• "Every One Who Believes in Jesus Christ has an Epiphany Story"
• Sermon for the First Sunday after Epiphany
• January 11, 2004
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

We are within the octave of Epiphany. An octave is an eight day commemoration of a major feast. The word epiphany means manifestation, or revelation. It is a season that focuses on the ways that Jesus Christ is revealed to us. Epiphany logically follows Christmas. Christmas celebrates a grand truth of universal significance. The Word was made flesh. God became man. Yet this truth doesn't change our lives until we know about it, until it is revealed to us.

It is only because Jesus was revealed to the Magi by the leading of a star that the birth of the Son of God changed their lives. The birth of Christ changed the lives of certain shepherds only because an angel of the Lord announced the birth of Christ to them and summoned them to the manger.

In the gospel today (Luke 2:41f.), Jesus is revealed as the Son of God through an apparent act of disobedience. After so many years of being where he was supposed to be and doing what he was supposed to do, Jesus breached his parents' expectations, thereby revealing to them, once again, that he is the Son of God.

Jesus was revealed to St. Paul by a blinding light on the Damascus Road. Cornelius, the centurion, was brought to Christ by a series of visions and the preaching of St. Peter. Christ was revealed to St. Augustine by a voice that commanded him to "take and read" a passage in Romans (13:13-14).

Jesus is revealed throughout the world by the preaching and witness of his church and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, as Jesus said, "convict[s] the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment" (John 16:8). The Holy Spirit speaks to people, calling them to turn away from sin and believe in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit heals people of the spiritual blindness caused by sin and Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4) and gives them eyes to see.

Every one who believes in Jesus Christ has an epiphany story. Some people can recall a particular moment when God spoke to them or performed some miracle in their lives. But most epiphanies are more ordinary. If your parents had you baptized and instructed you in the faith, that is part of your epiphany. If you have experienced the power of God in Christ through prayer, that is part of your epiphany. If you have perceived the presence of Christ in God's sovereign ordering of events in your life, that is part of you epiphany. If someone told you about Jesus, or if you read about Jesus in the Bible and were moved to a response of faith, that is part of you epiphany. The event or series of events that led you to Christ is your epiphany.

Epiphanies cause us to experience God. As Christ is revealed to us, we move from knowing about Christ to knowing Christ. As Christ is revealed to us, God becomes a living presence in our lives. Epiphanies change us. When Christ is revealed to us, we become different people. We are no longer comfortable with sinful habits. We become aware, more and more, of the implications of Christ's presence in different areas of our lives. We are drawn to worship and to prayer.

Epiphanies are mysteriously selective. Christ was revealed to certain shepherds. But there were certain other shepherds who never heard the song of the heavenly host. The Wise Men, or Magi, were led by a star. But there were other magi who did not come. Jesus appeared to Saul, the Pharisee, on the road to Damascus. But there were dozens of other Pharisees who never saw the light. We have been led to faith in Jesus Christ. But there are thousands like us who do not believe.

The Jews are called God's chosen people because God chose to reveal himself to them. He appeared to Abraham and told him to leave his country and go to the Land of Promise. He appeared to Moses and told him to go and save his people. He appeared to Joshua and the Judges of Israel, to Kings David and Solomon and the prophets. He chose them.

In Christ, through our epiphanies, God has chosen us. We have become part of God's chosen people. God has revealed himself to us, made his will known to us and called us to follow him. Epiphany teaches us that our faith is a great gift and we are privileged people. We have been given grace to see and know things that others do not see and know.

This mystery of election is captured by Luke 10:21, where Jesus says, "All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father; and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

The mystery of election seasons our approach to evangelism. God calls us to tell others about Jesus, to bear witness to others in word and deed. Yet, Epiphany teaches us that conversion of the heart is the work of the Holy Spirit and that the most important work of evangelism is prayer. We pray for others that they may be given grace to see, that they may be given their own epiphany.

We also pray for others in the body of Christ and for ourselves that we may be given an ever greater measure of revelation, that we may grow in the knowledge of Christ. We pray, in the words of Ephesians:

...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe" (Eph 1:17).

Epiphany logically follows Christmas. First Christ comes. Then Christ is revealed. On Epiphany we give thanks that Christ was revealed to the Gentile Wise Men. And we give thanks that God has also given each of us a star to lead us to Christ. As St. Paul says, "The God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness'...has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).