What or who leads you? Do you use horoscopes, Ouija boards, tarot cards, other fortune telling, or seances to make decisions about your life? Do you trust your own heart or mind? Not the stars of the Zodiac but the Word of God combined with a special supernatural light guided the wise men from the east, perhaps astrologers of a sort in their own right, who came to Jerusalem in order to worship Him the newborn King of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-12). The wise men apparently knew from Holy Scripture that the star was associated with the King (Numbers 24:17), and they learned from Holy Scripture that He was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), but the star led them forward to the place where the Christ Child was. On our own we cannot believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel and enlightens us with His gifts. God’s Word and other miraculous means–Baptism, Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar–lead us to and keep us in the one true faith and so the Holy Christian Church. In those ways and in that place we seek and receive the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Him Who was revealed as God in human flesh, Who died on the cross and rose from the grave for each and every sinner, including us.

Such revelations of God in the man Jesus and our responses to those revelations–sorrow over our sin and trust in Him–are the central focus of the Epiphany Season. The Season begins with the day of the Epiphany of Our Lord on January 6, when Pilgrim offers a special Divine Service at 7:00 p.m. (for which the Gospel Reading is Matthew 2:1-12). This year, the Season continues with the Baptism of Our Lord on January 12 (for which the Gospel Reading is Matthew 3:13-17), and ends with the Transfiguration of Our Lord on February 23 (for which the Gospel Reading is Matthew 17:1-9). In between are four other Sundays after Epiphany and an intervening feast of Christ, as follows with their Gospel Readings (appointed by Lutheran Service Book’s three-year lectionary series A, which largely uses the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew).

  • Second Sunday (1/19): Jesus is identified as the Lamb of God (John 1:29-42a)
  • Third Sunday (1/26): Jesus preaches and calls disciples (Matthew 4:12-25)
  • The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord (2/02): Jesus is recognized as the Lord’s salvation and redemption (Luke 2:22-40)
  • Fifth Sunday (2/09): Jesus preaches about the greatest righteousness (Matthew 5:13-20)
  • Sixth Sunday (2/16): Jesus clarifies understanding about God’s law (Matthew 5:21-37)

The colors for the days in the Epiphany Season are either white or green. White is a color appropriate for the light and purity of our Lord, and green is the color of growth, leaves, fruit, and life, suggesting spiritual growth. Such spiritual growth comes about by the pure preaching of the Gospel and right administration of the Sacraments. As God wills, such spiritual growth also can be accompanied by numerical growth, as He creates faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel.

You are always welcome at Pilgrim in person, and you are also welcome to read and hear the sermons at Pilgrim from the Season of Epiphany and from every season of the Church Year online here.

The banner graphic at the top of this page and the corresponding graphic in the slider on the front page were adapted by using an uncredited image of the Zodiac circle that was found here.