Daily lesson for Epiphany, January 6, 2015

Today's daily lesson for Epiphany, January 6, 2015 comes from Matthew chapter 2:

"When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was."

Today in the liturgical life of the church is Epiphany, the day we commemorate when the Magi saw and followed the star to worship the Christ child.  It is a story we've heard since childhood. And we think we are so familiar with it that we basically just rush right through it to hasten the travelers on to Bethlehem. But in doing so, we miss something very important, yet easily overlooked -- somewhere along the way these Magi travelers lost the star.

It's true; it was there in its rising in the East, but at some point it just vanished. It appeared (that's what Epiphany means, "appearing"), but then it somehow disappeared. That's not to say it was no longer there in the sky; but for whatever reason it was no longer apparent to those who had set out to follow it.

By tradition we call these travelers from the east "wise men"; and indeed they must have been wise or at least learned to have observed the star's appearance in the first place. But I think I am most struck, not by their wisdom, but by their courage. Having set out after a certain celestial object and then having lost it, they were courageous enough to keep walking. Into the dark and without any real certainty of destination, step by step they kept going.

When the star is gone,
And we've lost our way,
And we aren't really sure where it was we were headed in the first place,
And yet we find the courage to keep going
That's when the real Epiphany happens -- in, and not above, us.