of the native people and oppression of anyone not white. However, the topic for our Monday meeting was one of the hardest and it seemed incongruous with the spirit of Christmas. We covered the trans-Atlantic slave trade. We had two people absent from our normal group, people traveling over the holidays, but even with our 6-7…

As recently as a couple of weeks ago, I alluded to the fact that Advent is not merely a countdown to Christmas; however, I have an Advent calendar that years ago my mother gave to me. And I admit that I use it to count down to Christmas. (Someday I will need to make a few repairs to it… The pieces have Velcro on their backs are quilted and are stuffed into little numbered pockets; and there is wear and tear on these pieces from repeated entrances and exits.) While pondering the repairs that are needed, I noticed that the pieces seem to progress in the order of their application to the felt manger, from celestial to earthy things. There is a star, and angels, and a candle lit, shining in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it. And there are presents, animals, shepherds, and kings, which of…

Generally, I think it’s human nature for people always to see themselves in whatever story is being told. I also think it’s human nature to see ourselves favorably; everybody wants to be the hero. When we hear a story from the Bible, we see ourselves as David, not as Goliath. We are Israel, not the Canaanites, or Moabites, etc. We are the Jews following Jesus, or we are the disciples (but preferably not Peter, and definitely not Judas) or we are the oppressed in Philippi. We are NOT the Pharisees and we are NOT the Romans. So, when we hear the readings from Zephaniah, this morning’s Canticle, (which is also called the first song of Isaiah) and the epistle to the Philippians, we all hear the common theme of comfort that these passages have to offer. We even just sang “Comfort, Comfort ye thy people” as our sequence hymn. These…