Epiphany Reflection: God's Revelations

Epiphany Reflections 2022
offered by
Confluence, a Center for Spirituality in the Diocese of Missouri, dedicated to providing opportunities and resources for spiritual formation.

The season of Epiphany is a good reminder for me to ask – in whatever I am doing – What is God revealing to me, to us, about God’s self here?

That question becomes paramount when I read the lectionary during Epiphany. What is God revealing about God’s self that non-Jews would come from afar bearing gifts and paying homage to a newborn Jewish child? What is being revealed about God at Jesus’ baptism? … at John’s telling that Jesus would baptize with Holy Spirit and fire? … at the miracle in Cana? … at Jesus’ proclamation in Nazareth that Isaiah’s prophecy had been fulfilled in him that the Spirit of the Lord had anointed him to bring good news to the poor?

But that question also comes to mind when I look back to the Cycle and Center bicycle ride that Confluence offered last October at Creve Coeur Park. As we pedaled through the wooded areas around the lake, I know that God revealed that God provides everything we need for life -water, air (even if a little on the chilly side), stable ground. And also through simultaneous silence and physical exertion, I sensed that God revealed that God wants us to live into the wholeness of our lives, to enjoy life. And that wholeness and joy come about through our relationships with each other, with God, and with God’s creation.

There were some at Cycle and Center that I have known for over 40 years, and some that I just met that day. Yet, we were all in relationship. We listened to the words of Scripture, words of spiritual heavy-weights, of mystics, and we contemplated in silence and exertion together. Then we would stop and share our reflections with each other. We shared as we knew we were safe in these relationships, whether newly made or long-standing.

We felt at one with each other, with the creation around us, even with those strangers we passed with only a word or two of greeting. There was a revelation of wholeness and joy, just as God intends.

The Rev. Jerre Birdsong, a member of the Confluence Board of Directors, is a Deacon serving at St. Mark’s Church in the City of St. Louis.