Video Gallery

The Epiphany of the Lord

Go to Video Gallery Added Jan 05, 2020 •

Copy this URL:
Embed code:	<iframe class="edlio-embed-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="360" src="//www.allsaintschurch.com/apps/embed/?v=233165" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Change dimensions

Go HD

Father Tom Wilson, Pastor January 5, 2020

Show Transcript

as we continue our Christmas season on this day that we celebrate the epiphany of the three kings The Arc of the Christmas story swings ahead and the transition essentially is going from the experience in the presence of of Jesus in a very very private way to one that is more public not quite to the public Ministry stage or anything like that like will celebrate with the baptism of the Lord next week but it goes from the relatively private surroundings of Mary and Joseph a handful of Outsiders and the chosen people of Israel that the Shepherds and the in the freezing of of the Angels tune out point where there are ultimate Outsiders in the three major guy who show up and do honor and homage to Jesus and of course as they present their gifts they are recognizing from the outside of the Frozen people that this is God that Jesus is the God is God that Jesus is the light of the world that light that was prophesied in Isaiah when it's sad at the light of the the light shall come into the people of Israel through through Judah and the tribe of Judah and it will it will come and it will that light will be recognized by the rest of the world and that same light that same light prophesied in Isaiah that same light approached and done homage to buy the three kings is the same light and the same person that we do homage to today that we embraced that the presence of the Divinity within our midst in the person of the baby Jesus and his is absolutely beautiful thing but the continuation of the story is the clear reminder and I would say as much of a reminder to lost today as it ever has been that that light and the presence of Christ is not meant for a small group of people is not meant for a particular ethnic group it is meant for the entire world in the entire world how old would see that light emanating out of of its origin in the in the people of Israel that's always celebrate and that is the absolute truth but too often and maybe even today but you often certainly within the history of of Christianity it has too often showed itself as people believing that somehow the presence of Christ the light of the world is tied to racial or ethnic or ethnic Origins and that sort of thing and way too often way too often people have been divided and not recognize that that light is not meant just for my people but for all people and it is it it's it's a very add Saint and the truth is that the mission from the very beginning of the wife of the church is to remind the entire world that this light that we Embrace this Divinity of God which we rejoice in this this baby that we do honor and homage to and we love so much as Catholic Christians is for everyone it is for everyone and the truth is the truth is not everyone knows it and not everyone appreciates it and too often even people in our own mids don't necessarily appreciate that the light of the world has come for them and from the beginning the mission of the church has been to introduce the person of Jesus Christ and his light to the rest of the world and yes there have been challenges since day one there have been challenges since A1 and they continue and sometimes they manifest themselves a little bit differently in different ages but they are they have always been their first of all there are Supernatural reality there Supernatural that pose challenges to us and the enemy the enemy of a human nature the enemy of God does not want the world to know that God is here Jesus came into the world as it's light in. yes Jesus came into the world to restore order to a chaotic and disordered world and the enemy thrives on that chaos the enemy thrives and that Darkness he does not want people to recognize that there is a God us entered into the world and taking on their Flash and I'd bet that God enters into not just the world as a Creator but the world as a redeemer who wants an individual relationship with everyone who actually pays Incheon to us who loves us in every moment of our lives and everything in in in in our life and our world the actually has a personal relationship but the enemy wants to destroy that we to live in die in in in a world and environment where you have so many things particularly in our Western culture that it that it sometimes distracts from our appreciation of what God has done and who God really it's what we do here every Sunday is a Divine action it is a Divine action of God bringing us together in his Divine body of placed in order to worship and give ourselves to the light of the world and we nourished in order for us to go into the world and share that but too often too often because frankly this reality looks very it probably doesn't feel Divine to most of us nobody looks at me and says Divine you better not okay it simply isn't true but what we are doing here together by the power and grace of God is a Divine reality our association with our parish and with the church is not simply another thing in our list of voluntary associations that we are part of shin other parts of our life this is this is divine and when we lose that sense of what that what we are doing here is divine it's also very very easy for us to lose the sense of who the person of Jesus Christ is an asp Ashley our mission to bring his light into the world Second Challenge after that's reality the supernatural challenge is a very very real cultural challenge that we live in right here and right the largest in the fastest-growing group of religious people are people who are declaring themselves none 0 no affiliation with any with any face community of any kind whatsoever and not done a lot of research on those on that data but I suspect it runs across the Spectrum it will run from the spectrum of people who have declared themselves atheists and simply do not even the existence of God probably has an awful lot of people who believe in a God who creates and then runs away and leaves us on our own but it's also probably an awful lot of people who simply are saying this body of Christ this religion thing it doesn't do anything for me and it doesn't do anything for the world all right and it's and it's all over the place and the saddest part about those nuns is that many many of them are people who have been formed and shaped in the face within their own families and within ecclesial Church communities Catholic and otherwise that is the saddest real of all of this and so within that cultural reality those people they're looking at the same world they live in the same world that we do they see the same challenges that that that we see that we live in a dish Jordan world we live in a dark world we live in in in an insanely divided world with all sorts of challenges in terms of Divisions that God never intends for his people by race or religion or ethnicity or more political differences all those things that create this intense division that exist exist when our culture and throughout the world they look at that and they see the same things that we do but the difference the difference is you're not looking at the Light of Christ and they're certainly not looking at the people who are who follow and deliver the Light of Christ in the world as a solution to those problems and those challenges but sadly some of them probably even think that we are the problem that we are the problem but the truth is in all these in all these challenges that the world's seas and that we know and that we experience ourselves the air answer is Jesus the answer is the light of the world and it's our job and it is our mission as Disciples of Jesus to bring that out into the world need to recognize that that reality and we need to deal with the challenges in the world that we live in and very very close to home we know we know that we are blessed to live with with all of its challenge and difficulties and opportunities an area that is growing it's growing like crazy every time you drive up to church you see in a new development and all those sorts of things with lots of people coming in and if you are it's if it is not your it's okay if it is not your Habit to take a bulletin and actually read it all right I'm going to do a commercial 15 second commercial right now please do it today alright please do it today either take one or read it online the cover is a lot more on this that I'm talking about right now that I can't they they simply don't have time in this in this environment to do so but please take some time to get to read it to get an idea on the background and and what were what we're doing going forward the reality is that in the life of the church in the life of the church we argue about a lot of things all right many of them are stupid and Petty they are and many of them many of them are very serious there's one thing one thing in all the groups in the church that I associate with that nobody ever never argues about we all agree we all agree that the way of the methods that we have been using to hand on the faith to the Next Generation have not been sick asphalt and have not been successful prefer probably decade if not even longer than that we're not succeeding in passing down the truth of the person of Jesus Christ and take two the Next Generation we know we know that in our formation staff has been has been working for a couple of years doing a lot of work on potential things that we can do differently we have to do it differently we have to figure out ways we're going to more successfully pass on the faith to the Next Generation in all of its beauty in all of its Splendor and all of its all of its difficulties in terms of what it causes people who are Disciples of Christ Hill to live in the world to embrace and to appreciate the same thing that those King did when they went and saw Jesus that this is the Divine Majesty this is the king and our people have been doing a lot of internal work and within the end and we're probably by the end of February or so in particular those of you who have kids in our formation programs and youth ministry programs you'll be asked to give your input on on some possible options that we can do 22 roanne an update our formation programs in particular ways that will that will help cultivate a life of discipleship in Christ ways that will bring in the whole fam play into formation and not not just have it on something that is that is done in in boxes and in and dropped off and when when you are asked to participate and offer your input please do it is very very important it's very important to pass on the faith it's also very important for us to know what is actually going to work in the life of real family life okay we need to we need to know that and some possible option will be presented and we need to get we need to get feedback it is incredibly important that you participate in that when you when you I have the opportunity in in the next six or seven weeks or so please do so play as we celebrate the gift of the Epiphany the rising of the Light of Christ the recognition by ultimate Outsiders in these three May and the three kings of the major why we recognize we recognize not that the gift of Jesus presence among us but the gift of Jesus is not just for us but for the entire world those three kings can you make great sacrifice in Peril with you I read some of the some of the possible histories of how they got there in order to do homage to love and a spiritually embrace the reveal God in the person of Jesus Christ the same things that we are asked to do is his faithful disciples and when we do that for ourselves when we Embrace and hold onto and love that baby not look at him as just an annual sort of thing that we that we look at and think about what we truly loved and embraced that the revealed God and then bring that light out into the world we give everybody in the world and everybody in the South Metro an opportunity to do the exact same thing to embrace the previous build and living God who comes into our Lives who desires to be part of our lives in moments and then we are able to do that by revealing the presence of God in the beauty of the Infant Jesus

Listed in LITURGY

Video Gallery

The Epiphany of the Lord

Popular Videos