Epiphany [C] St. David’s, Celista Jan 9, 2022
“Arise, shine, for your light hAs come….”
Today’s Epiphany message is a preposterous one -
but it is as true and powerful as it is preposterous.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” (Is 60:1) Glory being the ful weight of God’s presence, as claimed in today’s Epistle
“that through the church
the manifold wisdom of God
might now be made known
to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.” Eph 3:10
That’s as preposterous
as magi being led by a star to Bethlehem, there to find a king born in a barn, indeed, more than a king, ~
for worship is reserved for divinity.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”
Really?!
I’m saying, DO WE
“Arise, shine, because our light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon us”?
Do WE know that God has make us, and that God keeps us going, and
that God’s glory continues to rise upon us, do we know to the point of
thanking and praising God?
Do we know what the magi knew?
A little light hearted:
The Rev. David Guest, a 33 year old UK clergyman, fell to his knees to thank God for having passed his driving test.
I can understand his gratitude, He had spent over half his life (17 years) taking driving lessons;
the 632 lessons cost him $10,000.
He wore out 8 instructors and crashed 5 cars.
He finally passed because he took the test in an automatic ~
with the standard he always got the clutch and break petals confused.
What took him 17 years to learn that!!!
What does it take for us to learn the good news?
1. It takes information.
God’s good news is an announcement:
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”
The Apostle wrote,
“To me… this grace was given,
to proclaim the Good Newsl….”
The Evangelist Matthew identifies a star as part of giving information about where to worship the “light that has come”, and the “glory of the Lord” that has shone.
It takes information.
Do you have it?
It is easy and free to get.
Help yourself to it.
2. To learn now it takes people or materials to share that information.
I hope that I am such a person today.
The prophet, the Apostle, the Evangelist, and all those who have shaped
today’s worship service
4. While you are part of this virtual community today and after we push the Leave meeting button the task to proclaim is each of ours.
5. To learn now it takes sense.
One example about the sense symbol makes.
Symbols are often laughed at.
When I saw part 8 of Russia’s War, it was evident that the battle of Kursk was crucial for Russia’s defeat of the German Wehrmacht.
The Soviets won that battle.
The contributing factor was an icon, a picture of the Madona.
Lost when the government turned the churches into a theatres,
A printer made copies for the soldiers, and they were inspired to fight for mother Russia.
It takes sense to know what forms our lives.
It takes sense to know the power of signs and symbols.
It takes sense to have faith.
4. To learn now it takes trust in God.
the Apostle trusted,
the prophet who saw only deep darkness trusted,
For that trust,
for that faith, we pray.
We ask God to create in us a “clean heart and a right spirit”.
We live out of the Word and
we invite one another to live it out.
We worship like the magi, and
we share the message like the Apostles.
We work, “that through the church the manifold wisdom of God
might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”
We arise and shine
BECAUSE the glory of the Lord has risen upon us.
So we live God’s Epiphany.
A happy and merry 14th day of Christmas today to you
and to the world you enlighten with God’s light.
What a glorious calling we have!
Amen
Epiphany C 2022