In terms of sunlight, December 21 is either the longest day of the year or the shortest. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, the light we receive is brief and precious. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the daylight is ample and fulsome. The difference depends on one’s location on the globe. December 21 is also, for Anglicans, the feast of St. Thomas, the apostle who according to tradition took the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the east, to the people of India.
This day of darkness and light, this day of remembrance of the apostle who crossed great distance, highlights the great diversity manifest across the Christian family. Like Thomas, we go forth at the commendation of Christ and his church, generation after generation, embodying and proclaiming the good news of Jesus, the word made flesh, the Messiah of Israel, the desire of the nations.
Thomas went east, to regions beyond the scope of the Roman Empire. Christians in those areas of Asia revere him to this day for his message and his work, delivered in humility, through service for the common good as he brought to them the same treasure he received after the resurrection. Thomas brought news of the risen Christ, the one whose wounds he touched, to those regions whence came the Magi, the wise observers of the stars. They had sought the desire of the nations, but then waited patiently for the fulfillment of God’s reign even after being sent home in secrecy by another route (Matt. 2:13).
Saint Thomas Christians, or Syrian Christians of India, continue to share the good news of Jesus. And among the various spiritual descendants of the apostle is the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, a body in full communion with the Episcopal Church.
We have a common faith in Jesus, the light in the darkness, across great diversity. Viewpoints and customs may differ, just as our observance of heavenly bodies differs as we gaze skyward from different parts of the globe. But our one hope for the fulfillment of God’s reign among us remains unified as it is tethered in the message of God’s work in Christ. Therefore, we deliver, across our differences, a gospel message of peace that is universal in scope, accessible in local context, and transformative of lives.
With our unified skyward-gazing view, looking for Christ’s second coming in glory, we share in one hope, one faith, and one baptism, sharing a bond that surpasses our sad divisions within the Church that is, as the creed asserts, one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
Those communities formed by Thomas’ first mission use the Aramaic translation of the classical Syriac Peshitta as the standard version of the New Testament, an Aramaic source of the words they received. Because an Aramaic dialect spoken by Jesus and his apostles closely resembles a Syriac dialect, those within this tradition hold the Peshitta in high regard as more closely connected to the spoken gospel delivered to them, even before being written in various languages, whether Greek or Aramaic. This is especially important when we consider, in the prologue of John’s Gospel, “the Word made flesh.”
In the Peshitta version of John’s Gospel, in place of Logos (word), the text uses Meltho or Melta, which is translated as meaning “substance, essence, cause, matter, or manifestation.” In this context, the essence of God was with the divine nature from the beginning and is the living expression of God’s essence, made flesh among us.
And this gift of Word, or Logos, as mesmerizing and astonishing as it seems in light of a variant source, is the essence of the gift of God for the people of God with whom we share in our gift exchange. This is that Word of which we partake during Eucharist, covered, then, in fine linen, as if wrapped in linen and laid to rest within the dust of the ground, and who, also, was once wrapped in swaddling cloth when first delivered to us in Bethlehem by the Virgin who found herself with child.
This incarnate gift, Christ’s birth, is celebrated by all Christians but in different ways. As we will soon arrive again at the Feast of the Nativity, we find ourselves journeying with others, those in the dark days of the Northern Hemisphere and those in the resplendent light of the Southern Hemisphere, those who heard the good news of Christ in Aramaic, in Greek, in Latin, and in countless other languages. We mutually share abroad this peace we treasure, made incarnate within us all through our birth and inception into his resurrected form transfigured among us through God’s Spirit.
With thankful hearts we treasure a range of diverse traditions of faith, all celebrating the gift of salvation, the hope of Israel, and the desire of the nations. In this Christmas celebration, this day of celebration when the universal Savior came to save all peoples, we walk hand in hand in common gospel work, “lighted to lighten,” the motto of our brothers and sisters within the Mar Thoma Church. Our common witness is to the God whose very essence was made flesh among us for the renewal of all things.
Ray Capo' is a Guest Writer. A member of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, Columbus, Georgia and a retired educator, he has contributed essays for Grow Christian and hymns for Discipleship Ministries.
