The Christmas-Epiphany Mystery

There are three words that begin with the letter L which have a particular meaning within the worship life of a congregation: Liturgy, Lectionary and Liturgical Year. Let us consider each of these words which are holy in the sense they have a distinct meaning within the worship life of the Christian church.

Each Sunday we gather to worship God and the service we perform is called the liturgy – the work of the people. Liturgy is an old Latin word that literally means the work of the people. The work of the people in the liturgy includes prayers we pray, scriptures we read, hymns we sing, the Word of God we hear in the sermon, our response to the Word by our confession of faith and the offerings we give and finally we respond to the Word by going out to serve God in the world. Someone once said, “When worship ends the service begins!” There is a sense in which that is true. It is also true what we do during the worship service in the liturgy – the work of the people – is also in service to God.

We order our worship liturgy in accordance with the liturgical year. The liturgical year is supported by lectionary readings which are a series of scripture readings from the Old Testament and New Testament that repeat on a three year cycle. The Sunday lectionary readings and the lectionary year reenact the life of Jesus Christ from birth to baptism to temptation to teachings to healings to betrayal to crucifixion to resurrection to ascension into heaven. The liturgical year, like the lectionary readings, follows a three year cycle called Year A, Year B, and Year C. This year we will complete Year B as we celebrate Christ the King Sunday on November 26, 2006. Year C then begins with a celebration of The Lord’s Supper on the First Sunday of Advent on December 3, 2006.

Let’s take a sneak preview of the path ahead during December and January when we will celebrate Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Father Thomas Keating, on pages 14-15 of his book The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience, provides the following summary of the teaching of the liturgy in the Christmas-Epiphany Mystery:

1. Human nature is united to the Eternal Word, the Son of God, in the womb of the Virgin Mary: Advent.

2. The Eternal Word appears in human form as the light of the world: Christmas.

3. Christ manifests his divinity through his humanity: Epiphany.

4. By his baptism in the Jordan, Christ purifies the church, the extension of his body in time, and sanctifies the waters of baptism: Epiphany and the Sunday following.

5. Christ takes his people to himself in spiritual marriage, transforming them into himself: Epiphany and the second Sunday following.

6. We are taught the practical consequences of being members of Christ’s mystical body: the Second Reading for the Sundays in Ordinary Time following Epiphany.

Ponder these themes and witness how they are made manifest in the liturgy of our worship services during December and January.

As we start a new liturgical year, the beginning of Year C, may we grow into an ever deeper awareness of the mystery of Christ who is alive and active in our own lives, in this particular church, and in the church universal.

Peace,

Jon B.