Worship Notes – Epiphany
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The
“Twelve Days of Christmas” start on Christmas Eve and end the night of January
5th. The next morning,
January 6th, is called “The Epiphany.” In the Greek and Roman mythology when a god revealed him/herself,
or when a king made an official visit to a town, it was an “epiphany.” Christians soon adopted it into their own
language to describe those moments when God was revealed in Jesus: the star of Bethlehem,
a voice from heaven, miracles, the power of his call, the authority of his
preaching, etc.
In
the second and third centuries the Eastern Church celebrated Jesus’ birth on
January 6th. (The date may
have been chosen because it is exactly nine months after April 6, the day they
celebrated Jesus’ conception!) About
the same time, the western church began to celebrate his birth on the winter
solstice (back then it was December 25th) perhaps to provide a
Christian alternative to the pagan celebration of “the day of the unconquered
sun.”
By
the middle of the fourth century, much of the Church celebrated “Christ’s
Mass,” or Christmas, on December 25th, but reserved an even bigger
religious celebration on January 6th to celebrate the Epiphany, or
the visit of the wise men following the Bethlehem star. There was great music and plays re-enacting
the scene.
We
tend to lump it together: shepherds, angels, star and wise men. If you read Luke 2:10-11 and 2:16 carefully,
you will see that the wise men came, not to a stable, but to a “house”
in Bethlehem. You will also note that
Herod, in his bloodthirsty search for the child, had the soldiers slaughter
children two years and younger based
on the “calculation that the wise men had given him.” Jesus was probably a young toddler by the time the wise men
arrived, but—hey—it was a long walk from the eastern kingdoms!
This
is an even more incredible story when you realize that God used a star to bring eastern astrologers, gentiles, to worship the child, and to give gifts befitting a
king! God will use many means and many
people to get his point across, won’t he?
I’m not suggesting that we should be calling 1-900 astrology numbers,
but clearly, God will be found and he will speak to us from the very places we
think he wouldn’t touch!
Think
about this the next time that you see the “new-age” section in a bookstore: Why
is that such a popular place? What are people hoping to find there? Maybe a longing voice whispers to them even
from such places. But they get so
caught up in the stars themselves, (divination, occult, magic, etc.) they can’t
see that—it’s not the signs and stars that whisper to them—but the
Christ-child. We have what they are
looking for!
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