Wow ... didn't know that!

Dear Cooper:

Your Baptism is on a Sunday which the ancient Church would have called the 5th Sunday in Epiphany.

So here is something you may not know – we often think of the twelve days of Christmas beginning December 13 and ending December 24. Frankly, this is because Christmas has been hijacked by retailers and shopping and all the stuff ‘I want!’ So the twelve days of Christmas have become “the 12 days of super awesome extraordinary christmas specials” to buy buy buy!! - a marketing gimmick to draw people down the slippery slope of dreaming of a consumer christmas. So, that’s not the real deal when it comes to the twelve days of Christmas (despite the old song which has sadly helped give rise to the consumer culture that now surrounds the Christmas season).

The Twelfth Night comes after Christmas. On January 6 the Church celebrates Epiphany – the day the young Jesus is visited by wise men from the east. The visit didn't actually happen when Jesus was 12 days old; its just a day we chose to celebrate the wise men's visit and their epiphany moment! You see, the moment when these wise men see Jesus they just know that He is God! "On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage." Epiphany refers to a moment of clarity when a truth dawns on you – it’s the “oh, wow, now I get it!” moment. In this moment, we can see God's truth spilling over the ethnic, physical and spiritual bounds of Israel to the gentiles - in this moment we see nothing can constrain God's blessing for the world - in this moment we know that wise men will always seek and follow Jesus.

Each Sunday in Epiphany we study parts of Jesus’ life that point us to an Epiphany moment!! At your Baptism we will talk about Jesus’ teaching that Christ followers are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. By hearing who He says we are, we should hear something pretty awesome about who Jesus is!! I love Epiphany because I always walk away from the readings saying "wow! ... didn't know that!"

Be blessed

t HE
Tuesday, January 17, 2017