“Epiphany” is an odd word that doesn’t get used very much in our daily vocabularies, but it’s an important word in God’s Church. Together with Christmas and Easter, Epiphany is among the most important celebrations in worldwide Christianity. After the 12 Days of Christmas (December 25- January 5) the Season of Epiphany begins with the Feast of Epiphany, on January 6th. The word Epiphany comes from the Greek, and means “to reveal” or “to show forth.” In the context of Christianity, it has to do with the revelation that Jesus is the Son of God who has come into the world as a gift of love and grace for all people. The primary Scripture lessons during this season are the visitation of the Wise Men (Jesus for the Greeks and not just the Jews); the Baptism (Jesus revealed as the very Son of God, God incarnate in the world); and the first miracle of Jesus at the wedding at Cana in Galilee (the water is turned to wine, a symbol of the new wine of God’s Grace that is being revealed, in anticipation of the ultimate purpose of Jesus, “The marriage feast of the Lamb” when God restores the whole creation to Himself).
The Season of Epiphany stretches from the end of Christmas to Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent. The primary symbol and theme of Epiphany is light, because “Jesus is the Light of the World.” This is an important truth for Christians as it reminds us that Jesus didn’t come into the world just for Jews, or just for those Gentiles who converted and became Christians, but for the whole world. From the beginning, as God reached out to form a relationship with Abraham and his progeny, He promised that He would use the family of Abraham (Israel) as a vessel to draw the whole world to Himself; to restore His creation to the beauty, love, and harmony for which it was created, and to an intimate relationship with Himself. God’s love for all people is a Truth that can be found in both the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible), and the New Testament. We see, for example, in the Book of Jonah, how God called Jonah to go to the people of Nineveh (the hated enemy of Israel) to call them to a relationship with God. Jonah was not excited about this, and in fact hoped for their destruction. Near the end of the book, God says to Jonah, in essence, that He gave life to the Ninevites and cares for them as well as the people of Israel. Similarly, in the New Testament, we see Jesus engaging pagans (the Roman soldier whose servant He healed; the Syro-Phonesian woman whose daughter He healed; the Samaritan Woman at the Well- Samaritans were seen by Jews as being little more than pagan) with warmth and kindness, knowing that God loves them too.
The revelation that the God of Christianity loves and cares for the whole world is a loving and joyous proclamation that needs to be heard today as much as it did in the first century. There is such hatred and division in the world, and all too often Christianity contributes to that hatred and division, rather than acting as a bridge of loving kindness. Those who claim to follow Jesus are charged with acting as “the Body of Christ” still upon the earth (Jesus is no longer with us physically, but has sent His Spirit to dwell within us and use us as His vessel), continuing the work of Jesus, a work of reconciling love. To spread the Light of Epiphany is not to use that light to hate and condemn others, it is to allow that Light to so penetrate our hearts that we become instruments of God’s Love.
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