Torrence's Weekly Message
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“Arise, shine; for your light has come”
(Isaiah 60:1)
It was the longest night of the year. The winter solstice occurring just days before Christmas started for me with the “Winter Light” concert at St. Stephen’s in Richmond. The amazing young voices of the Virginia Girls’ choir and the more mature ones of the church’s “Sanctuary” choir rose and fell, wove in and out, in a rhythm and sequence that spoke of darkness and light coexisting in some eternal cycle. Young acolytes struggled to light the candles wreathed around the stone pillars of the nave. Some candles seemed to resist the approaching flame that would spark them into life. The taller priest had to assist with the lighting of the candles that seemed just out of reach on the massive Advent wreath suspended high above the chancel. Only three to be lighted for this long, long night in the third week of Advent. The fourth Advent candle and the center Christmas candle remained dark, although anticipation of yet to come light seemed to hover over them.
St. Stephen’s has a medieval sense about its long stone nave. As the choirs processed at the beginning of the service the “Sanctuary” singers carried brass bells. In a slow, studied up and down motion they tolled the bells, the ringing sound resonating with the chanting cadence of their voices. It felt monastic. The sounds seemed to reach in and touch some desire, some hope maybe waiting in many of us for re-birthing, a renewing of something both internal and external in our lives. Were we like some ancient peoples wondering if light would reappear after nocturnal darkness? As I drove home to the river, I felt reflective, not sure of what, but with a hope that the Christmas to come in a few days would offer warmth and renewal.
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Torre and David, my daughter and son-in-law coming to spend Christmas with me and the rest of the Virginia family, arrived from North Carolina just after I reached home. I had turned on all the Christmas lights I had scattered around to welcome them, but they were the ones who brought in the true light of warmth and love. And over the next several mornings it was as if the clouds (so much rain and dreary weather occupied the days before) had been brushed away by some divine hand. Each morning reflected the most beautiful light as the sun seemed to re-emerge in anticipation of Christmas. The moon also seemed to want to celebrate as it moved into fullness. Torre took beautiful pictures of those mornings leading up to Christmas as they presented a softness, a warm rose and peach tint to each coming day. The moon, rising full and bright each evening over the fields, traveled the skies like a silent but certain sentinel during the night and then as day emerged lingered with a quiet joy reflecting the sun’s light through bare branches of wintering trees along the river’s shore line.
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This coming Sunday in our tradition’s liturgical year we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. It is a time when the season of Christmas comes full circle. Both are about light. A baby comes into the world manifesting (en-fleshing, making real and visible) the light that was at the beginning of creation. It is the cosmic Christ light re-emerging as a baby sparking rebirth for a world grown dim. A brilliant star guides magi from the far East to the light. They arrive, drop to their knees, and are bathed by light cradled in a manger. We experience in the cycle of nature’s seasons a longest winter night turning, returning to days of increasing light and decreasing night. But perhaps this year, it is the images of candles being lighted in a stone sanctuary and a next morning moon lingering to reflect the light of the emerging sun that offer in a special way a new born resonance for our lives. Are we, like candles ready to be touched by the hovering light of a flame, waiting to be embraced by it, or resisting it? Are we, like the moon as morning sun approaches, lingering to face the light, savoring it and then reflecting it even in wintering times?
The promise has always been that there is a point of divine light within us from our beginning. That if we seek it, it will let us find it. That if we touch it, if we let it touch us, we will become warmth and flame and light not only for our lives but, even in some small spark-like but certain way, light for the world. When we linger in the presence of this Light, absorb it within our whole being, all we need to do is just open to its flow – this “Son Light” arising to a world waiting for a new day.
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“Arise, shine; for your light has come.” Arise and shine for your time has come, your Epiphany is here. May this Christ light shine in you, on you and through you as you and the world begin a new year.
Torrence
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Congratulations on outstanding performances by all the Superheroes Cast
from left to right
Jamie Heltzel, Eva Milsted, Eleana Milstead, Georges Saison, Kiersten Saison, Paul Heltzel, & Gracie Heltzel
(the Hulk), (Cat Woman), (Wonder Woman), (Spiderman), (Mary & Shepherd ), (Superman), (Joseph & Shepherd)
not shown
- Angel & Organist Miriam Sisson
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Winter Bible Study
begins with supper on
Tuesday, Jan. 22nd
at 5:30 p.m., class at 6:15. More details to follow.
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Notice of Annual Meeting of the Congregation of St. John's Episcopal Church
(Warsaw) to be held on Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 12:30 p.m. following the Sunday morning service. The Agenda will include approval of the 2019 Budget, Annual Meeting Reports and election of two vestry members for a three year term resulting from the rotation off the vestry of Anne Neuman and Priscilla Wellford.
Notice of Annual Meeting of the Congregation of N. Farnham Episcopal Church
to be held on Sunday, January 27, 2019 at 10:30 a.m. following the Sunday morning service. The Agenda will include approval of the 2019 Budget, Annual Meeting Reports and election of two vestry members for a three year term resulting from the rotation off the vestry of Ed Marks and Sue Crowley.
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Sunday January 6
th
the feast of the Epiphany
Holy Eucharist
9:00 a.m. at Farnham
11:00 a.m. at St. John's
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Sunday January 13
th
Epiphany I
9:00
a.m.
Morning Prayer at Farnham
11:00 a.m.
Holy Eucharist
at St. John's
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Sunday January 20
th
Epiphany II
Holy Eucharist
9:00 a.m. at Farnham
11:00 a.m.
at
St. John's
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Sunday January 27
th
Epiphany III
Morning Prayer
9:00 a.m. at Farnham
11:00
a.m.
at
St. John's
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Come Worship With Us
Sunday Service this week
9:00 a.m. Farnham Church Farnham
11:00 a.m. St. John's Church
Warsaw
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