Cajés’ Painting The painting above is The Adoration of the Magi. c.1610 by Eugenio Cajés (1574-1634). Based on Matthew 2:1-12, the painting depicts visitors from a far off land who had learned of the kingly Savior’s imminent birth through their studies, and had been led by a star to come and worship Him. It was an act of God’s grace that brought about this epiphany to Gentiles. Epiphany is About Making Christ Known It occurs to us when we consider their visit, that with the eternal Son of God having taken on human flesh—being born for us, it is also critical that people be made aware of it. That’s what the Epiphany Season is really all about: making God’s grace in Christ known to people. God worked in a miraculous way to bring these Gentiles (ones who wouldn’t ordinarily have known of the true God’s promises) to follow a guiding star that led them to the home of the young child-Savior. Epiphany Among Us by Means of the Church God works no less miraculously among us, bringing us to faith through the Holy Spirit’s work in Baptism or through the hearing of the Holy Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We don’t follow a mysterious star, or come from a far off land to find the Savior. Rather we find Him in the Church He has established—through preaching and the Sacraments. We learn of our great need of Him as the only solution to our problem of sin. We are urged to trust in Him as our Savior, and to come to His Table to receive Him according to His promise. We receive Him for our forgiveness and strengthening in the bread and wine mysteriously joined with His true body and blood for us. It is we who are urged in the Christmas carol (like the Magi long ago via a star): “Oh. come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant! Oh, come, let us adore Him; Christ the LORD.” Blessings ✠
“Where’r the Pines? I’d asked our congregation president—Bill (when the woods around the church and parsonage were in their summer fullness), “Where are the pines, anyway?” Pinewood is what those folks back in 1976 determined to call the rebranded church, just having moved to Burlington from Harvard Street in Cambridge. One would think the place would be full of them, and yet other kinds of trees are more prominent; what gives? In fact, our property became covered with red, and yellow, and orange leaves when the fall days arrived. It’s interesting, though: once the leaves on those other trees turned their fall colors, something else became evident out in those woods. I was standing at the back window in the parsonage, looking out there, and I said to my wife, “Well, I’ll be. Pinewoods!” There they were in all their glory. The green of their needles remained as everything else turned another color. They’d been hiding in there. Hiding in Plain Sight The Savior was doing the same in Bethlehem. If it’d been called “Savior-town” instead, and people had gone looking for Him because of that name, they wouldn’t have found Him. He wasn’t out there in His glory so as to be noticed. He was hiding in the form of an infant. “…though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9) . The unassuming infant lived a perfect life and died a sacrificial death for you. He chose obscurity in this world in order that you might be recognized as His people, and brought to prominence in His eternal kingdom. A joyful and blessed Christmas to you all!
