Yesterday as we gathered for worship, we celebrated Epiphany, marking the arrival of the three wise Men who followed the star in the east from its rising, til it stopped over the place where Jesus was. Epiphany means to appear, to show forth, to be made manifest; it’s the season we celebrate those moments when eternal truth becomes clear to us, in the same way that Jesus was revealed to the Wise Men so long ago.
We remember this event each January, not because such epiphanies no longer occur, but to remind us that they do. This is the season when we watch for our own personal epiphanies, for those moments when we catch sight of God at work in our lives.
Epiphany says to us that God’s Kingdom is very near, awaiting only the moment of revelation and recognition. The difficulty is that so many times we can’t see the hand of God at work in our lives and in the lives of those we love, and we, like King Herod and the Wise Men, stand asking, “Where is he who is born King of the Jews?
Where is he when my daughter is sick and my son is troubled? Where is he when my father is dying and my mother is unable to care for herself? Where is he when my husband or my wife doesn’t seems to care, and my friends are nowhere in sight? Where is he when I’ve lost my job? Where is he in relation to our lives and our needs, and where are we in relation to him?
“Where is he who is born king of the Jews?” Epiphany whispers to each of us that he is nearer than we think. Whenever through the smudged windows of our human experience, God’s glory shines in, then it’s epiphany, and the Epiphany which we celebrate this day becomes a series of epiphany moments that will continue all year long.
Scripture tells us that the Wise Men returned home another way. What joy would be ours if each of us would return from the experience of Christmas this year by another way, a way marked by the light of the star. If only we would see in each experience the hand of God working in all things for our good; if only we could look beyond the struggle and difficulty of our daily lives toward the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ; if only we could see the faithful love and grace of God in a series of epiphany moments each day of our lives.
“Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”
He is with us, now and forever more!
Giving thanks for this new year, and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Elizabeth
Today’s verses from Matthew’s gospel just don’t fit our image of how the story of Christ’s birth is supposed to unfold. Matthew speaks of the unspeakable- a world of heartache and suffering and killing, inflicted upon innocent children; pain so deep it is difficult for us to comprehend, yet pain in other ways that we understand all too well. If we detour around this part of the story, we miss the fullness of how much this birth means.
The slaughter of innocent children and the flight of the Holy family are harsh and haunting images. Because of their very harshness they tend to be excluded from the telling of the story, for Christmas is not a time when we want to hear about Rachel weeping for her children; it is not the time when we want to view Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus as homeless refugees on the run – but if we leave out this part of the story, we miss the full meaning of the incarnation.
The birth of Jesus didn’t happen at a time when everything was going right, or when people were feeling good about themselves, and no one was in need. This birth broke into the midst of hard times and tragedy, an in-breaking that didn’t deny the pain and suffering and hurt of the world, but happened in spite of it and in the midst of it. The truth of Christmas is the truth of God’s loving presence in the midst of this broken world, then and now – God with us in our very circumstances of the moment, breaking through our pain and suffering with promise and possibility, to shower upon us grace upon grace.
Shadows do fall across the Christmas story and across our lives. In joy and in sorrow, God has a plan to give us something better than what we wish, something more than what we long for. God is here and there is a purpose and a plan and ultimately all things are working together for good, and this year and all the years to come are already inhabited by God’s grace. Thanks be to God!
Elizabeth
This year’s Church Family Christmas Program at Jackson Springs Presbyterian had a memorable grand finale! As the program came to the close with the choir singing “O What a Glorious Night,” folks were beginning to stand for the closing prayer, when a young guitarist in our congregation stood in place and began strumming “Joy to the World”; next came the sound one playing the same tune on a banjo from the balcony; then a member on the back row stood and added her violin to the mix, then came flute, then piano, then organ – and finally everyone stood and joined in singing to the accompaniment of all the instruments! Joy to the World!
I was reminded of a song I heard several years ago – “Symphony”, by SWITCH, a group of worship leaders in Life Church, based in Edmond, Oklahoma. As they were working on songs for worship, they began sharing stories of what they’d been hearing and what they’d been facing personally. Themes arose, and one of those themes was that everyone has gone through some type of chaos in their lives, whether it be unemployment, family issues, marriage distress, difficulty raising kids – everybody has experienced some kind of chaos in their lives. They wanted to write a song that could be a prayer for people to sing in the middle of those circumstances. “Even in the madness there is peace,” they wrote, “God is always at work in the middle of our difficulties.”
The song they wrote became “Symphony.” Symphony represents God’s role in the life of the believer. When all the individual melodies just don’t make sense, in the context of a symphony, when everything is moving together, you can hear and see the masterpiece, and that’s when everything makes sense. God is always doing something bigger and crafting something beautiful. We can all become something bigger than ourselves, and be a part of something more that God is doing. May these words be a gift to our hearts this Christmas:
“Even in the madness there is peace;
Drowning out the voices all around me.
Through all of this chaos,
You are writing a symphony,
a symphony.
Tune my heart to your beat,
Let me be your melody.
Even when I cannot see
What you’re orchestrating;
Even when the dark surrounds,
You’ll never let me down,
I know that my hope is found
in the name of Jesus
You say You’re working everything for my good.
And I believe every word;
all around me through all of this chaos,
you are writing a symphony.”
Merry Christmas!
Elizabeth