Re-entry!

After a wonderful church celebration of Christmas (many, many services, but I wouldn't have missed them for the world!) followed by a lovely family celebration of Christmas & then a great break away for the New Year, here I am back in harness.
Sunday we will be marking Epiphany: how Jesus Christ shows us God.
the readings are:
Isaiah 60.1-6
&
Matthew 2.1-12

I am struck by the three kings of the Matthew reading: not the three we assume came with the gold, frankincense & myrrh, but the kingship of Herod (which is about power & fear); of the Magi (which is about wisdom); and the kingship of Jesus (which is about sacrifice - the self-emptying to come to our world in order to touch and heal and save us.. ultimately expressed in death on the cross).
The three gifts of the magi point us to this - gold (power & riches), frankincense (wisdom & mystery) & myrrh (death & self-offering).

At some point I will post the notes which will form the 8am sermon on this: but I have also to come up with an all-age service which (as an experiment) will be held in the local primary school, not the church - God with us, where we are, not only where & how we expect him, offering us a new start for a new year.

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