This Sunday is the traditional Sunday to celebrate Ephiphany — a celebration of salvation for Gentiles as the Wise Men came to recognize the birth of Jesus. It is all too easy to take down the decorations, be done with Christmas, and get on with the new year, and Epiphany reminds us to linger on the miracle of the incarnation, the miracle of God coming to earth as a human.
We’ll put our own spin on Epiphany, reflecting not on the Wise Men alone, but on the larger narrative of Jesus’ early childhood. There are important stories that are often overlooked in our eagerness to move on from Christmas, and in our gathering this Sunday, January 2, 2011(!) we will turn to those stories.
