I am about to do a new thing;
    now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19)

There is a deep stirring within me this Epiphany season – one that compels me to more intentionally consider how the light that broke into the darkness of the sky long ago continues to break through today, providing us with a vision of possibilities.  The ancient words of the prophet Isaiah seem to reverberate with renewed power, “behold I am about to do a new thing – now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?”  “Do you not perceive it?”  Do I not perceive it?  Do we not perceive it?  This is the question tugging on my heart as I consider the role of the church of Jesus Christ at this time and place.  What is it exactly that we perceive?

Now that the wonderful and focused celebrations have ended for a season; now that the trees and ornaments are away and the festive music has stopped – how will our witness to the world reflect what we perceive God is doing in our midst?  In the ordinariness of our every day, in our worship, in our service – what is it that you and I perceive God’s work to be?  How will we lean into our work of making a way in the wilderness?  How does that light of long of ago continue to illuminate our actions when we are surrounded by a reality shrouded with uncertainty and darkness?  And friends, there’s no question that the weight of these recent years challenged our capacity to see possibilities.  From pandemic to civil unrest, life as we knew it took on a different form – one that seemed chaotic and out of our control.

Yet here we are – 2024!  By God’s grace and the gift of resilience received from that same God, we are now rising from the ashes.  We refused to surrender to despair – and we found a way to “keep on keeping on.”  God’s powerful breath of heaven enabled us to find our footing again.  And now – I believe that same redemptive and persistent light is inviting us to lean forward beyond a time of survival – into a time of resetting.

This is our time to reset – our time to reclaim our identity as a people of resurrection hope and light!  This is our time to reset – our time to consider what of the past needs to stay forever in the past, so that we can move forward!  This is our time to reset – our time to consider the road before us, trusting God is with us on the journey.

The gnawing question becomes – will we allow the light, that guided us through a darkest of seasons, to guide us to a place of possibilities?  Or will our yearning for yesterday be more compelling and comfortable than taking on the uncertainty of the road before us?  Will our romanticizing the most recent past not allow us to be open to the yet unseen ‘God possibilities’ – that allow us to be co-creators and co-authors with the Creator of it all?

Yep – this epiphany looks different for me.  There is a deep stirring within me.  I am filled with questions and curiosity about the way forward.  I am filled with both anxiety and hope as I consider our witness in this part of the world.  And yet, although it is a time of more questions than answers, I am confident that the prophetic question of Isaiah is the question before us.  God is making a way in the wilderness – a way that requires us too, like the three sages of old, not to return on the roads we’ve taken to get to this point, but to find a way forward so that the light and hope of God’s love in the infant Christ child might flourish.

The season of Epiphany – a season when we are invited to perceive and recognize what God is doing with and for us today.  God is doing a new thing – “…now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?”