Epiphany
Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” Then Isaiah said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah – the king of Assyria.”
Isaiah 7:10-17
STORY
We can think of the Holy Spirit as being a Christmas spirit, when we realize how the birth of Jesus transformed society. The ability of the Christmas spirit to transform lives and restore fellowship is aptly illustrated in Charles Dickens’ story A Christmas Carol. Everyone is familiar with miser Scrooge whose attitude towards Christmas, as with life itself, was “Bah! Humbug!” Then on Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of Marley, his late business partner. In three visions – Christmas past, Christmas present, Christmas yet to come – Scrooge glimpses his life as a schoolboy, then as an apprentice and young lover; followed by being in the home of Bob Cratchit, his underpaid and underappreciated clerk, and what would happen to his son Tiny Tim if he continued to live the life he is now living. It is a life where he is heartless and despised. These revelations redeemed his disposition, transforming Scrooge to be a cheerful, benevolent, and friendly caretaker.
Awakening Christmas morning with a renewed countenance, a jubilant Scrooge whoops, “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A Merry Christmas to everybody!”
DEVOTION
It is indeed a joyous time for those who capture the true message Christmas each day of the year.
Recall though, Scrooge’s change of heart came only with an epiphany. It was only when he saw the three signs – three ghosts – that he realized he had to reorient his life. It was a sign that he needed to turn from his money bags to the turkey hanging in the window. It was a sign that his life could be redeemed.
Isaiah realized his people were disturbed because they had no sign from God that they would be liberated. They lived with doubt and wondering. With this uncertainty they sought some kind of sign to indicate they would be liberated from their present destitute state. This is when Isaiah shared with them these prophetic words, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” And I am sure, once assured of this promise, their hearts became as light as a feather.
Points to Ponder
> What sign of God’s promise have you personally experienced?
o For me: I was a newly ordained United Methodist pastor when a retired fellow clergyman, Arnie Kastner, told me that the best church that he ever served was Marion Center United Methodist Church, in Marion Center, Pennsylvania. Several times over the years when I happened to bump into Arnie, he would share with me the joy he experienced in that pastorate. I was serving in the Army Reserves when our convoy was about to depart for a two-week deployment, only to the convoy held up when the colonel told me that I had an urgent phone call. I went into the office and it was the bishop who informed me that I was appointed to the Marion Center church. Thinking that this might be THE church, yet still uncertain, I asked the bishop if this was the church that Arnie Kastner served. I was informed that it was. I accepted the appointment and pastored the Marion Center congregation for ten years, an unprecedented stay for a Methodist clergyman. That phone call was an epiphany for me as I knew that God, through my bishop, was guiding my ministry.
> Do you look for signs where there are none?
o For me: No, because I don’t look for signs, though I do believe that on a very rare occasion a sign will appear to me.
> How do you discern if a sign is truly from God?
o For me: I don’t look for signs, though on a very very rare occasion something will happen that will cause me to wonder. And this week was one of those very rare occasions. I preparing this week’s devotional on compassion when it came to me that there was a story in the book Treasure in Clay, an autobiography written by Fulton Sheen, that I could use. So, on Tuesday, November 6, I went to my library of 15,000 volumes and pulled the book down from the shelf. I easily found the story that I wanted. I also decided just to skim through the book, when I saw that on the cover page I had written the date that I purchased and read the book – November 6, 1980. That is exactly 43 years to the day from when I purchased the book whose Sheen’s missionary story to Buluba was used in a sermon, and then this day when the same story would be used in my devotional. As I wrote in my website About page, I had an unknown epiphany in second-grade that I was to be a devotional writer that decades later was actualized. I know that devotional writing is my spiritual gift and my calling. Though, writing devotionals for Narrow Pathways fulfills my Christian discipleship calling, I do get discouraged realizing my readership numbers only a few, certainly not many, and definitely not multitudes. I considered what I encountered in my library on Tuesday to be a sign from God since this discovery came on the exact same date, November 6, 2023, as when I purchased and read the book on November 6, 1980, and not one day before or one day after. I sincerely believe that it was a nudge from God to keep doing what I was called to do six-decades ago when my second-grade Christmas story was published in the school’s newspaper.
> Have you had a personal epiphany?
o For me: As I have shared with you in a previous devotional, it was when I was living in an apartment with three other Christians as a student attending Slippery Rock College in Pennsylvania, located sixty mile north of Pittsburgh. Up until then I had a quite spiritual relationship with Jesus. These three men had actually integrated Jesus into their lives, and it was manifested in their daily enthusiasm. Over the three years that I lived with them I began to manifest how Jesus had been infused into every part of my daily living.
Please share other Points to Ponder so I can update my list
Please share your thoughts with me – if you desire I will publish them for others to read anonymously or first name only or your entire name as you choose