Merry Christmas
Eve! As you may know, our Orthodox friends will be celebrating Christmas
day tomorrow, January 7, 2016.
Yesterday
the Lord blessed us with an amazing day. . . bright and beautiful. I
was in the Triple Cities yesterday doing some errands and I drove
home in the early evening. The evening sun was glistening on
the snow capped fields and the hills. It will be warming up
somewhat today. I was talking to friends in Orissa, India, who shared
with me that the mango trees have already started blooming with sweet
aroma. The days have started to get longer, gladdening my
heart.In the words of P. B. Shelley, the Romantic Poet of Great Britain, " O,
wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?".
Praise
the Lord for all sweet and simple gifts of love and grace. My wife is
busy concentrating with the latest of her puzzles, a vintage Harper's Bazar
print - a Liberty puzzle. Actually she started it on Sunday and just
finished it this morning.
I
was talking to a local bee keeper yesterday. The wife shared with me that they
have 800 beehives. That is quiet impressive. She said that
they harvest honey of all kinds of flavors and colors. In the Book
of Genesis Jacob sent Joseph to visit his brothers in the fields away from
home. Jacob said to Joseph, almost out of context and out of blue,
"And take some honey". Life can be often bitter and
brutal. The Lord calls to us along the life's journey, "Take some
honey (not vinegar)".
We
will gather for our first Wednesday Evening Gathering of 2016 for
fellowship and study this evening at 6:00 PM with a very special dinner.
We will be studying from the Gospel according to St John. Lord blesses us
with sweet fellowship and with His abiding love. May He be praised.
Today
the Church celebrates the feast of the Epiphany. The Epiphany narrative
is recorded in Matthew chapter 2:
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On their way they
(the wise men) saw the same star they had seen in the East. When they saw it,
how happy they were, what joy was theirs! It went ahead of them until it
stopped over the place where the child was. They went into the house, and
when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped
him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and
presented them to him.
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One of the favorite images of Christmas is that of the wise men traveling by camel through a starlit night. One star dominated the sky as they arrived on the crest of the hill overlooking Bethlehem. The journey was almost over. It’s been a long trip from a country far away in the east. There have been dangers along the way and they finally arrived at the town of Jesus’ birth. With just a few hundred meters to go the wise men looked down from the star in the sky to the building lying below its light. This is where they would find the new born king of the Jews that they had read about in the Scriptures. This picture of the wise men is a very popular one on Christmas Cards and in our nativity scenes and Christmas plays. We tend to place the wise men around the manger with the shepherds who have come to the stable to see the baby boy.
I am glad that the story of the wise men is told apart from actual celebration of Christmas when we focus on Jesus’ birth, the choir of angels, and the shepherds. The arrival of the wise men has been traditionally part of Epiphany which is celebrated on 6th January, the 12th day of Christmas. One of the facts that Matthew gives is that the wise men came with special gifts for the newborn king. The gospel writer tells us, "They went into the house, and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him."
Gold, frankincense, and myrrh – what strange gifts for a newborn. Some speculate that these gifts were the principal items used in the wizardry and magic that wise men from the east may have dabbled in. In this scenario, by giving the Christ-child gold, frankincense and myrrh, they were handing over their tools of trade. They were demonstrating that they were no longer pagan dabblers in magic. They were letting go of the past because they had found a new guiding star – the Christ child.
Others have reasoned that these gifts are symbols of whom this baby was.
Gold is a gift fit for a king. It represents power and wealth. This child Jesus is both royal and kingly. Frankincense represents that this baby is God come to earth.
Myrrh was used in embalming the dead. It indicated this child’s humanity and foreshadowed his suffering and death as Savior of the world.
These have been popular interpretations of the gifts that the wise men brought, but Matthew doesn't give us any explanation why they brought gold, frankincense and myrrh. Matthew simply gives us the facts. "They knelt down and worshiped him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him."
To us these mights seem rather useless gifts but what do you give to this child who is the all-powerful God, who controls the stars to such an extent that a particularly bright star traveled westward and stopped over the place where Jesus and his parents were living? When the Lord of the universe reaches down from heaven and touches the earth,
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