Epiphany 3 – 26 Jan 2025

Dear Parish of St. George

Our current liturgical season of Epiphany is all about Jesus’ revelation as the promised one—the one who will bring peace and comfort the afflicted. But I’ve been having trouble hearing the Good News and having hope for the future.

However, as Dr. Norman Wirzba, Duke Divinity professor and Director of Research for the Office of Climate and Sustainability, wrote in a recent article, “Hopeful people do not assume that everything is going to be alright. They see the current trouble and expect that more is on the way.”

Dr. Wirzba goes on to say that hopeful people acknowledge pain and suffering and, through love, work to make a positive difference in a broken world. When we are confronted with realities that lead us to despair, love fuels hope that can take us beyond despair and into participation with God in the re-creation of the world.

Similarly, Jesus’ Epiphany, God’s love in the world, doesn’t negate the pain and despair that we might feel or witness, but it acknowledges and transforms it.

So during this season of Epiphany, in the midst of what sometimes feels like a crumbling world, let’s keep trying to ask, “Where is Jesus Christ being revealed right now?” Not because Christ’s coming has solved all the world’s problems, but because God’s perennial love is always finding new and unexpected places to blossom.

Bio: I work at the Vancouver School of Theology as the Marketing and Communications Officer. Before that I studied philosophy and creative writing at the University of Victoria. I’m a card-carrying Pastor’s Kid—of the church-nerd variety, rather than the rebellious kind. Although seminary hasn’t been part of my educational journey, I grew up running around churches, causing trouble and hiding under my dad’s robes as a little one, and eventually serving at the altar, singing in choirs, and reading scripture. Now I enjoy giving guest sermons in Anglican, United, and Presbyterian churches when the invitations come.

Christopher Stanford Beck