I was
just looking at some old photos of Christmas services. The Nativity
Family service on Christmas is always very special. Each year the
numbers continue to grow. This year was no exception; we had close
to 200 people. The newly formed Chatteris Gospel choir sang for us.
Thanks to Vanessa Norman for starting this new choir! Jayne, once
again, blessed us with her wonderful singing. The Bible readings were
well done by children as young as 8 and as old as.. well, I couldn't
say! But, it was impressive to have such a mixture of ages,
including a prison guard and professional juggler among the readers.
It all added to the colour and the wonder of a very special evening.
We
probably are familiar with the Christmas story. But each year we
remember it - both as a way of passing it on to the next generation while helping each of us see our own place in God's (His) story. What part of the story do you identify with most? Where are you in the story?
Epiphany
is at the end of the Christmas story – the bit about the wise men, or the
'Magi' as the Bible calls them. Who were they? They were astronomers and scholars who came from
the far east (Iran? Saudia Arabia?). The Bible tells us that they had
already been studying the stars when they saw an unusual light or star (or a comet?) which they considered to be a special sign from the
heavens about a great earthly event.
Have you ever looked for a 'sign'. Has God ever shown you a 'sign'? What did you do about it?
What could it be? The Magi did not hesitate. They left everything to discover the answer, setting their course on a life-changing journey. They formed a great foreign caravan travelling across ancient trade routes, deserts and mountains to bring three presents: gold (fit for a king), frankincense (incense for worshipping God) and myrrh (oil for embalming the royal dead).
What would cause the Magi to leave everything and to bring these three presents?
'Who
was this King they came to worship?' When King Herod asked this
question they were able to show they had done their homework. More than 300 Jewish prophecies described a coming king. The Arabian
travellers pointed to Micah 3. 1- 5 and explained that a Jewish King
would be born in Bethlehem, but his rule would be over all the earth.
How could one person fullfill more than 300 prophecies?
After
finding the child king, the Magi were warned in a dream to leave by
another road. And so they did. They had found what they were looking
for. Everything was revealed and nothing would ever be the same again.
O God, by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
