Dear Members and Friends:

          Epiphany means manifestation of light. As a season of the Church it celebrates the revealing of Christ to Gentiles, that is, to all nations. Epiphany is time for people of faith to celebrate how far and wide, deep and high the love of God reaches. This Christ who lightens our darkness shines till we beam too.

          I invite you to join me in growing and basking in the wide beams of Christ's light. One way I commend is to consider the wide breadth of ways salvation works in the Bible and today. Too often adults are stuck in Sunday School images of faith, because nothing much has come along to deepen it. Complicating matters is the fact that one way of understanding salvation has dominated popular Christianity: the story of salvation as being cleansed, forgiven of sin and accepted. In Scripture there are more ways to experience God's saving grace. It matters because for some folks, sin is not much of a concern, so faith or Jesus are irrelevant.

          Scholar Marcus Borg, in The Heart of Christianity (2003, Harper), sheds light on our topic:

                    Light in our darkness: Jesus is the light of the world.

                    The satisfaction of our hunger: Jesus is the bread of life.

                    The quenching of our thirst: Jesus is living water.

                    Finding the way: Jesus is the way, the door.

                    Connection to the source of life: Jesus is the vine.

                    Being born again: Jesus is the path of dying and rising.

                    New life out of death: Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

                    Healing: Jesus is the one who makes us whole.

                    Entry into God's presence: Jesus is the new temple, even as he is also the sacrifice.

          I hope these are helpful to you as they are to me. Borg also notes that there are three Bible macro-stories that carry meanings of salvation. One is the exodus from Egypt and is about slavery and deliverance into freedom. One is the exile in Babylon and is about homecoming, a journey of return. One is about cleansing and purity, sin and forgiveness, divine acceptance.

          Good cheer to you in the new year and its Epiphany light!