One of the great things about my church is that they don’t ever let lay people preach in the main Sunday morning eucharist. One or two lay people are allowed to conduct the very much smaller Evensong, which is from the Book of Common Prayer. You lead the service, sing a couple of bits (O Lord, open thou our lips – And our mouths shall shew forth thy praise), read the collects, then provide intercessions and a sermon.
It is my turn this Sunday, so I am having to get to grips with Epiphany. So I have been wondering about the odd transitions – lurches back and forth – between the Magi, the wedding at Cana, the presentation of Jesus in the temple and baptism which appear in the readings for different services between Christmas and Epiphany in the Revised Common Lectionary (The Anglican version of the RCL is only sometimes the same as the RCL for the rest of you).
So, Epiphany.
I have taken a look at the wonderful Dennis Bratcher on Epiphany
In traditional Christian churches Christmas, as well as Easter, is celebrated as a period of time, a season of the church year, rather than just a day. The Season of Christmas begins with the First Sunday of Advent, marked by expectation and anticipation, and concludes with Epiphany, which looks ahead to the mission of the church to the world in light of the Nativity.
I have read the splendid Ken Collins on Epiphany
There was a common belief, which ancient Christians inherited, that the prophets of Israel died on the on the same date as their birth or conception. According to ancient western calculations, Jesus was crucified on 25 March, so they assumed that 25 March was the date of Jesus’ conception. The Annunciation is still commemorated on that date to this day. Nine months after 25 March leads to 25 December, which would be the birthday of Jesus Christ if all those assumptions and calculations were correct. They aren’t correct, but the fact remains that the date has a Christian origin.
Meanwhile, back in the east, Christians calculated the date of the crucifixion independently and came up with 6 April. Nine months after April 6 is January 6. So the birth of Christ was celebrated on that day.
Christmas spread to the east and Epiphany spread to the west and the two days became differentiated. Today, Christmas is the celebration of the Nativy and the Epiphany is the celebration of Jesus’ ministry to the Gentiles.
The purpose of the liturgical calendar is to relive the major events in Jesus’ life in real time. If Jesus were born on 25 December, then He would have been circumcised and given His name on 1 January, the eighth day of His life on earth. Therefore, 1 January is known in the historic church as The Circumcision of Our Lord (See Luke 2:21 and Leviticus 12:3.)
Of course I have looked back to see what Benedict (no epithet required) said at Epiphany last year
The light that shone in the night at Christmas illuminating the Bethlehem Grotto, where Mary, Joseph and the shepherds remained in silent adoration, shines out today and is manifested to all. The Epiphany is a mystery of light, symbolically suggested by the star that guided the Magi on their journey. The true source of light, however, the “sun that rises from on high” (cf. Lk 1: 78), is Christ.
In the mystery of Christmas, Christ’s light shines on the earth, spreading, as it were, in concentric circles. First of all, it shines on the Holy Family of Nazareth: the Virgin Mary and Joseph are illuminated by the divine presence of the Infant Jesus. The light of the Redeemer is then manifested to the shepherds of Bethlehem, who, informed by an Angel, hasten immediately to the grotto and find there the “sign” that had been foretold to them: the Child, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger (cf. Lk 2: 12).
The shepherds, together with Mary and Joseph, represent that “remnant of Israel”, the poor, the anawim, to whom the Good News was proclaimed.
Finally, Christ’s brightness shines out, reaching the Magi who are the first-fruits of the pagan peoples…
In the mystery of the Epiphany, therefore, alongside an expanding outward movement, a movement of attraction toward the centre is expressed which brings to completion the movement already written in the Old Covenant. The source of this dynamism is God, One in Three Persons, who draws all things and all people to himself. The Incarnate Person of the Word is presented in this way as the beginning of universal reconciliation and recapitulation (cf. Eph 1: 9-10).
He is the ultimate destination of history, the point of arrival of an “exodus”, of a providential journey of redemption that culminates in his death and Resurrection. Therefore, on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the liturgy foresees the so-called “Announcement of Easter”: indeed, the liturgical year sums up the entire parable of the history of salvation, whose centre is “the Triduum of the Crucified Lord, buried and risen”.
In the liturgy of the Christmas season this verse of Psalm 98 frequently recurs as a refrain: “The Lord has made his salvation known: in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice”.
But I might just lift Kim Fabricius’ list of Ten Propositions on Worship, from Ben Myers’ Faith and Theology.
1. Why worship God? Because God is to be worshipped. Worship is a holy tautology.
2. Does worship make God present? No, worship presupposes God’s presence.
3. Is worship necessary? Not for God it isn’t. God does not need our worship – because God is worship, the perichoretic adoration of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Worship is, however, necessary for us, for it is only as homo adorans, participating in the very life of the Holy Trinity, that we become truly human.
Not bad, not bad at all.
Now you see why we Anglicans don’t try to improvise. We collect the best of what the whole church offers and simply read it out in public.
