worship

Happy (early) Epiphany!

This Sunday we are recognizing a couple of days early the festival of Epiphany or Día de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day). While in English we have our old song about the 12 days of Christmas, the secular calendar with New Years’ has come to dominate, and Santa Claus is the gift-bringer rather than the more biblical wise men. The festival of Epiphany is important, though, because it highlights a major theme of the gospel of Matthew… that Jesus as the king of the Jews is bringing the world to himself to do homage... not as a conquering ruler, but as a humble child. For some reason, there’s a lot of traditions and myths about the wise men. But the word “Magi” is a technical term for Zoroastrian priests from Persia. It’s not really a wonder who they are, and they aren’t kings (reyes)… But they do bring their riches to Jesus, as the Queen of Sheba brought an entourage to Solomon, and as is promised in Revelation 21.

Rev. Dr. Gregory Wagenfuhr