'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy New Year' are easy. But what's the proper greeting for Epiphany? Blessed Epiphany? Let's go with that. Christmas, as reported in the Gospel of Luke, and Epiphany, as reported in the Gospel of Matthew, are usually conflated in Sunday School Christmas pageants. The Gospels of Mark and John have neither reports.
Reginald Heber (1783–1826)
Epiphany
Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid;
Star of the East, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.
Cold on His cradle the dewdrops are shining;
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall;
Angels adore Him in slumber reclining,
Maker and Monarch and Savior of all!
Say, shall we yield Him, in costly devotion,
Odors of Edom and offerings divine?
Gems of the mountain and pearls of the ocean,
Myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine?
Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
Vainly with gifts would His favor secure;
Richer by far is the heart’s adoration,
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.
The last line of Heber's poem "Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor." This reminds of the assertion of liberation theologians that 'God has a preference for the poor'. If that is true where does it leave us, who cannot credibly be thought to be poor? It leaves us right where we've always been, dependent upon the mercy of God. What could be better?
Takk for alt,
Al
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