Feast of the Epiphany

Were the Magi real? Did they actually make their way from a distant land in the East some 2,000 years ago, following a mysterious star all the way to Bethlehem? And did they really bring the Child Jesus those gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh? Good questions. Every year around this time of course, astronomers,…

Today we pass out of the Christmas season, beyond the simplicity of Luke’s story of a humble birth with angels and shepherds, and beyond John’s exquisite message of the Word becoming flesh and living among us. Today we begin the Epiphany season – shifting from rejoicing at God’s coming among us to reflecting on what…

This is a story of two kings. The first lived in a lavish palace, and was surrounded advisors, groupies, and underlings. His domain was always growing, covering large expanses of geography from Palestine to parts of modern-day Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. He built great infrastructures – giant fortresses, waterways, and theaters. The people in his…

A man was walking through the mall. He came to an escalator and decided to go up a floor. As he approached, he noticed a warning sign: “Dogs must be carried on escalator.” The man grew anxious, desperate even, as he looked around, asking himself, “Where am I going to find a dog?” The star…

The plot is familiar. It could well be a contemporary tale. We meet a grasping dictator, determined to hang on to power at all costs, paranoid and bloodthirsty. We meet determined seekers after truth, who although without “power” in the normal sense, are possessed with faith and adventure to seek and to find. We meet…

Celebrating the birth of Jesus is an incredible opportunity for all Christians to begin again—be born again—to a life of transformation, first of ourselves and then as instruments of transformation in the world. Our scripture readings today mark the feast of the Epiphany, a word that Webster defines as “to show forth, manifest” and “the…

In this season of Epiphany we enter the realm of light. In fact the Greek church, in the language of the people, has called this season, Ta Phota: “the lights.” In the Eastern church, this season of light is celebrated as fully as the season of Christmas. This liturgical season resides also in symbolism, something…

I want to give a personal two thumbs up to the movie Big Fish. Big Fish is the story of a father and a son that begins and ends at a river. The father, Edward Bloom, is larger than life. On the day of his son William’s birth, he catches the biggest catfish in Alabama’s…

Like Isaiah before us, we have been visited with visions of darkness covering the earth, and thick darkness covering the peoples. We have seen the darkness that pervades what we now call Ground Zero. We have seen the smoldering darkness at the Pentagon. We have looked into a crater of darkness in Pennsylvania. We have…

[This story for the Epiphany is a monologue from a camel’s point of view, and is draws on themes and stories told by Ted Loder, Frederich Buechner, John Shea, and Jean Vanier. It can simply be read, or it could easily be adapted as a kind of skit.] Ships of the desert, my eye! Being a beast…

Today we seek to understand one of the most difficult of all movements or transitions in the Christian experience of faith. This is the movement from Incarnation to Epiphany. We have all been caught in the spirit of Christmas. Despite our theologizing about resurrection and our awareness that Easter should be our “biggest” holy day….