Today was the staff meeting I spend all the other staff meetings dreading—NNPCW’s turn to lead the devotion. It was an Epiphany-themed reflection from the Presbyterian Women Bible study, and I had planned on lighting a candle and putting out a Nativity Scene for the occasion. Well, I knew things were going downhill when my friend Essie, ten minutes after the meeting started, not-so-conspicuously crept in with the Nativity Scene—a cardboard standup that featured, besides the usual Magi and Holy Family, assorted deer, squirrels, and bunny rabbits wandering through the Palestinian palm-tree forest near Jesus’ manger. Perhaps first-century Palestine featured a plethora of squirrels frolicking about, but my Google search indicates that such a species no longer exists in the Holy Land.

So today is Epiphany, and our liturgical calendar marks the Baptism of the Lord on Sunday. Now if you’re certified liturgically illiterate, as I am, first you need to get the Presbyterian Women Bible study (which is all about the liturgical year). But since I already led a haphazard study devotion on it, I will generously share my knowledge with you.

Epiphany is the end of the twelve days of Christmas on the church calendar. The word originally referred to the birth or visit of royalty, tying it in nicely with both Jesus’ birth and the visit of the Magi. For that is exactly what Epiphany marks on the calendar—the visit the wise men make to the infant Jesus (Matthew 2). Records indicate that our Christian forbearers have celebrated this day as early as 215 CE. Early Orthodox Christians, however, used the same date to mark Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, and John 1). Today we sort of awkwardly blend the two together.

Yet both mark moments of profound change. Our culture defines an epiphany as an appearance, something that radically alters the way we see our world. Likewise, Christian baptism has always signaled a life changed by the power of the risen Christ. These two events together point us to awakenings, to new beginnings, to being open to the gifts of transformation in our lives. What is waiting for us in Bethlehem this year?

Are you being called, like the Magi, to silently resist when asked to participate in evil? Is God asking you to speak out as Jesus did at his baptism, proclaiming the arrival of God’s realm of love? Are you approaching the threshold of change in your life? And are you responding to that change in fear, as Herod did, or with the peace of Mary?

We find it all too easy to look at the future with the fear of a Herod. In this new year, may you embrace transformation as Jesus did, saying, “Let it be so now.”

“John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’” --Matthew 3:14-15

Kelsey