ABC Epiphany
Magi

Introduction to the Season of Epiphany

The 2nd Holy Season of the Church Year is the Epiphany of our Lord Jesus, the Christ, which begins on the 6th day of January each year. This day recognizes the visitation into Jewish territory of three gentile Wise men (astrologers) who paid homage to Jesus and offered him symbolic gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. The assigned readings for Sunday worship during this season witness to, reveal, make known to human thought and spirit the nature and ultimate purpose of Jesus of Nazareth. The word “Epiphany” means to show forth, manifest, open up and reveal. This year there will be eight Sundays in Epiphany.  As these Sundays begin, please keep in mind the following two undeniable psycho-social and natural scientific realities: 

Reality #1.  When we enter a Christian worship space, particularly, but not exclusively, a Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Episcopal or Lutheran Church, we enter a holy space that is intended visually, musically,  artistically, rhetorically and sacramentally to offer each person a “worldview”. This means a distinctive conception of life and an authentic intentional way of being human in the world. Our worldview should begin with accepting creation as a gift of God, acknowledging the problem of evil and sin, and recognizing the hope of Christ’s redemptive love in and through biblical stories, sermons, drama, music, dance, artifacts, paintings, symbols, statuary, artistic windows, prayer, sacraments, and powerful liturgies. The Christ and the Church exist to offer and shape in us a personal worldview. Ask your parish priest to compare a Christian worldview to that of a racist, a miser and an egoist.

Reality #2.   Since Evolutionary science (mid-19th century) has become so insightful that theologians now recognize evolution, along with cosmology, physics, genetics, geology, and environment as so formative and essential to creation that it can truly be said “Creation is a gift of love and freedom which amazingly continues to make itself.” Everything that is created, evolves. Fourteen or so billion years ago, from the complex formation and explosion of subatomic material, the universe came into being. “Let there be!” said God (Genesis). The Christian Faith has a Doctrine of Creation!! Creation has been allowed by its creator to make itself. Frankly, that is what happened when time began. Everything evolves. All living things struggle to survive. The sciences witness to the complexity of life and expose the challenges of change “in all creatures great and small”. Deaths occur in peace. Deaths occur in violence. Creation and all that exists moves along on its own evolutionary course. 

The Wise men gave Jesus three symbolic gifts:   

Gold, which affirms a culture’s evolution in exchange, bartering, trade and economic systems. Most people associate gold with power, position, achievement and control. Note: it is just a part of an evolving system which now includes “bitcoins.” While the Holy Family paid for safety, escape, settlement in Egypt and expenses to return to Nazareth before Jesus’s bar Mitzvah, Jesus eventually had to confront the way “gold” evolves in relation to the Temple and the  money changers.

Frankincense is associated with religion and burnt sacrifices. The aroma was intended to please God. The smoke carried upward devout prayers! Frankincense as a gift to Jesus represented the knowledge held by the Wise men with regard to the Jewish sacrifice of lambs at Passover.  Jesus was crucified on the day that sacrifices were offered in the temple. “Oh Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.”

Myrrh, the aromatic, expensive spice placed on the body of the dead. It comes from Arabia. It is the last attempt to make the body pleasant to be near. It keeps insects away after the body is wrapped in linen. Using It is the last attempt at a pleasant worldview . . . unless, of course, your worldview includes hope in a resurrection, and a willingness to let God take over a life that in its evolving was supposed to have played a part in a world that makes itself.

©2022 Philip H. Whitehead

Matthew 2:1-23

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came 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.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 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 knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, 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.

From sermons4kids: ". . . the wise men did not have a map to guide them to Bethlehem, but they had something even better—a star. So the wise men followed information that the priests had given to Herod and the star that God had given to guide them and it led them right to Jesus. When they found him, they gave him gifts and bowed down and worshiped him." 

Scripture: January 6, 2022—The Epiphany—Isaiah 60:1-6 (image); Psalm 72:1-7,10-14 (image); Ephesians 3:1-12 (image); and Matthew 2:1-12 (image). A visual and oral journey. 

Collect: O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Reflection: Warned in a dream of Herod’s evil intentions, the magi “left for their own country by another road.” What could it mean for you to take “another road” as the church concludes the celebrations of the Christmas Season?