EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on Dec. 31, 2021.
By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks
While most of the world is busy winding down from celebrating Christmas and turning their attention to the new year, Christians of yore would have just been getting into their festive moods.
For today’s Christians, we’ve passed through the season of Advent, we have celebrated Christmas, and we’re about to hunker down for the seemingly long wait until Easter. But in centuries past, Christians placed much more emphasis on this period in which we’re in now, the 12 Days of Christmas.
While many may only recognize the season in passing from the Christmas carol sung at Sunday school programs -- “Five golden rings, four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree!” -- the 12 Days of Christmas is of significance to Christians, even if they don’t realize it.
So just what is it? … Well, contrary to popular belief, the 12 Days of Christmas actually begins on the day after Christmas Day. In other words, we celebrate Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day, and then the clock starts ticking!
The 12th day of Christmas is then celebrated on Jan. 6, which becomes the Christian celebration of Epiphany, which means “appearance or manifestation.” And in this case, we are referring to when Jesus was revealed to the gentiles, or people of the 1st century who were not Jewish.
Known also “Three Kings Day,” Epiphany is the day when the three magi, known more popularly as the “Three Wise Men,” visited the baby Jesus in Bethlehem, marking for the first time that Christ would be introduced to those who were not Jewish. Thus, this encounter between these noble pilgrims from the east and baby Jesus demonstrated that his birth was not meant just as a gift to the Israelites, God’s first chosen people, but actually to all of mankind.
And this is what Christians used to celebrate during the 12 Days of Christmas! … What a momentous milestone for those who profess to be Christians! First, Jesus was born and thus God willingly entered this world in the same mortal flesh and blood in which we live. And second, he revealed himself as a gift not only to his chosen people, but rather as a generous God who welcomed all into his kingdom, Jews and gentiles equal in his eyes! … Now that is an epiphany!
It’s too bad that the celebration of Christmas has been boiled down to basically a one day celebration of Jesus’ birth. While we all love the story of little baby Jesus, swaddled in clothes, and lying in a manager, how much more wonderful is the thought of three wise men, who represented the rest of the world who were not Jewish, arriving at the manager and for the first time catching sight of the creator of the entire universe lying there helpless as any other human ever born!
Devlyn Brooks, who works for Modulist, a Forum Communications Co.-owned company, is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He serves as pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He can be reached at devlyn.brooks@forumcomm.com for comments and story ideas.
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