Epiphany +6: Blessing and Woe
A weekly Epiphany devotional post for these 8 weeks of witness. Join us!
You can read here for a brief description of the liturgical season of Epiphany, and see previous Epiphany daybook 2019 posts here. Blessed Epiphany, friends!
Note: If you're reading this in email, the formatting usually looks much better at the website. Just click the post title to get there.
Look: Sermon on the Mount (detail), Henrik Olrik
(source)
The season after Epiphany is winding down. In less than two weeks, we’ll begin Lent which puts us 40 days with Jesus on the road to the cross. Epiphany means more to me this year than in the past. It may be because it’s been a long season compared to some years. With Easter being later in the calendar we get to celebrate Epiphany for a full eight weeks this year.
The Gospel accounts of Epiphany show God being revealed through Christ more openly than ever as Jesus begins his three years of intentional ministry. This year I can’t get enough of them. I’m captivated by the paradox of Jesus as both the Son of God and the Son of Man.
In the article, What’s the Good News In the Season After Epiphany? , the author encapsulates the message of Epiphany: I’m here, says Jesus. Yes, and this hasn’t changed.
We often say that Jesus completed all the work God gave him to do from the manger to the cross. That’s true. The season of Epiphany adds technicolor dimension to the tiny preposition “to”. We meditate on the manger in Advent and Christmastide. We reflect on the cross in Lent and Eastertide. Epiphany is for the in between, and maybe that’s why I find it so enthralling. We live in the in between, in the “to” between the first coming to the second.
This week and next we are invited by the lectionary to listen again to Jesus preaching the earth-shattering truth of the Sermon on the Mount. May we welcome this shattering to our lives between law and grace, earth and heaven, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. From today to the world without end. Amen.
Listen: “Beatitudes”, from Live at Carnegie Hall, Sweet Honey In The Rock
Spotify | YouTube
Listen to my entire playlist on Spotify: Epiphany - Beatitudes. Add it to your account by clicking ‘Follow.’
Read:
Sunday (2/17) - Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26
Monday (2/18) - Psalm 89:1-18; Isaiah 63:1-6; 1 Timothy 1:1-17; Mark 11:1-11
Tuesday (2/19) - Psalm 97, 99; Isaiah 63:7-14; 1 Timothy 1:18-2:8; Mark 11:12-26
Wednesday (2/20) - Psalm 101, 109; Isaiah 63:15-64:9; 1 Timothy 3:1-16; Mark 11:27-12:12
Thursday (2/21) - Psalm 105; Isaiah 65:1-12; 1 Timothy 4:1-16; Mark 12:13-27
Friday (2/22) - Psalm 102; Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Timothy 5:17-25; Mark 12:28-34
Saturday (2/23) - Psalm 107:33-43, 108:1-13; Isaiah 66:1-6; 1 Timothy 6:6-21; Mark 12:35-44
Excerpts from Sunday’s readings:
“Thus says the Lord:
’Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
’Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.’
*
”He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”
*
”And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
*
”And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Sunday Scripture readings are taken from the Revised Common Lectionary (Year C). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the Book of Common Prayer (Year 1), using the Psalm selections for Morning Prayer.
Pray:
“O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
Do:
Bless each person you encounter
Silently or aloud, no matter the person and no matter the context
“Practicing the Sermon on the Mount”, by Richard Foster:
“In the “beatitudes” Jesus takes up various kinds and classes of people that in his day were thought to be unblessed and unblessable, and he shows how the Kingdom of God is available to them and how they too can be blessed. No wonder the poor heard him gladly! As the Simon and Garfunkel song goes, “Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on.”
In The Divine Conspiracy Dallas Willard gives contemporary expression to these “unblessed and unblessable-–the physically repulsive … the bald, the fat, and the old … the flunk-outs and drop-outs and burned outs. The broke and the broken. The drug heads and the divorced. The HIV-positive and herpes-ridden. The brain-damaged, the incurable ill. The barren and the pregnant too-many-times or the wrong time. The overemployed, the underemployed, the unemployed. The unemployable. The swindled, the shoved aside, the replaced… .” (pp. 123-124).
Ask yourself: How can I make the kingdom of God available to individuals who are humanly hopeless? Then as you go about your days, learn to take time to point out the natural beauty of every human being.”
You can find other activities for Epiphany at this post: 12+ Ways To Keep Celebrating With the Rest of the World (loads of links)
(See all Epiphany Daybook posts from 2018 here.)