Terrapin Station

My Star Word of 2017

Lots of my friends in RevGalBlogPals choose a "STARword" each year at the feast of The Epiphany. I learned about it from Marci Glass and you can read more about the tradition at the page she wrote about it for RevGalBlogPals. 

The word that chose me last year was: Peace. 

I laughed, because, seriously, it's my nature to be peaceful. I'm a 9 on the Enneagram and the core of my being is avoidance of conflict. "I'm all about peace!" 

But sat with the word, and thought about it, and prayed about it. 

And shortly after the word came, my Enneagram teacher, Suzanne Stabile, posted this advice to Enneagram Nines:

Hmm, my needs and desires? I'm not always good at asking for what I want, or even identifying it. Often, in the past, I've been unaware that a choice was mine to be made. I fall asleep to myself.

But 2017? Has been the least peaceful year of my life to date. First and foremost, there was the reality that dawned with the inauguration of the new president, the culmination of the horror that woke up with me on November 9 last year and has yet to go away. It does not stop getting worse. Witness that person's very recent comments about "shithole countries." Evil, stupid, reprehensible, entirely unstatesmanlike. I could go on. 

I'm fond of saying about things that upset or exhaust me: "I need to go lie down with a wet washrag on my head." (Try it some time, it's very soothing.)

But this is not the time for lying about with washrags. This is the time for rising up in anger and making my voice heard. That has been the year 2017. I have found an energy that I've never known before. 

There have also been personal things that have been greatly harmful to peace, and they were also items that needed to be addressed, stayed woke for, and attention paid to them. There was sitting with hard things. Not peace. 

So the word didn't mean what I thought it meant. It meant a great deal more. Was it more in a good way? I don't know, but I'm awake to see it. 

**

(Stay tuned for thoughts on 2018's word: Invitation.)

 

 

 

 

 

Epiphany, January 6

Collect for Epiphany

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son
to the Peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by
faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to
face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

 

Significance of Epiphany in the Church

 

As with most aspects of the Christian liturgical calendar, Epiphany has theological significance as a teaching tool in the church. The Wise Men or Magi who brought gifts to the child Jesus were the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as "King" and so were the first to "show" or "reveal" Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ. This act of worship by the Magi, which corresponded to Simeon’s blessing that this child Jesus would be "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32), was one of the first indications that Jesus came for all people, of all nations, of all races, and that the work of God in the world would not be limited to only a few.

 

The day is now observed as a time of focusing on the mission of the church in reaching others by "showing" Jesus as the Savior. It is also a time of focusing on Christian community and fellowship, especially in healing the divisions of prejudice and bigotry that we all too often create between God’s children.

 

An Epiphany Prayer

 

Father, we thank you for revealing yourself to us in Jesus the Christ, we who once were not your people but whom you chose to adopt as your people. As ancient Israel confessed long ago, we realize that it was not because of our own righteousness, or our own superior wisdom, or strength, or power, or numbers. It was simply because you loved us, and chose to show us that love in Jesus.

As you have accepted us when we did not deserve your love, will you help us to accept those whom we find it hard to love? Forgive us, O Lord, for any attitude that we harbor that on any level sees ourselves as better or more righteous than others.  Will you help us to remove the barriers of prejudice and to tear down the walls of bigotry, religious or social?  O Lord, help us realize that the walls that we erect for others only form our own prisons!

Will you fill us so full of your love that there is no more room for intolerance. As you have forgiven us much, will you enable us with your strength to forgive others even more? Will you enable us through your abiding Presence among us, communally and individually, to live our lives in a manner worthy of the Name we bear?

May we, through your guidance and our faithful obedience, find new avenues in ways that we have not imagined of holding the Light of your love so that it may be a Light of revelation for all people.

We thank you for your love, praise you for your Gift, ask for your continued Presence with us, and bring these petitions in the name of your Son, who has truly revealed your heart.  Amen.