Monthly Archives: January 2025

The Presentation and the Poker player – 2025

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The Beatles “reinvent themselves” – with fictional alter egos – leading to spiritual growth…

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Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

The Book of Common Prayer says that by sharing Holy Communion, Christians become “very members incorporate in the mystical body” of Jesus. The words “corporate” and “mystical” are key. They show that a healthy church has two sides, with the often-overlooked “mystic” side posing the question, “How do I experience God?” This blog will try to answer that.

It has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (John 6:37.) The second is that God wants us to live lives of abundance.(John 10:10.) The third is that Jesus wants us to read the Bible with an open mind. (As it says in Luke 24:45: “Then He [Jesus] opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”) The fourth theme – another one often overlooked – is that Jesus wants us to do even greater miracles than He did. (John 14:12.) 

And this thought ties them together:

The best way to live abundantly and do greater miracles than Jesus is: Read, study and apply the Bible with an open mind. For more see the notes or – to expand your mind – see the Intro.

In the meantime:

January 31, 2025 – This Sunday, February 2, we remember The Presentation of the Lord; Jesus, presented at the Temple in Jerusalem. There’s more on that later, but first a note on some upcoming posts, up to and possibly into Lent, about a guy some people call Crazy Nick.

In 1967 the Beatles turned themselves into Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They were tired of being “the Beatles,” so they invented a fictional alter ego to get away from it all. They’d pretend to be someone else, a make-believe band that would allow them to grow, to reinvent themselves and to explore new spiritual horizons. In 1993 I too created a fictional alter ego, as a kind of thought experiment. I created a character I came to call Nick, in honor of Ernest Hemingway’s Nick Adams stories. Like the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Band, my imaginary “Nick” gave me freedom to explore new horizons, and maybe find some new spiritual insights.

My 1994 novel describing him was a fantasy of sorts. A sports fantasy but also one about reading the Bible to help get good things from God. My imaginary Nick honestly thought he could help his favorite sport teams win. His thought: “Suppose a devout Christian sports fan found a way to work with God to try and help his team win. What lessons would he learn?”

Like Sgt. Pepper’s Band my imaginary Nick gave me the freedom to explore new horizons and find new spiritual insights. One thing I learned in the 30-plus years since that first novel in 1994: There is no magic formula. Nick has suffered heartbreak way more often than not, but there have been successes – detailed in later posts – along with some “aha!” spiritual breakthroughs.

Another thing I learned from Nick: That even if you lose – when your team doesn’t win, or gets embarrassed on the field – the very idea of working with and interacting with the Force that Created the Universe is powerful stuff. (“He’s trying to tell me something!”)

A third thing I learned: Being a good Christian – trying to get good things from God – can be a lot like learning to become a professional poker player. You know you won’t win every hand. No reasonable pro poker player would expect that. But if you learn how to play your cards right, you can expect to make a reasonably comfortable living at it. (And for any Bible-Cons – conservatives, or maybe Modern-Day Pharisees – reading this and getting all upset, let me just add, “That’s a metaphor!” Or maybe an allegory or parable; I get those mixed sometimes.)

I’ll write more on lessons learned from Crazy Nick in the upcoming pre-Lent and Lenten seasons, but meanwhile: Back to The Presentation. It’s part of the season of Epiphanytide, leading up to the Last Sunday after the Epiphany on March 2, and the First Sunday in Lent on March 9.)

Counting forward from December 25 as Day One, we find that Day Forty is February 2. A Jewish woman is in semi-seclusion for 40 days after giving birth to a son, and accordingly it is on February 2 that we celebrate the coming of Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem…

In other words, the day celebrates an early episode in the life of Jesus, “to officially induct him into Judaism.” (In many churches it’s also called Candlemas, as illustrated at right.) Luke described the episode at 2:22–40: “Mary and Joseph took the Infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem … to complete Mary’s ritual purification after childbirth.”

Luke explicitly says that Joseph and Mary take the option provided for poor people (those who could not afford a lamb) (Leviticus 12:8), sacrificing “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”  Leviticus 12:1–4 indicates that this event should take place forty days after birth for a male child, hence the Presentation is celebrated forty days after Christmas.

In other words, they were there “in obedience to the Torah (Leviticus 12, Exodus 13:12-15.” (On Purification after Childbirth, “if she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.”)

Other tidbits from past posts: Mary did this even though she’d “borne Christ without incurring impurity” – the usual impurity involved in conception – but “went to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfill the requirements of the Law of Moses.” (To set a good example, like Jesus insisting that John baptize Him.) Another tidbit: This first Presentation put Jesus on the long road to His second one, at the hands of Pontius Pilate, showing Him to the mob.

A reminder that from the time of His first Presentation – at just over a month old – Jesus’ life was one long journey to that second presentation. (On the eve of making the sacrifice that would literally change history, if not “split history in two.”) 

And it all began with “Simeon and Anna recognizing the Lord Jesus.” (Shown below.)

So, what does this have to do with any lessons I might have learned from Crazy Nick? Just that I published my first novel about him in 1994. A year later I published my first book in the Not your daddy’s Bible mode, “Jesus Christ, Public Defender.” (Of which more in future posts.) Years later – in April 2014 – I started this blog, with a series of posts that I’ve left untouched and uncorrected, so you can judge how much I’ve progressed. (If at all. See for example On Jonah and the bra-burners, from 2015.) You might call that a presentation of my own…

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The Presentation, where “Simeon and Anna Recognize the Lord Jesus…” 

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The upper image is courtesy of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Image – Image Results. For the original album cover see Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Wikipedia.

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

“Feast days” are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

Re: 1994 novel. I did a sequel of sorts, “30 years’ feedback,” in 2024.

Re: Magic formula. Merriam-Webster defines the term as “a simple and sure way to an end.”

Re “powerful stuff.” The reference is to the George Jones lyric in his song White Lightning:

Well a city slicker came and he said I’m tough – I think I want to taste that powerful stuff – He took one slug and he drank it right down I heard him moanin’ as he hit the ground – Mighty mighty pleasin you’r pappy’s corn squeezin…

BTW: That’s another metaphor, like the one about the Poker player.

Re: Today’s Pharisees. See Self-Test: Are You a Modern-Day Pharisee? – Dr. Eitan Bar:

Today, the term “Pharisee” has become synonymous with legalism, judgmentalism, and a condescending attitude toward others. While Phariseeism was once a specific religious movement, its spirit lives on in modern times through people who prioritize rules over relationships, law over love, and condemnation over compassion.

For this post I borrowed from or referred to On the FIRST “Presentation of the Lord,” from 2017. (That post closed with a picture of Donald Trump and this note: “I ran across a Bible passage apropos to current events. The Daily Office Readings for February 1[, 2017] included Isaiah 54:15: ‘If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me.'” Also, “The LORD is a God of knowledge” – The Presentation, 2019, with a quote from Matthew 5:22, “If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.” (From the NLT translation.)) Also from The “Presentation of our Lord” – 2020, On the Presentation of Jesus – 2/2/22, and Jesus “Presented” – 2024.

Re: Other posts on Jonah. See also 2024’s On Bra-burners and the True Test of Faith, and 2020’s Jonah: “Ain’t about no stinkin’ whale!”

About the presumptive audacity of calling this a “presentation of my own,” see 1st Corinthians 11:1, “You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.”

The lower image is courtesy of Simeon And Anna Recognize The Lord Jesus – Image Results.  See also Simeon and Anna Recognize the Lord in Jesus – Rembrandt, and the “Simeon” link in the Wikipedia article on the Presentation, or at “Rembrandtonline.” For another interpretation, see “Simeon the Godreceiver by Alexei Egorov. 1830–40s.”

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As noted in the opening blurb, this blog has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (John 6:37, with the added, “Anyone who comes to Him.”) This is a consistent theme throughout the Bible. From the Old Testament, Psalm 9:10, “You never forsake those who seek you, O Lord.” (In the Version in the Book of Common Prayer.) The second is that God wants us to live abundantly.  (John 10:10.) The third is that we should do greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12). A fourth theme: The only way to do all that is read the Bible with an open mind:

…closed-mindedness, or an unwillingness to consider new ideas, can result from the brain’s natural dislike for ambiguity. According to this view, the brain has a “search and destroy” relationship with ambiguity and evidence contradictory to people’s current beliefs tends to make them uncomfortable… Research confirms that belief-discrepant-closed-minded persons have less tolerance for cognitive inconsistency

So in plain words, I take issue with what I came to call “Christian first graders.” Those who stay in a kind of elementary school, and maybe even never go beyond first grade. See John the Baptist, ’24 – and “Christian First Graders,” for more detail. But the key point: “The Bible was designed to expand your mind,” not keep it narrow. Also, the idea that “Jesus was anything but negative. His goal was for you to grow and develop into all that you can be.” (For more on that see ABOUT THE BLOG, above.)

Before that post I wrote that the blog takes issue with boot-camp Christians, the Biblical literalists who never go “beyond the fundamentals.” But the Bible can offer so much more than their narrow reading can offer…  (Unless you want to stay a Bible buck private all your life…) Now, about “Boot-camp Christians.” See for example, Conservative Christian – “Career buck private?”  The gist of that post is that starting the Bible is like Army Basic Training. You begin by“learning the fundamentals.” But after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training.” 

http://www.toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg

However, after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training. And as noted in “Buck private,” one of this blog’s themes is that if you want to be all that you can be, you need to go on and explore the “mystical side of Bible reading.*” In other words, exploring the mystical side of the Bible helps you “be all that you can be.” See Slogans of the U.S. Army – Wikipedia, re: the recruiting slogan from 1980 to 2001. The related image at left is courtesy of: “toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg.”

Re: “mystical.” Originally, mysticism “referred to the Biblical liturgical, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity.” See Mysticism – Wikipedia, and the post On originalism.  (“That’s what the Bible was originally about!”) See also Christian mysticism – Wikipedia, “In early Christianity the term ‘mystikos’ referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative… The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God.” As to that “experiential” aspect, see also Wesleyan Quadrilateral – Wikipedia, on the theological reflection method using four sources of spiritual development: scripturetradition, reason, and “Christian experience.”

For an explanation of the Daily Office – where “Dorscribe” came from – see What’s a DOR

On Peter and Paul, working together – 2025

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“Scholars Disputing” – Peter and Paul – but they ended up working for the common good… 

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Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

The Book of Common Prayer says that by sharing Holy Communion, Christians become “very members incorporate in the mystical body” of Jesus. The words “corporate” and “mystical” are key. They show that a healthy church has two sides, with the often-overlooked “mystic” side posing the question, “How do I experience God?” This blog will try to answer that.

It has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (John 6:37.) The second is that God wants us to live lives of abundance.(John 10:10.) The third is that Jesus wants us to read the Bible with an open mind. (As it says in Luke 24:45: “Then He [Jesus] opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”) The fourth theme – another one often overlooked – is that Jesus wants us to do even greater miracles than He did. (John 14:12.) 

And this thought ties them together:

The best way to live abundantly and do greater miracles than Jesus is: Read, study and apply the Bible with an open mind. For more see the notes or – to expand your mind – see the Intro.

In the meantime:

January 25, 2025 – Last Saturday, January 18, was the Feast Day for Peter confessing. This Saturday, today, is the Feast for Paul converting. That’s different from the mid-summer – June 29 to be exact – when one Feast Day celebrates the two Apostles together. But here on the other side of the church year – in the bleak midwinter – we remember the two men separately:

On January 18 we celebrate the Confession of Peter:  “Thou art the Christ, Son of the Living God.”  A week later on January 25 we celebrate the Conversion of St. Paul.  Then comes June 29, when we celebrate both men…

One point of remembering Peter and Paul separately is that these two “Pillars of the Church” took completely different paths to the same destination. (“All roads lead to Jesus?”) And often had what may be called “spirited” disputes. See Galatians 2:11-14, and especially Galatians 2:11, “When Peter came to Antioch, I told him to his face that he was wrong.” Then there’s 2d Peter 3:16, where Peter described Paul’s unique and often wordy way of writing:

He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

As for me, I’ve often thought Paul “writes like a lawyer,” what with his long non-stop sentences that stretch into full paragraphs, and I’m not the only one: “Admittedly, some of Paul’s writings are complicated and difficult to understand. Peter himself said as much.” 

As for the different paths to the same destination, Peter was one of the original 12 disciples, and the first “to confess Jesus as Messiah.”  (See the matching accounts in the three Synoptic GospelsMatthew 16:13-20Mark 8:27–30 and Luke 9:18–20.) On the other hand, Saul of Tarsus – later “Paul” – started out as the most ardent enemy and persecutor of the early Christian Church. (Acts 8:3: “Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.”)

In other words, Peter came to his position of authority from “inside the church.” Paul on the other hand was pretty much dragged kicking and screaming into his position of authority.

In plain words, Paul’s Damascus Road experience “changed him from a Christ-hating persecutor of Christians to the foremost spokesman for the faith.” (Wouldn’t it be nice if God could intervene that way today, in a way that would bring more people to Jesus? “Is that a pig flying?”)

But seriously, once upon a time in America the most ardent politicians did feel free to “sup with their enemies.” Like Ronald Reagan and Ted Kennedy, at left. They were able to do that despite intense political viewpoints. For example, Kennedy said of Reagan:  “He’s absolutely professional.  When the sun goes down, the battles of the day are really gone.” Or as one writer said, Kennedy learned from experience to “operate within the politics of symbolism:”

Heated rhetoric was part of the game of government. When the day was over, win or lose, everyone could have a drink together.*

Then there was Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill. As one site noted, despite equally intense political differences, President Reagan and House Speaker O’Neill offered a model of political friendship, despite those starkly different ideologies. That was especially evident after the assassination attempt. O’Neill was one of the first people Reagan let in to see him at George Washington University Hospital. When O’Neill entered the room he walked over to the bed, “grasped both the president’s hands, and said, God bless you, Mr. President.’”

The president still seemed groggy … with lots of tubes and needles running in and out of his body. But when he saw Tip, he lit up and gave the speaker a big smile, and said, ‘Thanks for coming, Tip.’ Then, still holding one of the president’s hands, the speaker got down on his knees and said he would like to offer a prayer for the president, choosing the 23rd Psalm.” Then O’Neill kissed Reagan on the forehead.

Another tidbit: Reagan often answered O’Neill’s calls, “Tip, is it after 6 p.m.?” The point being that Reagan and O’Neill might fight like cats and dogs during work hours, but “after 6, these two enemies enjoy each other’s company.” So, wouldn’t it be wonderful if making America great again meant a return to those “traditional family values?” On the other hand you might say that’s all part of being a good Christian. (Romans 5:6 and Matthew 5:44.)

Which leads to this question: What would happen if two American conservative and liberal politicians today could likewise come together and work for the common good? And that brings up the topic of being “restored.” That can mean bringing “back to health, good spirits, etc.”  Or “to bring back to a former, more desirable condition.” Say what you want about the bad old days, they never seemed to be this bad. (Or is that just another Old Geezer speaking…)

Which brings up 2017’s “Wouldn’t it be nice if WE could be ‘restored?’” Which ended with this:

Wouldn’t it be nice if we too – here in America – could also be “restored?” To a time when people of all types and backgrounds worked together for the common good?

Which should be one big job of a good Christian. 2d Corinthians 5:18: God “reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” Along with bringing more people to Jesus, not driving them away, so from where the sun now stands let there be “Happy Reconciling.” And getting back to an America where more politicians act like Tip and Ron…

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The upper image is courtesy of www.canvasreplicas.com/Rembrandt.htm.  See also Two Scholars Disputing by REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn.

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

“Feast days” are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

For this post I borrowed from Peter confesses, Paul converts (2016), and – especially – from 2017’s “Wouldn’t it be nice if WE could be ‘restored?'” Along with On Saints Peter and Paul, January ’23, and Paul gets his sight back, Peter confesses – 2024. See also Peter, Paul – and other “relics.” 

Also, for future review see “Some hard parts about being a good Christian,” from last October, 2024.

On Paul’s style of writing, “Admittedly…” See Understanding Paul’s Difficult Scriptures

Re:  Heated rhetoric as “part of the game.” (Of politics.) See On Reagan, Kennedy – and “Dick the Butcher,” in  my companion blog.  The Reagan-Kennedy photo is courtesy of boston.com/bigpicture … ted_kennedy. The caption:  “Senator Edward Kennedy talks with President Ronald Reagan, left, on June 24, 1985, as they look over an American Eagle that graced President John F. Kennedy’s desk during a fund raising event for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at McLean, Virginia.  (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi).” The quotes – of Kennedy and Reagan, and about Kennedy and “heated rhetoric” – are courtesy of Battle for Justice: How the [Robert] Bork Nomination Shook America, by Ethan Bronner, Anchor Book edition (1989), at pages 103-104. 

The Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill quotes are from the GodBuddies website, Men Helping Men Become Better Men. (Geez, what a radical idea.) The full link adds – of Reagan and O’Neill, A Real-life Friendship. See also restored, from the Free Dictionary.

The link From where the sun now stands refers to Nez Perce Chief Joseph’s resolve to “fight no more forever.” (It just sounds poetic.) But here it means to never stop fighting, by every legal means, to preserve America’s democracy and true Christian freedom. (Okay, I’m climbing off the soap box now…)

The lower image is courtesy of the Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill link in the main text. 

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As noted in the opening blurb, this blog has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (John 6:37, with the added, “Anyone who comes to Him.”) This is a consistent theme throughout the Bible. From the Old Testament, Psalm 9:10, “You never forsake those who seek you, O Lord.” (In the Version in the Book of Common Prayer.) The second is that God wants us to live abundantly.  (John 10:10.) The third is that we should do greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12). A fourth theme: The only way to do all that is read the Bible with an open mind:

…closed-mindedness, or an unwillingness to consider new ideas, can result from the brain’s natural dislike for ambiguity. According to this view, the brain has a “search and destroy” relationship with ambiguity and evidence contradictory to people’s current beliefs tends to make them uncomfortable… Research confirms that belief-discrepant-closed-minded persons have less tolerance for cognitive inconsistency

So in plain words, I take issue with what I came to call “Christian first graders.” Those who stay in a kind of elementary school, and maybe even never go beyond first grade. See John the Baptist, ’24 – and “Christian First Graders,” for more detail. But the key point: “The Bible was designed to expand your mind,” not keep it narrow. Also, the idea that “Jesus was anything but negative. His goal was for you to grow and develop into all that you can be.” (For more on that see ABOUT THE BLOG, above.)

Before that post I wrote that the blog takes issue with boot-camp Christians, the Biblical literalists who never go “beyond the fundamentals.” But the Bible can offer so much more than their narrow reading can offer…  (Unless you want to stay a Bible buck private all your life…) Now, about “Boot-camp Christians.” See for example, Conservative Christian – “Career buck private?”  The gist of that post is that starting the Bible is like Army Basic Training. You begin by“learning the fundamentals.” But after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training.” 

http://www.toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg

However, after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training. And as noted in “Buck private,” one of this blog’s themes is that if you want to be all that you can be, you need to go on and explore the “mystical side of Bible reading.*” In other words, exploring the mystical side of the Bible helps you “be all that you can be.” See Slogans of the U.S. Army – Wikipedia, re: the recruiting slogan from 1980 to 2001. The related image at left is courtesy of: “toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg.”

Re: “mystical.” Originally, mysticism “referred to the Biblical liturgical, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity.” See Mysticism – Wikipedia, and the post On originalism.  (“That’s what the Bible was originally about!”) See also Christian mysticism – Wikipedia, “In early Christianity the term ‘mystikos’ referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative… The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God.” As to that “experiential” aspect, see also Wesleyan Quadrilateral – Wikipedia, on the theological reflection method using four sources of spiritual development: scripturetradition, reason, and “Christian experience.”

For an explanation of the Daily Office – where “Dorscribe” came from – see What’s a DOR

“Happy Epiphany (season) – 2025!”

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Triumph of the Innocents,” emphasizing the link between suffering, salvation, and hope,..

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Last year I posted on December 17, 2023, but then not again until January 6, 2024. This year I last posted on December 31, ’24, and it’s now January 12, 2025, so I’m getting a bit better. (A 12-day lapse instead of 20.) I also had better luck this past December, driving up to Massachusetts and back, for a family Christmas up there and then one down here in the ATL.

Back in December ’23, driving home, I caught some kind of nasty bug in Wilkes-Barre PA, which led to a “sore throat of Biblical proportions.” Which became a long period of recuperation when I could hardly swallow. (Helped in large part by “generic NyQuilDayQuil, and lots of new-discovered Vicks VapoCOOL Severe cough drops.” By the way – I wrote – “Those things work great!“) But before getting back to Epiphany ’25, a word about the lead painting above.

The painting recalls the Massacre of the Innocents, from the Feast Day back on December 28, the fourth of the 12 Days of Christmas. I’ll have more on that in a few, but it reminds us that with Jesus, our times of suffering lead to the ultimate hope of redemption. (Not that there’s any connection to current events or anything.) And speaking of 12 days of Christmas, the Feast of Epiphany – celebrated each January 6 – officially ends that shortest of church seasons:

The Twelve Days of Christmas is the festive Christian season beginning on Christmas Day … that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, as the Son of God. This period is also known as Christmastide… The Feast of the Epiphany is on 6 January [and] celebrates the visit of the Wise Men (Magi) and their bringing of gifts to the child Jesus. In some traditions, the feast of Epiphany and Twelfth Day [or “Twelfth Night”] overlap.

Which covers a lot of ground and leads to another tidbit: Aside from being The Epiphany, January 6 and some days close to it – sometimes they overlap – include Plough MondayThree Kings Day (as in, “We Three Kings of Orient are”), and – as noted – Twelfth Night. To review, the Epiphany “celebrates the revelation of God the Son as human in Jesus Christ:”

The observance [of Epiphany] was a general celebration of the manifestation of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. It included the commemoration of his birth; the visit of the Magi[and] all of Jesus’ childhood events, up to and including his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist

One of those “childhood events” in the life of Jesus was His having to get circumcised. (A subject “good Christians” don’t like to talk about much.) That event is celebrated each January 1, as the eighth day after Jesus was born. (Assuming that happened on Christmas Eve.)

On January 1st, we celebrate the Circumcision of Christ. Since we are more squeamish than our ancestors, modern calendars often list it as the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, but the other emphasis is the older. Every Jewish boy was circumcised (and formally named) on the eighth day of his life, and so, one week after Christmas, we celebrate the occasion when Our Lord first shed His blood for us. It is a fit close for a week of martyrs, and reminds us that to suffer for Christ is to suffer with Him. (E.A.)

So much for reviewing some of the 12 Days of Christmas, but one more thing: January 6 also starts the Season of Epiphany, which runs from the day of Epiphany to Ash Wednesday. (In 2025 it comes on March 5, almost a month later than 2024’s February 14, Valentine’s Day, which I found highly ironic if not incongruous.) And Ash Wednesday starts the season of Lent.

Put another way, Epiphanytide runs from January 6 to the Tuesday just before Ash Wednesday, what we call Mardi Gras. (Which in turn means this year Easter comes on April 20.) But, do you see a pattern here? Mardi Gras, Lent and then Easter? These alternating times reflect how life moves in cycles, as shown in both secular politics and the Spiritual Calendar of the Church. And we too tend to alternate between times of spiritual challenge – when our faith is sorely tested – followed by a celebration of the spiritual growth we just experienced.

Or put it this way: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” A time to be born and a time to die. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to keep and a time to throw away. Which means if you are weeping now – metaphorically or otherwise – you can be sure that after any coming times of challenge, there will be a celebration in your future. (Even if it takes four years.) In the meantime:

Here’s hoping for a happy and prosperous “Epiphany 2025…

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To everything there is a season” – so let’s look ahead to a time of celebration…

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The upper image is courtesy of the Wikipedia article, “Massacre of the Innocents,” remembered on December 28, “the fourth day of Christmastide.” Caption: “Triumph of the Innocents by William Holman Hunt.” See also The triumph of the Innocents by William Holman Hunt:

Hunt paints a detailed scene where the Holy Family travels in the dead of night, accompanied by the spirits of the innocent children slain by Herod… Hunt delves into the spiritual significance of this journey, highlighting Mary’s compassion for the innocents and the divine mercy bestowed upon them. Through rich imagery and deep symbolism, the narrative emphasizes the connection between suffering, salvation, and hope, ultimately portraying the triumph of innocence amidst grief. 

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

“Feast days” are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

For this post I borrowed from 2017’s To Epiphany – “and BEYOND,” On the Epiphany SEASON – 2022, and “Happy Epiphany, 2024!” (Not to mention Epiphany, circumcision, and “3 wise guys,” from January 2016.) A side note: Last year I noted that 2024 was “a Leap Year, meaning we get an extra day, on Thursday, February 29,” and that there was “an election coming up in November, which ‘may determine the future of the Free World.’” But of course, all that’s behind us now…

Re: The 12 Days of Christmas as the shortest church season. See Liturgical year – Wikipedia, from which you could argue that the Easter Triduum – Good FridayHoly Saturday, and Easter Sunday – is the shortest, but I’d say those three days are all part of Lent. (I suppose it depends on how you “define your terms,” a quote attributed to Voltaire and Socrates.)

As to the “to everything” notes, see Ecclesiastes 3 (NIV), and also Turn! Turn! Turn! – Wikipedia.

On a related subject see also Topical Bible: Growth Through Trials:

The concept of growth through trials is a recurring theme throughout the Bible, illustrating how adversity and challenges can lead to spiritual maturity and a deeper relationship with God… Trials serve to purify and strengthen faith, ultimately bringing glory to God.

Citing 1 Peter 1:6-7, and also Romans 5:3-5 and James 1:2-4.

The lower image is courtesy of Mardi Gras – WikipediaCaptioned: “Mardi Gras Day, New Orleans: Krewe of Kosmic Debris revelers on Frenchmen Street.” (I used it in last year’s post…)

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