The Epiphany Season is a long one this year,
January 6 through March 8, with Ash Wednesday
on March 9.  This will give us nine weeks of
Sundays in the Epiphany Season.  The word
“Epiphany” means: enlightenment!  Or perhaps a
better translation would be:  Aha! Or Wow! Or Did
you see that? Or Oh, yeah! Or Now I get it.  You
have all had some epiphanies along your life’s
journey, those little poignant moments when
something makes sense or is more clear to your mind’s eye.
 

During the Epiphany Season, the goal of worship,
the readings, and the hymns is to help you get a
better, clearer picture of Jesus the Messiah.  The
Gospel readings for this time of illumination come
from the Gospel of St. Matthew.  St. Matthew
gives the people a picture of the kingdom of God
as Jesus brings that kingdom to the people
through his preaching, healing, and just being with
people.

What do you think God wants to get through to
you during this current Epiphany time?  What is
lacking in your life?  What needs affirming over
and over again?  What nuance in your walk with
Christ needs to come to the foreground?  Everyone
of us has something that needs some light of Christ
on it.  One of our favorite hymns, “Christ Be Our Light,”
says: “Shine in our hearts.  Shine through the darkness.” 
We all have some darkness, some night, some dimly flickering
spot in our lives that need some light from God, a light
that only God can give us.  Another favorite hymn, “I Want
to Walk as a Child of the Light,” says: “The Star of my
life is Jesus and . . . in him there is no darkness at all.” 
And, of course, the hymn, “Shine, Jesus, Shine,” says:
“Lord, the light of your love is shining, in the midst of
the darkness shining.”  All this is a way of saying that none
of us is perfect light because there is still some darkness
in each of us.  Granted, we have faith in the Light of this world, Jesus, but Jesus is still working on us so thatour light conforms to his light in this world.

Do not be alarmed that you do not have your Christian life worked out
totally and completely; no one does. The disciples of Jesus did not have their lives worked out either.  And yet, Jesus never deserted them but was present for them always.  We must remember that Jesus is never thwarted or inhibited by the darkness in the world and in ourselves, because he is Light and knows how to deal with our darkness.  He just lets his light shine more brightly on us.  We may come to that Aha moment or maybe not, but Jesus will be there with us.  He is the Light of the world.  Thanks be to God for the Light of Jesus, the holy Child of Bethlehem, the Savior of the world. 
Wow! Oh, yeah!

David A. Peters, Pastor