Pastor's column: Remember the sweetness in bittersweet

Linda Rose

The church season is Epiphany — what was anticipated in Advent has been revealed and continues to be discovered in this season before Lent.

Both Christmas and Epiphany are bittersweet for me. I’m very fond of bittersweet chocolate. It’s dark, it’s sweet and good but also bitter and hard. Life can be a lot like that, can’t it — bittersweet? The Christmas holiday can be bittersweet; we come to church on Christmas Eve for the sweet, the memories of past holidays, to hear the good news of Christ’s birth, the carols and the candlelight, all those sweet and melancholy moments. But we can just as easily be reminded of our losses, of those we miss, of better times, of so many things.

But then Epiphany comes, the light of the Holy Star shines. It’s time to sing “We Three Kings.” It’s a bittersweet song, about the wise men who believed the prophecies and read the signs. They followed the star to find the King who was born. It’s about the gifts they brought — gold, frankincense and myrrh. It’s the whole gospel in a song; not just stars and holy night, but it goes beyond the sweet baby Jesus to the reason Jesus had to come to earth — not just to rule but to die for the sins of the world.

Think about the gifts of the Magi, gold, frankincense, myrrh.

Gold, beautiful, incorruptible, eternal, precious and rare. Gold suggests God and God’s love, they too are eternal and precious. Gold is a gift fit for a king.

Frankincense and Myrrh, precious and aromatic sap from trees in the southern Arabian peninsula. It was and still is costly and highly prized. Only the rich could afford it and one tiny drop of oil would make a bottle of perfume. It was called the heavenly aroma. Myrrh was used in embalming as a perfume to cover the scent of the decaying of a body, but it was also precious, used to honor that body that had been loved and respected. If you were a wise man you’d know kingly gifts, and you might also know that this king had come for a reason, not just to rule, but to die.

Bittersweet. But John’s gospel writes, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.” Darkness is where we see the light shine brightest. One candle breaks the darkness — one candle can light a thousand. We experienced that on Christmas Eve; from the flame of the Christ candle the whole room was lit. That light continues in Epiphany, the season of light — light that shines in the darkness. At this time of Epiphany, model your life on these kings, their story and their gifts

Let yourself read the signs and believe the prophecies of a King who will save His people from their sins. Let yourself follow the star to Christ – kneel before him and pay him homage, worship Him. Open your treasure chest of all you hold valuable and let Christ take what he wants. Offer him your best even if it’s not gold, frankincense or myrrh. Remember that last verse of the Christina Rosetti poem, In the bleak mid-winter? “What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I could give a lamb. If I were a wise man I would do my part. But what I can, I give Him, give my heart.” For Year 2015 I pray that it will be a year in which we do believe the prophecies of God’s good will for us, follow the star of promise that leads us forward and fling open our treasure chests, offering all our best to God.

A year not just of bittersweet, but of the sweet Spirit of God poured out in our lives, our town, state, nation and world.

(Linda Rose is interim pastor of First Lutheran Church of Havre.)