Today is a Very Special Monday

I’ve been a Christian for about 45 years now and you would think that I have heard of pretty much most things that there are to know about my faith.  Recently a fellow worker in the Lord gave me a lovely devotional gift of a Lectionary for the Anglican Church of New Zealand and Polynesia.  Basically it is a prescribed set of daily readings from scripture along with other church calendar events for the year 2014.  I’ve been enjoying the mixture of New and Old Testament passages that are set out often carrying some sort of thematic way of reading through the scriptures.  Today I was informed for the first time, that I can remember anyway, that the 6^th of January is set aside as a “principle feast that should not be displaced by any other celebration.”   The feast is called “The Epiphany” of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is the festival in the Western Church Calendar that is based upon the visitation of the magi from the east to the baby Jesus.  In essence, it is the moment in time when Jesus, the Son of God, is presented to people other than Mary and Joseph, as a human person. It is the revelation, the epiphany, of God in human flesh on earth.  Epiphany also marks the end of the Christmas Season, or the 12 Days of Christmas that began at the end of Christmas Eve, 24 December.  Since the early days of Christianity, Biblical scholars and theologians have offered varying interpretations of the meaning and significance of the gold, frankincense and myrrh that the magi presented to Jesus, according to the Gospel of Matthew (2:11). These valuable items were standard and quite expensive gifts given to honour a king or deity in the ancient world: gold as precious metal, frankincense as perfume or incense, and myrrh as anointing oil.  It was these gifts that were used to symbolise as a token from the wise men their hearts of worship for Jesus as a divine king. Sadly these same gifts may have in part triggered the jealous rage of King Herod that lead to the order to kill all the boys in Bethlehem 2 years of age and under in an effort to kill off his competition for the throne.  Jesus had such an effect on people even as a baby.  People either worshipped him as God or hated him and tried to destroy him.  Not much has changed even to this day.  Today I was blessed to celebrate this festive occasion with my wife Cheryl and our daughter Danae as we made our way to a little slice of Canada in Auckland known as Al’s Deli.  We enjoyed a plate of poutine and then a “moose ear” aka “elephant ear” aka “beaver tail” depending on the part of Canada you eat it in.   Yummy foods that for the most part is terrible for you to eat but hey, why not cast off restraint once in a while especially on such a momentous occasion.  Gotta love Epiphany feasts!  lol