The last couple of days I’ve been thinking on Epiphany and focusing on its themes. I enjoyed getting chapel messages together, talking about the wise men and their journey, the worship of a king, a king unlike any other but the best king of all, a king for the whole world. But I noticed something. When I was looking for Epiphany images for our website, it was kind of hard to find much other than just the wise men. When you type in “Epiphany” there’s just not as much good stuff as you find for Christmas or Easter. Well, those are the two highest holidays during the church year so I guess that makes sense.
But it got me to wondering. Besides Christmas and Easter, what are your favorite days in the church year? Is there a day you look forward to or have really enjoyed celebrating at some point in the past? Why?
I’ll get things going- one of my favorite days is All Saints Day. I love it for many reasons. It’s just such an incredible feeling to think about people you know who’ve died and to remember their passing not just with sadness, but truly with great joy. To think of them as now united in heaven with Christ, and united with all the saints of the past. It gets things stirring within me to think of my Grandma and Grandpa Borkenhagen up there along with Abraham and Isaac, with Peter and Paul, with Luther, with their own sainted parents and grandparents. And while I’ve always enjoyed this celebration, I remember it becoming that much more special to me when I attended Concordia St. Paul. Every year they would fill the chapel with stars to remember the saints, some of the stars would have the names of people we submitted to the Chaplain as having joined the Lord and some would have the names of our students. To see all those stars shining in the rafters, and then to hear the choir marching around singing a song of praise interspersed with the names of those who’ve gone before us in the faith- ooh, that was one of those services that always made you feel that tingle inside.
So that’s my story and my favorite non-Christmas/Easter church holiday. What’s yours?
Not a holiday, but I enjoy the end of the church year and the beginning of the next. On the former, we worship Christ the King, ascended and triumphant, sitting at the right hand of God! A week later, we worship the Christ Child, the Newborn King, come to be our Saviour. Same King, same Purpose, same Christ. The entire week lifts my heart and prepares me for another year of worship. I find it to be the best time (not New Years) to reflect on the year, my service, and my commitment to God and my fellow man.
about an hour ago ·