Fifth Day of Christmas
The fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me five gold rings.
But everything isn't necessarily as it seems.
AI Overview
In the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas", the five gold rings given on the fifth day of Christmas represent the first five books of the Old Testament, also known as the Pentateuch or the Torah:
Genesis: The book of origins and the beginning of life
Exodus: The book of redemption
Leviticus: The book of worship and communion
Numbers: The experiences of a pilgrim people
However, some say that the five gold rings may actually refer to the common ring-necked pheasant, a golden-brown bird with a white ring around its neck. This would make the first seven gifts of the song all about birds, since the other gifts are also birds. The shift from birds to gold rings and then back to birds again in the song makes it easy to interpret the gold rings as something else.
You may make it whatever you wish. "On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me five golden ring-neck pheasants" may be original?
Four colly (black) birds
Three French hens
Two turtledoves and
A partridge in a pear tree.
By the Time Christmas turns to Epiphany, there'll be more than enough black birds to bake the pie after all.
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The Collect for the First Sunday after Christmas
Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Gospel: John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
[There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.]
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And 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.
[John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'"]
From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
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Powerful stuff: the prologue to John could well be substituted for the creeds we say.
Through him (Logos, the Word, the prime mover in bringing all things into Being: "and God said, 'Let there be ... ' and it was so") all things were made.
Jesus as the Logos, the Word of God speaking in the beginning is foundational Christian theology, more basic than any and all of our formal doctrines.
Thy strong word did cleave the darkness,
at thy speaking it was done.
For created light we thank thee
while thine ordered seasons run.
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And, lightning beginning to flash outside and our weather radar, as I say
RSF&PTL
T89&c
