Let All Creation Rejoice--Matthew 3:16-17
Day 7
Happy Epiphany!
I suppose that’s what I’m supposed to say today. I’ve never said that to anyone before though.
You would think the manifestation of God would be a bigger deal, but in reality, today marks the day most Christmas decorations are finally put away by stubborn (or maybe just lazy) Christians who use this date as the true end date for the Christmas season.
That’s us. We are finally emptying the condo of all things Christmas–coffee mugs, dish towels, snowmen figurines, and the tree. The whole lot.
I think this small study of the manifestation of God today, the Epiphany, has been helpful in recovering from some of the more pagan rituals and jolly hoopla that my family has attached to the Incarnation and has broadened my understanding of my faith.
Yesterday, I commented on Father Stavros’ description of our earthly mission of learning how to wait on our eternal reward.
Like I said, I don’t like waiting and I’m not very good at it unless I’ve got something to do that dampens my penchant for losing patience.
A reader suggests an excellent strategy for waiting:
“I really don't know anyone who has mastered the art of waiting. I certainly have not acquired that skill. For myself, waiting is more about surrendering (for myself, the good as well as the bad, and definitely the ugly). Surrendering my control, plans, and wisdom to God. Maybe it's what I know I need to do while I wait.
Job 11:13-19 Surrender your heart to God, turn to him in prayer, and give up your sins— even those you do in secret.
Either way I am repeatedly reminded to surrender myself and my life to God. Progress, not perfection for me.”
Of course, surrendering is an ego thing for me. Placidity in the face of anxious times doesn't suit me.
Really, it's only after I’ve ranted and raved, and whinged and worried myself sick that I reach a place of exhaustion with myself where I can look up and say, “Lord, I can’t do it.”
And that place of exhaustion is a STARTING point for the practical lesson of the Epiphany for me.
Oswald Chambers writes in Individual Discouragement and Personal Growth about how all of my whinging shows disrespect for God:
“We must also learn that our individual effort for God shows nothing but disrespect for Him— our individuality is to be rendered radiant through a personal relationship with God, so that He may be “well pleased”.
In that little bit of mystical wisdom of my personal relationship with God is the small quoted phrase, “well pleased” which refers directly to Matthew 3 and the description of the baptism of Christ–or the Feast of Epiphany:
Matthew 3:16-17 16 After He was baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and settling on Him, 17 and behold, a voice from the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
I don’t know if that’s the first place in the Bible the Triune God is described or if there are other places, but Jesus’ baptism is the place, I think, where the three parts of God most come together for me.
The WHOLE Holy Trinity is active in those two verses.
God spoke about His Son, (“I am well pleased.”), His Son gets baptized by John the Baptist, and the Holy Spirit descends onto the scene as a dove.
1-2-3.
In Let All Creation Rejoice: Reflections For Advent, The Nativity, and Epiphany, Father Stavros writes:
“Epiphany is the revelation of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, and is the first public act of Christ’s ministry. Up until this point in history, the “Messiah” was written about in prophecy. This is the moment that the prophecy was fulfilled, the announcement of the Son of God to the whole world.”
As wordy as St. Augustine is, (I find his writing to be mostly impenetrable because I’m used to reading erudite literature like all of the Jack Reacher books), he is a model of succinctness in describing this moment of the Holy Trinity:
He writes in On The Trinity:
“There, then, are three things: He who loves , and that who is loved, and love.”
I marvel at the heft of those very few words.
More than the announcement of the Holy Trinity to me–and especially now that my father is slowly, perceptibly, drifting away–is the quiet pride God has for Jesus in verse 17.
C.S. Lewis describes this pride in Mere Christianity:
“God is love, and that love works through men—especially through the whole community of Christians. But this spirit of love is, from all eternity, a love going on between the Father and Son.”
This holy relationship between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit has existed since before time began.
All of it is precisely incomprehensible to me and I don’t mind that all.
That is the precious mystery of my faith. 🙂
So, Happy Epiphany, y’all!
Lord, we thank You for the beautiful revealing of the Holy Trinity at Jesus’ baptism. We are reminded of Your love and divine plan for redemption through Christ.
Lord, help us to embrace the grace of baptism and to live out our callings with courage and humility.
Amen.
PS. I’m starting on Shannon Bream’s The Women of the Bible Speak: The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today tomorrow.
I stole it from Karen–it was one of her Christmas presents from my parents.
Not a good start, I know. 🙂
Onward!