Epiphany, week 1: I have called you by name, Beloved

My Epiphany daybook for these 5 weeks of witness. Join me, won't you? 

(Read here for a brief description of the liturgical season of Epiphany. See previous Epiphany daybook 2015 posts here)

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look

Baptism in the River Jordan during pilgrimage  Location widely considered to be where John baptized Jesus. source

Baptism in the River Jordan during pilgrimage 
Location widely considered to be where John baptized Jesus.
source

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read 

Isaiah 43:1- 2 / Luke 3:16:  But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. / John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

all readings for the day: Isaiah 43:1-7  • Psalm 29  • Acts 8:14-17  • Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

also read: a sonnet for Epiphany by Malcolm Guite:

Beginning here we glimpse the Three-in-one;
The river runs, the clouds are torn apart,
The Father speaks, the Spirit and the Son
Reveal to us the single loving heart
That beats behind the being of all things
And calls and keeps and kindles us to light.
The dove descends, the spirit soars and sings
‘You are belovèd, you are my delight!’

In that quick light and life, as water spills
And streams around the Man like quickening rain,
The voice that made the universe reveals
The God in Man who makes it new again.
He calls us too, to step into that river
To die and rise and live and love forever

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pray

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (source)

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listen

Wash Me Clean

Page CXVI

Epiphany 1: Come to the Water playlist

(Also, feel free to listen with me to my ever-evolving Epiphany playlist.)

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do

Today is a good day to renew your baptism vows -- whether in your corporate worship service or in your family and personal prayer time. May I recommend this post from my son's baptism? It includes the Anglican baptism liturgy, but applicable for all followers of Christ.  

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Christmas daybook, 5: Rachel weeping for her children

My Christmas daybook for these 12 days of celebrating. Join me, won't you? 

(see previous Christmas daybook 2015 posts here)

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look

Where the Children Sleep
Magnus Wennman
source

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read

Matthew 2:13-18: A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.

all readings for the day: Psalm 124; Matthew 2:13-18

also read:  Refugee by Malcolm Guite

We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,

Or cosy in a crib beside the font,

But he is with a million displaced people

On the long road of weariness and want.

For even as we sing our final carol

His family is up and on that road,

Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,

Glancing behind and shouldering their load.

Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower

Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,

The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,

And death squads spread their curse across the world.

But every Herod dies, and comes alone

To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.

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pray

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of just love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (source)

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listen

The Flight

by Richard Causton,
commissioned for 2015 Lessons and Carols service at Kings College Chapel

(Also, feel free to listen with me to my ever-evolving Christmastide playlist . If you're looking for sappy, even sometimes cheesy, but fun Christmas music try my Christmas Eve (for my Momma) playlist. )

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do

A New Tradition on the Feast of the Innocents With A New Tradition from Wondering Through the Year

make a donation to an organization that cares for babies and children - money or physical items

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In case you missed it, here's a helpful post I wrote a couple of years ago: 12 ways to savor the 12 days of Christmas.

(see all Christmas daybook posts from 2014 here)

12/24 Advent daybook, 26: A child has been born for us!

My Advent daybook for these 24 days of waiting. Join me, won't you? (see previous Advent daybook 2015 posts here)

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look

Angel Playing a Trumpet
detail from the Linaiuoli Triptych, by Fra Angelico

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read

Isaiah 9:2-7: For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

all readings for the day: Isaiah 9:2-7 • Psalm 96 • Titus 2:11-14 • Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)

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pray

God of incarnation, your angel host announces that peace has been born among us, embodied in fragile flesh. With confidence in the power of that miracle, we bring before you our prayers for the church and the world.

 Offer prayers up for church, world, community and family, concluding with:

By your grace, transform our prayers from words to deeds, that we may live as a holy people in the dawn of your peace, redeemed from all that divides us, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen. (source)

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listen

For Unto Us A Child Is Born 
from Handel's Messiah

Robert Shaw Chorale and Orchestra

(Also, feel free to listen with me to my ever-evolving Advent playlist or a growing Advent Orchestral/Choral playlist on Spotify.)

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do

read this poem by Christina Rossetti (h/t Malcolm Guite):

Christmas Eve

CHRISTMAS hath a darkness

Brighter than the blazing noon,

Christmas hath a chillness

Warmer than the heat of June,

Christmas hath a beauty

Lovelier than the world can show:

For Christmas bringeth Jesus,

Brought for us so low.

Earth, strike up your music,

Birds that sing and bells that ring;

Heaven hath answering music

For all Angels soon to sing:

Earth, put on your whitest

Bridal robe of spotless snow:

For Christmas bringeth Jesus,

Brought for us so low. 

wait in hope and wonder

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(see all Advent daybook posts from 2014 here)

7 Quick Takes: All Saints Day and Saint Trey + happy things that happened before we were sad.

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All Saints Day II, 1911
Wassily Kandinsky

Today is All Saints Day.   It is the day on our church calendar when we thank God for all saints, dead and living, for the community of the baptized and “the cloud of witnesses” that cheer us on to live our Christian identity. 

This year, All Saints Day is the day our friend Trey died.  This morning he went home, joined the cloud of witnesses.  But he was just here.  He and Brian were supposed to golf on Monday.  I hugged him in his blue shirt on Friday night.  I said "How're you doin', Trey?" And looked down at me and said, "Getting here was rough, but I'm doing alright now."

We are stunned.  And very, very sad to be  getting ready for a funeral.

In morning prayers today, Brian and I smiled and cried imagining Trey -- Saint Trey -- with all the others in Revelation 7.  In addition to being sad, we are also, quite frankly, jealous.  

Trey, I'm sad and stunned and jealous, but also really happy that you're doing alright now.

--- 3 ---

Malcolm Guite wrote a beautiful sonnet for this day in the liturgical year.

listen to ‘A sonnet for All Saints’ on Audioboo

All Saints

Though Satan breaks our dark glass into shards

Each shard still shines with Christ’s reflected light,

It glances from the eyes, kindles the words

Of all his unknown saints. The dark is bright

With quiet lives and steady lights undimmed,

The witness of the ones we shunned and shamed.

Plain in our sight and far beyond our seeing

He weaves them with us in the web of being

They stand beside us even as we grieve,

The lone and left behind whom no one claimed,

Unnumbered multitudes, he lifts above

The shadow of the gibbet and the grave,

To triumph where all saints are known and named;

The gathered glories of His wounded love.

--- 4 ---

Before we were sad, we enjoyed a fun retreat with our church family last weekend.

The man still can crank out a Top 10 list.  (Christ Church annual retreat talent show)

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In which I continue to complain about the soil/weather/critters of Texas:  

At the retreat center, in the Hill Country of Texas, the sun was merciful, the air cool and breezy.  I began to relax and feel like I was no longer a stranger and alien in this southwest land.  UNTIL -- I had the audacity to frolic in flip-flops, upon green and dewy grass only to have several Texas-born matriarchs yell across the way simultaneous dire warnings:  "There's stickers in that grass!" and "Watch out for the fire ants.  The rain brought them all up from their nests!"  At which time, I stood paralyzed upon a limestone rock sticking up out of the earth and contemplated my predicament.

And wished -- once again -- for the human-friendlier pastures of my northeast home.

Although in the Northeast your front yard doesn't grow rosebushes in October:

--- 5 ---

My brother Ryan started a blog!  You're going to love visiting his imaginative and fun posts at Rocket Gent: The Imaginative Gentleman.

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Good words other people wrote online this week:

• 'Never Say Goodbye': A Life and Love Kept Vivid, celebrating StoryCorps' tenth anniversary at NPR

• Restoring Hearts in Iraq by Jeremy Courtney in Q Ideas for the Common Good

• Arcade Fire full album preview: Set to the 1959 film Black Orpheus, Arcade Fire has released their entire upcoming album Reflektor, available October 28th, for your listening pleasure.

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Yes, this is fun.  So, so fun (especially if you are from New York. Or Canada.)

Brian & Peter from Stephen Henderson on Vimeo.

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A beauty and grace-filled weekend for us all, dear ones.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Day 23 (art meditations + suggested resources for Advent)

"Advent is about learning to wait. It is about not having to know exactly what is coming tomorrow, only that whatever it is, it is of the essence of sanctification for us. Every piece of it, some hard, some uplifiting, is sign of the work of God alive in us. We are becoming as we go. We learn in Advent to stay in the present, knowing that only the present well lived can possibly lead us to the fullness of life." (Chittister)





During Advent I'll forego my weekly Buy More Art posts in order to share almost-daily meditations of Scripture, hymns, and art reflecting the alternate narrative and subversive time of waiting in hope for the Christ who came, the Christ who will come again and the Christ now among us.

Won't you join me?

Fourth Sunday of Advent:

"In the first centuries the Church had a beautiful custom of praying seven great prayers calling afresh on Christ to come, calling him by the mysterious titles he has in Isaiah, calling to him; O Wisdom. O Root! O Key, O Light! come to us!"  (Malcolm Guite)

December 23 - O Emmanuel (God With Us)

Isaiah 7:14:

"The Lord himself will give you this sign: the Virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel."

Matthew 1:23: 

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.”

The original antiphon in Latin and English (via Malcolm Guite)

O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster,
exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster

O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God

[the verse from the familiar carol]

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears.

Listen to the original antiphon sung in Latin.

O Emmanuel re-written by Malcolm Guite

O Emmanuel

O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.

(Listen to the author's reading of this sonnet.)

listen to ‘O Emmanuel’ on Audioboo

Madonna and Child
Nancy Goes
CIVA exhibit, Seeing the Savior

O Emmanuel rewritten by Thom Turner at Everyday Liturgy

O Emmanuel

O God-who-is-with-us, our coming king, composer of justice,
the nations will gather and bow down to you
who will come to judge the living and the dead.
Come now and save us, our God in the flesh.

Song of response: O Come, O Come Emmanuel (three, because I couldn't pick just one)




Suggested Resources for Advent:

Christmas Hymns by Jason Harrod

Songs for Christmas by Sufjan Stevens

Salvation is Created by Bifrost Arts

Now it's your turn!  What art are you enjoying this season? 

 Tell us about it in the  comments below.  

If you've written your own post, share the link.

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"I keep expecting loud and impressive events to convince me and others of God's saving powers. Our temptation is to be distracted by them. When I have no eyes for the small signs of God's presence ... I will always remain tempted to despair." -- Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen, Gracias! A Latin American Journal - 1983 (via Diary of An Arts Pastor)