 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri January 5, 2022 Twelfth Night of Christmas Almost Epiphany  The Twelfth Day of Christmas Epiphany EveEpiphany is a big deal. Before Christmas was ever celebrated as a separate feast, Epiphany was already being commemorated across the young church, and the birth of Jesus was part of that. Whether you think of those men who came to visit the child and to worship him as “wise men” or “magi” – from “the east”, as Matthew says, or whether you imagine them as foreign “kings”, as tradition soon made them, hardly matters. What is important is that very early the church celebrated God’s inclusion of the Gentiles within the people of God – as equals to the Jews, who already were. And it mattered to those Gentiles that wise men, even their own rulers, “kings” were nobodies compared to the Lord Jesus who brought the true King, God, God’s own self – into the world, for the salvation of the whole world, and that they came and bowed down to worship him. . Today the twelfth day of Christmas is when Christmas and Epiphany meet – and each illuminates the other – the “Light that shines in the darkness” is also the “Light that enlightens the Gentiles” – It only seems secondary to us, because we take for granted that we belong in the story. But for first century Christians, both Jewish and Gentile, that was not an assumption everyone made. And discerning how two such different groups of people could live and worship together takes up a good bit of the New Testament! But enjoy these pieces of art The picture above shows one of the wise men consoling Joseph, commiserating, perhaps, or assuring him that escaping Herod and going into Egypt all unprepared, would save his little son. The one below is a contemporary piece, in which the kingship of the three is not clear, although their wealth certainly is, but Mary’s son is definitely in focus as the true king receiving gifts, homage, and adoration.  Gertrud Mueller’s mother made this nativity set even before the family escaped from Hitler’s Germany in 1936. The figures are all carved of wood, with padded wire limbs so they can be positioned. Gertrud remembers that her mother always let this king, the black one, hold the baby. Perhaps she understood all too well what it was like to be an outsider, trying to make a new life in the US as a German even before WWII actually began. In any case, just doing that for her children demonstrated to them the decisive, and definitive inclusion – of all.  Three More Birthdays Yesterday was Sandy Sherry’s birthday, and today is Mari Woosley’s and Lindsey Walker’s! Happy birthday to each of you – May this year be an especially good one! Three wise women on the eve of Epiphany!       |
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