Epiphany 2020
INTRO: I remember my DAD always harping on LIGHTS!!
……………. TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!
I guess my father wasn’t a good CHRISTIAN, because CHRISTIAN’S aren’t supposed to turn off our lights…. Meaning the LIGHT OF CHRIST!!!!!
They are to be kept burning brightly, always ON!!!!!
So, just what is this LIGHT OF CHRIST burning brightly in us? What is supposed to be ON inside us, always???
Do you have a good answer for that?
We say it all the time: “let your LIGHT SHINE”
“We are the light of the world”
In this day and age……….. What is this LIGHT?
Today’s feast of EPIPHANY brings to our attention to a LIGHT…
It has shone in the darkness appearing to the shepherds so they can find JESUS…..and
three kings followed the LIGHT of a star that shines above where JESUS lay so they could find HIM!
But, what about OUR LIGHT??? It IS a light that shines in US that others can find us and be accepted by us!!!
When we were kids………….. We used to put up a sign on our bedroom doors which said
KEEP OUT!
I guess we did that because we were mad at our brothers and sisters or parents or we wanted nothing to do with others or maybe we were just claiming our own territory.
Within us began a sentiment that was really not CHRISTIAN, not CHRIST-LIKE, not welcoming of others, but divisive and contentious.
I have this image of JESUS that he would never have put up a sign like that. He wanted UNITY and inclusivity with His brothers and sisters. He wanted others to come to him. He didn’t see differences in his brothers and sisters. He wanted to be with everyone: Jew Greek, men women, Pharisee Sadducee Roman Gentile
His light was seeing ALL OTHERS well!
We are gifted with this LIGHT ….. A gift from God …… in His image and likeness ……… in our eyes…..to accept all the peoples of the whole world… let them INTO our rooms……
When Scripture talks about this EPIPHANY, this MAGI, scholars are saying that JESUS accepted ALL NATIONS ……………as the MAGI actually came from different corners of the known world… they didn’t know each other… they met on the way…. Different nationalities ….Because of the STAR
AND
Jesus saw them with HIS EYES and welcomed them each from their own country….. Teaching us to use our LIGHT,
Our MINDS –EYES:
to do the same … welcoming people from other countries, other walks of life, those different from the way we live and act, if you will.
That is THE KINGDOM OF GOD on earth as JESUS initiated;
The unity and inclusivity of all nations!
CONCLUSION
So think twice, when you go to that LIGHT SWITCH today! KEEP IT ON!!!
Let your LIGHT shine as you view the world and all its people as JESUS did!