Y’all………Today is a big day!  The Sunday closest to 6 January is the day the Church celebrates Epiphany, which marks the end of the Christmas season and reflects on the visit of the Magi, or wisemen, to the baby Jesus.  Our good friends, the dictionary makers, define “epiphany” as a sudden, profound moment of insight or realization, often a spiritual or philosophical breakthrough, where a deeper truth about something is revealed, changing one’s perception.  In more simple terms, it’s an “aha!” moment, or when one realizes something that’s pretty profound, pretty life changing. 

“So,” you ask, “what does this have to do with the wisemen or three kings, or whoever?”  Imma tell ya.  Those wisemen were the first folks outside of the Nativity story to recognize Jesus as Someone Important.  So important that they traveled for quite some time, over long distances, to reach Jesus, and in doing so, let the world know that Jesus was Somebody.

Y’all remember when our dear friend, Ebeneezer Scrooge, had his own personal Epiphany?  Like, BOOM!, a big realization and life change!  He went from being mean and hateful and dreadful to being kind and loving and generous.  That’s what Epiphany is and does. 

Epiphany is about Jesus and his message being available and relevant to people of every age and race. Epiphany is about God made present amongst us and available to all of us to worship and follow. Epiphany is about God’s love and how that love reaches beyond the everyday barriers of race, class, sexuality, political party, or anything else that separates us from each other. 

Simply put and bottom line, is that Epiphany is all about realizing that no matter who we are, what we are, we need to become more.  More loving.  More caring.  More forgiving.  More Christlike.  Jesus himself clues us in to what Epiphany is all about:

Jesus tells us in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”   

We, all of us, need to have this kind of Epiphany every day of our lives.  Every.  Day.  We need to remind ourselves, every day, of who we claim to serve, of how we are supposed to conduct ourselves, of how our own epiphanies have changed us and our lives.  Of the qualities we are required to show:  Justice.  Mercy.  Kindness.  Forgiveness.  Love.  Regardless of anything else that might separate us, divide us, or causes us to see people as “other.”  There is no one on this planet who God doesn’t love.  There is no one on this planet who Jesus didn’t die for.  Period.  Love.  One.  Another. 

And maybe, just maybe, because of the epiphanies in our lives, we can help others to have their own.  Amen.