COMMON EPIPHANY PROGRAMS

Welde-Tensae

Eve:- (Afternoon, at about 3:00 Pm):-Tabots will be taken out of their respective churches. Carried by priests and accompanied by hymns of the clergy and the faithful gathering, they go to a chosen plain where a baptismal pool is naturally available or is artificially made for the purpose. There, tents will be erected for the Tabots and, under normal circumstances, the entire entourage is expected to pass the night there in praise and thanksgiving. This eve will be a fasting day unless if falls on weekends, days exempted from fasting.

The moving of the Tabots symbolizes the Lord’s going to St. John, instead of the vice versa for baptism. It is an act of making Christ’s humility alive. There will be hymns and praises accompanying the Tabbot as was the case in the Old Testament. This accompaniment is a tradition our church has given a New Testament color.

Midnight:- Mass prayer is held at the site where the Tabots are temporarily rested. The entire faithful attends the prayer solemnly. Then, the pool is blessed by the highest father available at the site usually the patriarch. The faithful who pass the night in personal/communal prayer,and attending homilies and hymns will now partake from the blessed water. They are sprinkled or rinsed only to commemorate the baptism of Christ, and not to claim to be reborn for they already have that status.

In Addis Ababa, the capital city, this ceremony takes place much more colorfully at a field called Jan Meida, a few hundred meters away form the main campus of Addis Ababa University.

Morning:- (at about 9:00 am):- With the same magnitude of hymns and an even more entourage, Tabots start moving back to their respective churches.

Only Tabots named after St. Michael will stay at the pool for Michael is observed monthly the next day. For that month, it will coincide with Canan Ze Gelila. If a church named after Michael houses another Tabot as well, the latter may also stay with Michael’s for both to be brought back the following day.

In this occasion, Ethiopia, especially Addis Ababa’s Jan Meida, will entertain thousands of guests from different corners of the world.

The Lord is Baptized !

Mt.3:13-17

Welde-Tensae

Praise be to the Lord and savior, Jesus Christ ,who willed for us to see this day of annual commemoration of His baptism . This day is the 11th of Tir (19th of January). It is quite appropriate to call this day the Ethiopian Epiphany. While taking the commemorative day based on the Ethiopian Calendar, it is an Epiphany in that the Lord has, through His Baptism, revealed a mystery to man.

At the age of thirty, the Lord Christ went to a celebrated man of God, St. John, who has been living with utmost austerity restricting himself in the wilderness. The man was a prophet chosen to foretell the immediacy of the Lord’s coming as he baptized Pharisees and Sadducees for repentance. This John who was foretold by Micah as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness [to] prepare the way of the Lord[and] make His paths straight” comes at last as a bridge between the two Testaments calling up on “brood of vipers” to long for the Mighty one coming to baptize them not in water, as St. John was doing, but in fire and the spirit.

The Lord came to the River Jordan where St. John was and requested John to baptize Him. As a matter of courtesy that is due to a pious man such as St. John, he temporarily resists the Lord’s request. The Lord insists that St. John shall “permit it [the Baptism] to be so now for thus it is fitting for [the Lord and His baptizer] to fulfill all righteousness.” Mt.3:15. Then St. John allows him and the Lord is baptized. What is the righteousness fulfilled? Why was the Lord baptized? Why at 30? Why at Jordan? This day of commemoration gives us the opportunity to meditate on these and other issues of baptism and/or epiphany.

The Lord is baptized to institute the Mystery of Baptism which He has un -equivocally put as a must for being reborn as a child of God. This was revealed, among others, to Nicodemus, the man who used to secretly learn at night from Christ about the kingdom the latter has come to preach. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit,” the Lord has told Nicodemus. Jn.3:5-6.

As per His coming to serve as an Example of the life we shall have, the Lord Christ has been baptized to show that baptism is a must for us to be hopefuls of the Heavenly kingdom. There used to be baptism in the Old Testament. Niiman and Job were baptized; Pharisees and Sadducees were also baptized by St. John; etc. But, as St. John has clearly said, such a baptism was only of water and not of the fire and the spirit. The old baptism could only cleanse the flesh from its leprosy, boils or other extrinsic curses. The New Testament baptism which the Lord has ushered in is absolutely different. It institutes a mystery according to which we are baptized in the spirit and fire to be born again.

The Lord Christ and St. John have performed righteousness because, through that heavenly ceremony, we have seen the untold meekness of the Almighty. As St. John has rightly resisted, it would not have been too heavy to comprehend if St. John was baptized by the Lord. To see the vice versa happening is indeed a wondrous demonstration of humility which seals the example we have to follow.

No Christian, be he/she a king/ a queen, is allowed to force the clergy to come and baptize him/ her. The Christian shall in person go to where the clergy perform this heavenly mystery.

In the Lord being baptized at the River Jordan, a prophecy is fulfilled which said thus:
The Sea saw it and fled,
Jordan turned back

What ails you, O sea that you fled?
O Jordan that you turned back?
Ps.114:3-5

For some length from its source, Jordan flows as a unified river. Then, it splits itself into two distributaries, Jor and Dan, which will later meet and flow again as a unified River Jordan. It was at the confluence of the two that the Lord was baptized to symbolically represent the unity through His coming of the Gentiles and the Nations. Though we are common descendants of Adam and Eve, the age of condemnation happened to divide mankind into circumcised Nations and Uncircumcised Gentiles. The Lord’s coming has put an end to the division when the two commonly embraced the gospel the Lord has preached.

It was at the age of 30 that the Lord was baptized for Adam lost the Garden of Aden exactly at this age. In choosing this age, the Lord has demonstrated that He has come to reinstitute Adam. Yet, the church baptizes infants, males on the 40th and females on the 80th day of their birth, respectively. If we have to wait until 30 as some denominations claim to, imagine how many of us may die before baptism taking different factors that could   shortlive us into account. As the Lord has blessed the chosen such as Jeremiah even in the womb, the church endorses Infant Baptism and pertinent parties-biological parents, God/Soul parents, the church, etc-assume the responsibility of instructing the child in the faith as he/she grows up. Under emergencies, baptism may be carried out before the canonized date of 40 or 80. To grown up converts, it has no age limit as they could be baptized any time they decide to be part of the flock of the church. As to the 40/80, remember that it was on either of this dates that a mother was cleansed and introduced into the old Testament synagogue depending on the sex of the new born. Lev.12:1-8.

The Lord’s baptism is an Epiphany in that the Trinity was revealed on the Occasion. As the Word was baptized, the Father has born witness of His baptized Son and the Holy Spirit was revealed in the likeness of a dove. We are, therefore, baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; One God. Mt.3:16; 28:19.

This said, the commemoration calls for:-

1. Humility:- The creator, Christ, was baptized by His own creation, St. John. As Christians we have to have humility as our hallmark. We worship a Lord who has not only been baptized by His own creation. The Lord has also washed the feet of His own makings, the disciples, telling them to do the same for the little and the juniors. St. John has testified how mighty the decent Lord is. Jn.1:29-34. So, Might shall not rule over humility.

As He has taught, the kingdom of heaven is deservedly for the poor in the spirit. Mt.5:3.

2.  Unity:- Christ has come to unify us all. As His baptism was made at a confluence of distributaries of Jordan, we all are called upon to embrace and live with Him. The Age of Division is over. He has come to unify man and angels, Nations and Gentiles, etc. As long as we have embraced Christ, to be or not to be circumcised is now immaterial. It is in view of this that man and angels have sung together as He was born. The church which got its genesis in the land of the nations was also spread throughout the world embracing the gentiles.

The door is neither closed nor ajar. It is wide open for all of us to be part of the Christendom provided we have the will to be born again. Though the church has set a date for an infant baptism to be the rule under normal circumstances, baptism for converts is allowed at any age when they decide to embrace Christianity. Moslem converts have, for example, been elevated to the status of heading famous monasteries such as Debre-Libanos. The point is unity in Christ through rebirth is possible any time. Yet, as we are living with death hovering up on and around us, we may be short-lived before rebirth. So, we better do it sooner than latter. After all, why should we pass even a split second without Christ?

3. Loving Christ:- When the Lord was baptized, “a voice came from heaven saying, ‘This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased’.” Mt.3:17. This is the voice of God the Father bearing witness of the Son. If Christ is the Father’s beloved, we need to love Him and this is demonstrable in nothing more than living up to His words. We should not live in unbelief because it will deny us miracles which Christ could perform in our lives-personal, family or communal. If we look down up on His words and works, He would say against us that “a prophet is not without honor in His own country and in His own house” and will refrain from doing mighty works amidst us. Mat.13:58. The same loving testimony of the Father is repeated during the Transfiguration adding one key clause to it. “Hear Him,” the Father says on top of emphasizing that Christ is His beloved son. The message needs no reading between and beyond the lines. We must hear Christ. Period.  Mt.17:5.

Our decision to hear Christ and live accordingly would, as we have learnt from history, often be accompanied by persecutions, intrinsic and extrinsic. Our own secular will may pose its own challenge in its intrinsic will to deviate from the Lord. Extrinsically, it may lead to persecutions such as being beheaded like John the Baptist. Against all odds, we have to hear the Lord and live according to His words, because “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18.

If we are already born again through baptism, that is great and let us live in glory. If not yet, let us pray for it to happen sooner. Let the Lord make our holiday prosperous. Amen!!

WATER TURNED TO WINE!

Welde-Tensae

On the morrow of the Epiphany festivity, which commemorates the Baptism of Christ, our church celebrates Cana of Galilee, a day in which the Lord Christ has turned water into wine.

As recounted in the Gospel of St. John (2:1-11), there happened to be a wedding at a house in Cana where the Lord was invited along with His Mother, St. Mary, and His Apostles. It so happened that the hosts ran out of wine and did not know how to avoid the shame that anyone might feel having invited celebrities across the board. It was St. Mary who came to notice their cause of worry and she immediately refers the matter to Her son knowing that He will do wonders.

When she tells Him that “they have no wine” He responds thus: “woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” She then advises the hosts to do whatever He orders them to do knowing that His reaction was favorable. We realize that her take of things was right when He soon orders the Hosts to “fill the water pots with water” and, there after, He tells them to draw some of the converted wine and take it to the master who  ,as he  tasted it, is amazed in the special quality  of the newly availed wine. The invited gathering is entertained with the new wine of quality which they find unusually excellent having it come in the latter hours of the invitation, a time they expect to be served with a second-rate wine for the first-rate brand would then be entirely consumed ,if things went in the ordinary course.

What do we decipher from this all?

For this message, we want to raise two issues:

Our life activities:- education, work, weeding, etc- shall have the blessing of the Lord whom we have to invite with His chosen. There are guys who just take things at face value and try to relegate the status the Lord has given to His chosen. For them, the Lord is the A to Z of life and He needs no one around Him. True, He is the Alpha and the Omega we have to worship. He has, however, chosen His own to make miracles in His name. This was the case in the Laws and the prophets, for we know that many (Abraham, Mosses, Escher, etc,)

have redeemed their people from wraths through their intercession. Our Lord and Savior has upheld that role of His chosen in the New Testament when He acted for the wedding-hosts as per the request of His Mother. As such superficial readers claim, the Lord has not only used the word woman but also told her He had nothing to do with Her worry to show His disrespect for Her. Let the Lord have His mercy on their unharnessed tongues!

How could a Lord who has, in His Commandments, ordered to respect parents dishonor her? In fact, what He said was His hour has not come yet for the miracle. If He was there to demean Her, why should she tell the hosts to do according to His words and how could they ultimately get the wine?

Expressions such as “Woman!” are common expressions of respect. The Lord has, for instance, used this same word, woman, in His last hours on the cross when He referred His mother to the care of St. John.

As to saying I have nothing to do with you, it is also a common expression of showing cordiality between persons. To give an example, the woman who was so close to St. Elijah has used the same expression as she implores Him to bring her son back to life.

For us, the Lord’s chosen including His Mother are there for saving our faces. They solve our challenges which we could not overcome for our sins have eroded our powers.

We should not again be reading too much here! The message here is not to purport as though direct communication between us, the sinful, and the Holy Lord is never allowed. No! Far from that! What we are saying is that, as we try our levels best to come closer to God, we need to also take the prayer of His chosen as an unavoidable aid. Who are we to say no to such a prayer of the chosen knowing that even St. Paul, a saint who was ascended in glory to see the heavenly mystery while in flesh, has asked the people whom he preached to pray for the success of his mission? We need the prayers of the chosen to stand on our feet. Indeed, we badly need it!

The Bible deserves to be read contextually as a holistic corpus. Textual, cultural and other contextual issues need to be well taken care of as we read any part of the Holy Writ. Let us be spared from divorcing a verse from its context! Such a reading is a killer, not a healer.

2. Marriage is a holy venture. For Adam, Eve was given and it was said by the Trinity that it would be unfair of him to be alone without a support. The same holds true for her. Later, in the New Testament, the Lord finds Himself in a wedding along with His chosen, showing that marriage remains blessed. Our fathers and mothers in the Spirit who have actually gone for perfection have led and still lead a life of celibacy to serve the house of God with undivided heart. St. Paul has, for instance, led such a life. Having advised his stock that it would have been much better for them to lead the life of celibacy he has opted for, he has advised each to take one partner of the opposite sex to avoid temptations of sexual lust. Thus, we have bishops, archbishops and patriarchs canonized to lead a single life to serve the stock they have to cater for in an impartial, undivided heart.

Marriage being blessed, it should not begin and end in the municipality. The roles of such a legal institution is understandable. Marriage shall, however, be made in the premises of the church for it has to reap the Lord’s blessing as was the case in the house in Cana. A blessed marriage will have peace and prosperity. It will also offer healthy children who are well-nurtured in faith, ethics, civics and other values of heavenly and worldly significance.

Have a blessed wedding, if any, and a happy Ze Gelila! Amen!

May God Bless us, Amen.