Today is Epiphany, also known to some as Three Kings Day. I’ve commented on Epiphany in a previous blog entry (Toys R Us Celebrates Epiphany). Today’s blog is a guest submission from Rev. Frederick L. Lentz, pastor of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Parsippany.
Epiphany:
In every church I’ve ever been in, I’ve had to hide the wise men until Epiphany. For some reason we lump the first Epiphany, the appearance of star to the wise men in the east, with the shepherd and the angels. But these are separate stories, and to my mind have different messages. Christmas is about God made Flesh. About God come in diapers, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.
Epiphany is about seeing something that was always there but now you understand in a new way. Wise men followed a star and found a king but not the kind of king they were expecting. Their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh must have seemed silly gifts for a poor Hebrew child. But they make perfect sense in the light of where this “king” will reign. They point to his death, where gold could be used to pay the costs of burial, and frankincense and myrrh could be used to cover the smell of death. Yet none of these great gifts or their givers anticipated that God would raise Jesus from the dead, and that therefore none of these gifts would be needed.
Epiphany is about that. About our best expectations being challenged and changed by a God who still surprises us. Life is about that too, as you well know. For you know how some of the best-laid plains can go completely haywire and yet sometimes come out even better than we could have ever planned or hoped.
Peace,
Pastor Fred
Epiphany:
In every church I’ve ever been in, I’ve had to hide the wise men until Epiphany. For some reason we lump the first Epiphany, the appearance of star to the wise men in the east, with the shepherd and the angels. But these are separate stories, and to my mind have different messages. Christmas is about God made Flesh. About God come in diapers, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.
Epiphany is about seeing something that was always there but now you understand in a new way. Wise men followed a star and found a king but not the kind of king they were expecting. Their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh must have seemed silly gifts for a poor Hebrew child. But they make perfect sense in the light of where this “king” will reign. They point to his death, where gold could be used to pay the costs of burial, and frankincense and myrrh could be used to cover the smell of death. Yet none of these great gifts or their givers anticipated that God would raise Jesus from the dead, and that therefore none of these gifts would be needed.
Epiphany is about that. About our best expectations being challenged and changed by a God who still surprises us. Life is about that too, as you well know. For you know how some of the best-laid plains can go completely haywire and yet sometimes come out even better than we could have ever planned or hoped.
Peace,
Pastor Fred
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