New Year's Day - What Will Tomorrow Bring?

 

A friend sent this, what does it mean?!?

So here we are at the beginning of a new year, it's rolled around yet again and we're still standing, for the most part. All well and good, but what will tomorrow bring? Good question.

It may bring rain or it may bring snow or any old thing, such is our old enemy, the Weather. Perhaps it will bring stagflation, Weimar style and we'll all be hauling our crypto  home in wheelbarrows as one bullet = >1000 USD$. Maybe there'll be war because, after all, too much peace ain't good for the bottom line and, of course, there'll be plague, we know this. Wear your masks, serfs, and don't you dare question a rigged midterm, you hate extremists. Mirror of Illusion? Cubed.

Whatever, welcome to the hideous new normal, but think on this. At Christmas we celebrated the advent of Christ into the world, the Word made Flesh, and the eternal light which shines in the darkness becoming flesh, a man, for our salvation. The Light has come down to earth to be the Light of the World and we behold, through the eyes of faith, his glory, full of grace and truth.

Stand fast to him, our redeemer, in this new year. Flee from sin, from the Herods who would destroy him and be filled with confident, joyful hope. All the raging, insane powers of Hell, to say nothing of the world and the flesh cannot defeat the divine life present within us. If, and that's just it, if we remain faithful.

Adeste,

LSP

Epiphany

It's the Feast of the Epiphany and the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles, represented by the three Kings or Magi, Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar. As everyone knows, they offer the infant Messiah three gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

Gold for kingship, incense for divinity and myrrh for death, and there we have it, an epiphany. Jesus is the God King who will die for our sins upon the throne of the cross. So much is clear, but consider the gospel (Matt 2:1-12) and another figure emerges, Herod.

He, like Christ, is a king. As he stood at the end of his life, clothed in a robe of spun silver, he was hailed as a god and death followed in the wings. An agonizing and revolting death, the culmination of a murderous reign which saw the massacre of the Innocents, three of his sons and one of his many wives.

Now, stand back and reflect on Mathew's account. We see three sets of kings, Christ, Herod and the Magi, and three gifts; these describe Christ and Herod. Both are kings, are seen as gods and death, like a shadow, accompanies each. So much for similarity.

Christ's kingship is heavenly, he exercises his power in love; perfect, sacrificial love that will lead him to the Cross. He dies that we might live. 

Herod's kingship is earthly; he commands armies and reigns with magnificence and immense wealth. His rule is characterized by murderous pride and ambition, he kills that he might live.

So we see an epiphany within an epiphany, two models of kingship, one earthly the other divine. Herod and Christ. 

The question is, which path do you choose?

Your old buddy,

LSP