postID: 60391; title: The First Sunday After The Epiphany
no collect_text found
groupKey: secondary
groupKey: other
Array
(
[date] => 2014-01-12 11:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 1083
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => formatted
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2014-01-12 11:00:00
)
2 post(s) found for dateStr : 2014-01-12postID: 6693 (Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6693; date_type: fixed; year: 2014
fixed_date_str: January 12
fixed_date_str (mod): January 12 2014
formattedFixedDateStr: 2014-01-12
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6693
displayDates for postID: 6693/year: 2014
Array
(
[0] => 2014-01-12
)
postPriority: 98postID: 60391 (The First Sunday After The Epiphany)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 60391; date_type: variable; year: 2014
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 60391
displayDates for postID: 60391/year: 2014
Array
(
[0] => 2014-01-12
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2014-01-12 with ID: 60391 (The First Sunday After The Epiphany)
The First Sunday After The Epiphany
Array
(
[date] => 2014-01-12 11:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 1083
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => simple
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2014-01-12 11:00:00
)
2 post(s) found for dateStr : 2014-01-12postID: 6693 (Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6693; date_type: fixed; year: 2014
fixed_date_str: January 12
fixed_date_str (mod): January 12 2014
formattedFixedDateStr: 2014-01-12
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6693
displayDates for postID: 6693/year: 2014
Array
(
[0] => 2014-01-12
)
postPriority: 98postID: 60391 (The First Sunday After The Epiphany)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 60391; date_type: variable; year: 2014
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 60391
displayDates for postID: 60391/year: 2014
Array
(
[0] => 2014-01-12
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2014-01-12 with ID: 60391 (The First Sunday After The Epiphany)
The reading_id [73616] is already in the array.
reading found matching title 'Matthew 3:13-17' with ID: 73639
The reading_id [73639] is already in the array.
reading found matching title 'John 2:1-11' with ID: 73442
The reading_id [73442] is already in the array.
No update needed.
Scripture citation(s): Matthew 2:1-12; Matthew 3:13-17; John 2:1-11
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Matthew 2:1-12; Matthew 3:13-17; John 2:1-11
✛
Christ's Three Epiphanies to Us
Array
(
[0] => 60755
[1] => 60758
)
book: [Array
(
[0] => 60755
)
] (reading_id: 73616)bbook_id: 60755
The bbook_id [60755] is already in the array.
book: [Array ( [0] => 60755 ) ] (reading_id: 73639)
bbook_id: 60755
The bbook_id [60755] is already in the array.
book: [Array ( [0] => 60758 ) ] (reading_id: 73442)
bbook_id: 60758
The bbook_id [60758] is already in the array.
No update needed for sermon_bbooks.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Like the Procession we do on Advent Sunday, this first Sunday after the Epiphany is a summary of the season of Christ’s epiphanies, (or manifestations, or revelations) of his Person. We focus on three which are celebrated in Tradition and are enshrined in the musical repertoire: 1) Christ’s manifestation to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi from the East who followed the star to Bethlehem; 2) Christ’s manifestation to the prophets of Israel as represented by John the Baptist at his Baptism in the Jordan River; and 3) Christ’s manifestation to his disciples in his first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee.
What each epiphany shows is Christ’s Deity. The importance of his Epiphany as a newborn baby to the Wise Men from the East is that his Deity as the Son of God is from everlasting, even before his conception and birth; and that the Deity of his Person proceeds through every stage of human life – thereby reaching out and touching us at every point of our existence, whether he be in the manger at Bethlehem, on the run with his parents as a refugee in Egypt, on the cross of Calvary or in the tomb from which he would be raised from death on the Third Day.
The importance of his epiphany to John the Baptist as his forerunner and the personification of the prophets of Israel is his declared Deity as “My Beloved Son” by God who also manifests himself as Christ’s Father and sends upon him the Holy Spirit. This is an epiphany not only by God to his prophets, but also by God, as it were, to God, and a revelation as well of Christ’s perfect Humanity as Son of Man. John is taken aback by Christ’s approach to receive his baptism of repentance for sin. (“I need to be baptized by you; not you by me.”) But Christ’s baptism is an epiphany of his life’s purpose. He shows his solidarity with sinners. The waters of the Jordan foreshadow his death.
Finally, the importance of Christ’s changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana reveals his power and glory as God’s Son to his disciples, including his Mother who instigated the matter by pointing out to Jesus the failure of the wine supply. Here again, not only does Jesus show forth his deity by the working of this miracle, but he also performs a sign of what he is able to do across the board in human life. There are all sorts of “domestic depletion” that are symbolized by the wine shortage. It is fitting that Jesus’ ministry on earth should begin this way; because he will in due course give the blind their sight, cleanse lepers, make the lame to walk and the deaf hear, and raise the dead back to life.
Different as these three great signs are on the surface and in their placement in the Gospel stories, they have a common theme, not only in what Jesus manifests of himself and his mission; but in what unites the witnesses of these signs: belief and trust, or faith, which gives birth to hope. And it is not at all as though these witnesses’ lives were changed by magic by what they saw in Christ, vaccinated from doubt, trouble and grief, not at all.
The Wise Men had to return to their kingdoms, digesting what their long pilgrimage had shown them, trying to live another way within what would become for them, in the words of TS Eliot, “the old dispensation.”
John the Baptist, though himself wondrously conceived and born (and a kinsman of the Lord), suffered unjust imprisonment and martyrdom. While in jail, waiting in vain for the Messiah to blow evil away and set things right, John sent word to Jesus asking, “Are you he who is come, or do we look for another?” Jesus’ reply to the messengers, “Go tell John what you hear and see…and blessed is he who is not offended in me.”
Finally the disciples, not least Jesus’ Mother, would suffer for their discipleship. Some would fail in their faith or run away at the time of his arrest, trial, and execution. Some would betray. In a sense, they all would die with him. But when he was raised from death, so were they – willing to stake their lives on the ultimate Epiphany of Easter, bringing Christ’s manifestation to us.
We are not different from these witnesses. We are as odd and particular as they, and Jesus made his epiphany to each of them. May this upcoming season be a time of his epiphany, or renewal of it, to each of us.
The Lord hath manifested forth his glory: O come, let us adore him.
