We had a what?!
Epiphany.
i-ˈpi-fə-nē
The word comes from a Greek word that means, “appearance, or manifestation.”
We tend to use that word when a person comes to a sudden understanding or realization of the significance of some event or discovery.
“Wow! I get it now!” he said as he grasped that moment of Epiphany.
There is another Epiphany that followers of Jesus celebrate today, January 6.
This one looks to the revealing, or appearance, of Jesus as God Incarnate.
Here in the West we use the image of the Magi who traveled from the region where Eastern Iraq is now. They gathered gifts to present to the One whom they considered the new born King of the Jews. Traversing deserts and desolate routes, they led their caravan to a small, podunk town in the Province of Judea. When they arrived they fell down and worshiped Jesus. This was their Epiphany. They experienced the appearance and manifestation of God in the face of a young child.
The Eastern Church celebrates with remembering Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River at the hands of His cousin, John. As Jesus came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended upon Him and the Voice of the Father spoke revealing that Jesus was God’s Son. A Son in whom God was ‘well-pleased.’ In this act, this Epiphany, Jesus appeared to the World as the manifest Presence of God.
Here in the U.S. we don’t think too much about Epiphany as a religious holiday.
We’re usually pretty busy cleaning up after the REAL holidays of Christmas and New Year. We get back to work and business-as-usual moaning about the fact that the next paid holiday for most of us is months away.
But, Epiphany?
Yeah, who cares?
I still have to go to work.
School’s back in session.
It’s no big deal.
What if we stopped for a moment and considered this event?
Who is Jesus in the world today?
Is He a child at His mother’s side holding a blanket?
Excited, yet too young to understand why these strange men are standing around praising God and offering Him gifts?
Or, is he a young man standing in the living waters of the Jordan, dripping from being immersed in the cool wetness of the river?
Well, yes and no.
Yes, Jesus was all of that and more.
We celebrate the events that revealed Him to the World.
However, are we who follow in His footsteps not truly His Body right here; right now?
If His Body, then bearers of His Image and Presence.
We are, in a very real sense, the Epiphany of God today.
We are God’s appearing and manifestation in our own culture.
Perhaps it’s time to live into that reality.
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