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And that is what Epiphany is — a season of stars. Magic.
Epiphany is a season in the Christian year — the weeks that follow Christmas until Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. In the northern hemisphere, it is the deep winter season, a time of starkness, cold, ice, and snow. Madeleine L’Engle once wrote that winter “reveals structure,” that which is behind the riot of leaf and flower of spring. Stripped down to the icy branches, Epiphany manifests a January spirituality helping us see what we cannot otherwise see.
The traditional themes of Epiphany are light, glory, sight, revelation, and enlightenment. The seasonal cycle begins with the story of the Magi — three wise mystics — following a star, a journey that takes them to Jesus, God’s promise birthed into the world, wonder embodied as a tiny child. The most ordinary of human moments — birth — becomes extraordinary.
This is the season of extraordinary time, the in-breaking of creation’s promise. This Epiphany, this seeing, this glory of the cosmos manifested here and now. The season of remembering that God is holding our very lives, we are not alone.
Diane Bass writes, “This extraordinary season induces awe. It reveals that there is more to the world than what we accept as “ordinary.” And there are powers and principalities that will press against Epiphany with fear and great violence. To see the deep structure, to follow the star, to hear the breaking of the ice encasing the earth is threatening to those who benefit from “normal,” the accepted veneer of “ordinary” injustices and oppressions and indignities that bedevil and deceive the human race.”
And thus: Epiphany is the season we need now. We need its clarity, its sharp starkness. We live in awful and awe-filled times. For some of what we know as ordinary has become the gateway to the divine; and some of what we’ve accepted as ordinary is far from ordinary. It takes an epiphany to reveal which is which — to know the deepest love in the world and live in the tailings of the star.
A.E. Stallings wrote, “The poetry of earth is never dead. This Epiphany, let us be alive to the world, the extraordinary mundane.” May we be alive remembering that God holds our lives, we are loved, and the extraordinary presence of the Holy Spirit is all around us. Where are your Epiphany moments? How are you working at remembering that God is holding you? Where have you seen the extraordinary Holy Spirit alive in the world this week?
Just a few things to ponder on this crisp January day. Love and Peace in Christ, Rev. Mary
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