An Invitation to an Epiphany Life

Our texts for this Epiphany Sunday, January 6, are Isaiah 60:1-6 and Matthew 2:1-12, which can be read here.

Many of you know that I am a huge fan of the church year, otherwise known as the liturgical calendar.  I love thinking about the cycles and rhythms of life as dictated not by a clock or a January-December calendar, not by which decorations are out in stores or which cards are featured at Hallmark, but by the rhythms of the life of Christ that shape us as God's people (to read some of my earlier reflections on the church year, visit this post I wrote two years ago, which includes a helpful graphic depicting the seasons, or this post from back in November).  

This week, while preparing for Epiphany Sunday--the day, 12 days after Christmas (January 6), when we remember the wise men following the light of the star to worship the infant Jesus, representing the light of Christ reaching even beyond the Jews to the whole world--the word "Epiphany" means "revelation"), I ran back across this beautiful reflection by Linda and Dwight Vogel on how our daily life can be shaped by the liturgical year, especially at this point in the cycle where we have completed Advent and Christmas and are moving on toward Epiphany:

"When we long for things to be different, when we watch and wait,
we are an Advent people.
When we recognize the presence of the holy in the ordinary,
we celebrate Christmas.
When a sense of the sacramental is broken open to us, and we respond by offering our material wealth, our worship, our lives and our deaths,
we live an Epiphany life."

Read slowly the passages for this week, particularly the story of the Magi's journey from Matthew.  What might it look like for you, as the magi did, to respond to God's invitation and live an Epiphany life in these first weeks of a new year?  Where do you currently have a sense of the sacramental--of God showing up right in the midst of our lives in a way that is holy?  What might your response be to the light of Christ in this season?  What might you be called to offer?

May we reflect well on these scriptures and these questions as, having been an Advent people and having celebrated Christmas, we seek to live an Epiphany life.