Today We Welcome A King

Today we welcome a king.  He has come to the earth in a lowly state, but now we throw him a party.  He has been born, baptized, prophesied over, taken his first steps, watched his mother cook and his father work and sweat.  He might even have an inkling of the poverty that surrounds his family, his community, his nation.  He has tasted his first injustice, even though he does not yet know the word to describe it or have the mind to declare it.  He has seen blood trickle from a scrapped knee, and the reverberations of human pain resounded in his toddler bones.  He has barely grown up, but is big enough to be seen as a member of a fallen race.  He is human.

But he is king.  A poor, slightly malnourished boy who is approached by mysterious kings.  They are oracles, truth tellers, wise ones who know the secrets of the world and the complexity of all things.  It only half surprises them that their prophetic journey has led them to this toddler, this budding infant who seems just like every other boy his age.

Accept for the stars.  The stars knew better.  The prophecies had been foretold.  They had the faith to journey into the unknown and courage enough to let the unknown be a little impoverished child.  

And still more courage: they had the humility to bestow gifts upon him.  This wasn’t some mall manger scene.  It was a below the poverty line type scenario.  A "trailer park" if you will.  Yet they bring him gifts not to better himself, not to pull the kid out of a "tight spot" and give him a "better life" but to worship him and give him praise and glory.  This wasn’t a deed celebrities or rich people do to get mentioned on Entertainment Tonight…this was a humble gift from the greatest of these to the least of these.

The gifts flip the whole world upside down.  They are an open admittance that the "haves" of the world can owe everything to a "have not" who has been declared by God the ruler of the world, the eternal King, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of All.  They are willing to accept this and do the unthinkable: they give not an offering of pity but one of honor and justice, a justice that recognizes that the first will become last and the last will become first, that the lyrics the little child’s mom sang before God would ring true for all peoples in all times.

The king is here.  He may not look it.  But the stars have spoken, moved by the hand of God.  This is him, the king, and we owe him everything.

May all have a blessed Epiphany.

As a little bonus, here is the collect for Epiphany from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ is the light of the world. May your people, illumined by your word and
sacraments, shine with the radiance of his glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.