Turn the Lights Up
Leaning into the season of Epiphany with Resilience
“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in”
(Song by Leonard Cohen, Anthem)
Advocates Close, Edinburgh, Scotland (Photo by Matthew Nash)
We are often a mix of darkness and light. We want to think that we only emulate the light, the good, the beautiful and the joy. More days, if we are honest, we are living from the shadow, the rough, the pain, the darkness. We are often a mix of darkness and light.
Today is the beginning of the season called Epiphany in the church calendar. It originates from a feast day in the Christian tradition that goes back to at least 215 AD first mentioned by Clement of Alexandria. Many in church history consider today is the day that the Magi came to visit the baby Jesus and offer gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Gold is a gift for the living, Myrrh is a gift for the dead. What odd gifts for a baby.
These wise men knew who they were worshipping. They brought gold because they knew Jesus was a King, although not the one people expected. They brought myrrh because Jesus would offer his life as a sacrifice and his body (prior to the resurrection) was wrapped with spices, one of them being myrrh. The gift of the frankincense was just that, incense to burn as a pleasing aroma for an offering. Jesus’ life was an offering.
Do you see your life as an offering?
When we hear lyrics from a song like Anthem, that tells us to ring the bells that are still possible to hear the sound of music, those words can fill us with hope and joy. Then comes the wisdom - forget your perfect offering. Realize that perfection is not going to happen and being ok with that.
We pretend that we don’t need perfection but we hold ourselves and others to sometimes impossible standards and expect it. We have to let that go.
We also don’t like things that are cracked. We usually throw them away. They are declared worthless and no longer good for anything.
I am cracked.
You are cracked.
(Photo by Stephanie Ycaza)
“Kintsugi, which is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery. In this process, pieces of broken pottery are painstakingly joined back together using a lacquer that is mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. When the process is finished the resulting piece is more unique and usually more valuable than the original. Kintsugi is related to the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-sabi, the aesthetic tradition of embracing the beauty found in imperfections. According to Richard Powell, “Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.” (Stephanie Ycaza, Richard Powell)
It’s ok to not be ok.
Do you feel this in your skin and bones? Do you let yourself have days full of grief, sadness or darkness. Do you try to put on a “brave face” and pretend that everything is ok? Do you tell everyone, “I’m fine” when really the opposite is true.
It is good to show the cracks in your life - that is how the light gets in.
This season of Epiphany lasts for 40 days. What if you took these next 40 days and lived differently? What if you learned as much about yourself in the light than you do in the dark?
This is what it means to cultivate resilience.
Resilience is the ability to keep going in the face of tragedy.
What tragedies have you faced in your life? Where do you need resilience?
So often we see things in the world that disrupt us, three years ago today that happened here in this country. On the day that the presidential election was to be certified, there was a violent attack on the Capitol building and people lost their life. Five people died in the first 36 hours and another 4 police officers took their own life within 7 months of the attack. It was a dark day in this country. After all we’ve been through in our history, from independence to Civil War to two World Wars, along with other global wars, to a pandemic to insurrection - we are resilient as people and have not lost all hope.
I still have hope that tomorrow can be better than today. Why?
Jesus
It may sound too simplistic but I don’t think so. This is why the season of Epiphany is so important. We need the light to outshine the darkness.
Maybe this week you can begin to notice the days that you are standing in the light and when you are sitting in the dark. When you have either of these moments, here is a a prayer that is from the Epiphany liturgy that you could pray…
Let us pray
May we will be guided by the light of faith.
Father,
you revealed your Son to the nations by the guidance of a star.
Lead us to your glory in heaven by the light of faith.
Here is an exercise that may be helpful for you as you begin this new year and think back over this last year. I would challenge you to take some time and go deep, deeper and into the deepest places of your soul to build your muscles of resilience.
As Richard Rohr says, “We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”
As a Spiritual Director, I walk with people everyday that are living themselves into new ways of thinking. It is such sacred work that I am very thankful for. Many of these leaders are pastors who are caring for the needs of others sometimes more than their own needs or their families.
Romans 12:2 reminds us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
The word “transformed” there is the Greek word METANOIA which literally means metamorphosis.
The caterpillar is transformed and becomes a butterfly. New creature.
This is our journey. At least is should be.
“The people who know God well—mystics, hermits, prayerful people, those who risk everything to find God—always meet a lover, not a dictator.”
― Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer
God is love
God is love
God is love
I wanted to say it three times so it sinks into me and you.
God is not about control, that is not love. He gives every person absolute free will. We are ridiculously in charge of our choices.
For light or dark.
(Photo by Ian Black)
This is one of my favorite streets in the world and I got to be there again last November. I love it at night because the lampposts really makes this photo what it is. This was the first thing that the children see in Narnia…a lamppost that shows them the way home.
I feel at home in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Where do you feel at home?
O God,
who am I now?
Once, I was secure in familiar territory
in my sense of belonging
Unquestioning of the norms of my culture
the assumptions built into my language
the values shared by my society.
But now you have called me out and away from home
and I do not know where you are leading.
I am empty, unsure, uncomfortable.
I have only a beckoning star to follow.
Journeying God,
pitch your tent with mine
so that I may not become deterred
by hardship, strangeness, doubt.
Show me the movement I must make
toward a wealth not dependent on possessions
toward a wisdom not based on books
toward a strength not bolstered by might
toward a God not confined to heaven
but scandalously earthed, poor, unrecognized…
Help me find myself
as I walk in others’ shoes.
Poem by Kate Compston, Bread of Tomorrow: Prayers for the Church Year, 1990.
My hope is that this season can be transformational for you?
Turn the lights up in your life.
Grace and Peace
Matt
“Epiphany is a wonderful celebration for those who are committing themselves more deeply to the process of spiritual transformation, for it contains themes of journeying from the known to the unknown with only a mysterious light to guide us.” (Ruth Haley Barton)
Beautiful.