Epiphany: Revealing, Radiating, Reminding

Barbara Bate former staff member of the General Board of Discipleship.

Epiphany is an unfamiliar word to many of us -- even to many Christians. Here are some phrases that may help it to make more sense:

• a revealing of the presence of God;
• the light of God radiating outward and inward;
• a gift, a reminder that God is here.

Why does this word "epiphany" matter in the church?

 

The time after Christmas is often a letdown within a secular, consumer-focused culture. But in the Christian "kin-dom," the story is different. Light expands into dark places. Newness appears in the midst of routine. Life bursts out of the expected deadness in the natural world.

 

Here is one example. It occurred in Zimbabwe, in the middle of July 1997. I was traveling to the rural village of Bindura to preach and lead a workshop for lay preachers in that area. After worship, I was able to visit a children's village called S.O.S. It is one of several places in Zimbabwe where orphaned

and "dumped" children (that is the word used by the African people there) are raised, schooled, and loved in small groups presided over by local house mothers. Most of those women are active United Methodists, and they bring the children from the S.O.S. house to worship each Sunday.

 

On the day of my arrival, I heard about a newborn infant who had been found in the weeds by a local police officer. He had heard her crying while he was walking home along the path outside the village. He took her to S.O.S. The women on the staff determined that the baby was probably four days old
and apparently unharmed. In the two weeks before I saw the baby, she had been fed, held, given a place to stay, and a name. The name she was given? Christina.

I watched her napping on one Sunday afternoon, and I realized that she was vulnerable and in one sense abandoned--perhaps by a mother whose family would not accept the presence of a child with an unnamed father. But Christina was also a gift -- to the community of people who were prepared to dedicate themselves to her well-being, to the pastor who supported the ongoing ministry of S.O.S., and even to this visitor from the United States who saw the power of God in her young life. She is a reminder that in the eyes of God, every child is sacred -- in Bethlehem, in Brooklyn, in Bindura.

Where are the epiphanies that are awaiting your attention? Watch and listen, and you will find them.