Epiphany

Planning Worship around the Church Year

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The church year provides a ready-made pattern for worship. The key seasons are Advent and Easter, which not only mark important events in the life of our Lord but also inform the church’s responses to these events in outward and inward worship. In addition, the church year puts the congregation in tune with a great body of Christian tradition that stretches across the world and back through the centuries.

The church year, also known as the Christian year or the liturgical year, not only has a venerable place in Christian tradition but is an excellent framework around which to organize and plan worship over its course. In many churches today, the celebration of the Christian year is facilitated by the use of a three-year lectionary. This lectionary, indicating Old Testament, Psalm, New Testament, and Gospel readings for each Sunday and festival, not only makes possible the regular systematic reading of substantial portions of the Scripture but provides a biblical framework for the planning of worship.

Cycles of the Year

The Easter Cycle. The church year is composed of two interlocking cycles. The first is the Easter cycle. This begins on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent (forty weekdays before Easter), and includes Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and the fifty days following Easter, concluding with the Day of Pentecost. Its principal theological theme is the atonement. Its center is Holy Week with its commemoration of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, the Crucifixion on Good Friday, and the Resurrection on Easter Day. The fifty days following Easter, originally called the Pentecost, celebrate the new life in the risen Christ, and the Day of Pentecost celebrates the gift of the Spirit to the apostolic church. (Easter is the Sunday following the first full moon of spring, and the other dates are calculated from it.)

The Christmas Cycle. The second cycle is the Christmas cycle. Its theological theme is the Incarnation. The cycle begins with Advent, four Sundays before Christmas (the Sunday closest to November 30), leading into the celebration of Christmas on December 25. The twelve days of Christmas conclude with Epiphany on January 6 (Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night), celebrating the manifestation of Christ. The three great events associated with Epiphany are the revelation of Christ to the magi through the star, the revelation of Christ through the dove and the voice at his baptism, and the revelation of Christ in his turning the water into wine at the wedding at Cana. Today, these are usually celebrated successively on the first three Sundays of the new year.

Sunday. The celebration of Sunday as the Lord’s Day is the central building block of the Christian year. The weekly assembly of the people of God to hear God’s Word, to offer their common prayers, and to celebrate the sacraments lies at the heart of Christian celebration. The biblical word kyriake (Lord’s) occurs only in the phrases “the Lord’s Day” and “the Lord’s Supper.” Sunday is preeminently the Christian day of worship. It is the first day, the day of the creation of light, in Genesis 1. It is the day of Christ’s resurrection and the day of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the apostles on the Day of Pentecost. It is also the eschatological eighth day, the day that has a dawning but no evening, the eternal day of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is this weekly gathering for worship that gives meaning and form to the Christian year.

Seasons of the Year

Advent. The church year is generally considered to begin with Advent, although other days such as Christmas, Easter, the beginning of Lent, or even January 1 have sometimes been considered its beginning. The Advent season is almost archetypically a new year’s festival. It combines joy with penitence, looking back with looking forward, remembrance with hope. It celebrates the coming of Christ—both his coming as a baby at Bethlehem and his coming again in glory “to judge the quick and the dead.” The three great Advent figures are Isaiah, John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary. The messianic prophecies of Isaiah have long been associated with Advent.

A traditional structure would begin with the eschatological Second Coming on the first Sunday. Isaiah 64:1 (“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down … ”) and Mark 13:35 (“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back.”) are typical themes. Bach’s “Sleepers Wake” and Charles Wesley’s “Lo! He Comes, with Clouds Descending” are typical Advent Sunday hymns. On the middle Sundays, the Baptist’s preaching of the coming of the kingdom is the typical theme. “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is a hymn commonly sung here. On the fourth Sunday, our attention is turned toward Christmas. Luke’s account of the annunciation to Mary and a hymn-like “I Know a Rose Tree Springing” move the theme toward the Incarnation. In North American culture, it is easy to lose sight of preparing for and looking forward to a festival and to be carried away by its anticipated celebration. Advent is intended to prepare us for Christmas, leading gently into it. Promise of Glory (Catherine Nerney [Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, n.d.]) contains a number of forms for Advent special services, as well as services for Christmas and Epiphany that keep the boundaries clear while recognizing the impossibility of refusing to live in our own culture.

In many churches, an Advent wreath—an evergreen wreath with four candles in it and sometimes a fifth in the center—is lighted during this season. One candle is lighted on the first Sunday of Advent, two on the second Sunday, and so on. If a fifth candle is used, it is lighted on Christmas. The candles symbolize the light of Christ shining in the darkness.

Christmas and Epiphany. The celebration of Christmas on December 25 and during the twelve days until Epiphany is the climax of the season. Christmas celebrates not just the birthday of the Christ child, but also the Incarnation. The prologue to John’s Gospel, as well as the nativity account in Luke, are proper Christmas readings. John 1 is an appropriate reading and sermon text for one of the Sundays following Christmas. The season ends with the celebration of the baptism of Christ on the Sunday after Epiphany or (in some churches) of Christ’s presentation in the temple on Candlemas (February 2). The baptism of Christ is an obvious occasion to make the principal service a baptismal service. The reading of the Gospel account of our Lord’s baptism provides an occasion for a sermon on baptism as an introduction to the baptismal rite. Epiphany baptisms were the custom of many ancient churches of both East and West, and it is a tradition that can be profitably revived. If Candlemas is observed, the song of Simeon (Luke 2:29–32), with its reference to the light to enlighten the nations, serves as the pivot for a service of light and the refocusing of attention from looking back to Christmas to looking forward to the Crucifixion (Luke 2:34–35).

The baptism of Christ is celebrated on the first Sunday after Epiphany, and other manifestations of Christ on the following Sunday. The Lutheran and Episcopal versions of the three-year lectionary read the account of the Transfiguration on the Sunday before the beginning of Lent, using the references to the Passion and Resurrection in the accounts as a transition into the Easter cycle.

Lent. The Easter cycle celebrates the paschal mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ and the church’s participation in it. The cycle begins with the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday (a sort of Christian Yom Kippur), on which penitential liturgies reflect our confrontation with our own mortality and our sorrow for sin. Lent, however, is intended to be not a daily repetition of Ash Wednesday but a season of preparation for the joy of Easter. Baptism, the sacrament of the forgiveness of sins and participation in the resurrection of Christ, is the Easter sacrament par excellence, and Lent originated as a season of preparation for baptism. Its themes, therefore, are repentance, spiritual growth, and entering into union with Christ. The temptation of Christ in the wilderness is the traditional theme for the first Sunday in Lent (“Forty days and forty nights, thou wast fasting in the wild”). The most ancient readings for the Lenten season are the Gospel readings for the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays from Year A of the three-year lectionary. These readings are narratives of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, the healing of the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus. The ancient Lenten lessons provided the texts for the instruction of candidates for Easter baptism and still serve as an introduction to the great theological themes to lead a congregation to renewal at Easter.

Lenten services can be planned to have a distinctive seasonal tone. The use of distinctive Lenten vestments or ornamentation of the church building, the choice of hymns, and the inclusion of penitential elements in the service are all ways of marking the season. Some churches refrain from using flowers during Lent; others use a single budding branch as a sign of spring and resurrection to come. Often, midweek evening services are a part of a congregation’s Lenten plan.

Holy Week. Holy Week is central to the liturgical year. It begins on Palm Sunday. Traditionally, the celebration has had two distinct foci: the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, often expressed by a palm procession at the beginning and the distribution of palms to the congregation; and the Passion, marked by the reading of the Gospel account of the Crucifixion from one of the Synoptics and the singing of passion hymns and chorales. The movement from the joy of the Triumphal Entry to the solemnity of the Passion narrative is extremely powerful.

The contrast can be emphasized by gathering for the distribution of palms and the reading of the account of the Triumphal Entry in a place other than the church and proceeding to the church carrying palms. The hymns “All Glory, Laud and Honor” and “Ride On, Ride On in Majesty,” are traditionally associated with the procession. The reading and preaching of the Passion, with appropriate music, then follows in the church.

Maundy Thursday is celebrated as the anniversary of the Last Supper. The celebration of the Eucharist with the reading of the account of the Supper are obvious ways of marking the day. In many places, John’s account of the Last Supper is also read, and a symbolic foot-washing takes place. The calendar ties the Last Supper to the events that followed it—the betrayal, trial, and Crucifixion—and the preacher should do likewise.

Good Friday is the church’s solemn commemoration of the Crucifixion. John’s account of the Crucifixion is the traditional reading. It was for this occasion that Bach composed his St. John’s Passion. In some places, preaching on the Passion for three hours has become traditional. A more liturgical tradition links the reading and preaching of the Passion to devotions before the cross. An excellent modern interpretation of the traditional anthem, “The Reproaches,” is contained in From Ashes to Fire (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1979) and has been reprinted in many other service books.

Prayer vigils, either between the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, or from Good Friday until Easter sunrise, are often included in the planning. Increasingly, the ancient tradition of celebrating the Great Vigil of Easter between sunset Saturday and Easter sunrise is being revived. It was at this vigil that the catechumens were baptized, and it concluded with their reception of Holy Communion at the sunrise service on Easter.

The Easter Vigil. The Easter Vigil begins with a service of light at which the Paschal candle is lighted. This burns during worship throughout the fifty days from Easter to Pentecost and is a symbol of the season and our life in the risen Christ. It is also lighted at baptisms and funerals to continue the symbolism. The Word service contains a series of Old Testament readings. The congregation renews their baptismal vows, and baptisms (if there are any) take place. The Vigil concludes with the first service of Easter, traditionally a Communion service, including the reading of Matthew’s account of the Resurrection.

Like the baptism of Christ, the Easter Vigil is a traditional time for baptisms. The Pauline baptismal theology of Romans 6 associates baptism so deeply with the death and resurrection of Christ that its celebration at this time has been a constant feature of Christian tradition. Lent is the time of preparation for baptism, the baptism itself is at Easter, and the fifty days of Easter are a period of rejoicing as the new Christians enter into the risen life.

Easter Season and Pentecost. Alleluia! is the great Easter word, and it is included in hymns and responses throughout the Easter season. The festal adornment of the church building and the joyful tone of the worship continues until Pentecost. The resurrection appearances and the life of the apostolic church as recorded in Acts are the customary Scripture readings and sermon themes. The Ascension is celebrated on the fortieth day after Easter (a Thursday) or the Sunday following, and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) on the Day of Pentecost, which brings the season to a close. This is a part of the same Easter celebration, and services should be planned integrally for all eight Sundays. Frequently, the Easter character of services is lost after a week or two, so that Pentecost seems an unrelated celebration when it arrives. The early church called the Easter season “fifty days of rejoicing.” It follows the forty days of Lent and provides balance.

Pentecost itself is appropriately observed in many churches as the day for confirmation. It is a celebration of the spread of the church throughout the world in the power of the Holy Spirit, and Christian unity, Christian missions, and evangelism are suitable Pentecost themes. Following the example of Acts 2, the Word is often proclaimed in as many languages as the congregation can muster among its people.

The Season after Pentecost. The season after Pentecost is the season of the life of the Christian church. We ourselves actually live in the season between Pentecost and the Second Advent. Some churches call it “ordinary time,” but it is the time of our redemption. At the beginning of November, the parables of the kingdom become the Sunday readings, and post-Pentecost begins to look forward to Advent. It is not reasonable to plan the entire post-Pentecost season as a unit because it would be too long, but this last part of the season can be so planned (e.g., the outline set forth in Promise of Glory). The last Sunday before Advent is often observed as a festival of the reign of Jesus Christ, which leads easily into the celebration of the final Advent on the next Sunday as the climax to the series of readings about the kingdom of God. In this way, the years are bound together and the cycle begins again.

Using the Christian year as a basis for the planning of worship not only puts the congregation in tune with a great body of Christian tradition stretching all across the world and back through the centuries, but also assures a balanced, integrated, and biblically-based plan, and frees the congregation from the whims and biases of the individual pastor.

The Biblical Background of Epiphany and After

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The Epiphany, or manifestation, of Christ is a celebration of his revelation to the peoples of the world. The Epiphany season follows Christmas and extends to the beginning of Lent.

Epiphany

The name Epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning “manifestation” or “appearance.” This festival originated in the third century as a celebration of Jesus’ baptism (Matt. 3:13–17) and retains this character in the Eastern church. In the West, however, from the fourth century, it has commemorated the revelation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, represented in Scripture by the “wise men,” or magi, who made a long journey to see the “King of the Jews” (Matt. 2:1–12). Although many churches incorporate the visit of the magi into their Christmas pageantry, the journey took place some time after the birth of Jesus, perhaps months later. In the traditional Western calendar, Epiphany falls on January 6. The magi, as known from other historical sources, were a class of Persian priests and astrologers, which harmonizes with the account of their following a new star to Bethlehem. The Bible does not say there were three of them; the number is inferred from their threefold gifts to the infant Jesus—gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Neither does the gospel story indicate that they were kings who rode on camels. This idea comes from Isaiah 60:1–6, a passage that proclaims a theophany, or appearance of the Lord’s glory, over Israel: “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.… ” Camels are mentioned later in connection with the bringing of gifts of gold and frankincense (cf. Ps. 72:10–11). The giving of gifts at Christmas is sometimes related to the gifts of the magi, but the practice actually originated in pagan customs associated with festivals such as the Roman Saturnalia. Although some have seen a symbolic significance in the gifts of the magi (cf. the carol “We Three Kings”), this is not developed in Scripture.

In the imagery of Epiphany, the magi represent the Gentiles, to whom the Savior is now revealed. They are, in fact, the first people said to “worship” (bow down to) Christ. The union of Jew and Gentile in the new covenant of Christ is the great mystery celebrated by the apostle Paul and of which he called himself the steward (Eph. 3:1–7). Although the meaning of Jesus Christ and his embodiment of the new covenant, the kingdom of God, cannot be fully understood apart from the background of the faith of Israel, neither can it be understood apart from its universal significance for people of all cultures and ethnic groups. Epiphany is a useful vehicle by which the church may remind itself of this truth and of its mandate for worldwide evangelization (Matt. 28:18–20).

Transfiguration: The Concluding Feast of Epiphany

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ originated in the Eastern church, where it was adopted widely before a.d. 1000. It became general in the West by the fifteenth century; the customary date of 6 August was chosen because of a victory over the Turks on that date in 1456. Many churches now commemorate the Transfiguration on the final Sunday of the Epiphany season (the Sunday preceding Lent). This practice places the Transfiguration where it belongs in the sequence of events in Jesus’ life: between his baptism and earlier ministry and the time when he “resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51) where his passion and death would occur. The Transfiguration has always received more attention in the Eastern church, which emphasizes in its worship the eternal glory of Christ, whereas the Western church tends to focus on the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

The account of the Transfiguration occurs in all three synoptic Gospels (Matt. 17:1–8; Mark 9:2–8; Luke 9:28–36). Having taken his three closest disciples up a mountain, Jesus began to pray and “was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light” (Matt. 17:2). Moses and Elijah appeared, conversing with Jesus; as the awestruck disciples watched, a cloud of glory formed about the scene, and a voice said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matt. 17:5). The disciples fell prostrate in fear, but when Jesus touched them and told them not to be afraid, they looked up and saw him alone.

The Transfiguration seems to be a preview of the Resurrection, as verification of Jesus’ identity as the Messiah. It took place about a week after Peter’s confession of Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), which is reinforced by the voice from the cloud. What was confirmed to the disciples in the Transfiguration was to be affirmed by them as the focal point of their public preaching after the Resurrection: that God has made Jesus “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Peter, recalling the event in his second epistle, emphasized the declaration of Jesus’ sonship of God (2 Pet. 1:16–18). John’s vision of the living Christ at the opening of the Revelation (Rev. 1:13–18) contains many similarities to the Transfiguration event, including Jesus’ words, “Do not be afraid” (Rev. 1:12–18). According to Luke, the glorified Moses and Elijah were speaking with Jesus about “his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31), a reference to the events of his resurrection and ascension.

The presence of Moses and Elijah is of special importance, for they were the two major symbolic figures of Israel’s prophetic faith. As the last two verses of the Hebrew prophetic canon make clear (Mal. 4:4–5), together they framed the history of the covenant given at Mr. Sinai; it was through Moses that the covenant was established, and Elijah was to restore the covenant bonds lest the curse of its violation take effect. Their appearance with Jesus in his transfigured glory is an affirmation that the gospel of Jesus Christ, however much it may have seemed anathema to the established Judaism of the first century, arose out of the very heart and essence of the covenant faith of Israel. On the way down the mountain, in response to the disciples’ questions, Jesus clearly identified John the Baptist as Elijah. However, John had been unsuccessful in his task of restoring the covenant, for he had been persecuted just as Jesus would be (Matt. 17:9–12). By implication, then, the covenant curse must take effect after all, just as Jesus had predicted before the Transfiguration in his declaration that some standing there would not die before they saw the Son of man coming in judgment (Matt. 16:27–28).

Despite the evident theological significance of the Transfiguration, it remains a mysterious event, a theophany, or revelation of realities beyond the scope of rational analysis. The disciples, stricken with terror—the mysterium tremendum of the numinous—did not know how to respond to it (Mark 9:5–6). The Transfiguration is a fleeting window into the glorified realm of the Spirit, in which Jesus appeared not as an ordinary man but in his true “form” as the Logos, the bearer of the holiness of the eternal God. It is an anticipation of the truth Paul was later to enunciate when he said that, although we once regarded Jesus from a human point of view, we do so no longer (2 Cor. 5:16). The transfiguration of Christ, together with his resurrection, embodies the promise of a corresponding transformation for those who are his. The same Greek word used for Jesus’ transfiguration is used by Paul for the transformation of the life of the believer (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), and John promises that “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

The Origins of Christmas and Epiphany Worship

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Following the lead of secular culture, many Christians place Christmas as the most important day in the Christian year. This article suggests that a more profound understanding of Christmas arises out of an awareness of the history of the Christian year. Christmas should be understood in light of the events which follow—Epiphany and, eventually, Easter.

The proclamation of Christ’s resurrection is the central focus of the Christian message. Yet for many churches and not a few Christians, the annual festival of the birth of Christ has come to take a place of equal or greater significance. We might fill the church for an Easter morning service of resurrection, but we often multiply the services and special events at Christmas. The musicians may have their skills in refined condition at Easter, but often more time, rehearsal, and money is spent for the Christmas cantata and pageant. Writing of the special Christmas service, H. Boone Porter has noted:

No doubt many people will be moved by it, even if the music is ill-chosen or the sermon poorly prepared, or the decorations in poor taste. Those who are responsible for leading worship should not be seduced by such tolerance. Great feasts should be the occasion for raising the standard of quality, not lowering it. People may say (and will say) that they want the service just like last year and the year before that and the year before that. Yet people are not likely to return year after year if no new insight, no new vision, no new sense of spiritual reality is communicated to them. The larger crowd on Christmas Eve presents a challenging opportunity to communicate the Good News of the Incarnation as effectively as possible. (Keeping the Christian Year [New York: Seabury, 1977], 15)

The faith of the early church was grounded in the proclamation of the resurrection of Christ. So central was it to the church’s life that Paul was able to write, “Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can come of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Cor. 15:12–14, 20, RSV).

The fervor of the early Christians for the proclamation of the Resurrection meant that it would be the fourth century before the church would celebrate the birth of Jesus in a regularized fashion. With the Nativity festival originating as late as it does, one would hope that it would be easy to piece together an accurate picture of its genesis and subsequent development. Unfortunately, such is not the case.

The scholarly opinion concerning the origin of the date of Christmas falls basically into two camps. The first and most widely held viewpoint understands the celebration of Christ’s nativity on December 25 to be an intentional Christianization of an earlier pagan fest. In 274, the Roman emperor Aurelian established the date as a commemoration of Emesa, the Syrian god of the sun. A temple to Sol Invictus was constructed in Rome on the Campus Martius, and a conclave of priests was established to administer its affairs and officiate at its rites. By establishing the annual festival of Christ’s nativity to coincide with the pagan festival of the sun, the church could draw upon the ripe sun imagery already present in the prophetic announcements of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament’s evangelical tradition. As Adolf Adam has noted, “Christians could now make the triumphant claim to their pagan fellow citizens that they, the Christians, were celebrating the feast of the true Sun which alone can give light and salvation to the world” (The Liturgical Year [New York: Pueblo Publishing, 1992], 123).

A second hypothesis was originally proposed by Louis Duchesne in his comprehensive work entitled Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution. Duchesne held that the date of December 25 for the annual Nativity celebration was determined by a series of computations. Important witnesses in the early church, notably Tertullian and Hippolytus, recognized that March 25 was the date of Christ’s death. A symbolic number system, allowing for no imperfections (fractions) would take March 25 also as the date of Jesus’ conception. A perfect nine months later would result in the birth of Jesus on December 25. Such a symbolic number system seems strange to our twentieth-century point of view, but it was not at all peculiar to the thought modes of the late third century.

As noted earlier, the most popular and widely held viewpoint concerning the date of Christmas is that the early Christians intentionally Christianized the pagan sun festival. However, it is impossible to completely discard the computation hypothesis. It is difficult to believe that the church would intentionally set themselves openly against the pagan feast of the emperor until after the legalization of Christianity under Constantine in 313. Augustine’s Sermon 202 suggests that the Donatists were celebrating the Nativity on December 25, which would imply that the festival was known to Rome prior to the Donatist schism of 312. If Augustine’s witness is accepted, then a nativity feast on December 25 was established in North Africa sometime before 312 and arising out of some other locus than the transformation of an established pagan feast.

In any event, the feast was firmly established by 336 and documented in the calendar of the Greek artist and calligrapher Philocalus, and usually referred to as the Chronograph of 354. In a portion of the work dating from 336, a list of martyrs is found the words, “on the eighth of the kalends of January, Christ, born in Bethlehem of Judea.”

Quite apart of the thematic differences between Christmas and Epiphany, the search for the origin of January 6 as the date of the latter takes us through a similar series of possibilities as we noticed with Christmas. Scholars have appealed again to the possibility that Epiphany was the intentional Christianization of a pagan festival. In Alexandria on the night of January 5–6, the pagans would celebrate the birth of the god, Aion, and in the course of the festivities water would be drawn from the Nile, water that on the night of January 6 would turn into wine. The baptism of Jesus and the miracle of the wedding feast at Cana were early associated with this feast. Again, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that the church responded to this thematically coincidental paganism by urging the substitution of their own tradition; but the story may not be that simple. Even the suggestion that January 6 was arrived at by a series of computations, based on April 6 as the death-date of Christ, has not been without its proponents.

Managing the multitude of lessons, theological themes, Christmas hymns, and manger carols, decorations, vestments, and paraments, service times, and liturgical options for a festival as important to the Christian faith as the nativity of Jesus—in as little time as we have to devote to it—is no easy task. Even when we wisely and rightly extend and complete the proclamation of the coming of the Christ through the feast of Epiphany, we are still faced with the problem of what parts of the story to emphasize and what to leave out. At the very least, it demands that we read the story of our Lord’s coming among us, ask ourselves how this coming speaks to us and to the world, and plan our worship and liturgical life so that we address the needs of the people with no uncertainty.

The first major conflict that immediately presents itself is that between the story of our Lord’s birth, recorded in its familiar form in Luke 2, and the powerful proclamation in the first chapter of John’s gospel that boldly asserts the incarnation of the Savior. This is not an either/or proposition. For those churches that make use of a lectionary, this need not be a problem. Most revisions of the lectionary provide three sets of lessons for Christmas to be distributed through the services of Christmas Eve and Christmas day. In many churches, the major service of lessons, carols, and candles will be based around the story of the Nativity recorded in Luke. The later service, at midnight or the next morning, will focus on the incarnation of the Word of God. The message of Christmas is more than the historical birth of a baby; it is also the incarnation of the Savior. It is more than cattle and kings kneeling in a stable, it is the entire world on its knees before the Lord of life and death. It is more than angels singing glory, it is beholding the glory that is full of grace and truth for us. No one can argue about the fact that the story of our Lord’s birth is meaningful, even stimulating, but the gospel that the world needs to hear now is the vigorous, earthy, dynamic, demanding if at times offensive gospel of the Word made flesh. Adrian Nocent has captured it so wonderfully.

Incarnation means not only that God is with us but also that we are redeemed and with God…. In the truly traditional thinking of the Church, there is nothing poetic about the incarnation. In fact, the emphasis is, if anything, on a rather brutal fact: The Word came to do God’s will, even to the point of dying on a Cross…. We are thus not passive bystanders of the incarnation. The incarnation radically transforms the history of the world and the personal history of each of us. (The Liturgical Year, vol. 1 [Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1977], 192).

The feast of the Epiphany, remembering the appearance or manifestation of God in Christ, is generally held to be the older of the feasts connected with the historical coming of Jesus. The traditional history of the feast day held that Epiphany was the birth festival of the Eastern church on January 6, roughly analogous to the Western church’s Christmas on December 25. As the tradition goes, in the middle of the fourth century, after the peace of the church, an interchange of the two festivals took place with the church, East and West, celebrating both. While this explanation is conveniently satisfying, it is a gross oversimplification of the details. But the real difficulty in unraveling the feast of the Epiphany has to do with the multiplicity of themes that have from very early been associated with it. From Clement of Alexandria in the early third century, we find out that the baptism of Jesus played a significant role in the development of Epiphany. The wedding feast at Cana, Jesus’ first miracle, was early associated with Epiphany as well. Popular thought today associates Epiphany with the arrival of the magi to offer their gifts. Of this tradition, Adolf Adam wrote:

Epiphany is also known as the feast of the Three Holy Kings or as Three Kings’ Day. This emphasis obscures the fact that the feast is not a saint’s feast, but a feast of the Lord. Moreover, as everyone knows, the gospel account says nothing about kings or about Magi being three in number. Origen is the first to speak of three Magi; he probably gets the number from the three gifts. The designation “kings” first occurs in Caesarius of Arles in the sixth century. The names Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar have been used since the ninth century. (The Liturgical Year [New York: Pueblo Publishing, 1992], 146)

It is interesting to note that these three miraculous events—the visit of the magi, the baptism, and the miracle at Cana’s wedding feast—are preserved for us still in the lectionary for the day of Epiphany and the first two Sundays following. This convergence of stories probably results from the fact that these three stories, these three miraculous events, stand near the beginning of three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and John, respectively. These Gospels, being the favorite texts of important early Christian communities, may well have given local shape to the liturgical year, and the combination of these local customs has given us our present tripartite emphasis for Epiphany. The one whose light we have followed, of whom it was said, “thou art my beloved Son,” and whose glory was manifested in the water-made wine, is the one who was flesh among us for our salvation.

The entire complex of biblical and theological material—from incarnation to manifestation, to transfiguration, all seen in the light of redemption, provides the church with an unlimited gospel tradition from which may flow our prayer and proclamation of worship and life.

Colors of the Christian Year

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Colors of the various seasons of the Christian year express the mood or feeling of the season. The following outline presents the colors most often associated with Christian seasons.

Advent. Blue or violet express the penitential nature of the season as well as the royalty of Christ.

Christmas. White expresses the celebrative nature of the season.

After Epiphany. Green expresses the ongoing eternal nature of growth. Use white for Baptism of the Lord Sunday and for the last Sunday which celebrates the transfiguration of our Lord.

Lent. Black, violet, grays, and/or muted blues express the solemnity of Lenten time.

Holy Week. Red is used as the color of the blood of Christ and of the martyrs. Black is also used to express the somber nature of Holy Week. For Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday, use white or red. For Good Friday and Holy Saturday, red, black, or no color.

Easter. Gold or white expresses the joy of the season. Use red on Pentecost Sunday. Red symbolizes fire and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

After Pentecost. Green expresses the ongoing work of God. Use white on Trinity Sunday, All Saints’ Day, and Christ the King Sunday. White expresses the celebratory nature of these days.

Other Uses of Color

White: wedding, funeral, Thanksgiving, dedication, baptism

Red or Scarlet: church anniversary, ordination/installation, confirmation, reception into the church, revival, preaching, missions, work of the Holy Spirit

During weekday services, use the color of season (after Epiphany, Passiontide, after Pentecost), or color of preceding Sunday (in Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter), unless a color is specified in the calendar for the day (Good Friday, etc.).

Denominational promotions and thematic events (Day/Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, World Communion Sunday, etc.) may be worked in with the Christian calendar emphasis for a given day without overshadowing that emphasis. Laity (women’s, men’s, children’s) days, church vocations, missions, etc., may be honored without supplanting the calendared day or season.

Civil and commercial holidays and observances NEVER supersede the Christian use for the main services on any Sunday, nor mix with them, if it can be helped. Civil days include national, state, and local holidays (Presidents’ birthdays, Memorial, Flag, Independence days, etc.). Commercial observances include Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s, Grandparents’, Mothers’ and Fathers’ days, etc. If possible, observe these in Sunday evening or midweek services, or with a church school or fellowship event.

An Overview of the Christian Year

by

Worship leaders and planners from many traditions have been working toward a consensus or ecumenical approach to the Christian year, resulting in the following outline of the year-long calendar.

ADVENT SEASON
First Sunday of Advent to fourth Sunday of Advent

CHRISTMAS SEASON
Christmas Eve/Day
First Sunday after Christmas
New Year’s Eve/Holy Name of Jesus
Second Sunday after Christmas
Epiphany

SEASON AFTER EPIPHANY
First Sunday after Epiphany (Baptism of the Lord)
Second Sunday after Epiphany to Eighty Sunday after Epiphany
Last Sunday after Epiphany (Transfiguration Sunday)

LENTEN SEASON
Ash Wednesday
First Sunday of Lent to fifth Sunday of Lent
Holy Week
Passion/Palm Sunday
Monday in Holy Week
Tuesday in Holy Week
Wednesday in Holy Week
Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Holy Saturday

PASCHAL (EASTER) SEASON
The Great Paschal Vigil
Pascha Day
Pascha Evening
Second Sunday of Pascha to sixth Sunday of Pascha
Ascension (Sixth Thursday)
Seventh Sunday of Pascha
Pentecost

AFTER PENTECOST
Trinity Sunday (First Sunday after Pentecost)
Sundays after Pentecost
Christ the King (Last Sunday after Pentecost)