Ensign: Epiphany

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 6 January 2017 

“On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me … twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords-a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids-a-milking, seven swans-a-swimming, six geese-a-laying, FIVE GOLDEN RINGS! Four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree!” Never mind what the lyrics of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” really mean (somehow, it's just not a will-I-go-to-heaven-dependent-on-what-I-believe issue), today is the last day of Christmas, often called Epiphany. By tradition it's the day on which the Wise Men got to see Jesus with their own eyes. 

Like most traditions, you have to question it. Just as it's highly unlikely if not impossible that Jesus was born the twenty-fifth of December of the year zero (or the year one? The day we celebrate Christmas supplanted a feast to the Roman god Saturn in the early fourth century) it's also hard to nail down just when the Wise Men (not necessarily the Three Kings, familiar to us from one alternate title for today, Three Kings Day) got to see Jesus, but we do know from Matthew's account that it wasn't in the stable in Bethlehem. Matthew 2:11 refers to “wise men from the east” coming “into the house” with Mary and Jesus (as a “young child”, not a baby; a toddler today).

No, this revelation or epiphany will not prompt classic Nativity scenes to collect dust next Christmas, I'm quite sure of that … but we need to careful that we don't let our traditions – what we've done for years, decades, maybe centuries (though obviously “centuries” would not apply to anyone now living) – become the why in dealing with other people. “We'll do it this way because it's the way we've always done it” can be stifling and keep us turned inward. Jesus as an adult would castigate the Pharisees on this (Matthew 15:3, “Why do ye transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?”) when they called His disciples for not washing their hands before they ate.

This was nineteen centuries before the germ theory of disease became widespread; washing your hands in this context was a ritual purification. By this time, it had become a hard and fast rule of the law given to Moses, an oral tradition – there's that word again, hear Fiddler on the Roof playing – that kept people OUT of fellowship with God rather than welcomed them in. Jesus uses the example of the commandment to honor your father and mother in verse four (the fifth, from Exodus 20:12) and the tradition that had come to supplant it in spirit – from verses five to six, that any honor that's to be given to your parents is given to the Temple (and the priesthood) instead – to make a point.

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” James 1:26 comes to mind because it's easy to make the argument (as many people have) that all our problems stem from religion. The practice of religion, it's true, has given and still gives the church a black eye to many people. We ask – okay, I ask first – that you please forgive us. We won't back down on God so loving the world that He gave His only begotten Son so whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16, the Bible in a nutshell), but for the rest of it we have a new commandment.

And that is to love one another,

David

P.S. Happy New Year! This being the first Ensign of 2017 I can still say that.

I will continue as long as God allows me to write this devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages us too! If it's not or you would like me to get lost, please let me know. Thanks!

Thank YOU, Lord, that we can come to You in prayer and that we can count on You to provide for all our needs according to Your riches in glory, even when we don't know what our needs are. (This happens more often than we think.) And we come to You in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of that fence and all over the world.

Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus the Christ.

And now I pray that we all seek and have a blessed (and for me, a less sniffling) week! Amen.