Epiphany – A new light shines in our hearts!

Posted by Jeff Thornberg, Associate Rector

This year, as Annie and I await the birth of our first child, the liturgical season of Advent never seemed so real. The themes expectation, preparation, the promise of new light and life breaking into the world, as God did in the form of Jesus Christ, spoke to the precipice upon which we stand.

This New Year, we find ourselves in the season after the Epiphany. On the Epiphany, we celebrate the arrival of the magi (wise men), who follow a star in the sky, in search of the Christ child. Upon their arrival, they adorn Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, in recognition of his non-traditional kingship. In Church, we talk of the birth of Jesus, and of the
arrival of the magi, but rarely if ever do we speak of their long journey, through the dark, following the light from above to an unknown destination.

Each Sunday during the Holy Eucharist, the celebrant reads a Proper Preface, chosen for the appropriate season. The Proper Preface for Epiphany reads:

Because in the mystery of the Word made flesh, you have caused a new light to shine in our hearts, to give the knowledge of your glory in the face of your son Jesus Christ our Lord.

During Advent (or as everyone seems to call it, the Holiday or Christmas Season), society as a whole is skilled at preparing and expecting Christmas. For some of us, that preparation may not have been spiritual, but rather the coordination of Christmas parties and  celebrations. Nevertheless, we all prepared, and we all in some way celebrated Christmas. Yet, how many of us take the journey of the magi?

How many of us, in this new season, look to where there is a “new light to shine in our hearts?” How much time do we spend making space for God in our lives in 2012, in order to see where God has broken in?

Recently, a friend of mine who has a small child gave me an important piece of advice. He told me to always remember that after all the excitement (after the baby showers, and birth classes, even after the birth and arrival of our child) Annie and I will be left alone with a new baby, a light and life totally dependent on us. It will be hard, messy, challenging, and totally worth every moment. This preparation is just the beginning of a longer, more important, and more valuable experience: a journey.

Perhaps we do not emphasize the trek of the magi in the Epiphany because it is easier to focus on the preparation and then the destination, instead of the process. Perhaps we focus on births because the messiness and complications of every day life are too much to comprehend. Yet, that is where God is. God is leading the magi to the Christ child, and God is leading us to those new lights that shine in our hearts this New Year. God is with all of us in the New Year, leading us journeys that are hard, messy, challenging, and totally worth every moment.

Where is God leading you? I invite each of us, in a busy new season, to reflect on where God may lead us, through the darkness, to follow the light. Like the magi, may we stay on the journey, in order to have a more important, more valuable experience.