Sunday,
1/8/12
I have a
personal attachment to the Epiphany. I was baptized in Epiphany Church in St.
Louis, and I attended the Epiphany Grade School. As little kids we left an “e”
and an “a” out of the name. We’d say, “We go to Piffney school.” My dad taught
my older sisters to pronounce it the right way as cheerleaders. He had them
doing a little step as they chanted. “E-P-I, E-P-I, P-H-A-N-Y.”
The name
Epiphany is older than Christianity. It literally means “Showing forth.” And
ancient kings struck fear in subjects by saying they were actually gods revealing
themselves in human form.
Two
hundred years before Jesus a descendant of Alexander’s top general demanded
that people address him as “the Epiphany.” He was Antiochus Epiphanus. By
desecrating the temple he brought on the revolt of the Maccabees that led to
his destruction.
In Chapter
Twelve of the Acts of the Apostles the son of Herod the Great staged an
epiphany for himself. To strike fear in unwilling subjects he had them
assembled before he shining throne. Then, decked in silver and gold, and
appearing in bright sunlight, he had stooges leading the crowd in shouting, “He
is a god, not a man!” For that, Luke tells us, Herod was struck down, and eaten
by worms.
Centuries
before Christians thought of celebrating the birth of Christ they had the Feast
of the Epiphany as their big feast, sharing the limelight with Easter.
Oddly,
while we think of Epiphany as the acts of the Magi recognizing Jesus as being
like God. Some parts of the Eastern Church celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany
with the story of the Marriage Feast at Cana when Jesus first “Manifested his
glory.” Other parts of the Eastern Church celebrate the Epiphany with the
Gospel story of he baptism of Jesus when the Father, speaking from heaven,
called Jesus his Son.
WE must
celebrate Epiphany by putting our whole hearts and souls into believing that
Jesus was God appearing in a human form.
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