ain't gonna let nobody turn me around...

The darkness of winter feels especially profound to me tonight: we were able to extend the joy of Epiphany for two full days in our home first by celebrating with two thousand plus Berkshire friends and neighbors in the Four Freedoms March and Rally; and then by feasting and opening Christmas gifts with our Brooklyn family last night. The light was ecstatic - making the darkness even more pronounced.

Tomorrow I will likely return to my Bonhoeffer reflections. In less that two weeks the USA begins the official era of Trump-mania. Brother Dietrich once said: Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. He also made this stunning observation: Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. All too soon, we who choose resistance and love will know explicitly what this means for our generation.

For tonight, therefore, I choose to bask in the goodness of love, solidarity and the tenderness of this Epiphany weekend knowing that they will soon become public acts of resistance. At no time in my life have I felt the paradox of Christ's Cross so vividly. And like Bonhoeffer, I give thanks to God. Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear ... Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now.

Here are some pictures from the light of our Epiphany weekend...