The traditional themes of Epiphany are light, glory, sight, revelation, and enlightenment. The seasonal cycle begins with the story of the Magi — three wise mystics — following a star, a journey that takes them to Jesus, God’s promise birthed into the world, wonder embodied as a tiny child. The most ordinary of human moments — birth — becomes extraordinary.
Epiphany is about seeing the extraordinary in the everyday. Some Christians call Epiphany “ordinary time,” but there’s nothing ordinary about it. Week after week, with each story presented in the yearly lectionary, what seems ordinary is revealed as something extraordinary. A baptism turns into a divine announcement; water becomes wine; reading holy words introduces a prophet of the Kingdom; a day’s laborious fishing breaks the nets with a great catch; the poor are blessed; and love, mercy, and forgiveness are offered not to friends but to those who seek to do us harm.
From blogpost Epiphany Now by Diana Butler Bass
These days when there is so much change and stress caused by the community transmission of Covid-19, we are called again to “see’ in the way God sees, noticing what has been revealed to be important and even eternal. We are inheritors of the dream of God for the world, and this dream is not changed by pandemics or physical separation; indeed this time of anxiety and upheaval can bring what matters into sharp focus.
We are called to recognise the hidden wholeness of the world and our call to be as one, giving and sharing with one another. In these humanising moments when we place love for one another at the centre, we can glimpse the extraordinary in these difficult days and see the world as God would have it be. The Spirit is revealed in our communal life when we live as though the well-being of those around us is as important to us as our own lives.
May we love one another, making visible the hope of God at work in our world.
Grace and peace,
Sue+