Epiphany Wonder

“...they [the magi] set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising in the East, until it stopped over the place where the child was.”  Mt 2:9
 
“I’ve been looking at the night sky my whole life.  I’ve dreamed I’ve walked the length of the Milky Way.  I thought, as a child, that it was the path to heaven. Do stars tell us anything?
They tell us about the visions of the powerful and ambitious for sure like Berenice’s Hair,  a constellation named in honour of an Egyptian King.  Or the Pleiades.  The daughters of Zeus.  Stars show us our dreams and our projections.  
I have my own theory.  They are just light.  Light from another time, another age.  Light reaching us.  Pointing the way.  That’s what I thought when we saw the star.  That’s what convinced me to leave home.  That’s what I found to be true.  After the countless miles, the dead-ends, and finally our discovery of the child.  
A star gives itself to show the way.  It dies in its giving.  It is the grace that has no concern for itself.  It might be named in honour of the powerful, but it offers itself for all.  And it pointed us to be the true light of the world.”     Mann, Rachel, Magi (II): A Star-Filled Grace. Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications, 2015. Pages 53-54. Print.
What and/or who has guided your way to greater understanding about the fullness of living, giving, and being authentically you in the world?  How have you been affected by the stories of God’s unconditional love and engagement with all creation from the beginning of time?  How are you affected by the One who enters our reality as a beloved yet dependent baby named Jesus who becomes a refugee child, and later a carpenter, teacher, healer, and friend? In his own baptism, Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and claimed as God’s own.  He is led into the wilderness to discover his call to ministry and what that means for him from that point forward.  What difference does the Word made manifest make in your life? Or, in our call as a faith community here at Coastside Lutheran Church?  These are the questions we explore the Sundays after Epiphany.  It’s a time to listen, to celebrate, to be renewed, and to discover what it means to follow this one “full of grace and truth,” (John 1:14b) because “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”
(Romans 8:39).  Enter with me into the blessings of this season of worship and community activity to experience renewal, clarity, and communion. In Christ,  
Pastor Dawn


 



 
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