Epiphaneous Awareness
by Jim Burklo | 3 January 2025 |
An awakening. An opening into higher consciousness. A discovery. A parting of the fog of confusion, revealing a new kind of clarity. The dictionary says that an epiphany is a sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something. What an enticing definition! It makes me eager to receive an epiphany right now.
In the context of the Christian church calendar, Epiphany is January 6, the day celebrated as the time when the wise men visited the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem. It’s the sudden manifestation or perception of the essential meaning of Christmas to distinguished visitors from Iraq or Iran. They were the first non-Jews to “get it” about the birth of the Christ.
Think of it! Jesus wasn’t even out of diapers before his message was out of the Jewish box! Isn’t it about time that his message got out of the Christian box?
Weird gifts
I love this story for ephinaneous reasons. (Yes, I coined that term. It’s what happens when you have an epiphany: you expand your vocabulary!) I love this story because the three wise men show up with really weird gifts. Normal folks might think: let’s get Jesus a rattle, or a rubber ducky, or get his parents a couple months of nappies. No, these supposedly wise men traveled many hundreds of miles on camelback to deliver gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Gold – sure. Valuable then, valuable now. That’s not so strange: at least for Mary and Joseph, it was probably a welcome sight.
But frankincense and myrrh? Used as burial spices? Yes, Mary and Joseph could have traded them for something useful to them and to Jesus. I just think that the three wise men were like those relatives or friends who feel compelled to give you stuff for Christmas, except they are truly clueless about who you are, what you want or need.
The wise men were convinced something important was going on in Israel because of their religious practice of astrology. They didn’t show up because they thought the Bible was God’s inerrant word. They didn’t show up because they accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. They followed the star because their own religion suggested it. Faithfully following their own religion got them outside of the box of their own religion.
Hmmm—maybe that’s something we can emulate today? That by following Jesus in a serious way, he’ll lead us out of the Christian box and inspire us to explore other religions and become more open-hearted global citizens? Could this be an epiphany to have on Epiphany?
Showing up
The recipe for epiphany is simple, but still challenging. The recipe for epiphany is to show up. Physically, emotionally, and spiritually. That’s what the wise men did. They did not just send their presents of gold, frankincense, and myrrh via Amazon and then email a Christmas letter from Iran. No, the whole idea was to present themselves. When they discovered that the star was hovering above a rude and crude manger, and that the so-called king was a peasant child, they still showed up in person.
Alan Hunter, beloved pastor for decades at Mt. Hollywood Congregational Church in Los Angeles (where I’m a member), composed this short prayer: “Dear Lord, if it took 6 billion years for you to bring me here, let me be all here, as you are.”
How about us? Are we here? Really here? All here? Did your body show up to the present moment, but your mind is someplace else? Are you awake and aware of your whole self, being here now?
It’s hard to wake up and it’s hard to show up – because we live in a culture of overwhelming distractions. But if you are feeling the attraction of that bright star in the sky, you’ll let go of distraction for a while.
It starts with the truth about ourselves. What are we really thinking? What are we really feeling? To what are we really paying attention right here and now? Facing the truth about ourselves, reflecting our emotional and physical reality back to ourselves, lovingly, without judgment. That brings our whole selves to the manger.
When we take a good look at ourselves in the spiritual mirror, when we take a good inventory of our thoughts and feelings and urges, we begin to experience higher consciousness. This is the kingdom of heaven Jesus talked about. The heaven’s-eye view of ourselves and the world around us. When we take this God’s-eye view of ourselves, lovingly and without judgment doing an inventory of our inner worlds, then we are able to perceive the essential nature or meaning of what we observe.
Then we are ready for epiphanies.
Resolutions?
It’s a new year, when we hear all that talk about resolutions. I say, don’t bother with them at all. Forget about who you ought to be, what you ought to look like, what you ought or want to weigh. New Year’s resolutions are almost always about there and then.
I say, this New Year’s, let’s look at here and now. What is going on inside of you, here and now? What’s going on around you, here and now? Who are you now? As the wise men gazed at Jesus in the manger, as he was in that sacred moment, so we can gaze at what is real right now, with the clear eyes of divine love. Pay full attention to your present reality, with compassionate acceptance of what is.
You’ll be energized to make whatever changes you need and want to make. Be here now, and you’ll be ready to go there then. So in this new year, let us raise our glasses to the cultivation of epiphaneous awareness!
Jim Burklo is an ordained United Church of Christ pastor. In 2022 he retired after 14 years as the Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at the University of Southern California. He now serves as pastor of the United Church of Christ in Simi Valley, California. He also serves as executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting/ZOE: Progressive Christian Life on Campus, a national network of progressive Christian campus ministry groups. Jim is the author of seven published books on progressive faith: the latest is Tenderly Calling: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus (St Johann Press, 2021). His weekly blog, “Musings,” has a global audience. Jim and his wife, Roberta, live in Ojai, CA.
