Happy 10th Day of Christmas everyone! This is also the Second Sunday of Christmas (in some traditions) and Epiphany Sunday in the United Methodist Church. For many of us, we stopped being Christmassy on December 26. However, the church celebrates the full 12 days of Christmastide that fall between December 25 and January 5 (Twelfth Night) with the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 as the closing of the Christmas Season. For our Orthodox brothers and sisters, Epiphany IS Christmas.
Regardless, with the Epiphany, we acknowledge that folks outside the “family,” Gentile astrologers, were the first to acknowledge that this child that had been born in Bethlehem was special. What did they see that the Jewish authorities had missed? How did the Jews miss seeing the Messiah in their midst? How do WE miss seeing the Messiah in OUR midst?
Join us on this first Sunday of the new year, January 3, 2021, as we celebrate the coming of the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us. Our scriptures are Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; and Matthew 2:1-12.