Epiphany – a great idea; looking at the same thing as everyone else and seeing something different. In the church year we have this bit of time stuck between Christmas and Lent, the season of (or after) Epiphany. We are living in a time of revelations and realization. We are seeing with our own eyes what we had only heard about before. After nearly three years, Covid has come to Virden with a force.
What does it mean for us to see, to understand in a new way? Have 34 months of dress rehearsal prepared us for the reality that Covid 19 is now all around us?
I want to tell you right now that we have got this. All of us together, we can manage to get through whatever the next weeks might bring. It may not be easy, but we have each other and we can and will hold each other through the night, knowing the dawn is coming.
For us in the Northern hemisphere, Epiphany lines up with the lengthening days of early winter. We gradually see longer and more clearly. The magi seek a king in a palace and find him in a regular house. With the best of intentions, they accidentally set in motion the boy and his family’s journey as displaced persons. With the best of intentions many of us will likely contribute to something we never wanted.
The good news – the light of Epiphany is that God has come into the world, and the shadows do not overcome. Whatever happens, however painful, however frightening, God is here – now – with us, knowing our suffering full well and waiting with us for a new day to dawn. God is ready to work with us to transform the world with love and compassion.
This is the season of Epiphany – we hear the stories of how Jesus calls his disciples, and we hear his manifesto – his platform. Presented as both the sermon on the Mount in Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain in Luke, Jesus tells us about his dream – the way he believes the world should be. Whatever it is we see, however we wake up to our new realities this month, may we work with him to realize that dream.
Liz Carter-Morgan, St. Paul's United Church, Virden
