The weeks immediately after 21st December are notable for dark mornings. Even as the evenings grow slightly lighter it takes longer for the mornings to brighten. I am not making that up, it is a fact. I like to get out for a walk after breakfast and before I go back up to my study, if I am working at home. Early January means going out in the ‘almost dark.’
The season of Christmas brings a lot of artificial light into our lives. For many people it is a time of real joy while for others require forced jollity to get through it. Others will just have been through a fortnight or so of troublesome memories, pain, or loneliness. Apologies for the reality check so early in the year.
The season of Epiphany that begins on Saturday is all about light. The travellers saw a star and it inspired them to travel east to find Jesus. If I walk east in the mornings, I get the best glimpses of the rising sun and the greatest chance of not pining for the joy of a June morning when at the same time it is completely light, fresh, and lovely (unless it is raining – this is Britain).
In today’s bible reading, Philippians 2:5-11, Saint Paul describes how Jesus humbled himself on the cross before God could glorify him in resurrection and ascension. When he descended into the lowest places for us, did he see the glimpse of a star or a distant sunrise to draw him on? We cannot tell, but we know that his endurance of the darkness led to a brighter dawn for all who put faith in him.
We cannot have June without January. When it is ‘not quite light,’ we know it will soon improve. That is the hope of the enduring message of Christmas. We cannot have Easter without starting here but because of Easter’ all of us who find Christmas hard’ are reassured that whilst it may not be ‘quite light’ yet, there is much to hope for in the eternity of Jesus to come.
However, you identify those three travellers, Kings, Wise Men, Sages, or something else, they were not sure where the light would lead them, but they knew they must follow it. The star rises in two days’ time – shall we follow it?
A Prayer:
Lord God, you put light into the world, and you made the dawn happen every day. Whether we are waiting for the dawn or have found the summer sun, we pray that this Epiphany we will see again new shafts of your light, probing the darkness of our world and lives. We thank you for the dawn, for hope, and for inviting us to step into your light which is everlasting and never artificial. Amen.