‘Twelve drummer drumming’ … drummers in a religious parade in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
On the Twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.
We are still in the season of Christmas, which is a 40-day season and lasts not until Epiphany tomorrow (6 January), but until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).
Today is the Second Sunday of Christmas (Christmas II), although many parishes and churches may transfer their celebrations of Epiphany to today. I hope to be singing with the choir at the Epiphany Eucharist in Saint Mary and Giles Church, Stony Stratford, later this morning. The celebrations include the traditional
Epiphany ‘chalking’ of the church doors.
The Twelfth Day of Christmas is 5 January, and our celebrations of Christmas traditionally end tonight, on the Twelfth Night, which is then followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January. The Twelve Days of Christmas are a festive period linking together these two Great Feasts of the Nativity and Theophany, so that one celebration leads into another.
Nowadays, the Twelfth Day is the last day for decorations to be taken down. Some folklore holds that it is bad luck to take decorations down after this date. But in Elizabethan England, the decorations were left up until Candelmas, and this remains the tradition in Germany and many other European countries.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
‘Twelve drummers drumming’ … drummers waiting for a religious procession to begin in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
John 1: [1-9,] 10-18 (NRSVA):
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me”.’) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
‘Twelve drummer drumming’ … folk dancers and drummers on the streets of Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflection:
The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the twelve drummers drumming as figurative representations of the twelve points of the Apostles’ Creed.
The Gospel reading this morning (John 1: [1-9,] 10-18) should be familiar reading for most of us during these weeks: the third and principal option for the Eucharist on Christmas morning was John 1: 1-14; and on New Year’s Eve (31 December 2024), the Gospel reading was John 1: 1-18.
The first chapter of Saint John’s Gospel can be divided in two parts: the
Prologue (verses 1-18) and a second part (verses 19-50) that shows that John the Baptist was preparing for the coming of the Messiah.
The Prologue is an introduction to the Gospel as a whole. It tells us that the Logos is God and acts as the mouthpiece (Word) of God ‘made flesh’, sent to the world in order to be able to intercede for humanity and to forgive human sins.
The Prologue is of central significance to the doctrine of the Incarnation. The Prologue can be compared with Genesis 1, where the same phrase, ‘In the beginning …’, first occurs along with the emphasis on the difference between the darkness and the light.
The opening phrase, Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος (
En arche en ho logos, ‘In the beginning was the Word’, is one of the most dramatic opening lines in any great work of literature. And for many, the Fourth Gospel, Saint John’s Gospel, is one of the great works of literature, as well as being my favourite book in the Bible.
The author of this Gospel was identified by Saint Irenaeus as Saint John the beloved, Saint John the Divine, or Saint John the Theologian, who lived in Ephesus until the imperial reign of Trajan (
ca 98 CE).
As a boy, Irenaeus had known Saint Polycarp, who was Bishop of Smyrna, near Ephesus, and who is said to have been a disciple of John. Ever since then, the tradition of the Church has identified this John as the author of the Fourth Gospel.
The narrative translations with which we are so familiar often miss the poetic and dramatic presentations of this Gospel. We are all familiar with the dramatic presentation of the Prologue to this Gospel as the Gospel reading on Christmas Day. But the Prologue is first and foremost poetry. It is a hymn – a poetic summary – of the whole theology of this Gospel, as well as an introduction to it.
Raymond Brown has presented a translation from the Greek of the Prologue in poetic format:
1 In the beginning was the Word;
the Word was in God’s presence,
and the Word was God.
2 He was present with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things came into being,
and apart from him not a thing came to be.
4 That which came to be found life in him,
and this life was the light of the human race.
5 The light shines on in the darkness,
for the darkness did not overcome it.
(6 Now there was a man sent by God, named John 7 who came as a witness to testify to the light, so that through him all might believe – 8 but only to testify to the light, for he himself was not the light.)
9 He was the real light
that gives light to everyone;
he was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world,
and the world was made by him;
yet the world did not recognise him.
11 To his own he came;
yet his own people did not accept him.
12 But all those who did accept him,
he empowered to become God’s children –
those who believe in his name,
13 those who were begotten,
not by blood,
nor the flesh,
nor human desire,
but by God.
14 And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us.
And we have seen his glory,
the glory as of an only Son coming from the Father,
rich in kindness and fidelity.
The Prologue lays the foundation for the development of the ‘realised eschatology’ of the Fourth Gospel. When Saint John speaks later of life in the sense of ‘eternal’ life, the Prologue has already established that from the beginning in Christ the eternal God and source of life is present and is among men and women for that purpose. In Christ, God enters into all the ambiguities, difficulties, and trials of human life. He comes to live among his people as one of them, revealing God at first hand, and offering new life as the source of life from the beginning.
The writer relates the Logos in turn to God (verses 1, 2); creation (verses 3-5); the world and its response (verses 6-9); his own people (verses 10, 11); his children (verses 12-13); a specific circle of disciples and witnesses (verse 14); and later in the Prologue to a particular historical person, Jesus Christ (verse 17). Finally, in verse 18, the intimacy of the relationship of the Logos to the Father is re-emphasised in language similar to that used in John 13: 23-25 to describe the intimacy between ‘the beloved disciple’ and Christ himself.
The Prologue is a model and a summons to us to think carefully and deeply about the implications of the Incarnation and to apply this concept in all its comprehensiveness to our life and our world. For all its broad, cosmic scope, the Prologue presents a direct and personal question to readers of all times: will the one who reads believe, and share in the fullness of grace given by the One who has come from the Father to dwell among us?
Pages from The Saint John’s Gospel, the first complete hand-written and illuminated Bible since the Renaissance, in the Holy Writ exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral in 2014 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 5 January 2025, Christmas II):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Melanesian Brotherhood Centenary’. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update from Ella Sibley, Regional Manager for Europe and Oceania, USPG:
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Melanesian Brotherhood by Ini Kopuria, an Indigenous Solomon Islander and former police officer. His vision was for an order of Indigenous brothers who would share the gospel in Melanesia.
The Melanesian Brotherhood is now the largest Anglican religious order in the world, with brothers living in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, and across the Pacific Islands. They are known for their work in evangelism, choir singing, and peace-making.
We remember particularly the seven martyrs of the Melanesian Brotherhood. During the conflict in the Solomon Islands in the early 2000s, the brotherhood followed God’s call to peace-making, helping mediate between opposing groups, negotiating the release of hostages, and coordinating a weapons amnesty. In 2003, seven brothers were murdered whilst working for peace: Brother Patteson Gatu, Brother Alfred Hill, Brother Robin Lindsay, Brother Ini Paratabatu, Brother Nathaniel Sado, Brother Tony Sirhi, and Brother Francis Tofi. They are commemorated as martyrs and Christian peacemakers.
In this, their centenary year, we give thanks for Ini Kopuria and his vision, for the life and sacrifice of the martyrs of the brotherhood, and for the one hundred years of faithful witness and service offered by the Melanesian Brotherhood to people across the region.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 5 January 2025, Christmas II) invites us to reflect on these words as pray:
‘For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen’, to the glory of God’ (II Corinthians 1:20).
The Collect:
Almighty God,
in the birth of your Son
you have poured on us the new light of your incarnate Word,
and shown us the fullness of your love:
help us to walk in his light and dwell in his love
that we may know the fullness of his joy;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
All praise to you,
almighty God and heavenly king,
who sent your Son into the world
to take our nature upon him
and to be born of a pure virgin:
grant that, as we are born again in him,
so he may continually dwell in us
and reign on earth as he reigns in heaven,
now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
God our Father,
in love you sent your Son
that the world may have life:
lead us to seek him among the outcast
and to find him in those in need,
for Jesus Christ’s sake.
Collect on the Eve of the Epiphany:
O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (John 1: 5) … sunset on the Sarawak River in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
http://nrsvbibles.org
Saint James the Brother of the Lord … an icon written by Tobias Stanislas Haller, BSG, for Saint James Episcopal Church, Parkton, Maryland, in 2008
