Epiphany Day
06/01/16 05:05
The dictionary defines epiphany as “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.” Because we celebrate Epiphany as a feast day that launches a season of stories about the life of Jesus, we have gotten into the habit of thinking of the revelation of Jesus as something that happened quickly and easily. Wise men from the east see a star and follow that star to the place where the Christ Child was. Upon entering the home they fell on their knees and worshiped him.
The reality is that there was little about the spread of Christianity to the gentile world that was sudden or instant. It took centuries for the emerging religion to gain widespread acceptance. Our understanding of Jesus’ unique revelation of the nature of God also was a slow process. Generations passed as faithful people struggled with understanding. It is easy to understand, from reading the Acts of the Apostles and the various letters that make up the majority of the New Testament that the early church did not share a common understanding of Jesus or a common interpretation of the events of his life, death and resurrection. The understanding that Jesus is the messiah long promised by prophets was accepted by only some Jews.
In our contemporary world, there are still plenty of disagreements over interpretation of the events of Jesus’ life. Even after millennia of Christian practice, we do not tell the stories of our history or interpret the tenants of our statements of faith in the same manner. The incredible diversity of denominations in the world reflects the wide differences in understanding that are a part of the contemporary church. We who claim the title Christian shouldn’t be surprised that outsiders have trouble knowing what that title means. We certainly are not of one idea or a common agreement within the church.
Today we celebrate and remember the visit of the wise men. In some traditions it is also the day of the celebration of the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist, though many congregations, including ours, wait until the first Sunday after Epiphany for that particular observance. It happens to be convenient for us that Epiphany lands on a Wednesday this year. We already have special family programming on the first Wednesday of the month so a festival with food, crafts, games and activities fits right into the rhythms of our congregation. It is likely that the timing of most of the traditional feasts of the church have similar origins. The tradition of twelve days of Christmas before the festival of Epiphany is more of a reflection of the practical realities of institutional life than a record of the actual span of time in the life of the infant Jesus. As I have often noted in the blog, the story of the wise men is only reported in one of the four gospels and it is hardly a major theme in the development of the New Testament. At the same time, it is one of the great treasured stories of our people. While we wonder at the fact that the other gospels don’t contain a record of the visit, we are compelled to take the story seriously if for no other reason than the fact that our people have treasured and kept that story alive for so many years. We’ve been telling that story to our children for more than 2,000 years.
Thinking of the development of our faith as a multiple-generation enterprise is very engaging for me. If it took so many generations for our people to come to the understandings we now have of our faith, we can be content for the new ideas and concepts we have to take similar lengths of time to become rooted in the life of the church. Much of what we do as people of faith is invest in the long term.
Knowing that not everything in the relationship between God and the people of God hinges on our time and place is reassuring. We, like previous generations are allowed to make mistakes. We are invited to learn from the history and traditions of the church, but also encouraged to be open to the movement of the spirit in our time and the fresh insights and understandings that come to each generation. Our faith is a work in progress, not a possession that we ever could fully own.
We are given a season to consider the revelation of Christ to the world. The season varies in length, depending on the date of Easter. Epiphany lasts from January 6 until Ash Wednesday, meaning it can be longer or shorter depending on the timing of the season of Lent since we use a hybrid calendar that considers both the phases of the moon and the movement of the earth around the sun. For many years the church celebrated a differently regulated season, with Christmas and Epiphany taking exactly 40 days, as is the case with Lent (excluding the Sundays). This practice however, created other anomalies in the calendar and our current practice has been long accepted with its season that varies in length from year to year. This year we get five Sundays, just a little over a month, for the season of Epiphany. Some years we get as many as seven Sundays. As a result, we need to be efficient with the use of our time and the telling of our stories. We have a lot to say and a short time to process the information.
Fortunately, we are not required to achieve complete understanding in a single celebration of the season. Epiphany comes around every year so that we can continue to wrestle with its ideas, contemplate its questions, and consider its importance in the overall life of faith that we share.
I wish you a blessed Epiphany. May you sense the presence of the light of Christ in your life and may this season bring to you new revelations of the meaning of our faith.
The reality is that there was little about the spread of Christianity to the gentile world that was sudden or instant. It took centuries for the emerging religion to gain widespread acceptance. Our understanding of Jesus’ unique revelation of the nature of God also was a slow process. Generations passed as faithful people struggled with understanding. It is easy to understand, from reading the Acts of the Apostles and the various letters that make up the majority of the New Testament that the early church did not share a common understanding of Jesus or a common interpretation of the events of his life, death and resurrection. The understanding that Jesus is the messiah long promised by prophets was accepted by only some Jews.
In our contemporary world, there are still plenty of disagreements over interpretation of the events of Jesus’ life. Even after millennia of Christian practice, we do not tell the stories of our history or interpret the tenants of our statements of faith in the same manner. The incredible diversity of denominations in the world reflects the wide differences in understanding that are a part of the contemporary church. We who claim the title Christian shouldn’t be surprised that outsiders have trouble knowing what that title means. We certainly are not of one idea or a common agreement within the church.
Today we celebrate and remember the visit of the wise men. In some traditions it is also the day of the celebration of the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist, though many congregations, including ours, wait until the first Sunday after Epiphany for that particular observance. It happens to be convenient for us that Epiphany lands on a Wednesday this year. We already have special family programming on the first Wednesday of the month so a festival with food, crafts, games and activities fits right into the rhythms of our congregation. It is likely that the timing of most of the traditional feasts of the church have similar origins. The tradition of twelve days of Christmas before the festival of Epiphany is more of a reflection of the practical realities of institutional life than a record of the actual span of time in the life of the infant Jesus. As I have often noted in the blog, the story of the wise men is only reported in one of the four gospels and it is hardly a major theme in the development of the New Testament. At the same time, it is one of the great treasured stories of our people. While we wonder at the fact that the other gospels don’t contain a record of the visit, we are compelled to take the story seriously if for no other reason than the fact that our people have treasured and kept that story alive for so many years. We’ve been telling that story to our children for more than 2,000 years.
Thinking of the development of our faith as a multiple-generation enterprise is very engaging for me. If it took so many generations for our people to come to the understandings we now have of our faith, we can be content for the new ideas and concepts we have to take similar lengths of time to become rooted in the life of the church. Much of what we do as people of faith is invest in the long term.
Knowing that not everything in the relationship between God and the people of God hinges on our time and place is reassuring. We, like previous generations are allowed to make mistakes. We are invited to learn from the history and traditions of the church, but also encouraged to be open to the movement of the spirit in our time and the fresh insights and understandings that come to each generation. Our faith is a work in progress, not a possession that we ever could fully own.
We are given a season to consider the revelation of Christ to the world. The season varies in length, depending on the date of Easter. Epiphany lasts from January 6 until Ash Wednesday, meaning it can be longer or shorter depending on the timing of the season of Lent since we use a hybrid calendar that considers both the phases of the moon and the movement of the earth around the sun. For many years the church celebrated a differently regulated season, with Christmas and Epiphany taking exactly 40 days, as is the case with Lent (excluding the Sundays). This practice however, created other anomalies in the calendar and our current practice has been long accepted with its season that varies in length from year to year. This year we get five Sundays, just a little over a month, for the season of Epiphany. Some years we get as many as seven Sundays. As a result, we need to be efficient with the use of our time and the telling of our stories. We have a lot to say and a short time to process the information.
Fortunately, we are not required to achieve complete understanding in a single celebration of the season. Epiphany comes around every year so that we can continue to wrestle with its ideas, contemplate its questions, and consider its importance in the overall life of faith that we share.
I wish you a blessed Epiphany. May you sense the presence of the light of Christ in your life and may this season bring to you new revelations of the meaning of our faith.