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| Saintly treats that highlight the Celebration of Nick and Lucy |
Saints Nick and Lucy lived in the 3rd and 4th centuries, he in modern day Turkey and she on the island you and I know as Sicily. As far as we know they never met. Nick and Lucy sounds like the title of a children’s book. Two unlikely friends and their holy adventures in late antiquity! Rescue sailors, aid the poor! Defy common sense by wearing lit candles on top of your head!
The church remembers Nicholas on the 6th and Lucia on the 13th of December, and this Sunday is nestled right in the middle, and both are connected to traditions of festivity and generosity. Cold weather solstice celebrations are nearly universal across cultures and time. It is frigid and dark, we need a party. Therefore the church created a bright tradition, they bonded the growing light of Christ to the darkest days of their winter solstice. It is nonverbal proclamation, that in the darkness, Jesus brings light and life. God was born in human flesh to a family who lived in desperate times and still he lived the light that was in his words: LOVE, WELCOME, SHARE.
These brilliant lights can be hard to believe in the darkness of clutch and grab. John the Baptist is in prison for freely giving away the forgiveness of sin. No purchase, no transaction, just hope and welcome. John spoke truth to power, offered gifts of direction in a time of confusion. For this and other challenges, he finds himself shackled. The outrageous holy promise we push toward in Advent is hard to believe some of the time, perhaps much of the time. John asks of Jesus what we all ask at some point, are you really the One? Jesus, you come in simplicity and poverty, the times are confusing and lonely and cruel. Are you really the light in the darkness? You are not what we expected. Is this what the everlasting light looks like, feels like, acts like?
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| Lucia visits the party |
The historical record for Lucia is thin, and rather contradictory. The historical record for Nicholas is much thicker, he was after all, a bishop. However, his legend is also contradictory, and if you include the latter-day appearances, well his story is rather mystifying. By the way, our guests today (Nicholas and Lucy) will be/have been transported via a ‘time machine’. They know nothing of any rumors of red noses or Nordic migrations.
Lucy, or Lucia as she is better known, was young and faithful and blessed with a name that means light. In times of crushing injustice, she would go out into the night with a wreath of candles on her head. She would duck into the dark tunnels where the fearful and lonely hid, She would bring plates of food, giving from her heart and her abundance. Lucy lets the light of Christ shine bright.
And Nicholas. Faithful shepherd of his community, who was not described as cheerful. There are many stories about Nicholas, but here is the one that connects the dots. Hearing of a family in dire straits he goes out silently 3 nights in a row. At the home of the family in need, he pauses and tosses a bag of gold through an open window. 3 daughters. 3 bags. Security for all. No forms to fill out, no accountability assessments. Just giving freely. It may have been a gift of currency, but it set a family free, for them it was like waters broke forth in the wilderness, and streams rushed in the desert.
Jesus’ mission of sight for the blinded and release for the imprisoned are not fantasy. We are called to make God’s vision our reality. Not only when it is easy and comfortable, but when it is more frightening than wearing candles on your head. We don’t know if Nick or Lucy wondered about Jesus, wondered if he was the One. All we know is like the Rilke quote, they lived their way into the answers. So why do I, and therefore we, offer this encounter with Nick and Lucy? This is something I have offered for ten years now at several congregations. Why bring together two winter saints who each have their very own days? They are similar, both are remembered for discipleship that was above and beyond the demand of rank or role. Furthermore, this pairing offers a wonderful balance: male and female, lay and ordained. However, here is the best reason why.
It is because Lucy’s simple story shines light on the life and ministry of Nick. Her story gives back to him his flesh, his heart, his bones. She gives to Nick his true self, his ordinary, Christ-like humility. And it is his grand presence - both earned and embellished – Nick’s larger than life persona can raise Lucy up, bring her witness into our sights, it can raise the volume of her gentle service with sleigh bells in the snow. The communion of saint’s means that Lucia and Nicholas and hundreds and thousands more light the way where they have gone before us. This is what the everlasting light looks like and feels like. LOVE, WELCOME, SHARE, SHINE.
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| Bishop Nicholas makes his visitation. |
Most of us, like our friends Nick and Lucy, are blessed with a multitude of privileges. And like Nick and Lucy we are ordinary people who are drawn into Christ’s way, who have chosen to follow him, or lean toward him, for reasons we know well, or reasons we may not be able to name. I invite you to find yourself in their story, fill in the gaps with your own passions, enlighten your soul with their courage. Believe that your faithfulness to Christ need not be restrained by anything, not even gravity or common sense.
Be Nick. Be Lucy.
LOVE, WELCOME, SHARE, SHINE, BE.
December 11, 2016
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Walla Walla, Washington
link to audio if widget doesn't work
At some point I will write up the ideal and outline of the Celebration of Nick and Lucy. (A Year Later...here it is!)
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