Epiphany 2024, week 3
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.
Lord and God!
You created us
For a lifelong journey to you.
Each one of us
Takes a different path
Over mountains
And through valleys,
Through joy and sorrow and need.
May the three Holy Kings
Guide us in our wanderings,
As their faith, knowledge,
And determination guided them
Through many perils
On their journey to you.
They saw you, knelt before you,
Offered up their gifts,
And paid homage to you.
They were filled
With the joy of finding you.
Lord and God!
We thank you
For granting us the freedom
To seek and find you, our life’s goal.
Grant us the faith, strength,
And trust we need
To follow in the path
Of the three kings.
Give us courage
When we are at risk
Of taking easier but false paths.
Let us experience the joy
Of being with you
At the end of our journey,
So that we may be
Eternally surrounded by your love.
We ask this,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
The destination of every pilgrimage.
AMEN
From a prayer card
From the Cologne Cathedral
In our brief Epiphany study, we have journeyed with the Magi from Matthew’s Gospel. We have recognized a new star that shines its brightness into our imaginations, we have considered how we can reflect God’s breaking into history in our own time, and now we look down the road we choose for our continuing journey and wonder where it will take us.
Our journey, says Ruth Haley Barton in the piece below, will involve walking toward our desire “with great intention, making concrete choices along the way.”
We encourage you to spend some time with this reading – it will be the only one this week – and answer some of the questions Barton poses for jour own journey.
“A good journey begins with knowing where you are and being willing to go somewhere else.” Richard Rohr
Epiphany: In Celebration of the Journey
by Ruth Haley Barton
Today we celebrate epiphany—the “showing forth” or “the revelation” of Christ in the world. Epiphany takes its themes from the journey of a group of pagan astrologers who left familiar territory to find the Christ child and explore his authenticity for themselves.
This revelation did not come to them while they passively waited; indeed, they had to strike out on a new kind of journey in order to find what they were looking for.
A Good Journey
Epiphany is a wonderful celebration for those who are committing themselves more deeply to the process of spiritual transformation, for it contains themes of journeying from the known to the unknown with only a mysterious light to guide us.
Compelled by an inner desire for a deeper experience of God’s presence and guided by the appearance of some glimmer of spiritual possibility, we are brought to that choice point that is at the heart of all spiritual journeying. We must leave the familiar—with all the trappings that keep us feeling confident, secure, in control—for places that are unknown and require humility, letting go, and moving bravely in a new direction.
Wisdom knows how we sometimes look far and wide for the knowledge that is right at hand, even already within us. She knows each moment offers the possibility of an encounter that will draw our eyes from the far horizon toward the God who has already arrived in our midst. From dreams, stories, idle meanderings, and purposeful questions come the messengers who point us toward the sacred guest sitting at the gate of our own soul, seeking the gift only we can offer.
Excerpted from In Wisdom‘s Path By Jan Richardson
For a New Beginning
John O’Donohue
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
For your reflection this week
Richard Rohr says a good journey begins with knowing where you are.
How would you define where you are right now?
In her article, Barton speaks of a “choice point that is at the heart of all spiritual journeying.”
What does Barton mean by a “choice point”? Are you at one? Can you clarify it for yourself?
It may be that God is not calling you to an entirely new path, but is asking you to go deeper in your spirituality.
If you are on a path of deeper spirituality, are there certain patterns and habits you need to let go of? What would a deeper spirituality look like for you?
In the Barton article, the author poses several questions under the heading ‘walking with the wise ones.” Spend some time with those questions.
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 USA
The Wisdom Years 