by Ken Sehested
By now you may have noticed the odd coincidence of 6 January [2021] being the date of Epiphany and of Congress’ ritual of announcing the results of the Electoral College’s presidential election tally.
The latter is usually perfunctory, pro forma, pomp and ceremony. Not this time, given Republican representatives’ and senators’ announced intention to challenge the states’ votes. (Strange how a party committed to states’ rights could so easily shed that principle.)
People of faith, however, know that the Spirit is renowned for taking apparent coincidences and remodeling them for providential purpose.
Tomorrow is a dangerous day in the life of our republic. An extraordinary alarm has been sounded in the form of a letter signed by all 10 of the living former secretaries of defense, warning our president against using the military to maintain political power. Two different groups of corporate executives have warned Congress against attempting to change Electoral College votes.
Epiphany’s exposé is also vexing, though of a different sort.
Below is some commentary on the expansive meaning of Epiphany and its relevance for reading the signs of the times.
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Epiphany: Manifesting the Bias of Heaven
There are three versions of what Epiphany (“Manifestation”) is meant to commemorate in the church’s calendar.
One of those traditions is to celebrate Jesus’ baptism on January 6.
Another tradition links Epiphany with the birth of Jesus. (The 7 January date begins at sundown on the 6th.)
Yet another tradition celebrates Epiphany as marking the arrival of the magi, of “We Three Kings” fame—the figures played in every Christmas play by children dressed in bathrobes.
Yet the common element in each is the inauguration of a confrontation between God’s Only Begotten and those in seats of power.
As a baptismal occasion, this Manifestation inspired Jesus’ first sermon in the temple at Nazareth. The gathered crowd was so perturbed at his message of deliverance that the text says they “were filled with wrath” and attempted to launch him headlong over a cliff.
As a birth announcement, this Manifestation so infuriated the reigning regime that the “rules of military engagement” were expanded to include the execution of all male infants in the region around Bethlehem. And the First Family was forced to flee as refugees into Egypt, seeking political asylum from Herod’s rage.
As an announcement of international import, this Manifestation threatened to implicate even visiting foreign dignitaries in the web of political intrigue, and they were smuggled out of town, on back roads, “by another way.”
In each reading of the narrative, the message is clear: The Manifestation of God’s Intent will disrupt the world as we know it. Those for whom this “world” is “home”—who profit from current arrangements, from orthodoxies of every sort—will take offense at this swaddling-wrapped revolt.
The bias of heaven is clear: The goodness of this news is evident only to “children,” to the defenseless ones, to the ones facing life on the road without provision, to the excluded and all judged unclean and unworthy.
Biblically speaking, when you talk about heaven you’re liable to raise hell. That is the evangelical announcement. Everything else is mostly sentimental drivel, designed to calm the powerful and control the weak.
But blessed are you poor, you mournful, you meek and merciful, you restorers of right-relatedness; blessed are you who are persecuted and accused in the cause of peace; for yours is the future, the riches of redemption, the solace of salvation, the bounty of the earth in all its goodness.
God will arise, says the prophet Isaiah (33), at the sound of suffering—of weeping from the envoys of peace, of mourning from the land itself. And so shall we.
Therefore, I say, rejoice.
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pious sentiment and framed for commercial interests. The oratory that once sent shivers through the White House and big house and church house alike has been reduced to polite platitude, “race relations” Sundays and gushy, mushy reverie.
BCE. Some Christian communions in the West mark the day, officially, on 28 December; in the East, 29 December.
world, sharing the same experience about having no place at the inn,” explained Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz. The title comes from Hebrews 13:2: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (See photo at left. Thanks Pam.) 
every Herod-hearted arrangement.
protecting the waterways at his Mar-a-Lago estate is $236,000 per day. Not to mention the $8,600 cost for Secret Service portable toilets. And there are costs considered classified by the Government Accountability Office. Of course, during his 2016 campaign he promised “I’ll be so busy I won’t have time to play golf.” Right.
nty of Mercy, is marshaling beyond the reach of menace and rancor, where the armor of faith is fired in hope and fashioned in steeled compassion.
Truth is, People of the Book share some values with our Pagan friends in their earth-based spirituality. Christians’ most distinctive conviction is that of the Incarnation, the materiality of the Creator in Creation’s flesh and blood.
rmed into the Lamb, who takes away the sins—the spirals of violence and contention and conceit—of the world, retribution displaced by mercy.
nty of Mercy, is marshaling beyond the reach of menace and rancor, where the armor of faith is fired in hope and fashioned in steeled compassion.
