Thought for Today

Psalm 72:1  Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son. 2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.

Matthew 2:1  In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2  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."  

My denominational planning calendar tells me that today is Epiphany. My Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms tells me about Epiphany, “In general, an appearance of the divine. Specifically, a church festival of January 6, celebrating the visit of the Magi to Jesus as a divine ‘manifestation; to Gentiles (Matt.2). Eastern churches celebrate Christ’s ‘appearance’ at his baptism.”

In all honesty, I’m not sure I ever even heard about Epiphany prior to attending seminary. Like all Christians, and many non-Christians, I knew about the visit of the Magi. I have seen the television specials; I know about the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh; I even know about the gift of ‘the little drummer boy.’ But, I had always associated the event with the birth narratives and rather blithely passed over the passage of time between birth and Epiphany.

Most Protestants take great pride in Sunday Schools and Bible Studies, in basing our faith and belief solely on scripture and divine revelation in nature and in history. Sadly, far too many Christians of all faith traditions today gain much of their knowledge about it all from television and Hollywood cinema.

I wonder how many of you who are reading this have ever read stories or articles about Magi, how many know it is the English rendition of the plural of the Greek μάγος  (magus), which my lexicon tells me means “the high priestly caste of Persia, wise man of the Magian religion.” Basically, they were those who studied astronomy and astrology. At that time, in that region, they were regarded as truly wise men.

Of course, for most of us, the more important issue in Epiphany is that they were not Jews. That is what today is all about. The truth of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God was made known to Gentiles. Again, this is our English rendition of the Greek  ἐθνικὸς (ethnicos), meaning “non-Jewish peoples, foreign.” It is a Greek adjective used substantively and derived from the Greek noun we translate as ‘nation.’

Isn’t it sad, maybe especially on this day Christians celebrate the revelation of Christ’s divinity to all the nations, that like the Jews and Greeks of the ancient world, we still separate and categorize people in terms of “them” verses “us”? Sometimes the labels change. Sometimes the separators, the excuses for the separation change. We separate on the basis of gender, nationality, ethnicity, etc., etc., etc. But, throughout Christendom we separate.

Yesterday, in our congregation, we celebrated the Eucharist. Every time we do so, I begin my words of institution with, “This is not our table. It is the table of Jesus Christ. All are welcome here. No matter who you are, no matter the state of your life or your faith. Welcome to the table of our Lord.” That is my ‘gentle’ reminder to myself and my congregation that we cast a very wide umbrella under which all of God’s children are welcomed to shelter. It should be so for all Christians everywhere. All are welcome.

We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Christ, like all of those other words I mention above, is our English rendition of another Greek word, χριστος (christos), “one who has been anointed.” In the ancient world, kings were anointed, priests and sometimes prophets were anointed. The psalmist’s prayer seems especially appropriate on this Epiphany, “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son. 2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.”

The apostle Paul had his own, personal epiphany on the Road to Damascus when Saul came face-to-face with the risen Jesus. Saul became, “Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful this Epiphany if all of God’s children could have such epiphanies, could realize that ‘divine manifestation’ of Jesus, the Christ!

Stay safe, accept God’s anointed Son, trust God,

Pastor Ray