Epiphany Is Not for the Faint of Heart
(2014) Yesterday, as we do every year on the Sunday closest to January 6th, the gathered body of Christ celebrated Epiphany. In Sunday School Brennan joined in a search for baby Jesus. Conveniently his arrival meant there were three boys available to make the trek and re-enact the legend of the three kings -- a tale derived from Matthew's account of wise men bringing three kinds of gifts to the infant king. The boys found the swaddled baby beneath a hanging star, interestingly back in the same classroom where they had begun their search. If you know the story, then you know that the wise men are warned in a dream not to return home the way they had come. Matthew says they left for their own country by a different road. *** I have tended to think of Epiphany as a sudden shining moment, illuminating what has been hidden, making clear what has been murky. Some truth exists in this, but I have come to realize that epiphany only becomes such when preceded by preparation and followed b...