Maxine King

Dear friend,

Today is the last of the twelve days of Christmas and, as such, is the last day between our celebration of Christmas and the Epiphany. Since our liturgical practice has inherited the Jewish method of marking the beginning of days at sunset, the Church’s observance of the Epiphany begins this evening, and our lectionary appoints proper lessons and psalms for Evening Prayer tonight. I think it’s worth taking a moment to think about this liminal space between Christmastide and the Epiphany and the relationship between these great feasts of the Incarnation.

Just a few days ago, we celebrated the Octave day of the Nativity: the feast of the Holy Name, which remembers the Naming and Circumcision of Christ. This feast especially marks the particularity of the Incarnation and Jesus’ submission to the law of Israel. The Epiphany, on the other hand, celebrates “the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles,” as our older prayer book puts it. The Epiphany commemorates the historical visit of the Gentile wise men to the infant Jesus, but as the lectionary selections for tonight indicate (Psalms 29 & 98, Isaiah 66:18-23, and Romans 15:7-13), the Church has understood this visit typologically to represent and foretell the eventual extension of the Church to include Gentiles as told in Acts and the Epistles of the New Testament.

Paul’s Epistle to the Romans demonstrates his method of reading the psalms and prophecies of scripture to indicate God’s intent to welcome the Gentiles into covenant. Paul tells us this was accomplished through Christ “in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy,” as it was not accomplished through any merit of the Gentiles, but solely through God’s grace.

Psalm 98, one of the psalms appointed for this evening, succinctly summarizes both Christ’s manifestation to the Gentiles of the nations and God’s eternal faithfulness to the chosen people of Israel. On the Epiphany we particularly celebrate Christ’s eventual welcoming of the Gentiles, and the Church calendar reminds us that it was only through the particularity of Christ’s Nativity and Submission to the law of Israel that this was accomplished.

The Lord has made known his victory; *
his righteousness has he openly shown in the sight of the nations.

He remembers his mercy and faithfulness to the house of Israel, *
and all the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

There will be a service of Holy Communion for the feast of the Epiphany at 5:30 tomorrow, January 6th, at Saint Philip’s -- please do join us if you are able as we celebrate this great feast together!

Maxine King
Beloved in the Desert Corps Member