Looking Ahead to January 4, 2026 -- Epiphany Sunday

Welcome to a New Year! As this is the first Sunday of a new month we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion this week.

The Scripture Readings for this Epiphany Sunday are:

• Matthew 2:1-12
• Luke 2:25-38

The Sermon title is Seeing the Child

Early Thoughts: What happens when we encounter God? What happens when we see clearly for an instant?

Both our stories this week are about people seeking or waiting to see the Promised One. In both our stories they end up having their quest fulfilled. In one case they "go home by a different way". In another both people are moved to praise and proclaim how God is at work in this child.

One of many artistic
impressions of the Magi
Source

The Magi are learned people from far away. They read the signs and know that something big is happening so they travel far to find the new king who has been born. Along the way they alert the current king of a possible contender because they are still stuck in a different understanding of where to find the Promised One. They look first among the high and mighty. They find the child in a much humbler space. 

The story tells us why the Magi go home by a different road. They do it because a dream warns them to avoid going back to Herod. Alerted by their earlier visit Herod is now seeking to get rid of any possible competition (which appears very much on brand for what we know of Herod the Great). However there have been many over the centuries who wonder if there is something more to that last line. Aside from the very practical political reason, is Matthew perhaps suggesting that the Magi have been changed by the encounter? It is an interesting question. How were they affected by their long journey and the actual finding of the child? These are people with a different spirituality, a different, non-Jewish, understanding of the Divine. How might the encounter with Emmanuel, God-Made-Flesh (as Christians describe this child) change them?

Rembrandt's interpretation 
of that day in the temple
source

Then we have Simeon and Anna. They are both well advanced in years. They are both in the temple when Mary and Joseph arrive with their newborn son. Both of them, on seeing the child, know who he is. Both of them respond with praise and prophecy. What could easily have been described as a pair of chance encounters takes on a whole new level of meaning because God is revealed.

This Sunday we are marking (two days early) the ancient festival of Epiphany. Capitalized the word epiphany refers specifically to this festival where the visit and adoration of the Magi is remembered. But as a word apart from the festival epiphany is something that happens many ways. Dictionary.com reminds us that the word refers to a revelation, either as a manifestation of Divine presence or as a sudden burst of insight. For the next several weeks the Christian Year has us in the Season After Epiphany (which bridges the time until the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday -- February 18 this year). I think that one of the themes of this season is to open ourselves for the possibility that God might be revealed to us. I mean yes, we are supposed to be aware of that all the time but maybe this is a time to be extra aware?

What impact does God being revealed to us have in our lives? Are we really aware of it at the time or only in retrospect?

Epiphanies (not the festival) happen in many ways. God is revealed in many different ways. Sometimes, I think, we totally miss it when it happens. But when we recognize it! When we become aware that something deeply special is happening right her and now! It leaves a mark. Encountering God changes us -- if we let it. 

I have learned that many of us have stories of becoming aware, sometimes suddenly, sometimes surprisingly, that God is really present with us in a situation. Many of us can look back and tell how that experience (or those experiences) has shaped us as people of faith.

The Magi were seeking the child. Simeon was waiting for a promise to come true. Anna might just have happened to be there or maybe she too was waiting. They had their chance. Are you seeking or waiting or jus happen to be at the right place at the right time? What happens when you too see the child for who he really is?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 5, 2025 -- Epiphany Sunday

The Feast of Epiphany falls on January 6th, right after the 12 Days of Christmas. This Feast is when the church marks the visit of the Magi to the Holy Family, as told in Matthew's Gospel). When January 6th is not a Sunday many churches choose to mark Epiphany on the Sunday before.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 60:1-6 (which is the basis of the Call to Worship) 
• Matthew 2:1-12

The Sermon title is Strange Visitors

Early Thoughts: What did Mary and Joseph think about it? When there was a knock at the door and these strange men from far away came into the house what thoughts might have run through their minds? For that matter what did Herod think when these visitors from afar appeared talking about a new king? (We are given a hint of his thoughts in the verses that follow this week's reading -- suffice to say that joy and praise are not in his heart).

Matthew tells us this story as a way of showing that the coming of the Messiah is both a gift for all nations, not just the Jewish people, and is recognized by those who know what to look for -- no matter where they may be. Strange visitors may have told Mary and Joseph something more about this child (it is unclear if Matthew sees this happening when Jesu was still an infant or moving into toddlerhood) they had in their family. Strange visitors warn the powers that be that change is in the air. Strange visitors proclaim that God is at work.

Even the gifts that Matthew mentions have (or have been given over the years) deeply symbolic meanings, as the carol We Three Kings will tell us. The Magi seem to have chosen these rich gifts to mark the birth of a king (Gold), the birth of one who is deeply connected to the Divine (Frankincense), and foretell his death (Myrrh, a burial spice). Strange gifts for a peasant family.

There is a saying in community development that sometimes you need the outside voice to tell you what you already know. Sometimes the voices from within the system just don't get heard but the outside expert says the same thing and everybody sits up as if it is new information (many clergy will tell you that churches can be really bad for this). Maybe the strange visitors can open our eyes to what God is doing in our midst. Maybe that is part of what the Magi do in Matthew's Gospel -- they help open the eyes of the readers/listeners to see what God is doing in the Jesus story.

What strange visitors have helped you grow in you awareness of God's activity in the world? What strange visitors might we need today to help us see where God is in our midst, to show us a way forward -- even if it is by a different road than before?
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 3, 2021 -- Epiphany Sunday

And now we change the calendar (when I first typed the title of this post I did in fact put 2020 and had to go back and correct it). As this is the first Sunday of January we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion. As we are still worshiping on-line only the Communion will be virtual. You are invited to have bread and juice (or some equivalent choice) available as we join together on YouTube for worship.

In the flow of the Church Year Epiphany always falls on January 6 (after the 12 Days of Christmas). That puts it on a Wednesday this year. Many of us often choose to tell the Epiphany story on the Sunday before the 6th since we do not have worship on the feast day itself.  That is what we are doing this year.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 60:1-6
• Psalm 72:1-14
• Matthew 2:1-12 (this will be the basis of our Children's Time)
  

The Sermon title is Light Has Come, The World is Changed

Early Thoughts:  Visitors from afar, whose wisdom has lead them to this place. Wise ones who come in search of the King, and whose wisdom helps the look beyond the normal expectations (eventually at least).

Why did they come? What hope was evident in this new king?

I'll be honest, I sincerely doubt that there was an actual historical visit of the Magi. I think the early Christian community developed the story as something that could/should/might have happened based on their experience of Jesus of Nazareth and amplified by their experience of the Risen Christ. They then saw passages like this one from Isaiah and developed a story about visitors from far away. Isaiah was also not talking about the visit of the Magi as we know the story. But it is possible that Isaiah was sharing a vision, a hope, an expectation about what it would be like when God was enthroned on Earth. When the Reign of God is made real than people will flock from all directions to the kingdom.

At my first reading, Psalm 72 appears to be written for a coronation. Certainly it is written to celebrate the King, to pray for what the King will be, sharing hopes about what the kingdom will be like under his reign. It is an easy thing to do to apply many of those verses to the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed.

"Joy to the World! The Lord has come! Let earth receive her King!" So says the Christmas Carol. What kind of king will he be? What kind of kingdom will he reign over? Will the nations come from far and wide to celebrate the new king?

--Gord