theophany

First I said no.

Tim asked if I would come with him to the Theophany service at St. John’s Tuesday morning (7:00 a.m.). I looked at loss – of writing time, of a weekly Bible study at a friend’s home where deer graze outside the windows. I told Tim I didn’t have the energy to stand for hours reciting liturgies with hunger pestering my tummy.

But I revised my answer, recognizing he wanted to take a vacation day and spend it, not only with our Orthodox daughter but also with his ever unorthodox wife. As I’ve mentioned here recently, each Sunday Tim attends two very different church services, giving to God and family in his energetic fashion. He is my draw – my happy thought – in a season when the two of us pull together more gracefully, perhaps, than in many before.

Yesterday as gloom turned to late morning gray we stood under the dome at St. John’s. Candles glimmered against the icons’ reds and golds. Our daughter’s voice chanted harmony in the choir, and when she went solo, I marveled at the quality she’s developing. Their story of this celebration gave me substance to ponder.

According to tradition (whether handed down from an apostle or supposed by an early Christian, I don’t know), the day Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the river stopped flowing. This would have made the New Testament Messiah’s baptism mirror the event from the Torah of the Israelites crossing the Jordan on dry ground into the promised land. This consecrated the Jordan’s waters, the Orthodox believe.

And so yesterday we participated in a ceremony where the priest blessed a lot of water, some of which people then carried a few blocks away to our River Willamette. And the river was blessed with great blessings. And some people jumped in it, consecrating themselves.

I enjoyed the day. I see nothing wrong with blessing a river – and by inference the people living around it – with prayers for salvation from God. As the priest remarked yesterday, Orthodoxy calls people to plunge into a life of faith in God. To give all, withholding nothing. With this I’m in complete agreement.

The apostles called for nothing less. I think they were describing an event which happens inside me – a blessing of the waters of my mind. A total interest in and intense following after the “one thing necessary” Jesus spoke about to his friends. I see my daughter doing this joyfully, outwardly and from within.

She and Tim both refrained from a river swim yesterday, as of course did I. Watching with them on the shore, I asked from the heart of my inner life for more willingness to be part of outer actions like these.