“Worship the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion.” Psalm 147:12
Dear Redeemer Family:
As I write this, it isn’t quite Christmas. In fact, it was a bit strange writing “January 2025” above. But this is for the coming month. As Christians, we tend to look forward to Christmas, and then bleak January. After Christmas, and then New Year’s maybe, we are stuck in only frozen winter. Well, that’s not quite true. There are several festivals which actually fall in January which many actually miss, unless they fall on a Sunday, which isn’t too often. Here are a couple to keep you going through your bleak January.
The first is on January 1st, and I don’t mean as New Year’s Day. January 1st on the Church Calendar is also known as the “Name of Jesus Day.” It was celebrated as such as early as the 6th century. Not so long ago on the Lutheran calendar, it was called, “The Circumcision and Name of Jesus Day.” That’s because by Jewish tradition, all male children were circumcised and received their name formally on the eighth day after their birth. They still do, and so are joined to the covenant of Abraham. One way to think about this however is, we begin the new year in Jesus’ name. Think about it.
January 6th is the “Epiphany of Our Lord Day.” Generally, however, we only celebrate this when it falls on a Sunday. But we do celebrate the following Sundays as the Sundays of Epiphany always. This day officially ends the Season of Christmas (remember the 12 days?). We celebrate God breaking into our world, and lives, and made manifest among us in our Lord Jesus Christ. We also celebrate God’s light shining in our world, which is helpful during bleak January. It is one of the three major festivals of the Christian Church.
The First Sunday after Epiphany is usually known by another name. It is also called, the “Baptism of Our Lord Sunday.” As we celebrate Jesus’ baptism by John in the river Jordan, we also celebrate that we are joined to him through our own baptisms. Through that, we are also made to be adopted children of God, and receive his blessings. That is something to really celebrate in the cold and gray of January, the warmth of God’s family.
No, January isn’t so bleak after all. If we look to the Church’s calendar, we find a lot of things to rejoice and be hopeful about. Christmas is not the end. It is only the beginning. So, rejoice and celebrate the blessings which God has bestowed. Praise God!
In Christ,
Pastor Rose
