I like Epiphany. One reason is obvious, it signals the end of HalloThanksMass.... Also known as the season of seasonal weight gain. The period between Halloween and Christmas is rough on a body. Literally... the body. The other reason is that the appearance of Magi in the Gospels is unusual. In a story full of Jews and Jewish things, some pagans wander in and claim Jesus for themselves.
They're usually depicted as wealthy foreigners in extravagant clothing. Gypsies, wise men in the traditional sense, fortune tellers, and in a tradition where everyone seems to magically be European in art, there's always a black guy. I love it. I love it because I don't fit in here either. To put it the way Father Bob did in his sermon this Sunday, this is where we come in. Jesus' birth is a Jewish event in a Jewish context to Jewish parents in an occupied but Jewish country predicted by Jewish scriptures as being a messiah for the Jews. These guys are like us.
They're the outsiders in the story. The flamboyant woman in the room full of ladies in gray suits. The homeless person who wanders into the back of your church on Sunday morning and actually stays for church. The elderly gay couple that comes in and finds they think they're embarrassing the pastor. They don't fit in, but they belong just the same. These three queens from Orient are, it turns out, a symbol of the circle being drawn ever larger to gather 'all nations to the light of his dawning'.
I feel pretty good about that.
Jews and homosexuals are at odds with Christ.
ReplyDeleteso he's a self hating Jew?
DeleteI'd also say it depends on the homosexual.