Why I Love the Sundays after Epiphany

It's January, and it's been cold, snowy, and gray here in the upper Midwest. But I love this time of year--not because I love cold weather, or even college basketball, or the NFL football playoffs. 

I love it because I love this season of the church calendar. Between the Feast of the Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, the church now enters a season of reflection. The Catholic Church calls this a season of "ordinary time," but the liturgically minded Protestants behind the Revised Common Lectionary call this the season of Epiphany. Either way, though, the focus throughout this period is on how God's glory is increasingly revealed through the work and ministry of Christ and the Church. This season is all about the extraordinary Light of God being manifested in the ordinary and mundane.

This theme is encapsulated in this week's communal prayer (or collect, in Anglican language), which is one of my favorites:

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

If Christians would take this prayer seriously and live it out, they would understand their mission in life and find their calling: Everything we do--especially our work in the world--should shine with the radiance of the Light of Christ. But this work must always be rooted in worship, in beholding the glory of the Lord, in experiencing the beauty of God's story. And this work is always to be aimed at making disciples of all nations, inviting others to worship, and teaching them to obey until the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).

Since I'm teaching a senior seminar focused on the theme of vocation this spring, I've been reading and thinking a lot about finding callings. It's difficult to figure out what to do with your life. I certainly had a hard time figuring it out, and I know many others who do. It's even harder in this season of winter, when it's easy to get depressed and stay in bed on chilly mornings.

To figure out your calling in life, I want to tell students, you might start by going to church, where you can be illumined.

I love this season because it challenges me to drag myself out of bed, to see the Light, to get to church, to dive into my work, and to renew my sense of calling--right when I need all this, in the depths of of the dark, cold winter.

When I do all these things, I often find that I have caught a glimpse of what I am to do with my life. I have caught a glimpse of my part in the Epiphany mission: the mission of revealing God's glory to all who will receive it.

Happy Epiphany!

Another season has arrived. The twelfth day of Christmas was yesterday (yes, we celebrated it, although we didn't have twelve lords a-leaping), and today--January 6--is the Feast of the Epiphany. This obscure day is actually one of my favorite Christian holidays, so I look forward to celebrating it tonight in worship at my church.

So what does one celebrate today? Traditionally the Western church celebrated the appearance of Jesus to the wise men, while the Eastern church celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. God's glory--the fullness of God's presence and the theme of this season--is revealed in both instances.

Matthew's gospel alone tells the story of the Magi traveling from the East to Bethlehem to worship Jesus. For Matthew, the narrative symbolizes the revelation of God's glory to the Gentiles, expanding the community of faith beyond the Jewish people. (For Matthew, these are the first converts to Jesus outside of Judaism, which means that our ancestors in the faith are probably Arabs or Persians, and that the church was globalized from its inception. Next time we want to convert Asians or Middle Easterners to Christianity, we might pause to ponder this point.)

Paul, the evangelist to the Gentiles, understood the point of Matthew's story, and that's why the church reads Ephesians 3:1-12 tonight. As Paul describes the mystery in verse 6, "the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel."


The Eastern Church treated this day as a celebration of God's glory being revealed through the baptism of Jesus. This, too, is a mystery revealed: a dove descends and God's voice declares that this is his son, with whom He is well pleased. Focusing on this mystery, the Orthodox call this the Feast of the Theophany (the revelation of God). And that is the core claim of Christian belief: the fullness of God and the fullness of humanity is revealed in Jesus of Nazareth.

The entering of Fullness into time changes everything (not just our approach to globalization). As I ponder this mystery again today, I am glad to be on the journey of another Christian year.

P.S. My favorite reporter at our local newspaper published an informative little story on Epiphany today. Nice to see that solid local journalism is alive in our medium-sized town!