Month: January 2025

His Life is the Light of Us All

“A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.” 1

These are the first lines of a beloved (by me anyway!) poem by T.S. Eliot written after his conversion to Christianity. Simply titled The Journey of the Magi, Eliot describes the events surrounding their journey to greet the newborn king of Israel. I love these lines because they picture the hardness and courage needed for such a journey. Eliot’s poem is rich in metaphor and as the wise men come close to the end of this journey he writes of them coming into a temperate valley with flowing streams, and three trees on a hill.

Take a moment and put yourself into this place, even on those camels – where the journey is hard and cold, but the sweet smells of summer call – and you find yourself wanting to move faster and faster toward deliverance and salvation. They almost blew it – going straight to Herod to get directions because of course Herod would know where the new king would be. Surely, he too would want to meet the “consolation of Israel.” Almost frantic now, they left in a hurry and saw the star that would lead them to their end. Eliot says “and so we continued, and arrived at evening, not a moment too soon. Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.” From Matthew’s account (2:1-12) we see “they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.”

This was the first encounter (as far as we know) of Gentiles encountering the Christ. And for them it was such an epiphany, such a manifestation and a revelation of the salvation that would be for all the world it took them to their knees in worship. This is Epiphany and for the church it’s a time where we acknowledge all the ways that Christ has been revealed as Savior and Lord to us. For the wise men, it was a revelation of glory – and glory is so often linked with light in the Scriptures.

Consider these verses from John  – and by consider I mean read them in a sacred slow meditative way. Light a candle, listen to a beloved song. (I highly recommend O Magnum Mysterium.) Even better, have someone else read them to you! Or you read them to someone else! I love, love it when I hear stories read aloud.  I have had a crush on Garrison Keillor’s voice for a very long time. I loved it when Leanne Payne in the context of a teaching would tell a story from her own life that not only brought the teaching to life – it became an incredible way God revealed Himself to us who were there listening.

Sorry, I got off course – here are the verses from the gospel of John. Think glory, think revelation, think light.

John 1:4-5 – In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:9-10 –  The true light, which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him., yet the world did not know him.

John 1:14 – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:18 – 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.

John 8:12 –  Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” ( ESV)

What stirred in you in this reading? How did God reveal Himself to you? What phrases or words touched your soul? Scripture is alive! And God reveals Himself to us through His Word.

There are other miracles associated with Epiphany but I think I’ll stop here. In fact, let’s all stop and listen and look for and receive what God chooses to reveal to us. We too, along with the shepherds or the wise men, and Simeon, and Anna, can see Jesus – and bend our knees in worship. Corporately or in our own devotional times can pray as we come into God’s presence – “Lord, reveal yourself to us… in our struggles, in our suffering, in our joys, in our worship.” May the cry of our hearts perpetually be: “Make yourself known, Lord, this day and every day.”

1 Eliot, T. S. The Journey of the Magi. Faber & Gwyer, 1927.
Featured Image – courtesy of Mike Labrum – Unsplash.
Eliot’s poem can be found in this link:
https://hamewith.org/2025/01/the-journey-of-the-magi-2/(opens in a new tab)

The Journey of The Magi

“A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.”
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires gong out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty, and charging high prices.:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

T.S. Eliot

Rule of Life 2025

Happy New Year! I begin this year with what became a significant part of my formation in Christ over the last few years. As the title suggests, this practice is called a “rule of life”. Many people find choosing one word for the year helpful, others choose practices or resolutions. This idea of a rule of life is ancient going back to monasteries and convents early in the life of the church. In recent years this practice has become for many an alternative to the typical New Year’s resolutions. If you want to see what’s out there on this subject, google it and you will find several sites and/or books on this. I wrote on this practice in January 2024 and have included a link to that post.

https://hamewith.org/2024/01/rule-of-life

Personally, it has been a rich encounter in prayer and dialogue with God and others. I am not good at setting what seem to be unrealistic goals or resolutions that by the end of January I am discouraged and end up setting the rules aside. I believe there is an actual name for that – called Quitters Day and it happens on the second Friday in January! The rule of life is a marker or signpost that takes me deeper into my Christian formation. Below are some very significant markers for me. Yours might be very different than these. But I encourage you to take this season and prayerfully consider where God might be leading you on this part of your journey.

Baptism

…that [I] may remain faithful to my baptism, living by it, making it always the source and the power of his life, a constant judgment, criterion, inspiration, “rule of life.”1  

Photo by Ante Hamersmit on Unsplash

St Patrick’s Breastplate

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One, and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever,
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation, (Christ with us and in us)
His baptism in the Jordan river, (his identification with us)
His death on the cross for my salvation; (forgiveness of sin)
His bursting from the spiced tomb; (new life)
His riding up the heavenly way; (taking us with him into heaven)
His coming at the day of doom; (his glorious return)
I bind unto myself today.

Calling

My calling in this season of life is to share the wisdom God has carved out of me (carved into me) through His sanctifying work – whether in joy or sorrow, suffering or peace, absence or presence.

By identifying my calling in this season of life, I believe it provides a great signpost not only to my intentions but to the decisions I will make about how I spend my time, and my resources.

I have wavered on this calling so many times just in the last few years and have often believed I should stop doing something that’s so hard and makes me feel vulnerable. I had prayed about this many times and after a time of prayer with some very encouraging friends I went back to the Lord and this is what I heard in response to my cry! I will say, that I was very unsure about including this, because it is so personal and I feel very vulnerable sharing it. But I do so as an encouragement that God does speak to us when we have doubts or feel shame about what He is calling us to do.

Little one, I am not asking you to be special or profound – but to look at your life – all the crooked ways made straight by My grace and power. Dig deep and there you will find living water. Even the scent of water is enough to share. I am not asking you to share what I have done in someone else’s life. It’s your story that you’ve been given to share.  Word from 10/29/23.

Prayer

(from last year’s post on rule of life, which I still find meaningful today.)

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides,
sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour,
that I may not be one moment apart from thee,
but may rely on thy Spirit to supply every thought,
speak in every word, direct every step,
prosper every work, build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire to show forth thy praise;
testify thy love, advance thy kingdom.
I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year, with
thee, O Father, as my harbor,
thee, O Son, at my helm,
thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

        The Valley of Vision (a compilation of Puritan Prayers), Arthur Bennett.

My rule of life came out of  dialogue not only with God, but also out of dialogue with my own soul and what I needed most. And if these things I’ve included in my rule of life are meant to characterize my life I must find ways that help me live that out. I’m allergic to the word resolutions (especially this time of year!) but they can help engage our wills as we seek to live out our desires. While I haven’t specifically included this in my rule of life, I have been convicted about how I love (more specifically how I don’t love) others in the holy and honorable way they deserve to be loved. For a talk I gave several years ago I put together a set of life together resolutions – and I realize how much that can help move me from “I would like to love better,” to actually finding concrete and specific ways to do so.

This will take you to the post on “life together resolutions.” https://hamewith.org/2025/01/life-together-resolutions/

When I take Schmemann’s statement on baptism to heart,  I hope it’s clear that I am not literally referring to my own baptism. Even though I was an adult, I have no clear memories of that time. That saddens me. I had only been a Christian a short time and it happened in a lake on my college campus. But our baptisms, (remembered or not!) picture so completely our formation in Christ.

Living out our baptisms was the way Leanne Payne talked about wholeness in Christ. It means as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:24 – “He himself bore our sins on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” Each day I believe we have the opportunity to die to self and sin, confess it, receive His forgiveness and grace and rise up as one who has been given the fullness of life! We know as Paul said in Galatians 2:20 – “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The inexorable hope of glory!

This version of St Patrick’s Breastplate is meaningful to me because it tracks the whole life of Christ and thus the whole life of the church as we live out the significant acts of His life. “I bind…” – I don’t just affirm, I don’t just agree… I take this truth to heart. The image I have is of Odysseus tying himself to the mast of the ship that he might not yield to the temptation of the sirens.

When we mark and honor all that happened in the life of Christ every aspect becomes a part of our daily confession. For those who follow the Orthodox tradition , “the focus is on a Person (Christ) and the life He lived – the arc of Christ’s life beginning with his taking on human nature, his birth, his growing up, his ministry and his teachings, his death on the Cross, his third day resurrection, his ascension into heaven, his sending the Holy Spirit, and his glorious Second Coming. ” 1

So, as often as I pray this version of this part of St Patrick’s prayer – I can see myself – tying myself to the mast of Christ’s work on my behalf – all of it.  As I do that,  in much the same way it helped Odysseus, I am strengthened to face the temptations and trials of this life.

Lastly, as I regularly review my rule of life in prayer – I am made more aware of my need to find spiritual practices that give me “boots on the ground.” I must align what I do with what I feel God calling me to do. So it impacts how I spend my time, my resources, my body, mind, soul and spirit! But how well I engage with the spiritual practices I feel called to is not the goal -simply part of the means to living out what God has led me to in my rule of life. Some of those practices include confession of sin (I have two lovely partners who help me with this!), lectio divina (sacred reading), study of the Scriptures, and of course prayer. There are other practices I might be called to in particularly difficult times.

I’ll end with what I wrote at the end of the post on rule of life that I wrote in January of last year.

May it start in us through the song God has sung over us through all our days. May it spring from a place of hunger, and a desire for transformation that can only result in our becoming like Him. May we be resolute in casting off any hindrance, any sin, any relationship that inhibits His sanctifying work in us. May we live out our baptisms every day. From the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep may we remember to take our place in His death and in His resurrection – through prayer, through confession, through practicing His presence, through virtue, and through love.

1 Alexander Schmemann, Of Water and the Spirit.
2 Robert Arakaki https://orthodoxbridge.com/2014/03/11/taking-the-incarnation-seriously
Feature image – Photo by Reuben Hustler on Unsplash

Life Together Resolutions

· I shall marvel at and cultivate the work of the Holy Spirit in my own life, while forbearing the flaws, faults or problems in my neighbor’s life.

· As much as I am able, I shall be quick to forgive, acknowledging that I too have great need for forgiveness.

· I shall honor the Holy Spirit’s activity in my neighbor’s life even when it doesn’t seem evident!

· I shall seek to keep the unity of the Spirit in humility and love, by refusing to slander or gossip about my neighbor.

· I shall seek to acknowledge my wrongdoings and sins against others and ask often for forgiveness.

· I shall acknowledge that each one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made and delight in all the ways we are different.

· As much as it is up to me, I shall guard the unity of the Church and work hard to protect her reputation.