The Feast of Epiphany, January 6, 2026

“Arise, shine, your light has come.”  Epiphany is, like Christmas, the season of light. During the season of Epiphany, we celebrate God’s all-encompassing light that illumines Gentile as well as Jew, foreigner as well as resident, non-Christian as well as Christian.  During Epiphany, we celebrate the grace of baptism and affirm that God pronounces “you are my beloved on every child” equally and that, in our time of xenophobia, God is just as present in the lives of undocumented residents as in natural born citizens. No one is outside the circle of divine revelation and salvation.  All are illumined by the light of salvation, and all can experience God’s enlightening revelation.

When the Feast of Epiphany shows up on a weekday rather than Sunday, I am tempted to substitute the January 6 lectionary readings for those pertaining to January 4, as in the case of this year.  To Orthodox Christians, Epiphany Day is as important as Christmas, and when I have been a senior pastor, I have chosen to celebrate Epiphany with the coming of the magi, special Epiphany hymns, congregational dress up and processions as magi, and a fellowship hour celebration after church.  I typically add the Johannine Prologue (John 1:1-18) to the Gospel (Matthew 2:1-12) and the reading from Isaiah.  Over the years, when I pastored congregations, I often celebrated the Feast of Epiphany with a short weekday service of hymns, readings, and communion.

The Epiphany readings begin with Isaiah’s command, “Arise, shine, your light has come.”  In other words, “Get up. Climb out of your spiritual caves and see the light.” Gloom surrounds us, but when we rise with God’s light, the whole world is illumined.  Tragedy is transformed to “tragic beauty”, and ordinary people are invited to embark on a spiritual adventure.  The darkness and chaos remain – leaders are drunk on the devices and desires of their hearts and xenophobia determines public policy – but the light of Epiphany defeats our wayward turning from God’s illumination.  Epiphany celebrates being “woke,” that is, seeing the light even when our leaders and their followers prefer darkness.  As poet Amanda Gorman counsels:

When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.

During the Season Epiphany, our quest is to see the light and then claim our daily vocation of being the light of the world and letting our light shine.

Many of us participated in “No Kings Day” this past fall, protesting and resisting a prevaricating potentate who threatens the foundations of US democracy. Psalm 72 speaks of a different kind of ruler, one who has seen the light and then walks in the light.  A ruler who promotes justice and uplifts the vulnerable.  A leader who gains the respect of the nations by the quality of their character, and who rules by the power of love and not the love of power. The Psalm reminds us that rulers are responsible to a power and love greater than themselves, and they rule best – and the people flourish – when they transfer their focus of governance from self-interest to world loyalty and see sacrifice rather than adulation as the heart of their leadership.

In the reading from Colossians, Paul connects his own life-transforming mystical experience to the revealing of the mystery of Christ to all creation.  God’s mystery of healing and salvation is global, infinite and yet infinite, personal and yet embracing all, including the Gentile world. There is no xenophobia in divine revelation.  Everyone is included and this suggests both individual and global transformation. God is making known God’s wisdom in all its variety to all creation, earthly and heavenly.

There is an ethic of revelation.  If God wants to reveal Godself to all, then our obligation is not only to convey God’s revelation to everyone but also treat everyone as God’s beloved child.  The sharing of the Good News depends on those sharing it being committed to being messengers of good news in our daily lives and interactions. Our lives are our witness, our light is our witness.  Brutality, exclusion, dehumanization, are antithetical to the Gospel.  We cannot destroy or deport God’s beloved children but must treat all God’s beloved children with the care God has bestowed on us.

The Gospel tells the story of the Coming of the Magi, most likely Zoroastrian religious leaders from Persia.  Following the star as divine revelation, they observe divine revelation while the Jewish religious and political leaders overlook it. God’s revelation breaks down the barriers we erect between inner and outer circles of truth and revelation: a little child will lead them and so might an undocumented worker and a neurodivergent congregant. “Don’t fence revelation! Don’t limit truth!” is the Epiphany message.  God is generous in revelation and we should be equally open to the many vehicles and modalities of revelation.  The magi worshipped the Christ child, and yet remained magi, teachers of their own religious tradition.  Encountering Jesus broadened rather than shrunk their sense of divine truth and revelation.

The Gospel reading concludes with some of the most evocative words in scripture: “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.”  Dreams are central to divine communication in Mark’s account of Jesus’ beginnings.  Dreams are reported five times, four of invitation and warning to Joseph, and then the cautionary dream to the magi.  God communicates in a multitude of ways: through the intellect, mystical experiences, “chance” encounters, delight in nature, literature and the arts, and dreams.  Divine revelation is not restricted to consciousness or intellect but emerges through the unconscious mind.

The magi go home by another way.  God calls us to take new paths, the roads less traveled and mysterious to us.  Even if events have made one path possible, God makes a way where we perceive no way.  God’s ever-resourceful vision addresses every fork in the road with invitations to novel responses, and God’s gives us the insight and energy to change our ways and discover new routes, personally, congregationally, and politically.  What new ways is God inviting you or your congregation inviting you to travel?  What new horizons is God calling you toward in this time of uncertainty and trouble, when leaders have lost their reason and cruelty and exclusion is the order of the day?

On Epiphany, we celebrate God’s generous revelation, given to all.  We train our eyes to see the light, respond as light bearers and way makers, and claim our light to bring God’s light to the gloom and waywardness of our world.

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Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC. He is the author of over eighty books, including Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet; Creation Sings: Forty Days of Spiritual Wisdom from the Non-Human World; Messy Incarnation: Meditations on Christ in Process; and Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries. His latest books are Creation Sings: Forty Days of Spiritual Wisdom from the Non-human World and Three Wise Wisdom: The Twelve Days of Christmas with Mary, Elizabeth, and Anna (volume seven in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” series along with his upcoming Lenten devotional, Just a Little Walk with Jesus: A Spiritual Saunter with Mark’s Gospel.  He can be reached at www.brucepperly.com.