Monday, January 6, 2025
Day of Epiphany (also called Theophany)
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Theophany
What does this mean? Simple definition: a celebration of God manifesting as the Baby Jesus and revealing Himself to the world.
And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.
The apostle John tells us that this celebration continues in heaven, in the world of spirits.
This is how you can know the Spirit of God every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God.
And in fact, John says, those spirits inhabit God’s children, inhabit us.
The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. We belong to God.
In John’s day, as in our own, as in every time since Jesus’ resurrection, decisions must be made about what was true about God and what was not. John strives to keep it simple. Just believe in Jesus, and listen for those who also believe in Jesus.
This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.
The trouble is that we often deceive ourselves. Our belief in Jesus can be superficial, and it falters when we don’t get what we think we need from God. God is in charge, but our egos are reluctant to accept that simple fact. Jesus was begotten, not made, as the creeds say. We, on the other hand were made, not begotten. There’s a world of difference, but it takes us our whole life to get that right.
When we get it right about God’s love, we are filled with energy to share that love with others. We become friends, and we always seek to bring peace. I love what Henri Nouwen says about this.
If you dare to believe that you are beloved before you are born, you may suddenly realize that your life is very, very special. You become conscious that you were sent here just for a short time, for twenty, forty, or eighty years, to discover and believe that you are a beloved child of God.
The length of time doesn’t matter. You are sent into this world to believe in yourself as God’s chosen one and then to help your brothers and sisters know that they are also Beloved Sons and Daughters of God who belong together.
You’re sent into this world to be a people of reconciliation. You are sent to heal, to break down the walls between you and your neighbors, locally, nationally, and globally. Before all distinctions and all the separations and walls built on foundations of fear, there was a unity in the mind and heart of God. Out of that unity, you are sent into this world for a little while to claim that you and every other human being belongs to the same God of Love who lives from eternity to eternity.
Those magi, howsomever many there were, came from the mysterious east following a star to Bethlehem. Those magi sought the “newborn king of the Jews” in order to worship and give gifts. They received more than they gave. Before anyone else, they received the spirit of reconciliation; God planted in them the desire to share His love with others.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
God also guided them away from the one man, Herod, who wanted to spoil this cross-country miracle, protecting them and guiding them home.
(1 John 3, Psalm 2, Matthew 4)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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