It was mid-December in 1988, I was traveling with an international group called Up With People and our tour had us visiting Lapland, Finland.  We were about an hour from the Arctic Circle.  It was COLD and it was DARK.  The sun rose around 10am and was set by 2:30 or 3:00 in the afternoon.  And even when the sun was up, it was mostly cloudy and gloomy!  It didn’t take long for us to get a bit disoriented, feel fatigued all the time, lose our focus, get sad and even depressed. I loved the people I met there and the landscape was beautiful, but I really missed the LIGHT!  I found out quickly that I needed the light! People in Finland would tell us what it was like in the summer, when it was only dark for 4 or 5 hours a day.  People celebrated the sun, the light, the warmth and the sense of well-being that seemed to be everywhere.  It was the knowing that the summer would come soon that helped them live year after year in the times of the winter.  Remembering the light helped them through the darkness.

I think this is what Isaiah was telling the people of Israel in our Old Testament reading this week.  God’s people had been exiled to Babylon and even though they had been allowed to return to Jerusalem and their homeland, life wasn’t bright and sunny.  They had to rebuild everything that had been destroyed, both physically and spiritually. They had to find a way to get back to the “normal” they longed for and had been wishing and praying for. The beloved temple had been destroyed and the people believed that the temple was where God resided.  No temple- No God.  They might have been out of exile, but they were still in the darkness. They were likely disoriented, distracted, tired, sad and depressed…just like I was in Finland and just like many of us feel in the middle of this pandemic.

Isaiah’s responsibility as a prophet was to relay this message of hope from God.  God saw God’s people’s situation.  God recognized their despair.  God saw their confusion.  God recognized their distraction. God heard their pleading for something better.  Isaiah speaks the answer: “Arise, Shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.”  Wow! What comforting words when darkness is all around us!  Isaiah said that the light would come. Light would come…“Look around,” the prophet commands! God’s light always shines through the darkness and the reign of God prevails, even in the most dire of circumstances. This is what gives us hope.

If darkness causes confusion, light shines clarity.  If darkness causes fatigue, light fuels energy.  If darkness provokes distraction, light begets clarity! If darkness causes sadness, light injects joy.  If darkness causes despair, light shows hope!  That light is God!  That light is the glory of the Lord!  That light is the birth and incarnation of Jesus Christ!

John writes in his gospel about the light…The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

We read the familiar story from Matthew’s Gospel. The day the Magi visited the home of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. It’s like the continuation of the Christmas Story, right?  Finally, the wise men enter the picture!

The Magi were studying the stars. Just like the shepherds, they were doing their regular jobs- not necessarily expecting anything out of the ordinary. When they saw Jesus’ star it was certainly unexpected but something that intrigued them, that made them wonder what it was and what it meant. They just had to follow its light to see for themselves what made it special.  They did not live in Bethlehem we know because we hear they traveled far to get to Jesus.  The shepherds were close by but the Magi were far away.  God wanted to be sure that everyone knew about the birth of God’s son.

So many similarities in the announcement stories.

The bright light of the angels who visited the shepherds and the light of the star in the night sky that the Magi saw.  God speaks in light…light through the darkness…it is light that points all people, all nations to Jesus Christ, the Savior.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Today is Epiphany Sunday.  The beginning of the season of the Epiphany in the church calendar starts with the story of the Magi seeing the star and continues until Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.  Why is it called Epiphany you might wonder?  I looked up the definition and here is what I found…”a moment in which you suddenly see or understand something in a new or very clear way”, “an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure, “an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking”.

So, yes, we put aside this Sunday to celebrate the epiphany of the Magi.  They recognized the star as a disclosure of something amazing!  They recognized King Herod’s sarcasm in his desire to meet the Christ child and that solidified the importance of Jesus’s birth.  They visited the home of Jesus and his parents and worshiped the child as Messiah despite their lack of a faith tradition.  They certainly had an epiphany!  We can see many of those moments in the whole of the Christmas story, in the birth of Christ.  Mary had an epiphany when she was visited by the angel, when she met Elizabeth and when she heard the shepherd’s story.  Joseph’s epiphany came with the angel and the shepherd’s story. And the shepherds of course had an epiphany of their own- an intuitive feeling that something amazing had happened in their midst.

Today is Epiphany Sunday- when we tell perhaps the most dramatic epiphany story- those who personally witnessed the birth and young life of Jesus.  The first to see the son of God, the Christ child, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace.  The stories where light pointed humanity to God incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us!

We spend the season of Epiphany following the earthly ministry of Jesus- at Lima we will be studying the Gospel of Matthew.  We will spend the next several months digging into Jesus’ teachings, understanding the parables and the lessons.  We will see how Jesus uses simple stories and examples, parables, in order to help us understand the Kingdom of God.  In each parable, there is an opportunity for an epiphany.  There is a possibility that we will understand something about God or ourselves in a new or clearer way!

Have you ever had an epiphany in your spiritual journey? Have you ever had a time where suddenly something made sense?  Or you just knew for certain that you had to do something?  Maybe we can call these “a-ha” moments, even?

I want to share one of mine with you today.  An epiphany moment- a time where I had a realization, a discovery about the meaning of Jesus’s love, life and death for me. It happened about 8 years ago now. I had been feeling restless and bothered for several months.  I felt uneasy and was questioning a lot of things in my life- what was my purpose?  Was God trying to communicate something to me?  My job was frustrating and unfulfilling most days.  I couldn’t relax or concentrate.  I had even visited my physician wondering if something was physically wrong with me- some vitamin deficiency, anxiety, I wondered if this is what depression looked and felt like. I talked to clergy friends who encouraged me to be patient- that seemed less than helpful at the time, to be honest…Then, I was sitting in this very sanctuary during the service on Good Friday.  I found myself staring at this stained-glass window- one I had seen innumerable times before.  I couldn’t take my eyes off Jesus’ eyes.  I tried to look away and I couldn’t…It was at that moment that I knew that Jesus had me in his mind and in his heart while he died on the cross- I don’t mean me- like us- you and me.  I mean me, Karen…I was overtaken with God’s love for me.  I was acutely aware that God knew me- me, Karen.  I finally understood what it meant to be a child of God with a purpose.  Tears rolled down my face, sweat accumulated at the base of my neck. And I couldn’t take my eyes off Jesus.  I know there were other people in the pews with me, but at that moment, Jesus and I connected in a new and life-changing way!  After this, over the next eight years, I would experience a call to ministry, a journey through seminary, a career change into full time ministry and a road toward ordination.  That is not what I expected that night, that’s for sure.  I went to that service in a dark place- a place of confusion and fatigue.  But, I had an epiphany- light was inserted into my story as I saw my worth in the eyes of God, I understood at a new level what Jesus did for me when he died on the cross.  I didn’t have any specific answers that night, but I had something better…hope!  Hope that the light would indeed overcome the darkness- hope that God would use me as a light for others.

The light of Christ leads to a life of joy.  The shepherds experienced joy, Mary experienced joy, and we read in our key verse today that the Magi were overwhelmed with joy when they saw where the light of the star pointed them…

God wants us to be reminded every day of the words of Isaiah- Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

So, let’s step into this sacred light- this light that promises to overcome the darkness.  Even the darkness we cannot imagine ever going away.  We know that God can do immeasurably more than we can even think or imagine.  Let us be overwhelmed by this light that draws us into the presence of God and just like the Magi, offers us many epiphany moments!

 

 Benediction

Yes- Jesus Christ is the light of the world!  But don’t forget Jesus calls us- all of us- the light of the world.  The Message translation says this…

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Go from this place filled with light and wonder to serve God and God’s people!