We have this church season that follows Christmas called Epiphany. Personally I think it is time to give the season a makeover. Let’s instead call it, “ta da!”….you know, like someone might say prior to an impressive entrance or a dramatic announcement. That is, after all the prime message of Epiphany. The baby Jesus was born in a manger. Then along comes this church season to proclaim, “ta da!….This is who this Jesus is!” Watch him be baptized and hear the voice call him beloved and well pleased, see people give up everything to follow Jesus, hear him challenge followers to fish for people, see Jesus cast out an unclean spirit and heal a follower’s mother-in-law.
Ta da, indeed! Yet the most amazing thing about this Jesus is what he can do for his followers. In Mark this vagabond group give up everything to follow a person they don’t get. In fact, in the end they run away. Where is the “ta da” here? The “ta da” is not in what those disciples do. It is instead what Jesus does with them. Post resurrection these stumblers go into the world preaching, teaching, healing, and organizing a church. Really? These guys? Well, 2,000 years later here we are.
Some years the text of Jesus turning water into wine appears in Epiphany. This event pales compared to the change Jesus is able to create in the disciples. They ones who didn’t get it become leaders. The ones who fled and ran away become martyrs. All have since been called saint by the church.
Careful now; you think I will say, “ta da!” regarding the disciples. Nope. Even and especially the “ta da” here is reserved for Jesus. This is the work of Jesus. Now if you want to get more theologically technical we would say it is the work of the Holy Spirit, but working through those claimed by God in baptism who follow Jesus.
Moments and instances of “ta da” are not left back in history. They occur still. You have done and said things that were “ta da” glimpses of Jesus. I have said and done things that are. I once had a bishop who was also a friend and great preacher who said, in a sermon, “I have four sermons in me. I keep preaching them over and over. Yet those who listen keep hearing something different each time I preach one of them. That’s not my work.” Ta da!
When the bishop preached this, I felt a huge burden lifted from my shoulders. You see, I was secretly hiding the fact that I thought I had six sermons in me and was afraid to share this with anyone. What a guilt reducer for this pastor when the bishop preached that. Ta da!
What memories do you have of witnessing someone do a simple or ordinary deed that somehow became profound? On what occasion might you have just been going about your day and your work or your life but some action or word in your going caused something important to happen that someone mentions still despite the time that has passed? Ta da!
It would seem we can do whatever we wish regarding Epiphany. We can go back to the old days when some Sundays were called Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima. (My, spell check just overheated). Or we can stick with Epiphany or contemporize it to “ta da” or some other clever catchword. Regardless, the point will remain: this baby Jesus was God come to earth to be among us and to work to reveal God and to transform those who follow this Jesus. Keep following, baptized ones! God has more “ta das” in store as you follow and through your following.