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Matthew 2: 1-12; John 1: 10-18
We three kings of Orient are; Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and Fountain, moor and mountain, Following yonder star.
KINGS OF ORIENT. 1857, John H. Hopkins, Jr. |
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 KJV )
As we follow the three kings to the stable (Matthew 2:1-12) in song, we often focus on their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh as each is outlined in the hymn. Yet it is the refrain (“star of wonder, start of light, star with royal beauty bright”) that leads us past the material gifts for a babe in a manger to “thy perfect light”— the metaphorical Jesus—also called “the true Light” and “the Word” in John’s gospel.
The last verse, though, carries us from metaphor to reality: “King and God and sacrifice.” Our short Christmastide period and its stories of the Wise Men, Herod, Simeon, Anna, and the flight into Egypt can be one stopping place for us, yet as we read the other Gospels, Epistles and Psalms for this Sunday (and for Epiphany itself), there is one word that recurs throughout, one which goes beyond kingly gift and metaphor; that word is “grace.” The theological definition of grace given by the World Book Dictionary is “God’s free and undeserved favor to and love for mankind; influence of God operating in man to improve and strengthen.”
We read St. Paul’s reminder to the Ephesians that our adoption and inheritance as children of God is “ . . . according to the riches of His grace” (1:7b). Furthermore, we, like Paul, are ministers “ . . . according to the gift of the grace of God” (3:7) in spite of being “the least of all saints” (3:8). And nestled among the references in the first and third chapters of the epistle is the ultimate reality: salvation through grace! (2:8). Grace quietly permeates the season; it is really the core reason for the coming of Jesus, and eventually, for his dying. In these few short days before we reach what some call “Ordinary Time,” ponder this question: How might I live out the grace Christ has brought anew in this Christmas Season?
Prayer:
Lord of the material, the metaphorical and the real: make me an instrument of the Grace of Jesus Christ in the coming Christian year in all the ways you will call me to your service in your church and the world. Amen.
-Dr. Ed Duling, Ass’t Professor, Music Education, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
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