‘Epiphany: Finding the Way’ – 7/1/24
Musical Prelude: played by Evi Wang and Benjie del Rosario
Opening Words and Chalice Lighting:
Good morning everybody and welcome to Essex Church and to this our gathered community of Kensington Unitarians. It’s early in January in 2024, a chilly winter’s day here in London. Welcome to those of you here in person and to those of you joining us online – if we’ve not met before I’m Sarah Tinker and it’s a pleasure to be with you this morning.
Now at this very moment we could be shopping! We could have headed out to the January sales, yet we’ve chosen to be here, knowing perhaps that there is much in life that money can’t buy and much in life that is priceless. Here we value community, the deliberate choosing to join together with others – knowing that together we can achieve so much more than alone.
We’ll spend this hour together, creating this as time in which we can open ourselves to the power of transformation, to fresh insights and new ideas. Because religious community offers both comfort and challenge, the opportunity to see our lives from new perspectives and fresh points of view. A Unitarian community like ours won’t tell us what to believe or what to think but it will remind us that life is precious, that all are equal and that what we say and what we do and how we choose to live our lives can really make a difference. So let’s open ourselves to the possibility of transformation this morning as we take a moment now to allow ourselves to settle, to fully arrive in the here and now, having made the choice to be here today let’s make a connection with ourselves, with one another and with that which we hold to be divine, the god of our hearts and our understanding, that which is of greatest worth.
(silently light chalice)
Hymn (on sheet): ‘We Three Kings’
In today’s service we’re remembering the traditional story of the visit of the wise ones to the infant Jesus, known as the Feast of Epiphany. It’s also known as twelfth night, often regarded as the completion of Christmas festivities. A good enough reason to sing a traditional carol – we three kings. The words will be on your screens or on the handout you’ve been given. Do feel free to stand, sit, sing or simply enjoy listening.
We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we travel afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star.
O Star of wonder, star of light
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us through this perfect night.
Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Pray’r and praising, all are raising
Worship God most high.
O Star of wonder, star of light
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us through this perfect night.
Born a child on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown him again
Love forever, ceasing never,
In our hearts to reign.
O Star of wonder, star of light
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us through this perfect night.
Candles of Joy and Concern:
Each week when we gather together, we share a simple ritual of candles of joy and concern, an opportunity to light a candle and share something that is in our heart with the community. So we’ve an opportunity now, for anyone who would like to do so, to light a candle and say a few words about what it represents. This time we’re going to go to the people in the building first, and take all of those in one go, and then I’ll call on the people on Zoom to come forward.
So I invite some of you here in person to come and light a candle and then if you wish to tell us briefly who or what you light your candle for. Please do get up close to the microphone as that will help everyone hear (including the people at home). You can take the microphone out of the stand if it’s not at a good height and have it microphone pointing right at your mouth. And if you can’t get to the microphone give me a wave and I’ll bring it over to you. Thank you.
(in person candles)
And if that’s everyone in the room we’ll go over to the people on Zoom next – you might like to switch to gallery view at this stage – just unmute yourselves when you are ready and speak out – and we should be able to hear you and see you up on the big screen here in the church.
(zoom candles)
And I’m going to light one more candle, as we often do, to represent all those joys and concerns that we hold in our hearts this day, but which we don’t feel able to speak out loud. (light candle)
In-Person Reading and Reflection on the Maji’s journey (from Matthew chap 2 – the wise men):
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
The Biblical narrative of the visit of the magi, the wise ones who came to visit the infant Jesus is a story we may well have heard many times before – with its gripping themes of mysterious travellers with faith enough to follow a wandering star across desert lands. Met by the tyrant Herod with his oily words, warned in a dream that they should return home by another route. Travelling with gifts they then offered on bended knee to the Christ child – the powerful, bowing before the vulnerable. Let’s take some of these images now into our time of reflection and prayer and align ourselves with that which we hold to be of ultimate worth, allow ourselves to deepen and soften our sense of self, knowing that we are part of something so much greater than our small selves. We are part of all that exists.
Time of Prayer & Reflection:
And so let us pray for all that exists here on earth that we might be guided in our life paths by intuition and inner guidance, by our own wisdom as well as the wisdom of others. May we sense our part in the greater scheme of all that is and know that we are not alone though it is part of being human to feel separate at times. Yet truly we are one.
And as one we probably know the inner tyrants in our own lives – our need to have things our own way perhaps, or our conviction that the way we see life is the only right way. Yet may we be open to far more expansive realities.
May we in the year ahead increase our deeper understanding of the tyrannical parts of human nature and align ourselves with all that allows love and trust and openness to flourish for all people.
Even as we wish one another Happy New Year, we know the reality that no year can be all happiness, no life can be 100% sweetness and light. So let us instead wish one another the strength and companionship to deal with whatever life brings our ways, let us encourage one another’s joy and comfort one another in our sorrowful times.
And let us pray for our human family that we might work together to find healing for the issues of our world and in that spirit now in a short time of silence let each of us send our loving thoughts and prayers to people and places we feel are in need of love and concern, maybe individuals we feel concern for or places and peoples we hear of in the news or the parts of ourselves that are in need of tender love and care this morning ….. and may the spirit of life and love be with us all and guide our steps this day and all days that we might individually and collectively find paths of peace and fulfilment, Amen.
Hymn 226 (green): ‘Song of Peace’
I know many of us are concerned about the troubles of our world community these days, when so much discord and violence disrupts ordinary people’s lives and threatens their security and indeed their very lives and the lives of those they love. The hymn we’re going to sing now is called a song of peace and is sung to the famous music Sibelius wrote when his own country Finland was suffering violent times. The tune itself seems to speak of the human heart’s yearning for peace and the words by Lloyd Stone express that aching realisation that issues can look so very different from opposing sides. Let’s sing together for the peace of our world.
This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace for lands afar and mine;
This is my home, the country where my heart is,
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine;
But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.
Meditation: ‘Rest in this Moment’
Our time of meditation today invites us to rest in the moment. We’ll have a few words to guide us into a time of shared stillness and silence which will end with a chime from our brass bowl. You might like to settle yourself as best you can, perhaps putting down anything you don’t need to hold onto, maybe focusing on your body and the felt sense of being in a chair, or wherever we are, with feet and our whole body connecting us to the floor and to the earth beneath us, the bedrock of our being, breathing in the air which sustains us, enjoying a softening our gaze or closing our eyes, whatever feels comfortable for us.
And in the stillness we might think of the Sufi mystic poet Jelalludin Rumi’s words – that as we start to walk upon the way or path, the way, the path, appears. Resting in the eternal possibility of each moment, let us imagine the path unfolding before us one step at a time, resting in each moment of now, enjoying the fellowship of shared stillness together.
Period of Silence and Stillness (~3 minutes) – end with a bell
Interlude: ‘Three kings from Persian lands afar’ by Peter Cornelius performed by Evi and Benjie
Reading: ‘Spoken Song’ by Liz Lochhead
Contemporary Scottish poet Liz Lochhead prefaces this poem, which she calls ‘Spoken Song’ with a line from one of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems – it’s a line that succinctly describes this time of year: These are the shortened days and the endless nights. Carol Ann Duffy, from Mean Time (1993)
Liz Lochhead takes that short line and weaves it into her own poem about this time of year.
We’ve copied the start and the finish of the poem onto today’s hymn sheet, and the whole poem will be on screens for those at home. Or you could find the poem later online to read again if it interests you. Lochhead in this poem describes the longing many of us experience at this time of year – a longing for light. And the way our faith can be restored by one clear sharp sunny winter’s day. She writes of the brave cold journey of the Maji and in her closing line she reminds us of the presence that is there in absence Believe in the light’s soul and spirit that’s in its absence and our longing for it.
Liz Lochhead’s Spoken Song
Gloomy December.
The doldrum days of the dead of winter.
These are the shortest days
and the endless nights.
So wish for the moon
and long for the light.
Chill winds. Relentless rain.
Dark to go to work in, darkness home again.
But, given just one fine day of sun and sharp, clean frost,
our lost, maybe long lost
Faith — if for nothing more than the year’s turning —
comes back like the light comes back.
A promise in our bleak midwinter yearning
once in a rare and clear blue noon
if we wish for the moon.
Till then, the light’s soul and spirit
is locked in its absence
and our longing for it.
Whether you believe, with the Magi, in their miracle —
Three Kings bow down low before the Child of Light —
or whether we think them Wise Men on a fool’s errand,
their gifts useless, magnificent, precious,
who came following one star and its faltering gleaming
till they came to the place,
it was a brave as well as a cold coming.
Yes.
And whether it was a refugee waif
or the Saviour that was born,
whether some shepherds on the night-shift
saw angels, or a meteor storm…
Believe in the light’s soul and spirit
that’s in its absence
and our longing for it.
Reflection & Reading: ending with ‘For those who have far to travel ~ An Epiphany Blessing’ by Jan Richardson
We’re in the time of shortest days and endless nights – just the time when a light bringing moment of epiphany would be most welcome. This word ‘epiphany’ that we’ve been exploring today can be defined as a revelation of the divine on earth. We also hear it used in a more down to earth way to describe one of those ‘aha’ moments, when we see something in a new way – waking up to new possibilities and ways of being. It points to our very human capacity to make meaning – our remarkable human capacity to make meaning out of our experience, every step of the way.
At the start of a new year we humans often reflect on the year that has passed and the year that is to come. And though these chunks of time are marked by the movement of our planet around its sun, yet it can be valuable to bring our own human meaning to a particular period of time. A time of quiet reflection and re-alignment can be useful in life. We can stop and think about the metaphorical stars that have been guiding our steps and choose another path if that now seems more fitting. We might consider what we truly value – what would have us bend our knee or disrupt our routines, or give more deeply from within ourselves. We might become aware of a whole new path in life that is waiting to unfold before us if we could but make that first step into territory as yet unknown. The heart, the essence, of epiphany is an openness to being disrupted and changed by experience, the potential for transformation in life. And perhaps that’s where we can be of use to one another – when life feels stuck and it’s not clear which path to take or how to respond to an event – let’s remind one another that there are new ways to view the world, new ways to consider our existence, always more to learn and to be revealed, if we can but pay attention. And as those ancient wise ones brought their gifts to a child laid in a manger, guided by a prophetic imperative that took them from the comfort of home to faraway lands, we too in the year ahead may find ever more ways to bring our simple gifts to the world.
To close I’ll read to you an Epiphany Blessing – for those who have far to travel – written by Jan L Richardson, who is a United Methodist minister, and a marvellous writer and artist who works with spiritual themes and generously makes her work available to us online. You might enjoy finding this blessing and her other writings to read. In this piece she is writing about the kinds of life journeys many of us will know – the journeys with uncertain destinations that life can sometimes push us into, those challenging, maybe exciting or fearful journeys that require to put one foot in front of another, and keep our sense of faith and hope and possibility alive, despite everything. I’ve kept this blessing with me all week and it has come to represent for me a worthwhile reminder that as I face the troubles of our world my task is to keep a sense of hope and possibility alive and refreshed. I hope this reading holds some message for you this day – this blessing for those who have far to travel:
For Those Who Have Far to Travel: An Epiphany Blessing Jan L Richardson
If you could see
the journey whole,
you might never
undertake it,
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.
Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping,
step by
single step.
There is nothing
for it
but to go,
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:
to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;
to keep an open eye
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions,
beyond fatigue,
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.
There are vows
that only you
will know:
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.
Keep them, break them,
make them again;
each promise becomes
part of the path,
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel
to offer the gift
most needed—
the gift that only you
can give—
before turning to go
home by
another way. Words from Jan Richardson
Hymn (on sheet): ‘Wonder’ (to tune Woodlands)
The words of this closing hymn are on your hymn sheets and on screens. They were written by British poet Alfred Noyes and they remind us how little we know in life, how much there is for us to wonder at.
Knowledge, they say, drives wonder from the world:
They’ll say it still, though all the dust’s ablaze
With marvels at their feet — while Newton’s laws
Foretell that knowledge one day shall be song.
We seem like children wandering by the shore,
Gathering pebbles coloured by the wave;
While the great sea of truth, from sky to sky
Stretches before us, boundless, unexplored.
Announcements:
Thanks to Ramona for tech-hosting. Thanks to Jeannene for welcoming everyone online. Thanks to our readers. Thanks to Evi and Benjie for our great music today. Thanks for our coffee makers and greeters who help to make this community a place of warmth and welcome. For those of you who are in-person – please do stay for a warm drink and a catch up. If you’re with us on zoom please do hang on after for a chat.
We have various small group activities during the week. Heart and Soul, our contemplative spiritual gathering, takes place twice a week online. It’s a great way to get to know people more deeply. Let Jane know if you want to sign up for tonight or Friday. The theme is ‘Habit & Routine’. Sonya is back with her Nia dance classes on Friday lunchtime from 12.30pm. And the great fun community Singing group will be back this coming Wednesday, 10th January, do come along, no particular musical ability required.
Jane’s Induction Service as our new minister is coming up on the 27th January, it will be a lovely celebration. They could do with some help with hosting on that day – a few greeters, a few doing tea – if you are willing to give some hands-on help that day can you let Jane or Liz or Patricia know. All assistance will be much appreciated.
Next Sunday do come along at 11am when Jeannene and the congregation will lead the service on New Beginnings – with a Sunday Conversation after the service. Do bring your lunch and stay for that.
Details of all these various activities are printed on the back of the order of service, for you to take away, and also in the Friday email. Please do sign up for the mailing list if you haven’t already. The congregation very much has a life beyond Sunday mornings; we encourage you to keep in touch, look out for each other, and do what you can to nurture supportive connections.
I think that’s everything. Just time for our closing words and closing music now, when Evi will play a great piece of Edvard Grieg’s piano music for us.
Benediction: ‘For all that is as yet unknown’
And so let’s step forward, be it with courage or trepidation, into the territory of our living, this unknown land of potential and possibility, ever aware of ourselves as makers of meaning, as fellow companions on the road, and as bringers of gifts to this our most precious world. Go well all of you, amen and blessed be.
Closing Music: Edvard Grieg’s lyrical piece op.12 no.1 (played by Evi Wang)
Rev. Sarah Tinker
7th January 2023
