Grace and Peace to you!
In the church year, after Advent and Christmas is the season of Epiphany. The word epiphany means “appearance” or “manifestation”. This word is used when there is a sudden realization of a truth or reality such as when one makes a new discovery about life. More specifically, Christians use the word epiphany to mean “God-appearing” and is a reference to the birth of Jesus, as a “God-appearing” event.
Epiphany, which is on January 6 – the twelfth and last night of Christmas, is celebrated as the Christian festival marking the visit of the mysterious Magi (also known as the Wise Men) as they encounter Jesus.
From the second chapter of the Gospel According to Matthew, we know about what was surely a long and difficult journey from the distant East was that these travelers endured. We are not sure of their starting point, but we do know from the Bible that they knew about the birth of a new king by their seeing a new star in the skies. They believed that this star announced the arrival, the birth of this new king was so special that they knew they had to go and see and experience it for themselves.
But they did not find the child they sought in the beauty and luxury of a royal palace, as they might have expected. They followed the star to where it seemed to rest – over a humble dwelling, perhaps even still among domestic animals with a manger for the child’s bed. They had brought gifts for the infant-King: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. After presenting their gifts they went on their way, returning home.
The Epiphany we refer to is about the visit of the Magi itself, but it is also what has been brought to us since the visit of the Magi. For they gave to us the reality, the truth, that Jesus had been born to the world as Emmanuel = God-With-Us.
The Magi brought us to a new and vivid realization that Jesus had come to bring us new life; that we can have a new relationship with God; and that relationship is for all time. God had come to be with, and to remain with, those who had faith in him through Christ Jesus.
Indeed Jesus, God made flesh, would himself experience the whole spectrum of human emotions – joy and celebration, fear and deep sorrow. He would even suffer human death, so that God could transform death into life-everlasting.
This new understanding of God’s nature and purpose, the revelation that God had come to be close to his people, and desired to experience all the up’s and down’s of human life was, and is, Epiphany. It is the good news that the Gospels tell us of, and within which there are many, many epiphanies, all of which tell us of God’s love for us, through Christ Jesus.
God came to us that first Christmas to stay, and as we make new discoveries of God’s presence with us, so we experience our own “epiphanies” as we awaken to the truth and reality of God that is continually being revealed to us.
In Christ!
Pastor Bakker
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2asking, “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.” 9When they had heard [Herod] 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. 10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. Matthew 2:1-2, 9-10 (NRSV)
Grace and Peace to you!
In the church year, after Advent and Christmas is the season of Epiphany. The word epiphany means “appearance” or “manifestation”. This word is used when there is a sudden realization of a truth or reality such as when one makes a new discovery about life. More specifically, Christians use the word epiphany to mean “God-appearing” and is a reference to the birth of Jesus, as a “God-appearing” event.
Epiphany, which is on January 6 – the twelfth and last night of Christmas, is celebrated as the Christian festival marking the visit of the mysterious Magi (also known as the Wise Men) as they encounter Jesus.
From the second chapter of the Gospel According to Matthew, we know about what was surely a long and difficult journey from the distant East was that these travelers endured. We are not sure of their starting point, but we do know from the Bible that they knew about the birth of a new king by their seeing a new star in the skies. They believed that this star announced the arrival, the birth of this new king was so special that they knew they had to go and see and experience it for themselves.
But they did not find the child they sought in the beauty and luxury of a royal palace, as they might have expected. They followed the star to where it seemed to rest – over a humble dwelling, perhaps even still among domestic animals with a manger for the child’s bed. They had brought gifts for the infant-King: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. After presenting their gifts they went on their way, returning home.
The Epiphany we refer to is about the visit of the Magi itself, but it is also what has been brought to us since the visit of the Magi. For they gave to us the reality, the truth, that Jesus had been born to the world as Emmanuel = God-With-Us.
The Magi brought us to a new and vivid realization that Jesus had come to bring us new life; that we can have a new relationship with God; and that relationship is for all time. God had come to be with, and to remain with, those who had faith in him through Christ Jesus.
Indeed Jesus, God made flesh, would himself experience the whole spectrum of human emotions – joy and celebration, fear and deep sorrow. He would even suffer human death, so that God could transform death into life-everlasting.
This new understanding of God’s nature and purpose, the revelation that God had come to be close to his people, and desired to experience all the up’s and down’s of human life was, and is, Epiphany. It is the good news that the Gospels tell us of, and within which there are many, many epiphanies, all of which tell us of God’s love for us, through Christ Jesus.
God came to us that first Christmas to stay, and as we make new discoveries of God’s presence with us, so we experience our own “epiphanies” as we awaken to the truth and reality of God that is continually being revealed to us.
In Christ!
Pastor Bakker
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2asking, “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.” 9When they had heard [Herod] 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. 10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. Matthew 2:1-2, 9-10 (NRSV)
