Epiphany

Yesterday was the Feast of Epiphany when we remember the wise ones who went to seek Jesus.  From Christmas Day onwards they have been in various places around my house.  They bring a rather snooty looking camel with them!

Meanwhile in my sitting room there has been a small tableau of the Holy Family with various sheep, cattle and anything else which could find its way there.  Until Christmas Day there was a figure of a pregnant woman but on 25th December that was replaced by the mother and child you see here and that was when the shepherds came too.

Yesterday the wise ones arrived and they too took their places, worshipping the child alongside the shepherds.  Today the shepherds have gone back to their fields and the  wise ones will stay until The Feast of The Presentation (Candlemas) on 2nd February. 

 Ages ago I read on someone's blog a post abut chalking the door but I can't remember whose blog it was!  It was a custom in mediaeval Europe and is still common in some countries.  My front door is UPVC but I have some labels for chalk-labelling  bottles and jars so I stuck one on the front door and chalked it.  

The chalking shows that this is the Year of Our Lord, 2024.  In the middle (interspersed by crosses) are the three letters CMB.  Casper, Melchior and Balthazar are the traditional names given to the wise ones but CMB also means "Christus mansionem benedicat", or "May Christ bless this house".  

It echoes the way the Israelites marked their doors at Passover.  For me, it is a blessing not only for me and my house, but all who come through the front door.

And by extension, may Christ bless you who read this blog.  

(I'm sorry I didn't post more about my Advent nativity set.  I had camera problems in the first half of the month and, by the time it was restored, I had lost momentum!)

 

Reading the story again 2

 I'd always wanted a nativity set.  It couldn't be one of those where the characters are fixed in their places:  it had to be one where I could arrange the figures myself,  And the older I got, the fussier I was about what I wanted.

But several years ago I was in some sort of Christmas shop and I saw a set which had been pushed to one side.  They weren't particularly pretty figures, just black resin, but they had character and I felt sorry for them because they'd been put in a rubbishy place.   The price was about £25 and I didn't feel sorry enough to pay that!  

The shop owner saw me looking and she said, "If you want those you can have them for a fiver.  The donkey and one of the kings have disappeared so no-one wants them."  So I handed over £5 and she packed them.   "Just don't let the vicar see them if he comes for tea" she quipped.   

So I 'fessed up.  "I am a vicar".  You could have knocked her down with a feather. 

I went on to explain that there's no mention of a donkey in the Bible story and although there are three gifts from the Magi, nowhere does it say there were three of them.  So, as far as I am concerned, the set is true to Bible.  I wonder if she went home and looked again at the story?  Knowing the gospels had saved me £20!

This post isn't about saving money though: it's about reading the story.  Over the years there have been traditions attached to it as surely as decorations go on the tree.  Even a "religious" Christmas has its trimmings!  

I'm going to miss quite a few of those trimmings.  I shall miss the lights going out in church and the children singing "Away in a manger" by candle light.  I shall miss hearing Isaiah's great prophecies read in the strong, heavily-accented voice of a Lincolnshire farmer.  I shall miss eating mince pies and drinking mulled wine after a carol service.

All those things are good and normally I just take them for granted as part of Christmas just as surely as the shop owner took a donkey as part of the Christmas story.  This year my Christmas will be stripped of many of its religious customs just as surely as it will be stripped of many other things,  But nothing can strip away that one central truth, "The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth."

I'm joining in "Advent at Home" hosted by Ang at Tracing Rainbows