Epiphany and The Manifestation of Christ to The World 2025

 

Epiphany and The Manifestation of Christ to the World! 

            Each of the four gospels seek to provide evidence of who Christ is in stories, songs, and parables. Each of the four evangelists provide a combination of similar as well as uniquely different accounts of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. The impact of his life changed the world into which he was born, and continues to shape and re-shape our world to this very day. 

            Given the broad strokes of our mission as his Church, we are to live lives that manifest his love, compassion, and glory in everything we say and do, both in church and, more importantly, beyond the local parish. For Christ and his Church will be judged by the behavior and ministries of those who dare to call ourselves Christians. That is, Epiphany is more than a season. We are to live our lives every day as manifestations of his devotion to justice, peace, and love for all people everywhere. 

            His life, as reported by the four evangelists, was unique in that he recognized no such thing as we and they, us and them. As the Christ, he accepted any and all people of all walks of life as One – One with God, One with Christ, One with one another. He saw all divisions as artificial, and generally destructive of communities and societies of peoples. All sorts of groups tried to get Jesus to “be on our side.” He would have none of it. Even when it meant he would be sentenced to death on a Roman Cross, he refused to cave in and choose sides with any of several groups that likely would have spared his life.

             Epiphany season always begins on January 6^th, and concludes on Ash Wednesday, which this year is March 5, 2025. (Ash Wednesday, of course, is calculated backwards from the date of Easter, which this year will be Sunday, April 20^th) The gospel lessons will be from Luke (with the exception of one week from John). As we listen to the many different ways people recognize that there was something special and powerful about this young man from Galilee and his relationship with God whom he calls Abba, Father, we are to reflect on the ways in which we also see God in the Christ. More importantly, however, is to reflect on just how we, like Jesus, can manifest the justice, peace, and love of God in all that we do and all that we say. For Epiphany is more than a season: it is to be a way of life. A way to be. 

            In this way, we become a Community of Christ’s Love. May God for us, whom we call Father; God alongside us, whom we call Son; and God within us, whom we call Spirit; hold and enliven us to a full experience of God’s love and compassion; that in all that we say and all that we do, we may become God’s Truth, a community of Love, Justice and Freedom for all peoples, all creatures, and all the Earth. For this is who he calls us to be.