Epiphany- you are enough.

Epiphany is that final chapter in the nativity story and yet it passes us by so quickly. For many of us (and those who we've encountered so far in this new year) I’m sure Christmas is done and dusted, but I enjoy that we get to sit with it for a little longer.

I’m sure all the signs of Christmas will soon be removed from our houses, just as they’ll soon be removed from the church- the tree taken down and the stable put away until Advent. I always think everywhere looks a little bare, or maybe a better word is uncluttered, after the Christmas paraphernalia has been taken down. I find that an uncluttered space means I can actually think more clearly, but I do miss this sparkle and especially the lights. There really is something about Christmas lights- reminding us of the light that shines even in the darkest places but also of that guiding light the Magi, now completing their journey, have followed.

There’s always a lot of talk of gifts in epiphany sermons, quite naturally, and an encouragement to think about our own gifts and what we would bring to the stable, to make our own offering before Jesus.

I think it’s really important to remember that it’s just enough that we bring ourselves, it’s great when people have awesome gifts to bring to ministry or this communal life we share, whether it’s the gifts of listening, hospitality, organisation (wish I had that one!) or maybe leadership- however people contribute to our shared life of faith.

But it’s also ok that we’re just here, offering ourselves, even if we don’t think that means much to the God who created everything from nothing. It means everything. 

As we start this new year and are tempted to make plans, resolutions or self-improvements of whatever kind I just wanted us to remember that we are enough, just as we are. Jesus’ birth subverts everything we think we know about power and worth, even the Magi don’t get it at first and they go searching for him in the palace, the seat of human power, but when they eventually find the promised child in a grubby outhouse they realise that this is something different entirely.

You know I like to share bits and bobs with you that I read or find so this is “A Sonnet for Epiphany” by Malcolm Guite, priest and poet:

It might have been just someone else’s story,

Some chosen people get a special king.

We leave them to their own peculiar glory,

We don’t belong, it doesn’t mean a thing.

But when these three arrive they bring us with them,

Gentiles like us, their wisdom might be ours;

A steady step that finds an inner rhythm,

A  pilgrim’s eye that sees beyond the stars.

They did not know his name but still they sought him,

They came from otherwhere but still they found;

In temples they found those who sold and bought him,

But in the filthy stable, hallowed ground.

Their courage gives our questing hearts a voice

To seek, to find, to worship, to rejoice.