GENERAL HELPS

LITURGICAL COLORS

If the gospel can be proclaimed visually, why should it not be? Color helps form general expectations for any occasion. Traditionally, purples, grays, and blues have been used for seasons of a penitential character such as Advent and Lent, although any dark colors could be used. White has been used for events or seasons with strong christological meaning such as the Baptism of the Lord or the Easter Season. Yellows and golds are also possibilities at such times. Red has been reserved for occasions relating to the Holy Spirit (such as the Day of Pentecost or ordinations) or to commemorations of the martyrs. Green has been used for seasons such as the Season after Epiphany or the Season after Pentecost. The absence of any colored textiles from Maundy Thursday to the Easter Vigil is a striking use of contrast. Colors and textures can be used most effectively in textiles for hangings on pulpits, on lecterns (if any), for the stoles worn by ordained ministers, or for ministerial vestments.

Advent: Violet (purple) or blue

Christmas: Gold or white for December 24-25. White thereafter, through the Baptism of the Lord. (Or, in the days between January 6 and the Sunday of the Baptism, green may be used.)

Ordinary Time (both after Epiphany-Baptism and after Pentecost): Green

Transfiguration: White

Lent Prior to Holy Week: Violet. Black is sometimes used for Ash Wednesday.

Early Holy Week: On Palm-Passion Sunday, violet (purple) or [blood] red may be specified. For the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week, the same options exist, although with variations as to which color to use on each day.

Triduum: For Holy Thursday, violet (purple) or [blood] red may be used during the day and changed to white for the evening Eucharist. Then the church may be stripped.

Good Friday and Holy Saturday: Stripped or black; or [blood] red in some churches on Good Friday.

Great Fifty Days: White or gold. Or gold for Easter Day and perhaps its octave, then white for the remainder of the season until the Vigil of Pentecost.

Day of Pentecost: [Fire] red

Annunciation, Visitation, and Presentation of Jesus: White

Commemoration of Martyrs: [Blood] red

Commemoration of Saints not Martyred: White

All Saints: White

Christ the King: White

SERMONS AND WORSHIP AIDS

JANUARY 6, 2013

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Epiphany

Readings: Jeremiah 31:7-14; Psalm 147:12-20; Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:(1-9), 10-18

Light in the Darkness

John 1:(1-9), 10-18

The first Sunday of the New Year dawns with Epiphany Day. By church tradition Epiphany is the day we celebrate the arrival of the wise men who come to worship the newborn Christ. The Gospel text is John's great symphonic opening. With all the grandeur of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the text presents us with the full glory of the incarnation. "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" (NRSV). The phrase "lived among us" means literally that the Lord pitched his tent in our midst.

On one level we give casual allegiance to this great truth. On another level, it is easy for the best of Christians to forget the full impact of the gospel's great claim. God is not out there at a distance watching us but living in our midst. Faithful preaching on the text from John's Gospel challenges us to embrace again, as if for the first time, this great truth. God incarnate (in the flesh) in the person of Jesus has taken up residence in our neighborhood—next door. This is not an invitation to a Pollyannaish ignorance of evil, destruction, and pain. Nor is it a whistling by the graveyard. Evil strides across the world. War still rages. Disease, hunger, prejudice, and death are still real. The difference, the huge difference, is that if we understand 2013 as A.D. (Anno Domino, the year of our Lord), we can embrace the New Year with grace and truth guiding us. Is the birth baby we celebrated twelve short days ago the inauguration of a new age or an interlude in the harsh chaos of life? Consider two true stories.

The first is the well-known story of Delta Airlines Flight 253 preparing to land in Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009. As a terrorist attempted to set off a bomb, heroic passengers threw themselves on the terrorist to extinguish the flames and save the plane. By all accounts it was a chaotic scene. Reporting on the incident, Time magazine, notes that as some aided in subduing the terrorist and putting out the flames, "Other passengers screamed; some ran to other cabins. 'I don't want to die! I want out!' yelled one." ("The 4 Lessons of Flight 253," Time magazine, January 11, 2010, p. 28).

The second story comes from personal experience. Worshiping on the first Sunday of the New Year in 2010, the congregation celebrated Holy Communion. My wife and I were sitting close to the front and were among the first to take the sacrament. After returning to our seats, I sat listening to the beautiful music and meditating. My quiet reverie was broken by a young family that knelt at the altar rail. The two little girls (probably ages seven and five) enthusiastically took part in a winsome way that evoked smiles. Finishing, the family turned and walked back down the center aisle to their seats. The girls walked on either side of their father holding his hand. The five-year-old on the dad's left broke into a huge smile and started skipping down the aisle. Somehow she got incredible joy from Communion and worship that we more serious adults had trouble embracing.

Now I ask you, of the two stories, which one best captures the essence of the gospel? Which one brings us into the New Year with the fullness of what has just taken place at Christmas? Which one recognizes that this is A.D. 2013?

Before us is a question of perspective. Do you scream, "I want out of here!" or do you skip down the aisle? I must confess I have sometimes felt like running down the aisle yelling, "I want out!" In my more faithful living, however, I embrace the joy of the skipping little girl.

Epiphany Day we celebrate the light of God entering the darkness of our lives in the person of Jesus. Faithful proclamation invites us to once again embrace both the word and way of God.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning" (John 1:1-2). This is not a static sentence. It recalls how the Bible opens—"In the beginning" (Genesis 1:1 NRSV). So too, this great gospel—great good news—opens with a reminder of the creative life-giving God at work. The text pulses with action. The term "Word of God" translates the Greek term Logos. New Testament scholar A. M. Hunter put it this way: "It meant the ruling fact of the universe and that fact as the self-expression of God" (A. M. Hunter, The Gospel According to John [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965], 16). God is active in our world and in our lives!

"What has come into being in him was life, and the life...