Disciple: Living Epiphanically

By The Rev. Rhonda Lee

When I was in the third grade, my music class spent several months learning American folk songs, many of them African-American spirituals. Since I grew up in Canada, those music lessons were mixed with the history of what is popularly called the Underground Railroad.

We learned about Harriet Tubman, who earned the nickname “Moses” for the courage she showed by returning again and again to the South to lead God’s children north out of bondage. When our class sang “Go down, Moses,” we thought not only of the prophet who brought the Israelites out of Egypt, but also of the 19th-century woman who followed in his footsteps.     

My imagination vividly illustrated these songs: the fugitives moving as quickly and quietly as they could from woods to safe houses, resting by day and running by night. They followed the north star, the bright point on God’s compass they prayed would lead them to freedom. Slave catchers followed close behind, seeking their quarry by the light of torches and lanterns.

Now that I’m grown, the competing lights that illuminate these scenes of flight and pursuit call to mind the church’s season of light, Epiphany. Epiphany celebrates the revelation to the world of God’s light, Jesus Christ, and reminds us that following his light requires a steadfastness that can be gained only through practice in community.

Many lights compete for our attention and our loyalty today, just as they did for our 19th-century brothers and sisters. Almost all enslaved persons and slaveholders were baptized Christians. But they had two different visions of freedom. One group was convinced human beings belong only to God and cannot be owned by another; the other was equally persuaded the freedom on which their new republic was based was for only a few, and God had ordained all others should serve those few.

Slaveholders’ ideology, ironically, was rooted in the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which, while in theory advocating the ideals of freedom and equality for all, also allowed slaveholders’ to justify slavery on the basis of allegedly “scientific” differences between their slaves and themselves. Those they held enslaved, however, followed an ideology of freedom rooted in the light of Scripture. They knew the story of the Exodus. And they knew Jesus Christ, whom Herod’s men hunted by torchlight, but who embodied true freedom and offered that freedom to anyone who would accept it. Prayer, singing, Bible study and worship formed our enslaved ancestors into people who knew God’s truth, and who found ways to live by it, even when to do so was costly.

You and I also know the Gospel truth, and we have the freedom to tell it, through words and deeds, in the season of Epiphany and throughout the year. Jesus is Lord, and he gives us light to walk by, even when our way isn’t clear. But we can be distracted by other lights: some subtler than those that seduced our slaveholding ancestors, and some that history will no doubt judge just as evil, but to which we are currently blind. We need God’s help to discern how best to follow the light that is Jesus Christ, and we need each other’s support on that journey.

LIVING EPIPHANICALLY

To live epiphanically, growing in our ability to perceive the light of Christ and follow him, requires practice and community. Here are some suggestions of practices that may help. You might try them with a partner: a spouse or other family member, a friend or someone at church you would like to get to know better. As is the case with exercise and a healthy diet, most of us are more likely to stick with a practice if someone else is counting on us.

1. Every Sunday, look over your calendar for the week ahead, and set aside daily time to sit consciously in God’s presence. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the same time every day, and it can be as short as ten minutes, but put it on the calendar and leave it there.

2. Use the treasures of the Book of Common Prayers that use the image of light and are suitable year-round include the collect for the renewal of life (p.99), the (very short) service of Noonday Prayer (p.103), and the Song of Simeon (p.135).

3. Reserve some of your prayer time to listen silently for God’s guidance to you.  

4. Notice the lesser but powerful lights that seek to compete with Christ: advertisements; electronic screens, especially during times reserved for prayer or fellowship; political campaigns that tempt us to demonize or objectify fellow children of God.

5. In the morning and/or evening, ask for divine light to illumine your day. Notice the moments where you experience love, joy, peace and hope, and give thanks for them. Ask for eyes to see those moments when you fall short of loving God, your neighbor and yourself, and ask God’s help to repent and return to the way of Jesus.