Yesterday, January 6th, was Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas, Twelfth Night. It’s the end to the festive season; Christmas decorations come down…
It’s the day when traditionally the church remembers the wise men visiting Jesus and presenting their gifts…
Nadia Bolz-Weber describes the story:
‘A story of 2 men –
Herod, who is a ruler on a throne of power, and Joseph who is a peasant in an unconventional marriage. One man is powerful and one man is not. And yet the text only describes one of these men as being afraid.
And it wasn’t the peasant.’
This fear causes Herod to murder all young boys in and around Bethlehem….
Nadia Bolz-Weber describes fear: ‘Fear disguises itself in so many ways: as greed, hate, isolation, addiction… none of us are free from the effects of fear in our lives. It keeps us isolated and small and it steals away joy and possibility.’
Yesterday my computer was misbehaving and frustrating me. I had a lot to do. I phoned a friend. Des said: ‘Switch it off, let it rest, switch it on again.’ It worked!
I remembered a week ago… Our local Co-op has a Costa coffee machine. I was visiting a nearby friend and was collecting coffee. The first cup was made fine; the machine objected to making the second. ‘Contact an assistant,’ the display said.
The charming assistant’s method was the same as Des’. She switched the machine off, let it rest and switched it on again. It worked and made my second cup of coffee.
The meaning of the word Epiphany? It’s a moment of sudden, profound revelation, realisation, insight or understanding…
There are many times when I’m not working properly… I need to switch off and rest… some call it the principle of ‘Sabbath’… When I switch off and rest I’m open to receive a personal ‘epiphany’; my fears start to be seen in perspective; I’m able to switch on again and function correctly…
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