Good King
December 26, Boxing Day in England, when traditionally the monarch packs up boxes of food (presumably left over from yesterday's Christmas feast?) and delivers the boxes to poor people on the street.
Also anniversary of that horrendous tsunami in the Indian Ocean that cost over 220,000 lives. At the time, there were actually those who said God did it to kill and punish gay people vacationing in Thailand. It's one's choice, and who but the most wicked of men would choose such an evil divinity?!
'tis the Day after Christmas and, again, all through the house, not a creature is stirring not even a mouse, only my fingers tapping on this device.
There's dawn as seen from the little place where Inlet Beach meets Rosemary Beach.
We, the Church that is, are looking next to the Baptism of Christ; then to January 6th, assigned as Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas. The Epiphany alternately depends on whether one is eastern or western Christian. Eastern Orthodoxy, and the rest of Christianity seems to me to be leaning this way, sees the Baptism of Jesus as the Epiphany, a voice from the heavens booming down, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The western Church still tends to see the Coming of the Magi as the Epiphany even though we largely commemorate that on Christmas, in our children's pageant, three wise men bringing gifts while the shepherds are still there, as we sing "We three kings of orient."
We get the idea of three wise men, or kings as we prefer to dress them and sing of them, from Matthew's mention of three gifts, which Matthew, in his agenda-driven focus on finding messianic prophecy in the Old Testament for his audience, gets from places in the Septuagint, Isaiah and Psalms. But other churches have other ideas than three, as noted in this BBC piece that I read earlier this morning while our goofy internet connection was working perfectly https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-46650911 . So, maybe there were three, maybe a dozen more or less. On the outside looking in at Matthew's imagination, who knows?! I'm sticking with three because of our really great hymn and my childhood memory of a male voice booming out "MELCHIOR" as we start to sing the verse about the gift of gold, and the name of each wise man in the slight pause of organ music before we started to sing the verse with each one's gift, "BALTHAZAR" and "GASPAR." As a matter of fact, our Hymnal 1940 listed each of those names with the verse for the man's gift. If "three magi" is tradition, are the magi's names tradition or custom, there's a difference!
Forgotten in all this is that the Church commemorates December 26 as the Feast of Stephen and, no longer, but in my memory anyway, sings the hymn
Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the Feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gathering winter fuel
Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou knowst it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?
Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes fountain.
Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I shall see him dine
When we bear them thither.
Page and monarch, forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude winds wild lament
And the bitter weather
Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how
I can go no longer.
Mark my footsteps, good my page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shall find the winters rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly.
In his masters step he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye, who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.
Wikipedia. Wenceslaus I, Wenceslas I or Václav the Good was the duke of Bohemia from 921 until his assassination in 935. His younger brother, Boleslaus the Cruel, was complicit in the murder.
Blessings.
T
Also anniversary of that horrendous tsunami in the Indian Ocean that cost over 220,000 lives. At the time, there were actually those who said God did it to kill and punish gay people vacationing in Thailand. It's one's choice, and who but the most wicked of men would choose such an evil divinity?!
'tis the Day after Christmas and, again, all through the house, not a creature is stirring not even a mouse, only my fingers tapping on this device.
There's dawn as seen from the little place where Inlet Beach meets Rosemary Beach.
We, the Church that is, are looking next to the Baptism of Christ; then to January 6th, assigned as Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas. The Epiphany alternately depends on whether one is eastern or western Christian. Eastern Orthodoxy, and the rest of Christianity seems to me to be leaning this way, sees the Baptism of Jesus as the Epiphany, a voice from the heavens booming down, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The western Church still tends to see the Coming of the Magi as the Epiphany even though we largely commemorate that on Christmas, in our children's pageant, three wise men bringing gifts while the shepherds are still there, as we sing "We three kings of orient."
We get the idea of three wise men, or kings as we prefer to dress them and sing of them, from Matthew's mention of three gifts, which Matthew, in his agenda-driven focus on finding messianic prophecy in the Old Testament for his audience, gets from places in the Septuagint, Isaiah and Psalms. But other churches have other ideas than three, as noted in this BBC piece that I read earlier this morning while our goofy internet connection was working perfectly https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-46650911 . So, maybe there were three, maybe a dozen more or less. On the outside looking in at Matthew's imagination, who knows?! I'm sticking with three because of our really great hymn and my childhood memory of a male voice booming out "MELCHIOR" as we start to sing the verse about the gift of gold, and the name of each wise man in the slight pause of organ music before we started to sing the verse with each one's gift, "BALTHAZAR" and "GASPAR." As a matter of fact, our Hymnal 1940 listed each of those names with the verse for the man's gift. If "three magi" is tradition, are the magi's names tradition or custom, there's a difference!
Forgotten in all this is that the Church commemorates December 26 as the Feast of Stephen and, no longer, but in my memory anyway, sings the hymn
Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the Feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gathering winter fuel
Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou knowst it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?
Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes fountain.
Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I shall see him dine
When we bear them thither.
Page and monarch, forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude winds wild lament
And the bitter weather
Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how
I can go no longer.
Mark my footsteps, good my page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shall find the winters rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly.
In his masters step he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye, who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.
Wikipedia. Wenceslaus I, Wenceslas I or Václav the Good was the duke of Bohemia from 921 until his assassination in 935. His younger brother, Boleslaus the Cruel, was complicit in the murder.
Blessings.
T