Episodes
Tuesday Jan 16, 2024
Epiphany - Chaplain Valerie Salked
Tuesday Jan 16, 2024
Tuesday Jan 16, 2024
Chaplain Valerie Salkeld spoke about Epiphany. Have you had an Epiphany? What is it and why does it matter? Let's not overlook the significance of what we have just celebrated and think about it some more.
We had some sound problems which resulted in the beginning of Valerie's sermon not being recorded. Please read the introduction below before listening to the recording.
Epiphany - Introduction
Happy New Year everyone. How was the Christmas season for you? Many Christians around the world celebrate Christmas as a season - not just a day. After Advent, the Christmas season is 12 days long and the readings and focus are meant to take us deeper into commitment, understanding, faith, and perhaps most poignant of all, hope.
I noticed that as we approached New Year’s Eve, many people I chatted with did not have any plans; no parties to attend and there wasn’t the typical anticipation of what is to come in 2024. People are hesitant and cautious. There is little hope.
As one does during this season, I have been reading a lot in Isaiah and the words from Isaiah 43:18-19 come to mind as I think about our next year.
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
This passage talks about direction and nourishment in difficult places.
This will become the theme for us that Pastor Jeff introduced us to last week – “freely and lightly”.
Christmas is a time of reflection and rejoicing; joy to the world, the Lord is come! We decorate, we buy, we invite, we eat, we ring in the new year, and reflect some more, and eat some more. We may even make a list of hopes for the new year. Yet, we know this is not all there is to it. The season is meant to be filled with the awareness of the ongoing work of God within Jesus who came, but also God with - or within - us. This is the foundation of our own hope.
Jesus came and was born at a time of great oppression and turmoil, a time of great darkness. Has anything changed? The facts are different, but there is great oppression and turmoil and there is great darkness in our world today as well. Jesus is with us today. He is our light and He is our hope. Jesus came to free us and give light - Freely and Lightly.
Yesterday was Epiphany. Traditionally, it is the day many take down the tree and put away the decorations as we move into the next season on the Christian calendar. But what is it and why does it matter? Epiphany encourages us to not overlook what we have just seen - the coming of Jesus and to think about it some more.
The word epiphany means “manifestation” or “revelation.”
Depending on the church tradition, Epiphany means different things.
- In some traditions, Christians focus on the baptism of Jesus.
- In other traditions, the Church focuses on the story when the wise men were led by the star to visit baby Jesus.
- Both focal points reveal who Jesus was/is -
- He was human and His baptism was the manifestation to the world that He was the Divine.
- And in the Magi coming to see Him, He was the Divine becoming human - coming in physical form.
- He was the Messiah for whom Israel had been waiting.
- He is the Light of the world.
This is the season of readings. We watch and listen as God is quietly revealed before us once again.
- We also listen and watch what is happening in our lives.
- Sometimes, even when we try hard to do so, we just don’t see God in our everyday lives or in the events of our world.
- Epiphany gives us the time to remember to watch, wait, listen, look, and anticipate the light, life, and truth of the Lord’s presence in our midst.
Let’s look at two stories:
First, Matthew 2: 1 – 12
2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’[b]”
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
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