Feast of the Epiphany – 6th January 2023
For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Hebrews 3:4
Three gifts,
carried by Magi
riding long roads from the East.
By a star
they had set their course
to seek out a new born king.
Yet from Jerusalem
the worldly snare
of incumbent power pulled them off course.
In Bethlehem
a home for folk and beast alike,
made welcome this wandering coterie of strangers.
A child,
cradled by loving parents,
is worshipped with gold and myrrh and frankincense.
Christ
bless this house
and all that cross its threshold.
Christus
mansionem benedicat.
Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, returned another way.
A family –
threatened – uproots, takes flight.
How quickly they join the exodus of refugees..
A welcome?
On these shores?… beyond this border?
Do you really deserve a home?
Is not earth our common home?
Who designs the borders? Who decides who’s and who’s out?
These strangers our kin.
This is our common home
to share with kith and kin,
with bird and beast and all that swims and squirms and creeps.
This is our home
to share with tree and grass, weed and flower,
with seaweed forests and coral reefs.
Christ
bless this our home –
our common home – and all that dwell therein.
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein. Psalm 24:1
May we, like the Magi,
seek what is true.
May we, like the Magi,
seek the other way.
May we, like the Magi,
worship the maker of our common home.
Amen.
The Green Tau 