EPIPHANY

On Epiphany we hear again the story of the men from the East who visited the baby Jesus.  They were generous, reverent, educated, strong, and wise.  Yet they were told by an angel to do something different, to change their course, to alter their plans?that is, to "go home by another way."
 
I few years ago I experienced an occasional breathtaking pain in my chest.  It seemed to recur whenever I had been on vacation.  It seems, after investigation, that I was carrying my backpack or suitcase the wrong way and aggravating a joint between my ribs that I did not even know existed.  It was upsetting to think that my travels might be thwarted.  Having hiked and traveled since I was a child, it was rather unnerving to find out that I needed to learn to carry my belongings another way.  When I finally got help, it was reassuring to find that simple changes, such as buying a new type of backpack, could free me from pain. 
 
In Epiphany, especially, we remember that God shines a light on our lives so that we can know without fear what is right and what is wrong in our lives.  This season I invite you to identify one change that will make your life better and to believe that you can make that change.  Not all changes can be made so simply as replacing one's backpack.  But the message of the wise men is this: If we are headed anywhere God does not advise, we can go another way.   Having seen God's gift to us in the birth of Jesus, we can be confident that God will lead us toward safe, healthy, and whole lives.  Our newness of life will be our gift to Christ.
 
Going ?home another way' may mean more than making a new year's resolution; it may take resolve and faith.  Through sustained prayer, scripture, sacraments, and the fellowship of the faithful, God strengthens us to see what needs changing in our lives and to go a different way.  Through physical therapists, physicians, twelve-step groups, counselors, and good friends, change comes.  A long, rocky, hard trip?  Sometimes.  Here is another message to us at Epiphany:  God will light our way.  We can be wise ones.

--Rev. Ann H. Franklin