Christ Revealed to the Nations
“This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Clementine Hunter (1887-1988) was a self-taught African American folk artist, born into a Creole family on Melrose Plantation in Louisiana. Beginning to paint at the age of 50, she used materials such as house paint and brushes made from sticks and chicken feathers. Her style is colorful, vibrant, and she would frequently depict the daily life and culture of the African American community on the plantation, with scenes of work, leisure, and religious ceremonies.
Her painting here depicts the whole arc of the Christmas story. On the left, we see the Annunciation — Mary with an angel. On the right, Mary is seated with child, while three men visit, carrying bindles. Curiously, a shepherd stands in the center of the picture — evoking, perhaps, both the shepherds visit, but also Joseph (since is is frequently depicted with a staff); perhaps forecasting Jesus’s messianic destiny as the shepherd of Israel — as the diverse livestock are quite scattered.
But the central feature of image, of course, the large, 12 pointed star, erupting onto the canvas. Angles bearing trumpets draw attention to the diptych of the the two visitations — one of Gabriel to Mary, and the other of the three men to mother and child: and the figures of tiny, black angelic beings flying in all directions serve as the heavenly counterpart to the white animals scattered on the earth beneath.
Nations shall stream to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawning.
— Isaiah 60:3
Feast of the Epiphany (Observed)
Texts for this Week
Prayer
O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Brightest and Best
Reginald Herber’s Epiphany hymn is a classic, written in 1811 during the heart of his ministry as a parish priest at St. Luke’s, Hodnet. Perhaps in some ways the hymn foreshadows his own journey: Herber would be appointed as Bishop of Calcutta in 1823, where he served until his premature death in 1826.
While the hymn is often sung to the mellifluous Victorian tune MORNING STAR (Harding), it fits also the lively Southern Harmony melody, STAR OF THE EAST, which is used with a couple of lovely Epiphany hymns. Kathy Mattea’s full-throated folk arrangement is a worthy interpretation — 90s cover art notwithstanding.
