{"id":1622,"date":"2021-01-02T16:46:58","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T16:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1622"},"modified":"2021-01-02T16:47:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T16:47:00","slug":"message-from-the-minister-letter-26-sunday-3rd-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1622","title":{"rendered":"Message from the Minister Letter 26- Sunday 3rd January"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear\nall,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy New Year to you and I hope despite\nall the restrictions you have had a good Christmas.&nbsp; This week we celebrate Epiphany or the visit\nof the three kings to see the baby Jesus, who were guided by a star.&nbsp; There has been some speculation in recent\nweeks about the star and whether it was caused by the planetary conjunction of\nJupiter and Saturn.&nbsp; The reason this has\ngained so much publicity is that this year, 2020, the same occurrence happened\nagain so is this what guided the kings to Jesus?&nbsp; The account comes from the book of Matthew 2:\n1-12 and we tend to use the term \u2018kings\u2019 and say that there were three, but the\ntext doesn\u2019t state that.&nbsp; It calls them magi\nor wise men, but we assume they were three of them because three gifts are\npresented to Jesus, but again the text does not say this. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The passage begins with the wise men who the\ntext says came from the east, though it does not actually say where from,\nasking where the one is born king of the Jews.&nbsp;\nThis made King Herod suspicious and caused him to ask the chief priests\nand teachers of the law where Jesus was to be born.&nbsp; The answer given is that of Bethlehem in Judea.&nbsp; They then quote what the prophet Micah said: \u2018\u2026for\nout of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.\u2019 &nbsp;&nbsp;So, we find the hope prophesised all those\nhundreds of years before, being quoted and then coming to fruition.&nbsp; This was good news for the people at the time\nand is for us today, but Herod felt threatened.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Herod then calls the wise men and pretends\nto want to go and worship Jesus himself and asks them to keep him informed of\nthe whereabouts of the Christ child.&nbsp;\nAfter they resume their journey once again the star appears before them\nand leads them to the place where Jesus is.&nbsp;\nThey were overjoyed, how awesome and amazing is this?&nbsp; Notice the text states child not baby so we\ncan assume this visit may not have taken place immediately after the visit of\nthe shepherds.&nbsp; The verse also tells us\nthey came to the house not the stable so again the holy family may have moved or\nperhaps a room became available in the inn, we just do not know.&nbsp; As soon as they see the child they bow down\nand worship him.&nbsp; They instantly\nrecognise Jesus for who He is, the saviour of humankind.&nbsp; They present Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense,\nand myrrh said to represent elements in the later life of Jesus.&nbsp; They leave and return to their homeland by a\ndifferent route because they were warned in a dream not to return to\nHerod.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is it not amazing that Jesus having been\nborn, is visited by shepherds, said to be the lowliest of all and hardly recognised\nat all as having any importance of status.&nbsp;\nAnd then being visited by wise men or kings said to represent those at\nthe other end of the spectrum of being highly esteemed and respected\ndignitaries.&nbsp; This shows us that Jesus\ncame for all, people at both ends of the spectrum and everyone in between.&nbsp; This week we give thanks for the amazing gift\nof Christ and how his birth was celebrated and recognised.&nbsp; As we begin this new year as with the birth\nof Jesus, there is new life and new hope, let us put the difficulties of the\npast behind us and look to the future and brighter days ahead.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May\nour Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, bless us now and always, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear all, Happy New Year to you and I hope despite all the restrictions you have had a good Christmas.&nbsp; This week we celebrate Epiphany or the visit of the three kings to see the baby Jesus, who were guided&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1623,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions\/1623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}