Day sixty five

I am sitting here in sunshine, with frozen snow outside, glad that I don't have to go anywhere today. It's now a week until my appointment with the consultant to find out what they are going to do about my prostate. Still no word about my CT scan results to find out what is actually wrong with me. And no blood test results yet about my coeliac results. It's all waiting!

But it's the 6th January, which for liturgists is Epiphany, so I said I would say something about the wise men.

They "bowed down and worshipped him." What does that mean? What is worship? In that context - in the house where Jesus was living with his parents, how did the wise men worship him?

When the wise men saw the star, "they were overjoyed". I wonder how often we are overjoyed when we go to an ecclesiastical building for a "worship service"

It didn't matter that they were in a house.

It didn't matter that there was no organ, or worship band; it didn't matter that there was no minister, or licensed preacher. It also didn't matter that the wise men were not authorised worship leaders.

Could they have done it wrong? Maybe they had the order of service wrong? Maybe they didn't pray the right prayers?

Or maybe they saw Jesus!

And when you encounter Jesus, maybe the natural reaction is to worship him?

That's what the Bible seems to suggest.

So, I'm stuck at home. I can't sit and stand through a one hour service, but surely I can still worship him here?

It's working so far!