The blessing and lesson of Epiphany
In this Christian season of Epiphany, we are reminded that even as Jesus is the Light of the World, so you and I are called to be his lights in the world. Like Bach, the great composer and musician, we are to make our lives a “well-sounding harmony to the Glory of God.” And like Abraham Lincoln who believed that he might become an “instrument in God’s hands of accomplishing a great work,” that same challenge is ours and can shape our Christian pilgrimage. We, too, can make our positive contribution to God’s unfolding revelation.
The blessing and lesson of Epiphany is that there are guides for us on our journey. Let me name just three:
First, our pastor, before his sabbatical departure, left us with a meaningful prayer appropriate to beginning a new year: “O God of our lives: liberate our imaginations that we might live with wonder, guided by your wisdom, in pursuit of wellness for all. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” That prayer, lived out conscientiously as we move through the new year can provoke our creativity and movement towards health and wholeness, both individually and corporately.
Second, this week, some of us have begun to use In Prayer: A Devotional Calendar for 2008. This, too, is a resource which urges us to take time every day for reading scripture and prayerfully reflecting upon it. It urges us to make a response from the heart and then to rest and allow God’s spirit to accomplish its transforming work. The discipline offered is an ancient one, honed by centuries of Christian discipline and remembered with four Latin words: “lectio” (reading), “meditation” (reflection), “oratio” (response) and “contemplatio” (rest). As we move through the days of this year we begin this week, we will be strengthened in knowing that many within our congregation and our United Church of Christ community will be joining in this time of renewal and imagining the possibilities of God’s epiphany in our world.
And finally, the weekly lectionary of readings from the Bible can give our lives direction and purpose as we come together to pray and worship and listen. This Sunday we will hear the comforting words of Isaiah and the imaginative tale Matthew’s gospel telegraphs of the extraordinary reach Jesus’ arrival impends. The arrival of the wise men, sages from far off create a message of hope, of redemption and restoration, not just for a narrow segment of the human family, but for all.
Welcome to the season of Epiphany and to a New Year with shining possibilities before us!
– posted by Rev. Ralph Ahlberg
Rev. Ahlberg will be preaching at Immanuel on Sunday, January 6, 2008.
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