This short liturgy is a way of marking our homes, usually at the main entrance, with sacred signs and symbols as we ask God’s blessing upon those who live, work, or visit throughout the coming year. Although the service is intended for use in home dwellings like apartments, condos, houses, and college dorms, it is certainly appropriate when adapted for use in offices, places of business, nursing homes, hospital rooms, and extended-care facilities.  On the Twelfth-Night after Christmas, many families gather in their homes to celebrate this Epiphany feast with friends, food, singing, and gifts. It is at these Twelfth-Night celebrations that “Chalking the Door” with this blessing is most often observed.

ONE: The Lord be with you;

ALL: And also with you.

ONE: Peace be to this house!

ALL: And to all who live here!

ONE: Let us pray.

O God, you once used a star to show to all the world that Jesus is your Son. May the light of that star that once guided wise men to his birth, now guide us to recognize him in the epiphanies of the daily experiences of our lives.  As we go about our work, our study, our play, keep us in its light and in your love.  May all who enter here find your gracious hospitality, for Christ has come to dwell in this house and in these hearts.

ALL: May Christ bless our home!  Amen.

(Each person present can take turns writing the following blessing over the doorway of the house with chalk)

20 + C + M + B + 11

(The letters have two meanings. They are the initials of the customary names of the Three Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. They also abbreviate the Latin words “Christus Mansionem Benedicat”, “May Christ bless the house”. The year is divided before and after the these letters.  The crosses (+) represent the protection of the Christ.)

I like this picture of the Magi because it's from Iran and the wise men were likely from Persia.

ABOUT EPIPHANY

It seems as if there is a growing interest in the Church’s celebration of Epiphany.  A lot of the excitement appears to be growing out of the dissatisfaction with Commercial Christmas and the desire to rediscover seasonal celebrations that mark sacred time – I know that’s been the case for my family.  We can trace back the Celebration of Epiphany to 361 AD and earlier, which likely predated the celebration of Christian ‘Christmas’.  Today Epiphany primarily commemorates the adoration of the Magi, but early celebrations would have included the entirety of the  nativity.  Obviously there is more ‘buying power’ when pushing Christmas between Thanksgiving and Dec 25th.  When explaining the season of Christmas, a light seems to turn on when I mention the well known song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”… “aha!”  This puts Christmas into perspective as, not just a day, but season begun by Christmas Day and continuing for twelve days until the celebration of Epiphany on Jan 6th.  According to St. Matthew, the wise men brought Jesus gifts, which started the tradition of gift giving during this season (Of course there were pagan traditions preceding this!  Don’t everyone get all uptight now.) The Feast of Epiphany, then kicks off a whole season of ‘epiphanies’ about Jesus and leads us up to the season of Lent.  In Beloved’s tradition (Lutheran) the ‘epiphanies’ include revealing events in Jesus’ life, like the Baptism of our Lord and the Transfiguration of our Lord.  In a way this feels like ‘our’ season because it is smattered with God’s proclamation, “You are my Beloved.”  So, as we discover who Jesus is, we also discover our identity in Jesus.  Now here’s some ways to celebrate:

A COUPLE EPIPHANY TRADITIONS

The above picture is a European epiphany cake... it actually looks much tastier than our American version.

A New Orlean’s tradition is to make a King Cake with a figurine of the infant Christ baked into it.  The lucky person who finds it gets the heimlich maneuver.  Hooray!  Here’s a recipe for King Cake. (This cake is also made at the end of the season of Epiphany, Fat Tuesday.)

Chalking the door

AN EPIPHANY BLESSING FOR THE HOME

This short liturgy is a way of marking our homes, usually at the main entrance, with sacred signs and symbols as we ask God’s blessing upon those who live, work, or visit throughout the coming year. Although the service is intended for use in home dwellings like apartments, condos, houses, and college dorms, it is certainly appropriate when adapted for use in offices, places of business, nursing homes, hospital rooms, and extended-care facilities.  On the Twelfth-Night after Christmas, many families gather in their homes to celebrate this Epiphany feast with friends, food, singing, and gifts. It is at these Twelfth-Night celebrations that “Chalking the Door” with this blessing is most often observed.

ONE: The Lord be with you;

ALL: And also with you.

ONE: Peace be to this house!

ALL: And to all who live here!

ONE: Let us pray.

O God, you once used a star to show to all the world that Jesus is your Son. May the light of that star that once guided wise men to his birth, now guide us to recognize him in the epiphanies of the daily experiences of our lives.  As we go about our work, our study, our play, keep us in its light and in your love.  May all who enter here find your gracious hospitality, for Christ has come to dwell in this house and in these hearts.

ALL: May Christ bless our home!  Amen.

(Each person present can take turns writing the following blessing over the doorway of the house with chalk)

20 + C + M + B + 11

(The letters have two meanings. They are the initials of the customary names of the Three Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. They also abbreviate the Latin words “Christus Mansionem Benedicat”, “May Christ bless the house”. The year is divided before and after the these letters.  The crosses (+) represent the protection of the Christ.)

If you still want more information about Epiphany take a look here: - Wiki

HAPPY EPIPHANY!!!

ONE: The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
The Word who was God,

Everything was created through God’s Word;

Every person entering Life

the Word brings into Light.

This Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
and the darkness couldn’t put it out.

ALL: Lord, Have Mercy

ONE: God’s Word was in the world,

the world was made through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.

ALL: Christ, Have Mercy
ONE: God’s Word came to his own people,
but they didn’t want him.

ALL: Lord, Have Mercy
ONE: But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.

God’s Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
No one has ever seen God,

not so much as a glimpse.
But Jesus, this one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made God as plain as day.

ryan marsh – beloved architect

I know that this story is supposed to be moving and beautiful, and I can imagine it in a 1980’s epic movie kind of way – The waves lapping against the shore, the brothers busy mending their nets with their long feathered hair blown by the salty Mediterranean wind.  They look up and see Jesus, back lit by the morning sun they squint their eyes to see who it is; Jesus looks deep into their souls with his pale blue eyes, holds out his hand and says “Follow me” and then zombie like they drop their nets and follow.

I know that I’m supposed to be moved by this story, but honestly, I’m a little creeped out by it.

We would think it totally cultish if, say, Jon Glenn pulled out of his studies at Mars Hill Graduate School,
quit his job at the Purple Cafe and started following some unknown theologian and supposed miracle worker…  creepy.

The only other modern thing I have to compare it to would be following the Grateful Dead…
for whom groupies live on very little and trade in everything for the love of the music, the sense of community and the old message: “Tune in, tune out, and drop out.”

Even today there is a theology, popular among Americans, that wishes to take us out of the world, that draws a line in the sand and tells the world “You must cross over to our side in order to know the grace of God”, but this theology knows nothing of the Incarnation and the humble God who left behind everything to become the servant of the world.

There is a theology, popular among Americans, that wishes to take us out of the world, to segregate us from culture and keep us in tidy little kingdom enclaves, but this theology knows nothing of the Cross and the Christ who dies for the sake of the ungodly, for the sake of a beloved-enemy, for the sake of us.

There is a theology, popular among Americans… and no time soon will Church of the Beloved win any popularity contests, because we are finding out that when Christ calls us, life usually doesn’t get better by American standards.

When Christ calls us it’s seemingly not very glorious.  And maybe life would be a little bit simpler if we didn’t follow Christ. I know there’s a lot of us here who, quite honestly, would rather not be following the Christ, …but he called you.  And to your surprise, despite your best judgment, and your internal ambivalence, something within you said, “okay.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a German Lutheran pastor who spoke and acted against Nazi Germany and was hung by Adolf Hitler, famously said:  “When Christ calls us he calls us to come and die.”
When Jesus said, “take up your cross and follow me” what do we expect to do with a cross?  I mean, there’s not a lot of versatility in a cross… it pretty much has only one purpose.

And when Jesus asks us to “love our enemies as he has loved us” there is a high likelihood that your enemy will take advantage of your vulnerability.

I don’t know why Peter and Andrew, James and John followed Jesus.
I don’t know if they hated smelling like fish every day.
I don’t know if their retirement plan had completely tanked and they just spontaneously decided, “Yeah, screw it.  Let’s follow this guy around and see what happens.”  The Gospel  doesn’t tell us why, but apparently they weren’t very hard to convince.  Jesus just said, “follow me.”  And they did.

I love this story in the Gospel of John where Jesus is saying crazy stuff and most of his disciples are totally weirded out and deserting him and Jesus turns to the twelve and says, “Well, don’t you want leave me too?”  Like, “Come on here’s your chance to slip out the back door unnoticed.”  And their response is so great, they say, “Well, if we had something better going on, we’d be doing it, but the truth is, when you speak it is life giving to us.”

I can recall, while working at Church of the Apostles, having a beer with Karen Ward, the Pastor of COTA and a young man who was on pilgrimage.  He asked Karen, “What about all the other world religions…
What if they are true? What if they hold more meaning and more beauty?  What if they bring greater satisfaction than Christianity?  Don’t you want to explore them and find out?”
Karen asked the young man, “How long have you been married to your wife?”  “Four years.”  He said.
“Do you think there are other women in the world who are smarter, more beautiful, and will give your life more satisfaction?”
“Well.  I don’t know.  I married her because I love her, and she loves me, and she captured my heart.”  He said.
“That’s how it is for me and Christ.  I’m not interested in going around trying to disprove or prove the legitimacy of other religions, because what I know is that Jesus Christ has captured my heart.  And I want to be faithful to him.”

What I suspect is that Jesus has captured our hearts, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.  Life is too short and too busy to waste time on worshiping a God who has not captured our hearts.  I suspect that Jesus has captured our hearts, and so we follow, and Jesus leads us.

In a time of scary changes and transitions, this is what Jesus promises us -
Not to lead us around… but to lead us through….
Not to lead us around the heartbreak of separation,
Not to lead us around the impotence of joblessness,
Not to lead us around the confusion of our futures,
Jesus promises not to lead us around the cross, but to lead us through…

And we, with the disciples, have no way of knowing what lies in between the lines of these two little words that Jesus calls us with: “Follow me.”

MARK 1:4-11
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.  He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.  I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

MEDITATION

We humans have a love-hate relationship with water.  On the one hand we exist because of water.  Our very beginnings are in water, we spend nine months developing and growing completely surrounded by water.  Then once we we’re out we find that our bodies are made mostly of water and that means that our whole life is dependent on water.  We can’t even go a week without drinking the stuff.  So on the one hand all of our existence is wrapped up in water: we come from water, we’re made of water, and we need water, but on the other hand we’re terrified of the destructive power of water and how quickly it can take away our existence.  (This is the ambivalence that made Kevin Costner’s film Water World such a smash hit.)

Even right now the swollen creek behind our house is eating away at our yard, slowly inching towards our house to carry it away.  Chuck was telling me about the year he lived in Japan, and how the only cities built on the ocean are primarily for tourists because of the fear of tsunami that is deep within their culture.

My mom loves the water, loves everything about it, loves to go to the ocean and to go boating, but she is deathly afraid of drowning and can’t swim to save her life.  She just drops straight to the bottom.  She thinks her fear and lack of buoyancy stems from a child hood trauma.  When she was seven some church boys thought it would be fun to ‘baptize’ her, holding her under ‘in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’.  You can imagine what a terrifying and scarring experience that would be.  It was like religious water-boarding.

But for many of us this isn’t too far off from our experience of baptism in the past… terrified of a God who wants to hold us under, drown out our sins, and us with them.  And for many of us this was also how we experienced communion too – with the stern warning that ‘you best search your heart, because if you don’t confess every sin before communion… bad things.  Bad things will happen to you.’  And these encounters with grace somehow made God out to be the stalker from I Know What You Did Last Summer.  I feel sad just thinking about the religious fear mongering that so many of us have endured and unknowingly believed.  Being asked to be vulnerable before someone who you suspect wants to destroy you if you don’t fix yourself or if you don’t fess up the right way sounds vindictive and abusive and tragic.

But here’s where the Epiphany comes.  Here’s the big revelation about God:

Why was Jesus baptized?  What repenting did the spotless One need to do?  What offense had the Christ made?  What failure of love had the source of love itself committed?  We trust that it’s none, so then why was Jesus baptized into John’s baptism of repentance?

Matthew’s gospel says that Christ’s baptism ‘was to fulfill all righteousness’, meaning to sets things right and set the record straight about who God is and how God does things.  And this is how God does things:  God in Jesus gets into the soup of sin with us.  “The one that knew no sin, became sin on our behalf.”

The baptism of our Lord is like a mini Gospel story all right there, because in Jesus’ baptism, God shows us that he is 100% connected to sinners.  In Jesus’ baptism, God shows us his ‘emmanuel-ness’, that he’s with us and he knows that when he gets into the nasty old bath water with sinners, that he gets dirty too.  But he does it anyway.  He identifies with us, he incriminates himself and says, “I’m with that guy.  I’m with that gal.”  And now we have a new vision of God.  Because Christ gets into the water with sinners no one is left out of God’s love.

For me this is a huge epiphany of how God really is.  Because of Jesus we go down into baptism fearing punishment and we come up hearing God say, “You are my Beloved Child.”  We go down fearing God’s disappointment, (and that’s the worst isn’t it?  When I was growing up I would much rather have a swat on the bum than my parent’s disappointed furrowed brow) …we go down in fearing God’s disappointment and we come up hearing God say, “I am so pleased with you.”  We go down fearing death and abandonment and we come up alive with the Spirit of God.

STATION 1 – GOLD: a gift for a King.
It is a metal so precious people die and kill for it – so valued that we rob the creation of her riches and leave the wounds open to infection.

RECEIVE:
Take a piece of gold leaf in your hands.
You are a powerful person.
Think of every resource and opportunity you have.

RESOLVE:
How will you worship God in your strength in this new year?  …with your riches, with your power, with your influence will you worship God?

STATION 2 – MYRRH: a gift for a mortal.
It is the smell of a cover up – used to hide death and decay, but nothing is hidden from you, God.

RECEIVE: Dip your finger in the Myrrh oil and make the sign of the cross on your for head.
You are a fragile person.
Think of every limitation and challenge ahead of you.

RESOLVE:
How will you worship God in your weakness in this new year?  …with your poverty, with your defeat, with your powerlessness will you worship God?

STATION 3 – FRANKINCENSE: a gift for God.
It is the fragrance of worship – giving God the honor and love that is due to him.

RECEIVE:
Take a piece of frankincense and place it on the burning coal.
You are God’s beloved person.
Watch the smoke float upwards and let your prayers mingle with the rising incense.

RESOLVE:
How will you integrate all of your life with worship in this new year?  …in joy and in sorrow, in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health will you worship God?

A reflection on the stations by Graham Travis

INTRO:  Christ was offered 3 gifts by the 3 eastern astrologers.  Tonight we will engage these gifts through 3 corresponding stations.  You are invited to visit each of these stations and in so doing, meet Christ, reflect on his natures, examine our worship, and receive resolve for a new year:

STATION 1 – GOLD: a gift for a King.
It is a metal so precious people die and kill for it – so valued that we rob the creation of her riches and leave the wounds open to infection.

RECEIVE:
Take a piece of gold leaf in your hands.
You are a powerful person.
Think of every resource and opportunity you have.

RESOLVE:
How will you worship God in your strength in this new year?  …with your riches, with your power, with your influence will you worship God?

STATION 2 – MYRRH: a gift for a mortal.
It is the smell of a cover up – used to hide death and decay, but nothing is hidden from you, God.

RECEIVE: Dip your finger in the Myrrh oil and make the sign of the cross on your for head.
You are a fragile person.
Think of every limitation and challenge ahead of you.

RESOLVE:
How will you worship God in your weakness in this new year?  …with your poverty, with your defeat, with your powerlessness will you worship God?

STATION 3 – FRANKINCENSE: a gift for God.
It is the fragrance of worship – giving God the honor and love that is due to him.

RECEIVE:
Take a piece of frankincense and place it on the burning coal.
You are God’s beloved person.
Watch the smoke float upwards and let your prayers mingle with the rising incense.

RESOLVE:
How will you integrate all of your life with worship in this new year?  …in joy and in sorrow, in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health will you worship God?

Welcome to Church of the Beloved. Tonight is called epiphany.  The word itself means ‘light rising to the surface’ – and the season of epiphany is characterized by questions and by quest… Who is this mysterious child?  What’s God up to?  Who is all of this for?  Tonight is the first of the epiphanies.  This is a service for all questioners and for all those who quest.  Tonight we follow three wise sages who travel long distances from east of Israel, crossing deserts, rivers and mountainous regions, following the maps of the day—the clear night sky, unsure of exactly what or who they would find—but knowing that this would change everything.  And it is the same for us tonight.  In following what little we know of God, we’re not sure what or who we will find, yet we suspect that this Christ will change everything.
We enter this story through the window of three poets: first is Rumi, who was a 13^th century mystical sufi, poet from ancient Persia, also a wise man from the east. And then an American poet from the last century, T.S. Elliot, and lastly we’ll hear a creation of an early 21^st century Christian community in London called Vaux, which mixes together Rumi’s poetry and St. Matthew’s second chapter.  So now as you listen and as you sing, let your heart question and let your heart quest for God is drawing us to worship.