Epiphany continues the celebration...
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Epiphany continues the celebration of Christmas. Note that today is Christmas for many Christians of Eastern Europe, Asia, and North Africa. January 6 is the original date for all of us to celebrate Christ's birth. The story of the wise men teaches us lessons on celebrating Christmas year round. John Calvin gives us insights on this matter while commenting on the story of the wise men:
In a word, so long as wicked men think that it is taking nothing from themselves, they will yield to God and to scripture some degree of relevance. But when Christ comes into conflict with ambition, covetousness, pride, misplaced confidence, hypocrisy, and deceit they immediately forget all modesty, and break out in rage.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, p. 133)
Self-conceit and self-centeredness are big problems in human life. As Martin Luther once put it: We "stink of pure self-esteem and self-conceit" (Luther's Works, Vol. 52, p. 213). Or as nineteenth-century English author William Hazlitt put it: "We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit."
As we deny ourselves it is because Christmas and Epiphany are all about using ordinary means. In doing our pride thing, we end up doing things that are beneath God and ourselves. The father of existentialism, Soren Kierkegaard, nicely describes how in the incarnation God uses lowly, ordinary things:
In order that the union may be brought about, the God must therefore become the equal of such a one and so he will appear in the likeness of the humblest. But the humblest is one who must serve others. And the God will appear in the form of a servant... Behold where he stands -- the God! Where? There; so you cannot see him? He is the God; and yet he has not a resting-place for his head, and he does not lean on any man lest he cause him to be offended... he is the God; and yet his eye rests upon humankind with deep concern.
(Philosophical Fragments, pp. 39-40)
A humble God makes humble followers, people open to confessing their ignorance and seeking God in all kinds of ordinary things and events.
In a word, so long as wicked men think that it is taking nothing from themselves, they will yield to God and to scripture some degree of relevance. But when Christ comes into conflict with ambition, covetousness, pride, misplaced confidence, hypocrisy, and deceit they immediately forget all modesty, and break out in rage.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, p. 133)
Self-conceit and self-centeredness are big problems in human life. As Martin Luther once put it: We "stink of pure self-esteem and self-conceit" (Luther's Works, Vol. 52, p. 213). Or as nineteenth-century English author William Hazlitt put it: "We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit."
As we deny ourselves it is because Christmas and Epiphany are all about using ordinary means. In doing our pride thing, we end up doing things that are beneath God and ourselves. The father of existentialism, Soren Kierkegaard, nicely describes how in the incarnation God uses lowly, ordinary things:
In order that the union may be brought about, the God must therefore become the equal of such a one and so he will appear in the likeness of the humblest. But the humblest is one who must serve others. And the God will appear in the form of a servant... Behold where he stands -- the God! Where? There; so you cannot see him? He is the God; and yet he has not a resting-place for his head, and he does not lean on any man lest he cause him to be offended... he is the God; and yet his eye rests upon humankind with deep concern.
(Philosophical Fragments, pp. 39-40)
A humble God makes humble followers, people open to confessing their ignorance and seeking God in all kinds of ordinary things and events.
