Epiphany 2025

INTRO: When we were kids…………. We used to put up a sign on our bedroom door which said:

We did that because we were mad at our brothers and sisters or parents or we wanted nothing to do with others or we were just claiming our own territory.

Somehow within us began a sentiment that was not CHRISTIAN, not CHRIST-LIKE, not welcoming of others, but divisive and contentious.

I have this image of JESUS that he would never have put up a sign like that.
He wanted UNITY and inclusivity with His brothers and sisters.
He wanted others to come to him.
He saw differences between his brothers and sisters, but that did not matter.
Sometimes we see differences in others, and we become divisive, even cruel.

Jesus wanted to be with everyone: Jew, Greek, men, women, children, Pharisee, Sadducee, Roman, and Gentiles

His way was seeing ALL OTHERS as uniquely and beautifully made!

That kind of acceptance is not happening all the time in our world and in our country and even in our families.

Some of us get mad at the differences and choices of people. And you know, truly ……. People are allowed to have differences and still should be accepted, loved, and embraced.

When Scripture talks about this EPIPHANY, this MAGI, scholars are saying that JESUS accepted ALL NATIONS ……………as the MAGI came from different corners of the known world… they did not know each other… they met on the way…. Different nationalities …. Because of the STAR

AND
Jesus saw them with HIS EYES and welcomed them each from their own country….

Teaching us to do the same … welcoming people from other countries, other levels of society, those different from the way we live and act.

That is THE KINGDOM OF GOD on earth as JESUS initiated.
The unity and inclusiveness of all nations!

CONCLUSION

Make this NEW YEAR be one where we forget the past anger, prejudices, and harsh judgements that we make in our family and in our country.

Let us make this New Year THE BEST between us and all people.