Sunday, January 8, 2012

Epiphany Sunday - January 8


Psalm 146, 147, 111, 112, 113

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Ephesians 1:3-14

John 1:29-34

This morning I heard an interview with a singer/songwriter/writer/poet (the list goes on). At one point, as this person prepared to sing one of the songs being discussed, there was a period of audio as the guitarist tuned his instrument. The banter of the interview discussed the tuning and I was entranced and began to think that our recent periods of Advent and Christmas were our tuning for this point – Epiphany. Today we celebrate the revelation and presentation of Christ to us, but to be ready to understand the extraordinary connection that happened between God and humankind in that moment, we require the preparation to move our hearts and mind into the moment.

The passage from Genesis takes us back to the beginning, as God prepared the earth for humankind. The creation, day-by-day, established a place where we could flourish and thrive. God interacted personally with his creation in that time just as Christ interacted with the people in his time, and possibly most importantly, just as the Holy Spirit continues to interact with us in this time.

Creation. Epiphany. Pentecost. We spend time studying the meaning in each of them and the functions of God, but the commonality between them is that God connects directly with creation: God desires the relationship that so many of the passages during Advent and Christmas described. Epiphany as a day and a season demands that we recognize the relationship and actively join into it.

Let us open our hearts to the direct connection that comes from Epiphany when we concentrate on the presentation of the Christ child centuries ago. We cannot forget that the arrival of Christ began an eternal, direct connection between God and humankind.

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