“Welcome to Epiphany!”

Jenni Berg - 02/02/2025

Readings -  

We are currently in the church season of Epiphany.  Epiphany has 2 meanings according to the dictionary.  It is the manifestation of the Christ child to the Gentiles, represented by the Magi, and it can also be a moment of sudden and great revelation, or realization-an “AHA” moment.  In the church calendar the feast of Epiphany is on the 6th of January.  This coincides with the 12th day of Christmas, or twelfth night.  The season of Epiphany is a flexible season, its length depending on where Easter falls that year.  It is a time when the church invites us to reflect on the many epiphanies we experience, those moments of insight or revelation when we catch a glimpse of God among us.  Missing a service in the first three Sundays in January means we miss those first three Epiphany readings.  I’m sure you will be apprehensive to hear that I’m going to try to cover those readings in this reflection time.

As we journey through the season of Epiphany, we are invited to witness the gradual unfolding of God’s revelation to the world.  Epiphany provides new understandings of who God is and how God calls us to live.  From the story of the Magi seeking the Christ-child to Jesus’ bold proclamation in the synagogue in Nazareth, we are shown a story of revelation—and of love.  We are challenged to move beyond what we already know, beyond our comfortable assumptions, and to see with new eyes, a new heart.  As we say in our 4th Sunday service, Jesus calls us to realise, with real eyes, where the real lies.

The first Sunday of the season was the feast of Epiphany, where Matthew described the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus.  I’ve followed the posts of the Anglican priest, Gregory Jenks through January, and I am drawing on his sermons here.  He pointed out that this visit isn’t mentioned in the other gospels.  At that time Jews saw God as being for the chosen people only.  But here Matthew has the first people who recognized who Jesus really was as the Magi- pagan astrologers from the East.  They were outsiders who shouldn’t have been there.  So this reading sets the scene for the message that’s God love is for everyone.

The next week the reading from Luke 3 described the baptism of Jesus.  In this reading the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove, and a voice came from heaven “You are my son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased.”  Certainly a revelation, an epiphany for Jesus.  However, Gregory Jenks notes that Luke didn’t stress the actual baptism at all.  He simply says: “Now when all the people had been baptized, and Jesus also had been baptized.’ Here Jesus was one of the crowd.  He was baptized as part of a community.  Perhaps the importance of being a part of a community of faith is our epiphany for this reading.

Next was the story from John’s gospel of Jesus turning water into wine.  It is an unusual story really, this miracle. It seems a bit like magic, doesn’t it?  And Jesus didn’t seem to attach it to a particular teaching.  The reading says that what Jesus did in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.  For them that was an epiphany.  However it’s worth noting that it happened among ordinary people at an ordinary wedding, who weren’t expecting anything from Jesus at all.  Perhaps this revelation about the miraculous in everyday life can serve as an epiphany for us.

Last week the set reading was the well-known verses from Luke 4, and I included it in today’s reading:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.  Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’

Imagine my confusion when I looked up the lectionary readings for today to find two sets.  One is for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, and one for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany.

Today, I’ll look at three readings that present as epiphanies: the prophetic moment in Luke 4:21-30, the poetic expression of love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, and the witness of Simeon and Anna in Luke 2:22-38.  Together, these texts invite us into a deeper understanding of who Jesus is, what love looks like, and how our lives are meant to reflect that love.

In Luke 4:14-21, we hear Jesus’ first public sermon in the synagogue of Nazareth.  He reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, proclaiming a message of good news to the poor, liberation to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed.  It is a moment of great revelation—Jesus is announcing that the long-awaited Messiah has come, and this is what God’s Kingdom looks like.

But in today’s reading the people do not approve.  Instead, they are offended.  “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they ask.  Here Jesus is revealing God’s message of liberation and salvation, but it’s not the kind of revelation they expected.  The Messiah they had anticipated would bring power and dominance—what Jesus offers is humble, transformative love.  He calls them to see God’s presence not only in their own people but in the marginalized, the outsider, and those who are traditionally excluded.  This is a revelation that challenges their deeply held beliefs, and ours as well. It brings to mind the sermon that the bishop of Washington, Rev Mariann Budde, recently delivered at the national prayer service in Washington National Cathedral, provoking condemnation from President Donald Trump I encourage you to locate and read the full sermon.

This is where the journey begins: Epiphany—the unveiling of God’s truth—and it often comes in unexpected forms.  Jesus disrupts their expectations, just as he continues to do.  His revelation invites us into a broader, more inclusive vision of God’s Kingdom, one that might stretch us beyond our comfort zones.

As we continue on this journey of revelation, we are reminded by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 of the centrality of love.  Paul writes about love not as an abstract idea, but as a lived reality that transcends all things—prophecies, knowledge, even faith.  Love is not something we can claim to possess unless we are putting it into action.  If we speak in tongues, have all knowledge, or perform great deeds but have not love, we are nothing.

This passage resonates with the Epiphany theme because it reveals to us what the true nature of Jesus's revelation is: love.  His life, from the humble birth in the manger to the radical proclamation in the synagogue, is a life centred in love.  As followers of Jesus, we are called not only to witness this revelation, but to embody it.  In the season of Epiphany, we are reminded that seeing Jesus is about seeing through the eyes of love.  Love is the lens through which God’s truth is most fully revealed.

Finally, in Luke 2:22-40, in the readings for the presentation of Jesus at the temple, we encounter the story of Simeon and Anna, two elderly figures who recognize the infant Jesus as the promised Savior.  They have waited their entire lives for this moment, and when they see the child, they see not just a baby, but the light of God’s salvation, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory for the people of Israel.  Simeon’s words are a testimony to the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation—not just for the Jews, but for the whole world.  The Christ child is not a light for some, but for all people.

Here, again, is this radical revelation: God’s light is not confined to the insiders but is meant to shine on everyone.  This revelation of God’s love is not exclusive, but expansive.  Simeon and Anna’s faithfulness teaches us that we, too, are called to wait for God’s light to break into the world in unexpected ways.  And when it does, we are invited to recognize it, to proclaim it, and to carry it forward.

The journey from Epiphany to the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany is a journey of revelation, and a journey of transformation.  We are invited to see more clearly, to love more fully, and to serve more selflessly.

The invitation of this season is to allow Christ’s light to change us.  The revelation we experience during Epiphany is meant to draw us deeper into the way of love, the love we see in 1 Corinthians 13.  Love is not just a feeling; it is an active force, something we are called to live out in the world.  Whether it’s loving our neighbours, standing up for justice, or welcoming the stranger, love is the core of our discipleship. It is what we are meant to embody as we walk this journey with the Christ.