Below is the sermon I gave at Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship on January 3 when we celebrated the Epiphany.
Today we celebrate the feast of Epiphany, which is fixed in the church calendar on January 6, twelve days after Christmas. Those of us who grew up near Amish communities may also know of January 6 as Old Christmas, when all the shops closed because their Amish employees took the day off as a holiday. Epiphany closes out the Advent/Christmas season and inaugurates a new season of variable length in its name. The exact length of the Epiphany season is determined by the placement of Easter, which varies from year to year. In days gone by, the season lasted only until Septuagesima, nine weeks before Easter, three before Lent, but in many traditions now stretches on through Transfiguration Sunday or Ash Wednesday. By its inconsistent length, it would appear that Epiphany has served somewhat of a functional role in church history, filling in the gap between the feast of Epiphany and countdown to Easter.
