Epiphany was one of the earliest feasts of the church. But it has long lived a double life.

Originating in the East, Epiphany marked the Baptism of Jesus. It was adopted a century later in the West, to honor the arrival of the Wisemen.

Both contexts are interesting, though I suspect we’re a bit literal with our response to them, however. They both evoke a beginning. One to Jesus’s earthly ministry. The other to the Jesus’s connection to the wider world.

Folding it into the end of Christmas, we might find it easy to miss the point. That this moment, the beginning of the Jesus Event, is just the beginning. That everything starts here. And now, things really start to get interesting.