041 | The Politics of Epiphany
Last month I set up two small pre-lit trees in the pots on our front porch. They make my heart happy. All the light you see in the photo comes from the little lights on these trees. I am also mindful that the beauty of their light is only possible because of their companion relationship with the dark.
Our mindset about light and dark has been profoundly, and often problematically, shaped by the binary light=good and dark=bad. We see this lived out in our best loved epic sagas. It also fuels systemic racism and injustice. We forget that seeds germinate in the dark, gestation in the womb happens in the dark, the beauty and wonder of the night sky comes alive in the dark away from the lights of human activity. Darkness is essential for our most restful and renewing sleep.
Epiphany begins today. It is a season in the church year that is about light and revelation. Jesus’ light shines not against darkness wholesale, but against those who co-opt darkness for purposes that go against God’s desires for the flourishing of each and every person and all of creation—things like secrecy and destructive actions and beliefs that dim the light of life in any beloved creation of God.
A few years ago, William Flippin, Jr. wrote in Living Lutheran, “Jesus, the light of the world, starts life as a political refugee. Our Savior is spirited out of the country on back roads...The infant Jesus is given a head start by the magi, pagan people of color, who defy an imperial edict and disobey King Herod’s command that they report back to him after completing their visit to the infant Jesus, thereby involving themselves in civil disobedience and political subversiveness. In the light and darkness of Epiphany, we are called to be spiritual and political activists, to perpetuate the true revelation that Jesus is the light of the world—the light that not only illuminates but also reveals and uncovers those things done in the dark.”
Today I am cultivating sanctuary by praying for our democracy as the U.S. Congress meets to confirm the electoral votes of the presidential election.
What is done in the dark in your life or the the world that needs to be uncovered to be healed?
