The Epiphany of the Lord

Image: He, Qi. Adoration of the Magi, 
from Art in the Christian Tradition,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.

January 4, 2015

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With the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, the reality and significance of Christmas have come full circle.

The birth that we celebrated just an octave ago is now being universally acclaimed,  and the repercussions of that great moment in time must also be universally experienced.

In a sermon on today's feast, Baptist minister, educator and author Peter J. Gomes compared what he refers to as "epiphany business" to a stone that is dropped into the water;

there it produces a series of concentric ripples that grow larger and wider until the entire surface imperceptibly is witness to the initial movement of that stone.

What began on the very private annunciation of an angel messenger to Mary and what was made manifest to the shepherds

will be made increasingly clear to an ever expanding audience of witnesses.

Slowly but surely, the concentric circles of "epiphany business" reach out to touch and embrace more and more witnesses, until all are included and illumined.

From now through Easter Sunday, every aspect of the Christ event should be understood as an epiphany of Jesus that engages not only our attention but also our faith and our hope.

Through these manifestations, we will grow in that knowledge of Christ that invites us to deeper, fuller and firmer commitment.

To put it another way, Epiphany is at once a celebration of Christ and a challenge for the People of God.

By virtue of the reality of Christ, manifested as light and life for the world,

we who belong to Christ are to live lives that are similar manifestations of light and life.

Moreover, the challenge of Epiphany also requires that we be willing to see, hear, touch and attend to the presence of God

that is made manifest in predictable places and people as well as in those people and places where it is least expected.

The concentric circles of "epiphany business" reminds all of us together,

with our differences and diversities, our various languages, cultures, customs and traditions

all of us are to bring a diverse light to a world darkened by human sin.

Recall the mandate of Jesus to his own: "you are the light of the world ...your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify God".

In his book entitled Psalms for Zero Gravity, Edward Hays gave voice to the difficult challenge of being light in one of his poignant prayers:

"O God, how lonely it is to be the light of the world,

to be your justice and love in a world devoid of them,

to be kindness and compassion in a world of competition.

Yes, I find it lonely being luminous.

As all alone as our solitary sun, at times,

that's how I feel, Radiant God.

How hard to be the light of the world,

to hold a glowing warmth in a world so cold.

So, forgive me, Beloved,

for being just a momentary shooting star in the darkness of my world."

Lonely or not, momentary or not, hard or not, this is the challenge of Epiphany.

No doubt, Jesus must also have experienced the loneliness and difficulty of being the light of the world but he did not relent in his struggle.

Today we celebrate him both as sun that enlightens the world as well as the Son who redeemed it from the darkness of sin and death.

Today we are also called to renew our resolve to be like Jesus, a sun that lights the world despite the loneliness and the struggle.

Hays suggest that 99 percent of disciples prefer to be moons that only reflect the light of their Savior Sun.

Rather than be enflamed with love for God, their light only faintly mirrors the light of Christ.

However, Jesus did not say "You are the moon of the world."

He said, "I am the light,"

"You are light.

"Therefore, each of us must choose today what we should be for the world,

a sun (if only a momentary shooting star)

or a moon.