Stars as Signs of Hope

Like many of you, I did something monumental in the last few weeks – I took out my old calendar and put a fresh, brand-spanking new one into my planner. It is a monumental thing because, symbolically, we put the past and all its ups and downs behind us and started with a clean slate. It felt great to get rid of the old and start with the new!

It has been said that every day is hold – a gift of time in which we enter a rhythm of God’s creation. When I open a new calendar, those blank pages feel a lot more holy than the ones in the worn-out calendar – days already gone by. A new calendar brings a fresh perspective that the future is open to whatever God and I design together. Days on a new calendar are not yet profaned by so much hurry, rush, and/or sloth.

Jan. 6 was Epiphany. Epiphany is the only holiday in the Christian calendar that you can tell about simply by considering its name. I mean, who knows what Pentecost is unless you are a sermon scarred veteran?

The word “epiphany” means “to show” or “to make known” or even “to reveal”. I like the more descriptive definition “an illuminating discovery”. A simple star in the sky showed the magi where to find the Christ child.  It was an epiphany for them.

Epiphany is the season of stars and light. That is why our scripture for today is one about Jesus being the “Life-Light”. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. John 1:1-9

Epiphany is, along with Christmas and Easter, one of the three oldest festival days of the Christian Church. As you probably know, Epiphany is always 12 days after Christmas – January 6th. In Hispanic and Latin cultures, as well as some places in Europe, Epiphany is known as Three Kings Day. In the Eastern church, it is known as the Theophany. But Christians around the world celebrate this day. Last year, we had Three Kings cake and there was a baby in each of the cakes we ate during fellowship time. I think Mary Lou Schuette, Larry Bunton, and Jayden Irwin were the ones who found the babies in the cakes and wore the crowns that day!

Why all this hubbub around Epiphany you might ask. The significance of the season is often overlooked or misunderstood. The star-seekers of old (the magi, kings, wise men) were the first non-Jews to acknowledge Jesus as God-with-us. This act of worship in the gospels was the first indication that Jesus came for all people! All nations, all races, all the world! This holy day reminds us that the work of God in the world will not be limited to a few people – not to just Christians – but to all people.

This day is a time to focus on healing divisions of prejudice and bigotry that we too often create between ourselves! For this reason and others, Epiphany is my very favorite Christian season. It is a season symbolized by stars and light, seeking people and their questions.

Epiphany is the season when all of us who aren’t quite sure the church is for us… can find our own way to worship the Christ. We do not have to conform to whatever “the norm” is.

Epiphany is the season when those who are looking for meaning in the night sky and in dreams can find what we seek.

Epiphany is the season when the church is called to reach out to people who have been shut out by others.

Walter reminded me last week of a lovely poem written by Howard Thurman (an African American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader), called “The Work of Christmas Begins”.  It reads:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among all,
To make music in the heart.
And to radiate the Light of Christ,
Every day, in every way, in all that we do and in all that we say
Then the work of Christmas begins.

If you want to celebrate Epiphany with your children or grandchildren, here are some ideas…

·       Make an epiphany cake with a coin or baby Jesus inside (you can find these at a party store or online).  Recipes are also online.

·       Take time to go out to Lake Afton to look at stars… or read a book about stars.  I would recommend Bright Star, Bright Star, What do You See? By Cassandre Maxwell.

·       Give gifts of food or money to the overflow shelter or food bank as a way to remember the gifts brought by the magi to the baby Jesus.

It seems to me that we hear the world’s bad news continually.  We hear about the Gaza Strip, Canada’s Justin Trudeau’s resignation, the Middle East’s unrest, the deaths New Orleans and Las Vegas recently, and so much more.  There is more than enough violence in our world.

Jesus was born into a time of great upheaval and uncertainty. Yet, God discerned something worthwhile in us and chose to enter our lives so that we might be reconciled to God. Epiphany is a time to recognize a different kind of news.

Signs of hope and redemption surround us!  As people of Epiphany, we are called to exhibit stubborn hope. As people of the Epiphany, we are called to holler out for justice and peace in a world that has been turned upside down. Epiphany is a time for us to be reminded that God continues to do new things in our world.  Emmanuel – God with us – has come and we are invited to join the star seekers in a search for signs of hope.

As Epiphany people, we believe that God’s grace often arrives right in the middle of our messes. Signs of hope and redemption surround us. Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote a poem that expresses our Epiphany anticipation of what God will do next.  It is entitled “I am Waiting”.

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Second Coming
and I am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep thru the state of Arizona
and I am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped onto church altars
if only they can find
the right channel
to tune in on
and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for my number to be called
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes
and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody

and I am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed
and I am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered
by an obscure general practitioner
and I am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting
to set sail for happiness

and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear

and I am awaiting retribution
for what America did
to Tom Sawyer
and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence

and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting
for Aphrodite
to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting

to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth’s dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last

and embrace
and I am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder