For
Saturday, January 6, 2024, Feast of the Epiphany: Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6,
Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12, Matthew 2:1-12
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you…Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. [Isaiah 60:1, 3]
For
he shall deliver the poor who cries out in distress, and the oppressed who has
no helper.
[Psalm 72:12]
Of this gospel I have become a servant accord to the gift of God’s grace…This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. [Ephesians 3:7a,11-12]
In the time of King Herod...wise men came from the East to Jerusalem,
asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we
observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." ...
Herod...sent them to Bethlehem...When they saw that the star had stopped they
were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house they saw the child with Mary
his mother...and...they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And
having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own
country by another road. [Matthew 2:1-2, 8a, 10-12]
EPIPHANY IS BIG! It brings us a bright shiny
and HOLY Revelation. It IS the continuing and the expanding of the
celebration of the birth of our Messiah, and His importance to us all! But
perhaps we are worn down after the four weeks of anticipation in Advent, the
hustle and bustle of preparation for gifts and food and gatherings, the
familiar rush of the time of year, followed by the pageantry and the
glorious music, and then the usual “let down.” Perhaps Epiphany has become an
anti-climax, the end of the story, the time to take down the decorations (if
anyone actually waits that long anymore). Yet it is in truth a beginning.
We open new chapters of the Story that will take us from Jesus the Baby, to
Christ our Redeemer. While we celebrate the birthday with great fanfare, the
Epiphany moves us into the reason for which this Child was born
of a woman, the revelation of God’s eternal purpose is
upon us. A “theophany” then ~ the manifestation of God visible to humans ~ a
re-discovery now. One definition of “epiphany” is “a sudden insight or
intuitive understanding.”
At the Nativity of Jesus, Luke
tells us that the angels appeared to the shepherds who received the good
news of great joy, but Luke never mentions the Magi. Matthew never
mentions the shepherds or even the birth itself except for a brief
phrase: "...until she had borne a son; and he [Joseph] named
him Jesus." But Matthew did tell us of the "...wise men
from the East..." They saw a great star revealing to them the
need for a journey to pay homage to a new born king of the Jews. Herod gets
involved and we begin to see the ominous cloud moving in to shadow the glorious
star. But having heard this story so very many times perhaps we need to
hear it or read it again? Have we tuned out rather than engaging with
the experience? Can we be re-awakened to the wonder and ponder what
it could possibly mean for each of us in our own time? What sudden
insight or understanding might come?
These three “Kings” who weren’t likely
kings but rather astrologers and astronomers. Possibly, as they have been
called, they were Magi, priests of Zoroastrianism from ancient Persia,
who saw a sign to follow in the famous star. Traveling a thousand or
more miles from the “east,” their journey would likely have taken months, not
days, and they would have had an entourage carrying food, tents, supplies, etc.
At last they found King Herod to tell him, and us all, of the significance, power,
and majesty this Child brings. And at last they found Him and presented him with their gifts ~ but what of those gifts and their foretelling?
Gold is symbolic of Christ as King while Frankincense speaks to His
Divinity. And then the Myrrh, its
bitter perfume, breathes a life of gathering gloom, a medicinal spice used
often in those times to anoint the dead. Kingship, Divinity, Foreboding...
And as the Magi left by another road, we
learn in later verses not read on this day, that Joseph, Mary, and the
baby Jesus fled to Egypt, while Herod murdered male children trying to kill the
One. The Holy Family didn’t return until after Herod’s death.
Today is another turning point in The Story, an ending and a beginning. In the compression of time given in the Gospels
and the Church calendar, it is a short season indeed before we begin the
unfolding of the ministry, miracles, teaching, execution, and
resurrection of Jesus. It is time again to rediscover the astonishment, the
amazement, the true adoration in this event.
Read the
story as if for the very first time ~ know that we have been
given an extraordinary gift, Christ, Our Lord, has been born to us! Let us
be overwhelmed with joy! Let us search diligently for
the child within us and around us. Epiphany is the time to
seek the Magi-cal gifts in my own life that call me to pay homage, follow,
and live into the light and life of Christ in boldness and confidence
through faith in him. Arise, shine; for your light has come! Have
an EPIPHANY every single day!
Click on or copy the link for the Robert Shaw Chorale with We Three
Kings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ZOGTPsxng
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