Isaiah 60.1-6, Matthew 2.1-12
The Epiphany (transferred), 9 January 2022
Austwick, Keasden
We follow the light - we star-gazers
searching the skies for signs of motion in the heavens:
God dancing; planets spinning; meteors soaring;
stars on odd trajectories catching the eye.
We follow the light - we sages
Seeking truth in odd corners of the hostile earth:
Where God has been quietened and people are frightened,
creatures ill-treated and trees uprooted;
trusting our instinct that light will still shine in the dark.
We follow the light - we rich ones
Blessed with well-being throughout our lives,
wealthy with love and friendship and the world’s possessions.
Having been given much, we bear gifts to hold up to the light,
to give in dedication to the Light who we trust will guide our path.
Like those visitors who followed the star from the East which stopped over the place where the child was, can we make this our prayer today - that we follow the light, the light who moves the heavens, the light who shines into the darkest corners of our hostile world, the light who guides our path in changing and challenging times.
Isaiah looked around him and saw ‘darkness covering the earth, and thick darkness the peoples’; it may be that when we look around at our broken earth, our troubled nations, our conflicted society, we see that too.
But Isaiah looked to the heavens and through the eyes of faith saw the Lord arising on the people, his glory appearing over them. With joy in his heart and a zest in his voice he told them, ‘Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you… Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.’
We come to church at Epiphany because we are looking for the light. Christ, who once said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’
We come in faith - that whatever depresses our spirits can be extinguished by the light;
We come in hope - that every good destroyed in our world can be restored by the light;
We come in love - for of all the gifts the light gives to us to share, the greatest of them is love.
So I invite you to join me now in the sort of prayerful action which those wise travellers undertook in Bethlehem all those years ago. I invite you to make a prayerful offering of a candle lit up with the prayers of your own heart, prayers for yourself, for those close to you, for our community and our world. A gift of worship offered to our Lord, the Light.
Prayer
I will light a candle this Epiphany.
A candle of joy despite all the sadness,
a candle of hope where despair keeps watch,
a candle of courage for fears ever present,
a candle of peace for tempest-tossed days,
a candle of grace to ease heavy burdens,
a candle of love to inspire all my living,
a candle that will burn all year long. Amen [1]
So as we sing the hymn ‘Christ be our light’ [2] let us bring our candles forward to light them alongside the gifts which the wise men have brought….
Notes
[1] Prayer based on Howard Thurman, I Will Light Candles this Christmas from The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations, Friends United Press 2011.
[2] Christ be our light. Bernadette Farrell © 1993, 2000, Published by OCP (Oregon Catholic Press)
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