The Greek word epiphaneia (ἐπιφάνεια),
meaning “manifestation” or “glorious appearing.”
The Gospel lesson on the Feast of the Epiphany sparks our imagination, of course, with the mysterious Magi from the East following the Star, finding baby Jesus, paying Jesus homage with gifts and then defying Herod. We are helped along by countless manger scenes in movies, TV shows, storybooks and ceramic creches. The other Gospel lessons in the Season after the Epiphany offer manifestations or glorious appearings that also demonstrate that Jesus is God’s Beloved Son – include Jesus’ Baptism by John, Jesus calling his first disciples, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, and Jesus’ Transfiguration on top of a mountain.
In this Season of Epiphany, how is God calling us here – at St. Stephen’s and the Vine in Ferguson, Missouri – to new discoveries, new possibilities, new manifestations of our faith in Jesus Christ? How might we shine forth with the light of Christ as individuals and as a Christian community in ways that deepen our discipleship and broaden our sense of Beloved community? How might God be challenging us to take another road or find another way, as the Magi did?
Epiphany is a season of revelation – a season that reveals who Jesus is as God’s Beloved Son and a season in which we must allow God’s will to be revealed through us. Thanks be to God!
“Songs of thankfulness and praise, Jesus, Lord, to thee we raise, manifested by the star to the sages from afar; branch of royal David’s stem in thy birth at Bethlehem; anthems be to thee addressed, God in man made manifest.”
-Christopher Wordsworth, Hymnal 1982, #135, verse 1