Minister's Corner

This time of year in the church calendar is a bit confusing to me. Essentially we are still in the time of Epiphany, which officially began on January 6th. But most church traditions very quickly move to what is known as Ordinary time, which changes to the Lenten Season with Ash Wednesday (February 25th this year). Then enters the victorious season of Easter, which culminates in the celebration of Pentecost. THEN, we return to Ordinary Time again until Advent and the preparation for Christmas.

If you remember from a few Sundays ago, in the early Church, Epiphany was the second most important and celebrated time of the year next to Easter. Early Christians lived and honored the celebration of Epiphany for many joyous days, until the time came to heed the call to repentance with Ash Wednesday and Lent. So I honestly find it more than a little distressing and disheartening that the modern Church in many quarters had turned the wonder of Epiphany into Ordinary Time.

Epiphany is anything but ordinary, usual, or normal. Epiphany is all about God "showing up"! Epiphany is all about God "revealing" himself - making himself known, showing her face, revealing his presence, making manifest her love, displaying his mercy, displaying her power, showing up in the most unexpected times, in the most unexpected places, to the most unexpected people. Why on Earth would anyone want to skip over that! Why would anyone want to live in Ordinary Time when we can live in Epiphany Time, where God is showing up EVERYWHERE in the most marvelous and surprising ways - in healing, in creation, in the face of the Stranger, in the Darkest Hour, when Hope is Lost, to madmen, rulers, slaves, wise men, the rich, the poor, the sick, the possessed, the physically blind, the spiritually blind, men, women, children, young, old...!

In that light, it's rather understandable that the full blown celebration of Mardi Gras would emerge. When you've been celebrating the utter joy of God's continually revealing himself all over the place, why would you even want to stop celebrating, laughing, and dancing for joy. Now Mardi Gras has degenerated in some quarters to a revelry in debauchery and a sanctioned excuse to sin to excess. But I wonder if it might have arisen because people just simply did not want to stop celebrating God "showing up"!

Nevertheless, God does call us to repentance. God calls us to joy and celebration, but he also calls us to ashes and remembering that we are sinners and stand in need of his mercy and forgivness. Epiphany helps make us comfortable with ourselves because God shows up everywhere, even to us! Ash Wednesday and Lent make us uncomfortable with ourselves, because we also have to admit that we are prone to sinning and falling short of the glory of God.

Who wants to stop celebrating the joy in our heart for God? No one... Who wants to admit our heart is also full of the ashes of sin and turning away from God! No one...

"I feel the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart...," and then, out of the corner of my eye, I see the ashes. And I don't really want to go there. I don't really want to feel the oily smudge of the ashes all over my life. But Lord, make me open and ready to own up to my ashes, and open and ready to receive your forgiveness and grace.

Peace & Blessings,
Rev. Garry