Lukas/Andalus

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

And where, exactly, shall they see God?

On every furrowed brow and raised cheekbone,

In every eye closed or open,

The Divine reflected in the stranger carelessly brushing past you in the Metro,

In every garden and dusty roadway,

On mountain paths visited by chipmunks,

The Divine reflected in the moss, mountain goats, and berries yet to be plucked.

In every place,

And in every face.

The bread of the Presence was broken,

And its crumbs were scattered across the face of the earth.

Deep in its soil, planted, God’s face then sprouted,

Producing life, creating us.

The cultivation of Creation involved God’s very self.

As if I were the soft, juicy flesh of a nectarine,

And God, the Holy Spirit, were its seed.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

mewithoutYou recently released a new EP and will be releasing their [Untitled] LP in a couple months. To celebrate, I’m sharing the drawings I did many years ago that were inspired by their album “it’s all crazy, it’s all false, it’s all a dream, it’s alright”. Each picture corresponds to a track on the album.

In honor of Arab American heritage month, I plan to share some thoughts throughout April. For this first one, let’s look further back further in history to when the Middle East and Europe crossed paths.

What do you see when you look at this map? It’s the world—turned ‘upside down’. On the right edge, you can discern the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). In the very middle and up, you can make out the Arabian Peninsula. The left half of the map is devoted to the Asian continent. Europe is the lower right quadrant with Africa in the upper right.

It was created by Abu Abdallah Muhammad al-Idrisi (known simply as al-Idrisi), a 12th century cartographer from Ceuta. Ceuta is a modern enclave of Spain, located on the northern edge of North Africa and is surrounded by Morocco. Al-Idrisi is from that time when Arab culture and language was part and parcel to Europe. It was spoken in Spain and Sicily. Arab-ness seeped into thoughts, artifacts, ideas, and European languages. Its impact and cultural sway were felt from Cordoba to Palermo, and even as far as the regal courts of France and England.

Although the Muslim dynasty of Sicily (modern day Southern Italy) later passed into the hands of the Normans, Arab culture remained intact for centuries.  King Roger II of Sicily was a patron of the arts and sciences—fields which Arab culture heavily influenced during this time. He continued the cultural legacy of Arab ideas and influences in Sicily. Commissioning al-Idrisi to write on world geography was something of the apex of Europe’s rendezvous with the Arab world. It was a way of affirming the cultural legacy that the Arabs had left in Europe.

I marvel that one of Europe’s first ever world maps was drawn by a Muslim, Arabic speaking cartographer whose roots and life stretched over and onto both sides of the Mediterranean. The interaction and relationship between King Roger II and al-Idrisi reminds me of the robust interaction that Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East had in the ‘Middle Ages’.

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babies and infants,

You have established strength because of your foes,

To still the enemy and the avenger.”

(Psalm 8.1-2)*

Babies. Christmas is about tiny humans new to the world. It’s not the first place we might look to receive the oracles of God—but that seems to be precisely the point.

Jesus isn’t the only baby in the Bible. And his birth isn’t the only one God announces beforehand, either.

“And the angel of the Lord said to her,

‘Behold, you are pregnant     and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael,     because the Lord has listened to your affliction.’”

(Genesis 16.11)

The comfort of Jesus’ birth announcement to Blessed Mary’s ears was preceded by the comforting words given to another misunderstood and marginalized woman: Hagar. As the text continues, Hagar boldly named God:

 “So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, ‘You are a God of seeing,’ for she said, ‘Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.’”

(Genesis 16.13)

 Hagar, a woman afflicted and oppressed by Sarai and treated with indifference by Abram, was seen and heard by God1. The Divine Unity chose to speak words to her, words that comforted her distressed heart. And she boldly spoke words back to the One revealed visibly to her.

Hagar was more than an overlooked concubine. She was more than an exploited immigrant. She was more than an exiled woman with minority status. She was called by name, she was seen, she was heard.

 I believe this narrative carries the seeds of the Advent and Incarnation: the anticipation of a child; the Divine casting of a caring eye upon a woman unseen by the world; the opportunity to see God in our midst.

Why does God not prevent more suffering and affliction? Perhaps the Holy and Divine Mystery is more comfortable with human free will than we would prefer. Nonetheless, the Divine Unity has heard the cries of those afflicted. Whether it was Hagar’s cries, or the people of Israel’s while slaves in Egypt, or it was the groaning of Creation before the birth of the Christ, we learn of a God who listens. And the ear of God pressed up against the groans of our world always anticipates the action of deliverance.

Creation groans still. The cries of racial inequality, marginalization of minorities, ethnic violence, of forced migration, of forced exile, of domestic violence, sexual abuse, abuse of the environment, slavery, exploitation of the land, the dying of species, the mistaking of falsehood for truth, communal memories of injustice, slavery, and persecution continue to rise like holy incense to fill the senses of God. It is like a steady heart beat pressed against the Divine ear. But the story of Hagar reminds me that the Divine is listening. And listening always anticipates an act of deliverance. In other words, God shows up and reveals God’s presence before our eyes.

Let’s listen, anticipate, and wait to receive from the mouths of babies a truth desperately needed in our world today.

  PS: The image above is a Coptic icon of the Annunciation. It was done by the talented, late Isaac Fanous.

*All Scripture quotations are from the ESV.

In linguistics terms, the sounds we put together to create a word are arbitrary (unless they are an onomatopoeia!)—they carry no inherent meaning in and of themselves. But we give meaning to a particular set of sounds that becomes a word. These words we create have historical and cultural contexts--they are filled with meaning. If we listen, the words we use tell us of connections to peoples, stories, and cultures beyond our own individual context.

For example, the words in Spanish tell stories of peoples from many lands and cultures that have contributed to the story of Spanish. The thousands of Arabic words in the language remind us of when Spain was just as much a Muslim land as it was a Christian one. The many words from Nahuatl, Quechua, and other American languages tell stories about what happened when Spanish reached the Americas. These words remind their users of intertwined cultures and peoples. They speak of interactions, exchanges, of shared and liminal space between two ‘others’, leaving a lasting imprint of contact.

  When we observe the scores of indigenous American words that have contributed to the English language, we must ask ourselves: what stories do they tell us?

The following is a brief list of just a few American words that have enriched English: 

Sasquatch: Halkomelem (a Salish language from the Pacific Northwest)

Geoduck: Lushootseed (a Salish language from the Pacific Northwest; spoken in the greater Puget Sound area) *For those you don’t know what this is, it’s a large clam native to the Pacific Northwest. It’s pronounced GOOEY DUCK.

Squash: Narraganset (an Algonquian language spoken in today’s Rhode Island)

Persimmon: Powhatan (an extinct Algonquian language spoken in Virginia)

Moose: either Abenaki or Narraganset (both are Algonquian languages from New England)

Chipmunk: Ojibwe (an Algonquian language spoken in North/Central US and also in Canada)

Raccoon: Powhatan (an extinct Algonquian language spoken in Virginia)

Skunk: either Abenaki or Massachusett (both are Algonquian languages from New England) The word’s original meaning seems to have meant something along the lines of ‘urinating fox’. Good description.

 (BTW, I just learned that pet skunks are a thing: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/is-that-skunk-do-skunks-make-good-pets/4569/)

Caribou: Mi’kmaq (an Algonquian language)

By Nikater; adapted to English by Hydrargyrum - Wikimedia Commons - Image:Wohngebiet_Südneuengland.png, as of 5 July 2006, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5276243

Kayak: Inuktitut (an Eskimo-Aleut language)

Bayou: Choctaw (Muskogean language spoken in Louisiana and elsewhere in the South)

Coyote: Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan language from Mexico; see my previous blog post)

Tomato: Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan language from Mexico; see my previous blog post) The root meaning has to do with ‘swelling’ and also provides Nahuatl the word for fat: tomahuac.

 Jerky: Quechua (Quechuan language spoken in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and elsewhere in South America)

Colonialism creates artificial boundaries. We’ve seen it in the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere. The modern Middle Eastern nations of Syria and Lebanon once were one region and were called Greater Syria (in Arabic, bilad ash-sham). The modern division separated extended family members. However, this link still played an important role for Syrian refugees seeking shelter in Lebanon during Syria’s civil war. They have been able to stay and reconnect with relatives. 

We’ve seen the problems of artificial boundaries in the continent of Africa, where borders cut through ethnic groups in unnatural ways. For example, the Somali people are not only in the nation of Somalia, but also in eastern Ethiopia—a region called the ‘Ogaden’.

We also see this in the colonialism of the American continents. Before the Pilgrims, before Hernan Cortez, before Columbus, the lands now known as the United States and Mexico were intimately bound and linked.

The Tohono O’odham are a people whose lands straddle the US/Mexico border. What that split has created is an artificial division amongst their people. Some Tohono O’odham are in Mexico. Some are in the United States.

The Tohono O’odham people speak O’odham—a language in the Uto-Aztecan language family. Uto-Aztecan covers a large swath of territory that stretches across much of the Southwestern United States and extends into Mexico (and even has one language in El Salvador!).

US languages in this family include Shoshoni, Comanche, Ute (for which Utah was named) and the southern California languages of Tongva (Gabrieleño) and Luiseño (Cham’teela). Unfortunately, the Tongva language is now extinct. But it left various place names in Southern California, including Topanga and Azusa.

On the Mexican side, the Tarahumara and Nahuatl languages are in the Uto-Aztecan family. The book ‘Born to Run’ highlights the running prowess and traditions of the Tarahumara people. Nahuatl was the language of the Aztecs (and other peoples in Central Mexico). Nahuatl had a profound impact on the Spanish spoken in Mexico, as well as providing hundreds and hundreds of place names in the country (and beyond!). Even the word Mexico derives from Nahuatl.

I’d like to bring it back to the Tohono O’odham. When the current president of the United States began discussing the idea of erecting a wall between Mexico and the United States, the Tohono O’odham put out a video highlighting their role on the border and why they disagree with the wall. The Tohono O’odham nation is located in southern Arizona and straddles the Mexico/US border. Because the ancestral Tohono O’odham land cuts across this border, the Tohono O’odham people have always found it important to be able to traverse this boundary. Nonetheless, they have long cooperated with border protection agencies and work hard to play a role in helping keep the border secure.

Please watch this video to learn more about the important and vital work the Tohono O’odham are doing. They are such a powerful representation of the interconnected relationship between the United States and Mexico. But more than being reduced to a mere symbol, the Tohono O’odham are a people who the nations of Mexico and the United States should be proud of for their presence and legacy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QChXZVXVLKo

 (the video isn’t very long, but is worth watching!)

There is an amazing snack company from Seattle, WA called Sahale Snacks. Wow. They make good snacks. They also employ recently arrived refugees. I highly recommend buying their products (they’re also sold in California!). Their name ‘Sahale’ is a Chinook Jargon word. Most commonly, it means ‘high, upper, above’. It’s commonly seen in the phrase ‘Sahale Tyee’, which means God but literally translates to ‘High Chief’.

http://www.sahalesnacks.com/frequently-asked-questions

Take a look at the info page on their website. It states that ‘Sahale’ is a “Northwest Native American word”. Saying that ‘Sahale’ is simply a Native American word is like saying the word ‘amigo’ is a Southwest European word. I need to be more specific and say that the word is Spanish.

Chinook Jargon is not quite a language. It’s a mash-up of various languages that had been used to communicate between various peoples who had been living in the Pacific Northwest. It helped to connect diverse indigenous linguistic groups as well European ones. The basis of Chinook Jargon is the actual Chinook language (spoken around the mouth of the Columbia river), Nuu-chaa-nulth (also known as Nootka, spoken on Vancouver Island, Canada), various other indigenous languages including Lushootseed, Kalapuya, and Chihalis. Chinook Jargon also contains a lot of French and English words.

Chinook Jargon wasn’t originally spoken as a first language but was rather a secondary form of communication with people not in one’s own cultural-linguistic group or background. This is what’s known as a ‘pidgin’ in linguistics. Later on, French speaking traders married indigenous women. Chinook Jargon became the common linguistic ground for these households and for their children, who grew up speaking it as something of a first language.

I think it’s a wonderful legacy to the history of the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, it fell into disuse some time after the turn of the 20th century. Yet Chinook lives on in place names all around the Pacific Northwest. A few of these in Washington state include Mt. Pilchuck, Tumwater, La Push, Alki Beach, and Tillicum Plaza (in Seattle). 

Pilchuck, for example, comes from two Chinook words. Pil means red. Chuck means water. So, Mt. Pilchuck means ‘red water’. 

http://leg.wa.gov/Symbols/pages/default.aspx

‘Alki’ is the unofficial state motto of Washington state. On the Washington state legislature website, Alki is considered to be “an Indian word”. That’s a bit too vague. That could refer to Hindi. It could refer to any of the nearly 300 indigenous languages in the US and Canada. Let’s start giving more respect to indigenous cultures and languages by at least providing the name of the language a word comes from.

Chinook Jargon was a means of communication between people who may not have always seen the world in the same way or agreed on how to live life, but they found common ground, learned each other’s words, and built bridges into each other’s lives.

Check out this video on Chinook Jargon and its influence in the development of British Columbia, Canada: 

Who decides what is Common Knowledge in our society? Why does it matter? Why do Americans have a good general understanding of Western European languages across the Atlantic, but we have so little knowledge of Native American languages on our own continent?

 I live in a country surrounded by reminders of this land’s first peoples. Cities, states, rivers, mountains, counties carry the names of Native American tribes, words, and individuals. Seattle, Chicago, Massachusetts, Snohomish county, Mt. Denali, Snoqualmie Falls, Oklahoma, Topanga (CA), Mt. Pilchuck, Alleghany River, Sammamish River, Lake Erie, etc, etc, etc. Native American cultures, stories, and languages are part of this landscape and part of the American story—no matter how unaware we might be of said stories.

But why must we be so ignorant of the details? Which tribe? Which language? Which culture?  Not all Native Americans live in teepees and hunt buffalo (and how did we create a narrative that made us think that anyway?). Who are the Duwamish? Who are the Chumash? Who are the Seminoles? I’ve become convicted that being ignorant of these details is not how I want to respond.

Unfortunately, we often lump all Native American languages into one category: Native American. The United States and Canada share almost 300 indigenous languages, grouped into 29 language families and almost 30 language isolates. That’s staggering—especially when we compare the number of language families in Europe. The Indo-European language family straddles almost ALL languages spoken in Europe (minus just a handful like Basque, Hungarian, Finnish, Sami, etc.) AND stretches across to modern Iran and into the Indian sub-continent. Compare the two maps below:

Each color is a completely different language family. (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Each color is simply a sub-family of the single Indo-European language family. (courtesy of Wikipedia)

  Now, perhaps it is tempting to lump all these languages into one category because there are just SO many. We can’t wrap our mind around them all. I totally get that. But I don’t think we should let that be an excuse and avoid an opportunity to learn, know, and understand.

It’s now Native American Heritage month. Hadn’t heard of it? Neither had I until this year. But its roots go back about a century—though it hadn’t officially started to be celebrated until the early 90’s.

I grew up in the United States but have hardly given thought to the peoples, cultures, languages, and stories that took place before my own arrival here. Recently, that started to change. A slow dawn of realization has taken place in my mind. How have I sought to learn about so many cultures and languages around the world but have failed to learn about the ones in my own country? Part of it was a lack of interest. But I think there’s another aspect as well. Perhaps I had bought into the lie of the ‘Vanishing Race’; I had vaguely imagined these cultures and languages were hardly in our midst anymore anyway—so what would be the point?

While that sentiment of a vanishing race is not at all true—it’s also not the full story. The reality is that I daily benefit from the removal, exploitation, genocide, and violence that has been done to Native Americans in this country. Even though I am not personally responsible for the injustices that had been done against innocent people, I still am a beneficiary of them. I live on land that was stolen from others. I have received countless advantages of simply living in this country that wouldn’t have existed if people’s right to autonomy had been respected.

I have felt a need to respond.

And so, I’ve started learning everything I can about the cultures, languages, and stories of the first peoples on the North American continent. For me, it’s been a way to start.

For the month of November, I’d like to invite you to learn with me. There is so much we can appreciate. I don’t claim to be an expert. I’m not of Native American heritage. I speak as an outsider and as a learner. And yet my story is nonetheless intrinsically intertwined into the Native American story. And so, from that place, I’ll share what I’ve learned along the way.

 Check out these links for more information:

 http://www.pbs.org/specials/native-american-heritage-month/

In my previous blog post, I mentioned how Welsh is one of six Celtic languages. I started getting interested in the language because one of my great-grandfathers was born in Penclawdd, Wales (pronounced pen-clouth; the ‘th’ being the same sound as in ‘the’).

I enjoy hearing the language—it has a certain fun, quirky sound to it.  One quirk is the double ‘ll’ sound. Position your tongue like you are about to make an ‘L’. But then blow air out of the sides of your tongue instead. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQBGOb7iQZ0)

Another fun fact is that Wales has a town which boasts the longest place name in Great Britain (but not quite in the world!). It even extends beyond the box in a Google search result. I’ve included a picture of it here:

Due to English colonialism, Celtic languages had seen a massive decline in the last several centuries. They were almost lost but have experienced recent efforts at revitalization. Wales has been the most successful. About 21% of Wales can speak the language; in certain parts of the country, you can even find public schools conducted entirely in the Welsh language.

 Welsh and Irish—though both Celtic languages—are very different from each other. Some words, however, are found in both. Amser means ‘time’ in Welsh. Aimsir in Irish means ‘weather’ (pronounced as similar to if you say ‘I’m sure’ in English). At first glance, these might seem like two completely different concepts. But a number of European languages have found some kind of connection. The Spanish word tiempo, for example, can mean both ‘time’ and ‘weather’ (although I wonder if it’s more common to use words like clima for the weather nowadays). Check this link to learn more about it: https://www.etymonline.com/word/weather

 Lastly, I want to shine the spotlight on the Welsh take on Halloween. You may be familiar with the term Samhain—the Pre-Christian Celtic festival that turned into Halloween when it was influenced by Christianity and All Soul’s Day (Halloween roughly translates to ‘the Eve before All Souls’ Day). When translated from Irish, Samhain basically means ‘the end of summer’. Its meaning highlights the significance of the shift of seasons from summer to winter for Celtic cultures, being seen as the time of the new year.

Interestingly, Welsh doesn’t use the term Samhain for the same festival. Its term is (Nos) Calan Gaeaf (see my previous post for a picture of the phrase).  With Gaeaf meaning ‘winter’, the Welsh term highlights the beginning of the winter season rather than the end of the summer.

Finally, I’d like to just bring up the Mari Lwyd tradition in Wales. This phrase—though its etymological origins are debated—is most likely from Welsh for ‘gray mare’. Basically, people parade around a dressed-up skull of a horse and go house to house singing songs and knocking on doors. One might think this happens at Halloween time due to the creepy factor of carrying skulls around. But it’s actually a Christmas tradition! So with that, I shall conclude this blog post.

Why do we celebrate Halloween? Most of the time, this question leads us to learn about Halloween’s origins. Perhaps you’ve heard about Samhain—the ‘Celtic’ name for the original festivities.  Perhaps you’ve learned something about where vampires and werewolves come from. Or, perhaps we feel the need to distance ourselves from Halloween because of its ‘pagan’ origins (ie, pre-Christian religious practices and expressions). Perhaps, we just psychologically need to be scared or need to laugh at death. Halloween has been getting paired more and more recently with the Meso-American celebration of Day of the Dead. This is a good thing, I think. Day of the Dead is a good reminder to honor and celebrate those who have passed from our midst. This aspect brings resonance to some of Samhain’s original activities.

All of that is worth exploring. But in this blog post, I’d simply like to highlight something I’ve already pointed out: Halloween’s Celtic connections. I want to unpack that cultural background a little and invite you to consider Halloween as a bridge to learn more about Celtic culture.

The Celts have ancient roots, and they aren’t just one group of people. By way of illustration, if I say Romance speaking languages, I’m referring to not just one language. Romances languages include Italian, Romanian, French, Catalan, Portuguese, Spanish, Ladino, Galician, Sicilian, and Venetian. I was intentional about how many Romance languages I included in that list: there are a lot of Romance languages. And English speakers can generally differentiate between the main ones. What comes to mind when you think of French culture versus Spanish or Italian? They’re different, but all those cultures are connected to Roman culture and Latin language.

When we talk about ancient Celts, we’re referring to all the groups of people who had related Celtic languages. This would include the ancient Gauls of modern France (whose culture and language helped contribute to the development of French), the Celto-Iberians of ancient Spain, possibly even the Galatians of Asia Minor (ie, the church St. Paul wrote to in the Bible), and others. In fact, the Celts were all over the continent of Europe. But as time passed, various peoples intermixed with the Celts and replaced their languages with other ones, including Latin.

When we talk about modern Celts, we are referring to the Celtic peoples who had made their way to modern Ireland and Great Britain. There are six Celtic nations today: Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Isle of Man, Cornwall, and Brittany (which is actually in France).  They each have their own languages—and though in the Celtic language family—are quite different from each other.

I’ll provide more details in another blog on those details. But for now, just remember that we can learn to appreciate the cultures of this world a lot more, especially when they’ve contributed to a holiday that’s right around the corner 😉

Finally, check out the links below to some Celtic related things:

Here’s a video partially in Irish that explains the connections between Halloween and Samhain: https://vimeo.com/101398600

(If that link doesn’t work, go to this blog and scroll down to the bottom to the video that says “Spiorad na Samhna/Spirit of Samhain”:  http://www.newgrange.com/samhain.htm)

Here’s a video of a song I’ve been really digging by a Welsh band called Candelas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBa_AKEH48s

 And if you’re interested in learning more about Celtic languages, watch this great video!

Fasting is wilderness wandering.  The desert mothers and fathers of the thirdcentury AD went out into the wilderness to see God—to be near to him.  And they have not been alone.  Hagar saw God at the moment of her greatest need, in the desert.  While in the wilderness, Moses took off his sandals and heard God speak.  The children of Israel saw God descend upon a desert mountain, shortly before 40 years of wandering.  John was a voice crying out in the wilderness, and our Lord answered that cry with 40 days of his own wilderness fasting.  In our deserts of great need, brokenness, and fasting, we see the great contrast to God’s care, provision, and abundance. When we give something up for Lent, we are choosing to wander through our own desert and draw near to God. By doing so, we declare our trust in his abundant ability to provide.

I’ve lived right off MLK Jr. street on two separate occasions in my life. The county I live in is named after him.  I live near a high school that has this quote by MLK Jr. on the front of it: “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

The city of Seattle has made an effort to remember and honor Martin Luther King Jr. on a daily basis through these physical reminders.  But today, we get to remember him and the work he did in a more specific way.

What inspires me about him is this: his faith in Jesus Christ and in the Kingdom of God was (at least in part) how his beliefs on issues that affected his community were shaped. Social issues and solutions to injustice were viewed through the lens of the Kingdom of God. His conclusion? Offering a solution to injustice is accomplished—not with more hatred or violence—but with love which resists by means of non-violence. It’s the kind of love that’s costly and stands up to evil, but does so without meeting hatred with more hatred.

His story has helped shape how I view the role of the Church in the world.  The Church is capable of offering a different solution to the social issues of injustice, enacting change according to the principles of God’s Kingdom. My prayer is for the Church around the world to seek the Wisdom of God and strive to present the radical idea that a different way is possible.

I want to humbly offer this challenge, realizing how easy it is to say this without facing the reality of living it like my sisters and brothers elsewhere--but when I consider the message of Jesus and Dr. MLK Jr.’s application of that message, I can’t help but offer this: Are we willing to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of peace, or will we sacrifice peace for the sake of ourselves?

I'll conclude with an extended quote from MLK Jr.’s ‘Christmas Sermon on Peace’ which was originally delivered on Christmas Eve in 1967:

“I’ve seen too much hate to want to hate, myself…and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up before our most bitter opponents and say: ‘We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you…throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you…But be assured that we’ll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”

Before you put away the Christmas decorations (unless you already have—bring them back out!), consider keeping at least the Nativity scene around until the 6th of January. It’s Epiphany in the Church Calendar! Although differing traditions focus on different narratives of Jesus’ life, Epiphany’s main idea is that God has appeared to us.  For the Western Church, the focus narrative is on the wise men coming to see the incarnate Child. So, technically we shouldn’t even bring out the three Kings to the Nativity set until January 6th!

                     The birth of Jesus is announced to a group of foreigners from far away.  This is what the early church wanted to celebrate. God revealed himself to those outside the immediate Jewish community. They found out even before the king of the Jews knew about it! I’m reminded of a prophecy of Jesus in Isaiah 49.6-7, where God says:

It is too light a thing that you should be my servant     to raise up the tribes of Jacob     and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations,     that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

Thus says the Lord,     the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,     the servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise;     princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful,     the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.

  The Spanish speaking world celebrates this day as the Day of Kings. Tradition tells us there were three kings who were each from a different corner of the world: Africa, Europe, the Orient (others say Africa, the Far East, and Arabia). This information may not be entirely accurate, but church tradition still shouldn't be completely ignored either.  However, what we do know is that they had knowledge of Scripture, suggesting they could have been from Ancient Babylon or Persia, given the Jewish exilic community present there. Kids traditionally get their presents from the kings on the 6th of January rather than from Santa on Christmas.

From this perspective, Epiphany could also be called 'Global Inclusion Day' or 'Foreigner Celebration Day'. God had bigger plans than any ethnocentric aspirations of the Jews in ancient Palestine. He called foreigners from far away to participate in his surprising work of reconciliation and light (something I think he is still doing!). And God has bigger plans than just self-centered me today. I’m glad the Church through the ages thought this was a worthwhile thing to celebrate.

I’ll conclude with a prayer, adapted from Luke 1.78-79, where Zechariah praises God after Elizabeth gave birth to John:

                                 Oh Sunrise, visit us from on high;

                              Give light to those who sit in darkness,

                                       and in the shadow of death.

                             And guide our feet into the way of peace.