A Talk by Rev. Patrick Kennedy January 2009, summarized by Linda Finigan

Epiphany, like many of the festivals, lasts for four weeks in The Christian Community, providing many opportunities to seek our own alignment with what the words of the service address as the “Star of Grace,” to fill our hearts with spirit enlightenment.

Patrick’s talk for Epiphany explored how the Divine Word, the Logos, works in our hearts, our spirit and the world. The gospel of John addresses the question: Who was Christ, not just what did he do? John’s answer is the seven I Am’s, the seven signs and the prologue (In the beginning was the Word — the Logos).

Science, like religion, is also a way of knowing the Logos, the, universal life and light through which all things came into being. (“I am the way and the truth and the life.”) Early initiates could hear the Logos speaking in the world around them. Modern science reflects this initiate knowledge that the Logos is in all phenomenon in the very naming of scientific disciplines: biology, zoology, geology, etc. Science is an exploration of how the Logos, the Word, the eternal spirit are at work in the world.

Another way to view the Logos is The Name at the center of things. Both science and religion seek the “I” of things. In the deepest most sacred inner core of the Jewish temple, was a chamber where once a year the priest spoke out loud the name of God, the name of the I Am. The star of destiny that shone above the child Jesus, guiding the three kings to their Epiphany was this same Logos, the I Am.

What’s at stake in humanity is what guiding principles shape our “I.” Most religions say the problem is the “I,” the ego – the cause of suffering and separation from creation, separation from the spirit, from truth, from each other.

Christ’s coming makes possible the healing of this ego, not by annihilation of the I, but by its expansion. On the eve of his death, Christ took substances of the earth, bread and wine, and offered the ritual of communion by which the human ego expands into all things, all people. Here is egohood that stems from the power of sacrifice and compassion, a spirit of inclusion.

Logos filled Christianity recognizes his spirit working in the world. To pray in his name is to experience oneself in the being of his core. It is prayer as a gift, an expression of grace: who do I take into my prayer, the inclusion of others vs. self-centered prayer for material desires.

In the Act of Consecration of Man, the offering is the part of the service where we bring not only our individual need but something to offer the father and the world. We make this offering out of Christ in us or in the words of the Act of Consecration: “out of the name, the being, the power of Christ.” We align ourselves with the star of destiny, the star of grace, with the star of Christ.