As I’m writing this commentary, the news is filled with chatter about another anniversary observance of January sixth. It’s not about the liturgical religious observance known as the Epiphany, of course; but the third-year anniversary of those days surrounding the political insurrection in our nation’s Capital.
Cosmic Mystery Series
Come embrace the Christmas child, Child of every human birth, Birth in stable, home or ward,
Cosmic Mystery Series
Come embrace the child of Christmas, Child of every human birth, Birth in stable, ward or dwelling,
Decades ago, I wrote a blessing prayer for this season that began with a reference to nothing but a flicker of hope in “the fading glory of these autumn days, when night creeps early on to darkness; and leaves us, bound in shadows, longing for the light.” And yet, it remains that flicker of hope that I want to write about.
Join us as we celebrate the Advent season with a Christmas Concert from our choir!
If we want peace, it has to start with us. We must uproot violence from our language, in the ways we relate to one another.
"Blue Christmas" services, which take place to support people struggling emotionally during the holiday season, are becoming more common. This song was written for such services. Ken Janzen sings and plays the instruments.
4 Advent Video Hymns written for the Worship Design Studio, which created its own separate videos. Recordings and videos by Ken Janzen
Years ago, my dear wife, Roberta Maran, came up with an idea at Christmas that enchanted me. “In addition to other presents, let’s give people Christmas boxes that have nothing inside of them – except messages that are deep and pithy!”
Today there are Bethlehems all over the world as families are forced to leave home environments, travel to places unprepared for them, and find a way to survive on their own.
Christmas is a season of lights... And a season to become enlightened…. To notice and amplify the light that shines within us all, revealing inner wisdom and guidance for our lives.
Why not at least integrate working on gratitude as our routine attitude during “the season” this and each year —and continue our practice into each new day of the fresh year?
A Puzzle for the Christmas Season
Christmas presents us with an intersection of religious and secular stories that come from and come with a mixed bag of fact and fiction
For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
Herod, who is a ruler on a throne of power, and Joseph who is a peasant in an unconventional marriage. One man is powerful and one man is not. And yet the text only describes one of these men as being afraid.
I wonder what the numerous losses our world has experienced in the past two years may have liberated us from. What joys may we discover in this liberation? In the freedom from the way things were? In the discovery of stars to guide us? In the joy we allow ourselves to take in each new birth.
Woven into the fabric of the disturbing news that continually bombards us are those moments of humanity, mostly unreported, that tell us who we really are.
Blessed Christmas-tide even in a particularly bleak mid-winter. One carol includes a metaphorical rose blooming in darkest winter.
Jesus was best known for healing and exorcising. The crowds that came for medical help got more than they may have expected as they heard him speak about justice for everyone and love for neighbors and enemies. Spreading health and preaching compassion were at the heart of being the Prince of Peace.
With childlike wonder and anticipation, I too will be dreaming this holiday, less of a White Christmas than a multi-colored, trans-religious, trans-disciplinary, trans-"everything" world, one complete with an iconic (conic?) tree, party hat, and in a literary sense, megaphone.
The word epiphany means “a manifestation, a showing forth.” Starting in the third century, January 6 became the Feast Day of the Epiphany, when Christians celebrate the Magi finding the baby Jesus with his mother at their “house” in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:11). The Western churches use Luke’s story (2:1–20) and December 25 to celebrate this birth.
As the days grow shorter and autumn deepens its hues, this past Sunday marked the beginning of the season many Jesus-followers call Advent. Once, Mary began her long journey to Jerusalem to oblige their state’s census while growing the life of Emmanuel (God-with-us) within her. Now, we attend to the ordinary matters of life while carrying the hoped-for life of the Divine kin-dom, culminating in our collective celebration of the Christmas season.
In this new year – just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse -- something dark and revelatory already happened on that day. Thousands of insurrectionists stormed the Capitol; wielding clubs, and bats, and – in one instance – a Bible.
This past Wednesday was the Feast of Epiphany, the day when Christians celebrate the long journey of the Wise Ones who, according to our foundational myth, arrived at the birthplace of Jesus, who is described in the Scriptures as the embodiment of DIVINE WISDOM.
'Seeds of Peace' is set to the carol-tune O little town of Bethlehem. It's sung by a Children's choir in London.
Jesus is, in fact, no longer the reason for the season. But the reason this is so extends far beyond the cultural and commercial contamination of a quaint old tale.
I have found two books to be especially helpful this Christmas. Living under COVID restrictions is like being imprisoned. Sermons written by Martin Luther King, Jr., while in jail speak directly to the concerns of today, although he was thinking of the situation in the 1960s.