I Love celebrating Epiphany, and I’m not alone. Someone recently shared with me their yearly ritual as they light a candle and go room-to-room, inviting the light of Christ to fill every space in the apartment. Then they sing “Joy to the World” as enthusiastically as they can manage.
It’s not too late. You still can celebrate Epiphany. Epiphany is a season that starts on January 6 and will continue until Ash Wednesday, when the 40 days of Lent begin. Epiphany is where “O Come Let Us Adore Him” becomes “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” In Advent, we spin inward to make room for Jesus’ coming. At Christmas, we celebrate the beautiful and scandalous birth of Christ. And in Epiphany, we are sent out with the light of the beauty of the glory of Jesus shining in our faces to announce the good news. The darkness is past. A new day has come. The light has shined in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Light is the key symbol of Epiphany. There’s an irony here. We speak of and celebrate light as a church in the heart of the season when our hemisphere seems wrapped in darkness. We know people who sit in front of full-spectrum lights this time of year to help regulate their bodies to the diminished light. Many of us are up before dawn and return home after dusk. Some parts of the country will go a month or more at a time with no sunshine.
Moving from the physical universe into the symbolic, the irony deepens. Our society is fragmented and fragmenting at an alarming rate. People are crying out for work, justice, security, and hope. The darkness is thick indeed.
I think of the words of Hosea 4:
“There is no faithfulness or loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land. Swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery break out; bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore, the land mourns and all who live in it languish; together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea are perishing.”
And so we sit in darkness. The darkness whispers its formless menace, but a candle is lit.
To be clear, Epiphany is not for the faint of heart. It is not a season for idealists who believe that things are basically good and getting better but then collapse in cynicism when confronted with darkness. Epiphany beckons us to come to the light of Jesus Christ. Epiphany calls us to stare into that light until our inner darkness is fully dispelled. Epiphany then sends us out into a dark and weary world as women and men with shining faces until we say with the apostle Paul,
“It is God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Unlike Christmas, this is not a sentimental moment. It is a moment of defiance. Holding up a light in a dark place is a dangerous thing to do. Maybe that’s why we find it so hard.
John 3:19 says, “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” Holding up a candle risks exposure. Holding up a candle risks confrontation with the powers that thrive in the dark.
God’s call to us in Epiphany is to hold up a candle. We are being invited to move from coming and adoring to going and telling. Every time the church emphasizes one of these to the exclusion of the other, she gets distorted. When the church emphasizes “go and tell it” over “come let us adore him,” she becomes hollow. Worship becomes a spectacle. Ultimately, this church loses itself. But when the church emphasizes adoration and inner well-being over “go and tell,” it becomes anemic, timid, and sanctimonious.
We are healthiest as the people of God when we stare into the light of Jesus until our hearts burn within us, and then we go out into the places we live, work, and play with faces that radiate this light. To quote Paul again, “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”
I can see a few of you have your candles lit. Anyone else like to join me?
Photo by Claudia Ramírez on Unsplash
Please Pray For: Our congregation as we look for someone to help connect us to the online community.
Please Pray: that we would be a light in the darkness of our community and that many would be drawn to the light.
Please Pray For: The Zellmer family, as Bob struggles with his health.
Please Pray For: Bob and Joyce. Bob has returned to the hospital.
Please Pray For: Jack Williams, who has been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis.
Please Thank God For: Kathy , who received the organs she has been waiting for.
Please Pray For: Geri Nay, who is struggling with chemo and heart problems.
Please Pray For: Kathy Duitsman, who has breast cancer.
Please Thank God For: Julie, whose cancer has stabilized.
Please Pray For: Joy, who is receiving chemo treatments.
Please Pray For: Leela Izzo, that God would strengthen and heal her.
Please Pray For: Joe, and his struggles with addiction.
Please Pray For: Carmen Warren, that he know freedom of both heart and mind.
Please Pray For: Those who struggle with housing needs.
Please Pray For: all those who are out of work.
Please Pray For: all of our EMTs, armed forces, and others who place themselves in harm’s way for our sake.
Please Thank God For: Faye is home from the hospital.
Please pray For: Peace in Israel/Gaza and Ukraine.