Epiphany is the season of light. The word means, “something previously hidden coming into view.” Epiphany is not about something that didn’t exist before suddenly being created; rather it is about our becoming aware of a reality that has been there all along. Perhaps the slogan for Epiphany should, “Oh, now I get it!” It’s like in math class when an equation suddenly makes sense; or one of those optical illusions where, if you look at it just right, you can see the name of Jesus or something. “Wow, now I can see it.”
The first chapter of John sets the tone for the season of Epiphany. The author reminds us that through “the Word” God spoke the world into being, spoke light into the world’s chaotic darkness. John then makes a magnificent connection by saying that “the Word became flesh and lived among us;” revealing to us that the Christ, the creative force of God, has been around since the beginning and is now become visible to us in the person of a humble carpenter from the little village of Nazareth. It is an al most unbelievable claim, one that is widely debated. The God of the Universe, the creator of all that is, was, and ever will be; walking around as a Jewish carpenter/teacher? If we had not been told this all our lives it would stagger the imagination. It is not only difficult to believe now; it was difficult to believe then. This is why John and the other Gospel writers talked so much about signs, and fulfillment of scripture, and miracles, etc. They were putting forth all their evidence that this man was indeed who he said he was – no matter how hard that was to believe.
We in the modern world are conditioned to think of truth as facts – particularly empirical, scientifically provable facts. And the “divinity of Christ” is not that sort of truth, it is not a “fact” that can be measured and recorded and repeated in experimentation. Rather, it is an Epiphany, a revelation, a reality that is deeply em bedded in the fabric of the universe and which becomes real to us through faith. This does not mean that to believe in Christ’s divinity is irrational; it simply means that it is not a thing that can be reasoned out using either science or philosophy. It stands outside those areas of expertise.
The Epiphany of our Lord on January 6 celebrates the arrival of the Magi to worship the king revealed to them by the star in the heavens. Then, on Sunday, January 7, we observe the Baptism of our Lord in which a voice comes from heaven to declare Jesus as the Son of God. The Epiphany season ends on Sunday, February 11, with the Transfiguration story - Jesus goes up on a mountain with a few disciples. There light, and voices, and visions reveal him to be divine. On the Sundays in between we will look at a variety of ways in which the Gospels reveal to us that Jesus is the Christ. We will also begin to see what it looks like for us to be Jesus’ sisters and brothers, fellow children of God. Along the way, it is likely we will all have many “Aha” moments when we say to ourselves, “Now I get it!”
Peace,
Delmer