I Epiphany – Mind the Light

Recall the last words from the 17^th verse of the 3^rd chapter of the Holy Gospel of St. Matthew,” You are my son, beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  Remember those words from God friend because days will come in your lifetime,  AND THE TIME WILL CERTAINLY ARRIVE AT THE END OF YOUR LIFE ON THIS EARTH, when your greatest and only hope will BE that God will see you in the same light. And as religious educator William J. O’Malley says, the good news is that Christ invites all of us to be seen in a more holy light, the catch is ‘it takes our effort’ to go with God’s grace.  Mind the light friend, mind the light.

   How great and freeing will be those rare occasions in your life and on your final day when God lets you know that you are indeed seen as God’s beloved son, as God’s beloved daughter and that God not only continues to love you but is pleased with you as well.

  One of the great lessons to be learned at the Epiphany of the Savior is that the God of all love and power and creation became openly willing to include the faithful, loving human being in the family of God. So how do you get to be counted in God’s family, by becoming more and more faithful and loving hour by hour, encounter by encounter, day by day – by letting God be your vision?

  Jesus of Nazareth, when he was in his late 20’s or so, had gone to the Jordan River to be baptized into a living faith, and, as one gospel account puts it, “just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens open up and God’s SPIRIT descended upon him like a DOVE – Not like a ton of bricks or a heavy burden but like a graceful dove.

  And from that moment onward Jesus began to LIVE INTO his true identity as part of God’s family – AS GOD”S SON - and his public, compassionate, focused faith mission began to take shape and move forward.

   It could be said that Jesus’ baptism solidified his identity and propelled his ministry of ‘doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil’ (as St. Peter described it) from that defining moment on.

  At Epiphany, Jesus’ baptism made him what he IS, the Savior of souls and Redeemer of this world. He accepted the light of God and he let it shine, which is to say he let God love him and he became in turn –in his turn- an instrument of God’s love too – the best we’ve ever seen – the one we need to emulate because now it is YOUR turn.

  And what the Bible and the earliest communities of faith are saying to us about upholding the day of Jesus’ baptism and about HAVING A HOLY SEASON called Epiphany (which means the manifestation/the shining of God’s light on human life) IS that living by the power of God’s spirit is what can make you who you are SUPPOSED TO BE, a daughter, a son, a beloved child of God.  You need to invest your faith in an honest attempt in your life time to live by the power of God’s life affirming spirit – by God’s guiding light. YES, WE’RE ALL INVITED.

  Yes faith is the subject here. Faith as the power of Christ the world’s true light being the determining factor for who and what you can be with God’s help.

  For my friends, God is the Source of light and life as our prayer at Holy Communion declares: And you are made in God’s image – And God calls you like our Lord into a life as part of a Holy family, into the communion of saints- into a living faith.

  This is a crucial message and it must be heard and understood and above all believed in your head and in your heart this new year, that faith in God’s spirit working in and through you is the determining factor in your life starting anew today, here and now and extending to your last day and, God willing, beyond.

  FOR IN THIS NEW AGE when the news is that science can engineer genetics and identities can be stolen with the click of a crooked mouse, and faces can not only be lifted and tucked but transplanted; It needs to be said that recognizing the power of God to descend to us AND TO choose us AND TO be pleased with us just as we are with the original equipment we have is reassuring and helps us keep a healthy perspective THAT CAN CLARIFY CONFUSIONS, DIFFUSE ANGER, SOOTHE YOUR SOUL AND INSPIRE YOUR FUTURE.

   For it is God and God alone who has found you listening AT THIS SACRED MOMENT, AND IT IS GOD ALONE WITH EYES to see you as a son or daughter of immeasurable value.  AND IT IS GOD AND GOD ALONE WHO shares the Holy life giving Spirit THAT RUNS IN THE FAMILY WITH YOU by virtue of your baptism – YOUR PRAYERS –AND THROUGH SWEET COMMUNION AT THE LORD’S TABLE.

  So on this fresh Sunday morning, on this new day in this new year – whether it be your first or last, THINK OF THE TIME YOU HAVE in this season of Epiphany as the light of the world IS HERE AND NOW shining your way through Jesus Christ the Son of God – and let it lead you on the path of LIGHT AND LIFE.  ---- YOU ARE INDEED INVITED, NOW GIVE IT THE EFFORT. AND FINALLY AS the Quakers like to say, “Mind the light friend, mind the light.” Amen