The Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ Celebrates The

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The New Liturgy of the Revised Roman Missal Liturgical Minute – C4 Epiphany The Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the wise men or magi from the East, revealing that Jesus, Son of God, is not only the Messiah of Israel, but also Savior of the entire world. Epiphany comes from a Greek verb meaning, "to reveal," "to shine upon," "to manifest," or “to make known.” Epiphany originally celebrated four different events in which Christ is made known to the world, to include the Nativity of Jesus, wherein the angels bear witness to his miraculous birth, and three additional events that “made known,” the mission and divinity of Christ – those being the visitation of the Wise Men, signifying the extension of salvation to the Gentiles; the Baptism of Christ, when the voice of God the Father is heard declaring that Jesus is His Son; and the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana, Eventually, the celebration of Epiphany was separated, first, into Christmas, the revelation of Christ to the people of Israel, represented by the shepherds who bowed down before him, and second, Epiphany itself, celebrating the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas when Christ was revealed to the Gentiles, represented by the Wise Men from the east who came to pay homage to him. The arrival of the Wise Men signified that they sought in Israel, in the messianic light and promise contained in the Star of David, the one who will be king of all nations. .

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The Epiphany Gospels MICHAEL ROGNESS
Word & World Volume 24, Number 1 Winter 2004 Texts in Context “You are my Son, the Beloved”: The Epiphany Gospels MICHAEL ROGNESS he Epiphany season is placed awkwardly between the pillars of Christmas and Lent, generally a somewhat down time in pastoral activity. Among early Greek Christians, however, this season focused on Jesus’ baptism as the manifestation of his true person and mission. As a church festival it ranked right up there with Easter and Pentecost. The Western or Latin church shifted the emphasis of Epiphany to Jesus’ manifestation to the Gentiles, marked by the visit of the foreign magi from the East, those strange astrologers who saw the star (or conjunction of planets) announcing the birth of a king among the Hebrews. Therefore Matt 2:1–12 launches the Epiph- any story. This puzzles listeners in the pews, because our image of the wise men has been formed by Sunday School Christmas tableaus, with three boys standing to one side of the manger draped in their parents’ bathrobes and holding aluminum- foil-wrapped boxes as presents for the Bethlehem child. By December 26 we’re done with the wise men, but here they come again, twelve days later, singing “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” It’s an odd chronology, though probably not a problem for most Protestant churches, since few of us will actually worship on January 6 itself! FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY (THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD): LUKE 3:15–17, 21–22 The Epiphany theme begins more logically with the baptism of Jesus. This year’s sequence will strike the preacher as odd, however, since the Gospel lessons of As the season of Epiphany progresses, the appointed Gospel readings make clearer and clearer the meaning of the voice at Jesus’ baptism: “You are my Son, the Beloved.” The preacher’s task is to present this message as fully as possible.
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Christmas and Epiphany G E N E R a L E D I T O R Robert B
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From Baptism to Resurrection, January 10, 2021
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