epiphany

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Sometimes I mistakenly think celebrating all 12 days of Christmas will make the Christmas experience seem to last longer; but here it is, Epiphany, just like that. On the 12th day of Christmas, we had a man (Bishop) wielding a stick (Crozier) at Trinity by the Sea. While Bishop Reed was here, he confirmed one of our High School seniors who will be heading off into the great world across the bay, once he graduates in May. I haven't known him for too long, but I've seen picture of him and his peers when they were just little kids running around the church getting into trouble...sorta like Eli is doing now. I've heard their families tell me how fast they grow up, to try to give me fair warning. Later that same day, I went (across the bay) into Corpus Christi to be part of the regional Epiphany Feast of Lights and Burning of the Greens.  Burning Christmas trees really makes it feel like Christmas is over, there's no going back, only
 forward. In the Feast of Lights, we lit candles for people throughout history as we told the story how The Light made it from a Bethlehem all the way to Corpus Christi (and even to Port Aransas.) That story is never over, though, because there are always people who have not received the Light, the Good News. The
danger (metaphorically speaking) of storing a Christmas Tree in the attic instead of burning it is that the presence of The Light might just gets celebrated as a personal thing, and then put away somewhere to be brought out when we are ready for it again. Burning it somehow sets the event of Christmas free to become Epiphany! An awareness of the life that is available right now to High School Seniors getting ready for a new adventure, and three-year-olds discovering new traditions around trees, and for priest who seek to create space for just such Epiphanies to occur. The 12 days of Christmas are over; so long. Now is Epiphany.

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