Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
January 6, 2008 - Epiphany
Isaiah 60:1-6
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

The Light has Come!

Today is Epiphany – neither CVS not Hallmark offer a single greeting card celebrating Epiphany.  Kind of amazing that one has slipped past them!  Even more amazing is that folks were celebrating Epiphany before they were celebrating Christmas.  The Armenian Orthodox Church still celebrates Epiphany instead of Christmas.

Christmas is the feeling side of the story.  Epiphany is the thinking part of the story.

Isaiah lived and wrote long before Jesus was born, but he already had the idea …the thinking part of the story.  “Arise, shine, for your light has come!”
That was good news in Isaiah’s time, and it is good news in our time.

Isaiah spoke of a time when “darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples.” 

We know about darkness.  In a world where war has come to seem normal rather than the exception, the death reports from the war are crowded off the front page by meaningless conduct of people whose only merit is their ability to get in the news! 

There is darkness all around us … Some of us feel overwhelmed by our own darkness.  Some of us feel overwhelmed by the darkness of the world … Kenya … Iraq … Pakistan … Palestine … the list is long.

Some of us feel overwhelmed by the darkness of politics … the special interest groups, the behind-the-scenes dealings. 

Some of us feel overwhelmed by the darkness of the economy …

Some of us feel overwhelmed by the darkness of our own health … or by our loneliness … there is darkness all around … but there is not darkness every where!

\That is the Good News!  A light has shined!  The light has come into the darkness, and the darkness cannot put it out!

The Good News is that God knows about the darkness … and God has done something … and continues to do something.  A light has come into the world:  love!  This light cannot be put out. 

Where love is, light is … and nothing can take that away.

Yesterday Susan and I attended the funeral mass for a good friend of hers.  Gail was an amazing lady … she always had a smile.  Nothing seemed to faze her.  Chaos could be swirling around her, and she would be there in the midst of it, slowly and methodically sorting it out …and she would – sort it out.  She brought a smile everywhere … she was warm, accepting, not-judgmental, kind, thoughtful. 

Gail was 51, and last Saturday night she and her husband gathered with some friends to watch the Patriots play the Giants.  The guys were downstairs watching the game, while the women were upstairs in the kitchen, talking, laughing, and drinking coffee.  In the midst of this, Gail put her arm on the table, put her head down, and died.  The paramedics could not revive her.

Holy Apostle’s Church was full – many of whom were colleagues of Gail’s in the Cranston School system.   Afterwards, so many folks stood around, hugging, crying, mourning, remembering.  Gail was a light … and it seemed that the light had gone out, and there was immense sadness about that.

But as I stood there and watched the people who were grieving, and I thought about this Epiphany celebration about light, it occurred to me that Gail’s light has not gone out … it has been redistributed, and absorbed by all who knew her. 

Gail’s light still shines … but in a different way, through different lenses. 

My invitation to us all today is to both be open to absorbing the light that shines in our lives – and to reflecting that light to the world … in all the dark places … in Jesus’ name!

SERMON IN A SACK:  A flashlight.  Talk about having “light” to keep us from being afraid … to shine a light on things that are “of the darkness” … That is what Jesus has done … that is what the star did for the Wise Men.