Jeff B Copelan's Christian Store» Jesus Men

November 20th, 2009

Jesus Men

The horoscope of Jesus: Part 1

The Christmas season is over! We wished each other a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and now holiday season has passed. The time for singing carols and peace and good will who want it all over. The champagne has been consumed. New Year's resolutions all we were given. The decorations are all coming down. The trees have been dismantled. The chicks pay no longer wears the red felt hats that process their food, and are processed foods with a little less joy. Santa is notably absent.

In the tradition of the church is 12 days of Christmas, being the 12 days after Christmas, and this week we noticed that 12 days, which means that we have come to the Epiphany - the celebration of the arrival of the wise follow the star to Bethlehem to find Jesus. This means that, ecclesiastically speaking, we are really at the height of the Christmas season, despite the fact that this is not how to interpret our department stores. Not everything seems to be declining even faster than it rose.

I note that my home is dogmatic opposition to this trend. Our wreath is still on the door, our tree is still, and still no Christmas pud in the fridge! This is our way to make a stand and bring our family properly in sync with the church calendar (that or is it just laziness).

Either way, I find it really disappointing that Christmas has to die so quickly after 25 December. Santa will surely not disappear so quickly? It is not a fixed part of the mythology, as far as I know, that as soon as Easter falls on the last gift has a high tail back to the North Pole, reindeer relentlessly? Perhaps he could hang around the shops a week or less, asking the children: "How did you like the presents?" I do well this year? "That certainly put an end to the kind of problems he learned in his first encounter with the guy from Santa includes a solid kick in the shin, with an accompaniment "To last year, hopeless son of a bitch!" No. .. take the child while he is still full of Christmas cheer and good humor, and maybe we can all make a smoother transition in the coming Christmas period.

The other group that normally disappears from view at about this time the year are the extras who fill the pews on Christmas Day. "C & E" we call them - "Christmas and Easter. We had a decent number this year! That itself was never much in the offering plate but they do it? Maybe it's the way they make fun of them in communion and a farewell until the next years ya'll! "

No, not really do that. In fact, I, frankly, that could benefit from early to join us this year? And there are always some surprises. The reverse is also true, of course - that when we come to the epiphany, there is usually no surprises as to who appears to church Sunday. It's just we really serious parishioners - just us, the true believers, and the baby Jesus - our baby Jesus!

Yes the rest of Australia would he pay some kind of well-intentioned homage at Christmas time, when the tinsel is out and Christmas carols are playing and alcohol flows freely. But we know that little will be left at the scene of the Nativity, after all the song goes, after the angels back to heaven, the shepherds return to their fields, and the drum goes back to his band - only Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and the U.S. ... and the three wise men, of course.

Of course not technically a part of the nativity scene as such, but we like to include there anyway. The wise men came later - probably around a year later - and then it is assumed that the family had gone beyond the block. The estimated market value of the child Jesus among the six twenty months, when the wise men appeared on the scene - hence the orientation of Herod of all children aged two years or less.

The other mistake that regularly make is to assume that they were kings. The tradition of kings goes back to the early church father Tertullian (died 225). Parts of the Old Testament says that "the kings come and worship him "(Isaiah 49:7 for example), hence the tradition. In the late sixth century, all the kings had names: Melkon (later Melchior) Balthazar and Gaspar.

In truth, we know that they were kings. In fact there are many who do not know about these guys:

It is not known very well that they were wise.
We can not be completely sure that they were men.
And we really have no idea where he had three of them or not!
We are told that they brought three gifts, and we assume that there are three donors, but gifts may be distributed among a group of 20 for all we know.

It is possible that the three wise men were actually a dozen silly women! We'll never know for sure. To say we do not know this and that from them but does not mean we do not know anything about them. As we say is that they are 'magicians' and this tells us a lot!

Kings is the word from which we get our magic word ". These people were magicians! They were simple, but magicians, magicians, but used his magic skills to advise kings and queens in state affairs.

Magi filled the courts of the pagan nations, and had a in the European tradition. You've heard of Merlin the magician, who was apparently an advisor to King Arthur of Camelot. The Wizard of Id is another member (perhaps more familiar) class of magicians.

Daniel in the Old Testament, was a magician (Note: I think 'wizard' is the singular form of 'wizards'). Daniel and his three friends, we read in the book of Daniel, were undoubtedly the wizards - used to predict the future, interpret dreams, and counsel for the king in affairs of state. Daniel and his colleagues, however, you may recall, were distinguished from his fellow magicians, by refusing to follow all the practices of their peers, relying only in God for his gift of prophecy.

This clearly was not the norm, and their average magician, so I can work, it was usually a God-fearing man of prayer, but a figure much closer to the astrologers and psychics who see advertising on television late at night and always have been highlighted in the columns of the magazines women!

About the Author

Rev. David B. Smith (the 'Fighting Father') Parish priest, community worker,martial arts master, pro boxer, author, father of three.
www.fatherdave.org