God's word was incarnate in that manger in Bethlehem. That is what we celebrate every year at Christmas. At Epiphany we celebrate the way that truth, that reality, of the incarnation of God into this world was manifest to various people. Or, as that beautiful hymn we sang this morning put it, "God in man made manifest." This hymn so beautifully tells the very stories of Epiphany that we hear every year, of the people who had their manifestations, their epiphanies of God found in Jesus Christ.
The first verse of this hymns says, "manifested by the star to the sages from afar." It is an echo of that story of the magi we tell every year on the first day of Epiphany. The second verse goes on to tell about being manifest at Jordan's stream, the story of Jesus's baptism that we always tell on the first Sunday after the Epiphany, the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord. The hymn goes on to talk about the manifestation at Cana, "manifest in power divine changing water into wine." That is not a story that we heard this year, but it is one of the traditional stories of Epiphany that we get every third year in our Lectionary cycle. The hymn goes on to echo so many of the other stories of people's epiphanies, people's manifestations of God found in Jesus Christ, including the way God is manifest to people in the healing power of Jesus, like we heard in the Gospel story today of the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. That healing power of Jesus is sometimes a literal, physical healing, like in the case of Peter's mother-in-law. At other times it is more of a spiritual healing, such as in the case of St. Paul, who talks about an ailment that he had. He prayed to God three times, begging him to take the ailment away from him. The third time he gets the response from God that says he is not going to do that. Instead, God says my grace is sufficient for you. St. Paul knows that his healing is going to happen, not in the ailment being removed from him, but in that knowledge of the grace of God being enough. God tells him my power is made perfect in weakness, and St. Paul learns that truth, that reality in his ailment. His healing is not in the removal of that, but in coming to terms with it and understanding it better.
During this season of Epiphany, we remember and celebrate these stories of people who had their epiphanies, their manifestations of God in Jesus Christ. But it is also a time to remember our own epiphanies, our own experiences of God being made manifest to us. I know, because you have shared with me over the years, almost fourteen years of ministry with you, that God has been made manifest in your lives. I am not going to tell those individual stories. For one, they are your stories to tell, not mine, but also because I do not have permission to share the details. But you have shared so many stories with me over the years, from the profound to the mundane, of God at work in your life, or what you have witnessed in other people.
Some of the stories have been of that physical healing like Peter's mother-in-law's experience in our Gospel story today, moments of a profound physical healing. Although more frequently you share stories with me of that spiritual healing, more like St. Paul had. You shared stories with me of having manifestations of God to you in moments of joy and wonder and peace, but also of moments of fear when you felt that God was with you, by your side, trying to bring calm to your anxiety. You have shared stories with me about God being made manifest to you at church, in prayers being prayed, in hymns being sung, in receiving the Eucharist. You have also shared stories with me of God being made manifest to you outside the four walls of the church, out in the world, at home, at work, out in nature. You have shared stories with me of God being made manifest to you in experiences of redemption and reconciliation. You have also shared stories with me of brokenness, of moments when redemption never came and nothing was reconciled, and yet God was made manifest to you when you recognized that God was there with you, guiding you, supporting you, comforting you through the difficulties that you were encountering.
You have shared so many stories with me of God at work in light and life and love. As many stories as you have told me over the years, there are probably many more that you haven't shared with me, and that's perfectly fine. But I know that God is at work in your life because God is actively at work in this world. It is not a question of if God is at work. The question is how, and do we recognize it?
So, my friends, the season of Epiphany is a time to celebrate these stories, all of these stories, and to look for the ways that God is at work. Lent is almost here, but not quite, so let's take these last few weeks of Epiphany to celebrate, to remember when God has been at work, when we have experienced these manifestations. Let's also take this time to look for the ways that God is still at work and still being made manifest to us.
AMEN
