By James Lamkin

"Epiphany...and the Power of the 'Luminous Sentence'"

       Epiphany always is January 6; and the Sunday nearest January 6, always is Epiphany Sunday.

       Yet, occasionally, January 6 actually falls on Sunday...like it does this year. So get your camels ready and show-up for worship this weekend because the Magi are coming!

       During the twelve days of Christmas we rejoice in the mystery of the Holy Child among us. On Epiphany we celebrate the manifestation of what that means; and the Magi are the carriers of this good news. The news is that the Light of God revealed in Jesus Christ is for all people.

       If you forget this, the children of NDBC will remind you. They will be singing We Three Kings this Sunday; and they will look the part. Watch for the Burger King crowns that point northwest. Other headgear may look more like a Mini Me version of Carnac the Magnificent.

       Don't miss their appearing, their epiphany.

       I came across an H. Richard Niebuhr statement regarding epiphany; but it was not about the biblical story. It was not trying to make sense of wandering stars, map-less Magi, or the three most unlikely gifts to bring to a baby shower. Rather, the quotation is about the art of reading and the power of the luminous sentence.

       This caught my eye, because it has happened to me. I will be reading along and find that I am bogged down. The sequence of thought may be too obscure. The details may be, well, too detailed. Or, the writing too tedious.

       But then! Amid the murky musings...a light arises; and all comes into focus.

       Niebuhr spoke of this phenomenon in his 1941 book, The Meaning of Revelation. He noted that while reading a difficult book or seeking to follow a complicated argument, suddenly we (the readers) come to, "...a luminous sentence from which we can go forward and backward and so attain some understanding of the whole."

       I like that: "...from which we can go forward and backward and so attain some understanding of the whole."

       I am thinking of a phrase from the Apostle Paul. Pardon my confession, but a lot of Paul's writings are like eating uncooked oatmeal. Though good for you, it is not easy to swallow.

       Yet, amid Paul's wearisome words rises a luminous sentence, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to God."

       Ah! It is both windshield and rear-view mirror. It is the neck of the hourglass through which a lot of sand has passed...and through which a lot has yet to pass.

       It is a luminous sentence that sounds a lot like Christmas, and even more like Epiphany.

       Look back. Look forward. Look in Bethlehem's manger; look on Calvary's cross: God was in Christ reconciling the world to God.

       The kids will say more about this on Sunday; and nobody says it better than a child. They are so luminous. They even glow in the dark.