Epiphany

Tomorrow is Epiphany. My intent is always to keep Christmas until the 12th Day. I don't think I ever have been able to hold out till then. It sounds a lot like my New Year's Resolutions.

"But the more serious issue is that every Christmas we put up our trees and get out our ornaments and trot out tidings of peace on Earth. Then, after a week or so, we take down our trees and put away our ornaments, and peace on Earth goes back into storage until the following year. And it seems that the escalatory violence that is such a part of our normalcy is endangering the human species and our world more and more. So what appeared in the sky above Bethlehem that first Christmas 2,000 years ago was an early, distant warning that said, you can never achieve peace on Earth through victory—only through justice. For me, that’s the enduring message of the Christmas story."

The quote is taken from John D. Spalding's interview with John Dominic Crossan about his collaboration with Marcus Borg of the book "The First Christmas."

"In “The First Christmas,” Crossan and Borg argue that the nativity story is far richer and more challenging than familiar sentimentalized versions allow. Not simply tidings of comfort and joy, the gospel stories of Jesus’ birth are also edgy visions of another way of life, confronting the status quo and demanding personal and political transformation."

Perhaps I am a little too liberal in my quotes from SOMA.