Epiphany Invites New Direction
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Scripture:
Jonah 3:1 – 5, 10
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” Read more…
Mark 1:14 – 20
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God… Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
An epiphany is an Aha moment. In cartoons it’s a lightbulb over someone’s head. In the Bible it’s a man named Saul, on his way to find and arrest Jesus’ followers, suddenly knocked off his horse at the voice of Jesus, knowing the man he thought was dead is alive and is the Messiah.[1] It’s sudden, unexpected, new understanding. But it’s not just new understanding. It’s new understanding that changes how we live our lives; it stops us in our tracks and forces a change in direction. It’s Simon, Andrew, James, and John dropping their fishing nets to follow Jesus.[2] It’s the people of Nineveh repenting of their sin and being saved from God’s wrath.[3] It’s Zacchaeus giving away ½ his possessions and paying back 4 times what he took from people, all because he was noticed by Jesus.[4]
Have you ever had your own epiphany – a sudden, new understanding that changed everything?
I remember the first time I was introduced to a labyrinth as a tool for prayer. It was nothing more than a painted path that wound around and around in a maze-like format, moving closer and closer to a centre point. The idea was to allow the lines on the pavement to guide my feet, requiring just enough of my attention to keep me from drifting, so that I could give the rest of my focus to the task of talking and listening to God. I don’t remember where I was in the labyrinth, but I remember with crystal clarity the moment the lines of the maze seemed to me like lines in the palm of a hand – God’s hand. I remember the distinct, sudden, knowing that God holds me in his huge, steady hand and that nothing will make Him drop me. That sudden, unexpected understanding changed everything. It freed me from some things that were holding me back in my call to pastoral ministry. It gave me (and still gives me) confidence to follow wherever Jesus leads.
On Sunday we’re going to hear the words of Psalm 62. It’s a psalm shaped by an unspecified experience of oppression, but that oppression isn’t the point of the psalm. The point of the psalm is the author’s choice to wait for and trust in God alone. We’re given images of a rock and a fortress. God is declared the author’s refuge; God is the owner of power and love that never fails; and I wonder if God might have an epiphany or two to share as we hear this psalm together on Sunday. I wonder if these words of God’s faithfulness and this call to trust Him might impact our lives.
When the people of Nineveh heard about God’s wrath, their response was to repent. When Simon, Andrew, James, and John heard Jesus’ invitation to follow Him, they left everything to become His disciples. How has knowing God – hearing from Him directly or hearing about Him – changed your life? Are you ok with the possibility of it changing again or perhaps for the first time?
As you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to consider whether or not there’s room in your heart and mind for an epiphany where God is concerned? Is there allowance for new understanding? Is there freedom to discover you’ve been wrong about something? How does the possibility of epiphany – the kind of new understanding that can’t help but change your life – make you feel? As you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to take all this to God. I invite you to speak with the psalmist:
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from Him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
[1] Read the whole story in Acts 9:1-20.
[2] Read it in Mark 1:14-20.
[3] Read it in Jonah 3:1-10.
[4] Read it in Luke 19:1-10