January is the beginning of the 2024 calendar year and a chance for new beginnings for each of us and for Gibson – for improvements, innovation, and excitement over what God has planned for us. We celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord on January 7 this year, a day that celebrates the revealing of the Messiah to the non-Jewish world. Epiphany commemorates the visit of the Wise Men to the Christ Child, who by that time was in a house [Matthew 2:11] in Bethlehem, not in the stable. These men were not Jews, but they knew this child was born to be king of the Jews, and they knew this was a world-changing event. The celebration of the Epiphany includes Jesus’ baptism, where it was revealed that he is the Son of God [Luke 3:21] and his first miracle at the wedding in Cana. God made it clear that Jesus came for everyone in Luke 2:10-11 when the angle said to the shepherds, “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” He said “all the people,” not just some of them. All of us, everybody – if you are a people, you qualify! How wonderful is this – God has come to earth as a human to try to get his people to come back to him and to give all people a chance to have a personal relationship with him, with the creator of the universe.
The star that guided those Wise Men and the glory of the Lord that shone around the shepherds reinforces that Jesus is the “Light of the World” [John 8:12]. Isaiah 9:2 reads – “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” Our purpose as Christians is to show that light to our world, to help guide people back to God, and to be the kind of people that others look at and want whatever it is we have.
Epiphany finishes up the cycle of Advent-Christmas-Epiphany and the liturgical season after the Epiphany is a time for growth, often focusing on the early ministry of Jesus. We had a wonderful Advent season this year, but in the words of the song – “After the song of the angels is stilled, the work of Christmas begins…”