Epiphany 2024 Week 2
You are invited to use this material as you wish. We suggest selecting one piece per day to read, reflect on, and act on as you are inspired to do. You need not follow the material in any particular order. We welcome your thoughts in the comment section below.
The season following [the day of] Epiphany has become for me a season of thinking about encounters, about the ways that the holy appears in my path, about the wise ones who have journeyed with me for moments or for years and have borne the gifts that I most needed. This season also beckons me to think about the gifts I, too, bear and about the intense responsibility to discern what each of us has to offer and where to offer it.
– Jan Richardson from In Wisdom’s Path.
by Jan Richardson
A long time ago I became fascinated by the tradition of the giveaway practiced among many Native American nations. Typically taking place in ceremonial gatherings, the giveaway affords the opportunity for the community to honor certain members. In return, the honorees offer gifts to others to whom they want to show their appreciation and gratitude. I have heard it said that in societies that practice the giveaway, wealth is measured not by what one possesses but by what one gives away.
I have heard, too, that gifts offered in the giveaway sometimes include possessions that the giver has long treasured. This generosity in particular beckons me to ponder my own practices of giving. I believe that objects soak up some of the spirit of their owners and that when we give someone a possession that has meant a great deal to us, we pass on part of our own essence. Books are among my most valued belongings, and I love to give away volumes that I have found significant in my journey. Yet as I write this, I’m aware that it has been quite some time since I have let any of my treasured books go. I think there needs to be a certain amount of flow to our belongings and that those of us who have plenty of material things would do well not only to rid ourselves of some of what we don’t really need but also to give away some of the possessions most dear to us. I find this a huge challenge. Scanning my own small space, I wonder, Could I give this away? Could I let go of that?
– from In Wisdom’s Path.
The Work of Christmas
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.
– Howard Thurman
Lighting an Advent Candle
Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes of lighting candles of hope. In this piece he speaks of Advent candles, but his admonition to light candles applies equally to Epiphany.
To light a candle is an act of hope.
In the days of apartheid in South Africa, Christians there used to light candles and place them in windows as a sign to themselves and to others that they believed that some day this injustice would end. A candle burning in a window was a sign of hope and a political statement. The government didn’t miss the message. It passed a law making it illegal to place a lit candle in a window, the offense being equal to owning a firearm, both considered equally dangerous. This eventually became a joke among the kids: “Our government is afraid of lit candles!”
They had reason to be! Lit candles, more than firearms, overthrew apartheid. Hope, not guns, is what ultimately transforms things. To light a candle as an act of hope is to say to yourself and to others that, despite anything that might be happening in the world, you are still nursing a vision of peace and unity based upon something beyond the present state of things and this hope is based upon deeper realities and powers than the world admits. To light a candle is to state publicly that you believe that what’s real and what isn’t is ultimately determined by powers and issues that go beyond what’s seen on the evening news. To light a candle is an act of political defiance. It’s also an act of hope.
A candle is a small thing, but one candle can light another. And see how its own light increases as a candle gives its flame to the other. You are such a light.
– Moshe Davis, Rabbi and professor.
Radiating Light This Epiphany
This reflection from Jason Gaboury at InterVarsity not only celebrates Epiphany but stirs us to look deeply at how we reflect Christ in our lives, in our communities, and in our churches. It is long but well worth the read.
I love Epiphany.
At our home we celebrate Epiphany right after dinner on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany in liturgical traditions. We turn off every light in our apartment. Then we recite the words from John 1, “What has come into being in him was life and the life was the light of all people.” Then we light a candle and go room-to-room inviting the light of Christ to fill every space in our apartment. We chalk our door with a blessing. We sprinkle holy water everywhere. And we sing “Joy to the World” as enthusiastically as the four of us can manage.
It really is great fun. Next year you’re all invited to the feast.
But actually, you still can celebrate Epiphany. In many liturgical traditions, Epiphany is a season, starting on January 6 and continuing until Ash Wednesday, when the 40 days of Lent begin. And as I said, I love it. Epiphany is where “O Come Let Us Adore Him” becomes “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” In Advent we spin inward in an effort to make room for Jesus’ coming. At Christmas we celebrate the beautiful and scandalous birth of Jesus. And in Epiphany we are sent out with the light of the beauty of the glory of Jesus shining in our faces to announce the good news. The darkness is past. A new day has come. The light has shined in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
Read the rest of the essay.
Epiphany Prayer
God of endless light, you sent a star—
rising from darkness,
guiding seekers and sages,
overwhelming us with joy.
Let the splendor of your dawning light
grow in us and in all the world
until the whole creation shines with your glory;
through Jesus Christ our light.
God of light, shining in darkness,
through a little child, born in Bethlehem,
you open to us the treasure of your grace.
Help us to search diligently for him,
so that we may offer our lives to you
with thanksgiving, joy, and praise;
through Jesus Christ, the rising star.
Shepherd of Israel,
you sent a star to enlighten the wise
and a child to topple the tyrant.
Make us wise enough to seek you
among the least of your children,
wise enough to trade our treasure
for the gift of overwhelming joy.
Office of Theology and Worship, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
For your reflection this week:
In writing about the Native American practice of the giveaway, Jan Richardson notes that gifts offered in the giveaway sometimes include possessions that the giver has long treasured. She wonders what she might give to someone.
What about you? What treasured possession of your giving could bring light to someone’s life? What makes you hesitate?
Ron Rolheiser ends his essay by saying, “We light candles of hope because God, who is more real than anything else, has promised to establish a kingdom of love and peace on this earth and is gracious, forgiving, and powerful enough to do it.”
As you watch or read the news this week, light a candle for the people and situations where God’s kingdom needs to break in, believing that God can do what God has promised.
At the end of the essay Radiating Light this Epiphany, the author gives concrete suggestions for doing that in your individual life, in your community, and in your church.
Can you take those suggestions seriously and act on them this week?
The Wisdom Years 