Dear Friends,
Imagine losing touch with a major branch of your family and then rediscovering one another after more than a thousand years. Perhaps the timescale is over ambitious for a television programme. Those “reality” television shows deal in reunions after a few decades, and that can be complicated enough.
It’s not a bad description of what happened to the worldwide Christian family. Because of the history of transport, communication, language, migrations and invasions, eastern and western Christianity often lived in isolation from one another. Certainly for the founders of Anglican and Protestant Christianity in the sixteenth century the eastern Orthodox were a mysterious collection of Churches they did not understand and vice versa.
Even when ideas and practices are quite similar, it may not look or feel that way. Ordinary members of most Churches have some idea what they do, but have often forgotten the reasons or the origin of their customs. January is both a case in point and an opportunity to do something about it.
For the Orthodox the 6th January is a major festival of the Church, and in Cyprus a public holiday. Perhaps you have witnessed the ceremony of throwing a cross into the water and a race to be the first to retrieve it. Western Christians may know 6th January by its proper name, the Epiphany. Some may even know the amplification of this title to the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, but it’s hardly the catchiest description.
More likely is the tradition of taking down Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night. 6th January is the twelfth day of Christmas. Often the carols, songs and hymns about the visit of the Wise Men or Three Kings have worn thin by this time, though technically this is when the Church observes the feast. So where is the connection between east and west?
Well this manifestation or revealing of Jesus to the nations of the world is the theme of the Epiphany season. The season actually runs to the 40th day of Christmas, 2nd February. I try each year to persuade people to keep crib scenes in place for the full 40 days of Christmas. It can be a losing battle against the tidying up gene! In particular, 3 events are traditionally singled out as such manifestations: the visit of the Wise Men with their symbolic gifts, the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan and his first miracle at the wedding feast in Cana.
In the west we read the narrative of the Wise Men at the Epiphany. We focus on the meaning of the gold, frankincense and myrrh. As the popular carol puts it, these point to Jesus as King and God and sacrifice. In the east the emphasis has often been on the Baptism of Jesus, when His calling is revealed by the Father from heaven and the Holy Spirit descends on Him in the form of a dove. The ceremony of the cross being thrown in the water is a visual clue [even if it seems an abstruse one for westerners] to the Baptism of Jesus.
What are these ancient customs pointing to? The key word for Epiphany is light- the light of the star points to the light of Christ. If any of your friends has a name like Photis, then 6th January will be their name day, for phos is light. We are seeking light in the darkness of this world. Jesus Christ is the source of light. He is the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
When things around us are a mess, when perhaps even inside we feel a mess, when events in the world seem out of control, where can we look for hope, purpose and direction? Whether you practise customs of the east, the west or neither, the answer is the same. Jesus is the light of the world, the creator of light, the source of light, who can lead us to discover in himself the hope, the purpose, the goal and the love we long for.
So January has become a time for Christians to seek opportunities to pray with others of different traditions and backgrounds in unity. That unity is because we have one God and Father in heaven, one Lord Jesus, one Holy Spirit. It is his gift not our construction. Find an opportunity this January to experience prayer and worship with Christians whose ways are unfamiliar to you. Be a blessing to one another as together you move towards the one true light.
Sincerely,
Derek
