“Fast away the old year passes – hail the new, you lads and lasses.”
Today is January 6th, Epiphany. My colleague Kevin used to say, “Have a spiffy Epiphany!” Well, Epiphany doesn’t feel all that spiffy this year but it’s spiritual significance is not lost on me. I have always loved Epiphany. We used to have Epiphany parties here at the church. They always included the sharing of a ‘bean cake’. I would bake a cake and I would hide three beans in it. Whoever found the bean in their piece of cake became the royalty for the rest of the evening. It was always loads of fun and after eating our fill from the pot luck buffet table we would sing carols and play games.
Epiphany is the twelfth day of Christmas. This is the day your true love would give you 12 drummers drumming. Epiphany marks the threshold from the season of Christmas into the fullness of the new year. It is also the day we remember the arrival of the magi, those strange star-gazers from the east who came with mysterious gifts of foreboding. In the Christmas story this is the day that the world was opened and all cultures came together. This is also, according to the biblical story the day that the magi and Joseph and Mary were warned in dreams to get our of town because the political power, Herod, was breathing death threats. It is a threshold day in many aspects.
On this Epiphany day I am facing a threshold as well. This new year, this month, brings a significant change in my life. I have started the onerous job of packing up my office and getting rid of all the superfluous material that has collected in my 14+ years here. This is the threshold to a new way of being for me. But it is okay because I like thresholds. I like crossing into the new, the different, and the what ifs and the maybes of new places.
2022 has not started off with much global joy or delight as the virus continues to stalk the whole world. But even omicron cannot deplete everything that fills our lives. So let us cross the threshold into this new year holding on to those things that do bring us joy – sunlight, messages from loved ones, fresh hot coffee, warm baths, crisp air, and something bigger than ourselves to believe in.
The best New Years message I have read! Very uplifting!
Thanks Nancy.
How resounding your last line -Believing in something /someone bigger than ourselves – was to me. This pandemic has promoted many a “naval gazing” practice and we all need to start expanding our horizons as perpetually gazing inward has not, does not and will not solve any problems. Overt actions – looking out, reaching out, stepping out, speaking out – all require conscious exertion and effort on our part – all good for the soul, even if there is no immediate physical reward. My one and only 2022 resolution was to occasionally step outside my comfort/safety zone (small steps, grasshopper) and be comforted by the realization that I am still me, maybe a little braver, hopefully wiser and definitely more hopeful. As the Lottery “dream coach” says – Dream larger than Life.
January 6th for me marks the day two years ago when we said our goodbyes to my mom. I guess my epiphany is realizing that moment in which you suddenly see or understand something in a new or very clear way. The path forward has not been easy but realizing all my mom gave to me gives me the courage to embrace a “spiffy epiphany”!!
I have enjoyed your sermons and your blogs the short time I have a member of BUC congregation.
I will be back in town end of April .
All the very best to you Nancy Knox