Confessing Evangelical

Fr Patrick Reardon, in his St James Daily Devotional Guide (which I'm currently using as my daily Bible reading plan) describes the "threefold revelation" of Christ that is celebrated by the Western church at Epiphany:

First, there is the revelation of the newborn King to the Gentiles, in the persons of the Magi... In the Gospel according to Matthew, which alone records this event, it stands parallel to the Great Commission to the Gentiles at the end of that Gospel.

Second, there is the revelation of Jesus' true identity at His baptism, when the voice of the Father bears witness to Him, and the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, testifies further that He is the Son of God.

Third, there is the marriage feast at Cana, at which Jesus did "the first of His signs" and "manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him."

The second of these events, Jesus' baptism, is the focus of the feast in the Eastern church. As for the wedding at Cana, I'd not previously been aware of the connection between this passage and the feast of the Epiphany, though as Fr Reardon goes on to point out, "the lectionary traditions of the West consistently included all three of these events".

While the Lutheran Church's current lectionary spreads these events out over three different days (the feast itself and the successive two Sundays), we sang a hymn this morning that reflects this threefold aspect to Epiphany: "Songs of Thankfulness and Praise" (TLH 134). Hymn 131 from TLH, "The Star Proclaims the King Is Here" also covers all three events, and the fact that this hymn originates from AD 450 shows how ancient this tradition is in the church.

Labels: church tradition, epiphany