The Christmas story is full of epiphanies; those moments when God chooses to be revealed to us. That is what epiphany means: revealed or made known. Mary had an epiphany event to be sure when the angel announced her pregnancy! Joseph, who planned to divorce her quietly, had an epiphany event when an angel visited him telling him to stay with Mary, for this baby was to be the Son of God! The Wise Men had epiphany events who were led by a star to the manger; and then again, when they were warned in a dream not to tell Herod Jesus’ whereabouts for Herod planned to kill Jesus.

It was an epiphany event when an angel appeared to the shepherds telling them of Jesus’ birth and how to find him. None of them scoffed and said "ridiculous", or turned back to the business of their lives unchanged.

You and I may scoff, or roll our eyes, or rationalize, but the Bible has many accounts of angels and unexplainable events, mysteries that are not always for us to know.

Poet, Ann Weems, says it this way:

"There are those who scoff at miracles.

I don’t know what they make of the birth of a child.

For that matter,

I don’t know what they make of the birth of any child.

There are those who laugh at dreams,

so they’ve never heard an angel’s voice,

nor seen any unusual light in the night’s sky,

nor felt the yearning to set out in search of new life.

There are those who do not see the Star.

I wonder where it is they go when everyone else

sets out for Bethlehem.

To those of us who believe,

into every night is born a Star. "

Epiphany events can break into our lives like the brilliance of the star that guided the Magi so long ago. When we experience an epiphany event we have been brushed by angel wings. These are moments when the star shines so brightly that we turn towards Bethlehem.

But often such moments go unrecognized in our lives, for, strangely, it is easier to walk in darkness, than to follow the light of the star. For most of us the light needs to be a flashing neon light, for us to recognize an epiphany in our lives. But if we listen, and put our scoffing aside, such a revelation can be ours too. Things happen in our lives when God tugs at our sleeve and says "Arise! Shine! Look! It is me, God and I’ve come to be with you.

But too often we do not see the star; we do not feel the tug; we do not see what God is revealing and we sink too easily into darkness. I suspect most of us here, have experienced the dark night of the soul; those times in our lives when everything seems dark; when answers to problems don’t seem forthcoming; when relationships are breaking or broken; when every door we try to open, is tightly closed; times when we feel very alone.

It is our time of darkness and we are not equipped to look for epiphanies in our lives. But then one day, if we’re lucky, an epiphany we cannot ignore, comes into our lives and we are blessedly, wonderfully, changed forever.

Ann Weems calls it "Christmas Spirit"

"The Christmas Spirit

You and I, just like the believers of long ago, wander without direction, until we see the star, follow the light and crawl out of our own darkness. I think epiphanies are faith builders; helping us recognize God and strengthening us for whatever life brings.

But how do we know an epiphany event when we see one? There are those who God sends to aid us. Prior to the birth of Jesus, and also today, prophets play a significant role in bringing us into the Presence of God. These are people, who through their God inspired words help us dip our toes into the waters of faith.

The prophet’s words are "God grounded", "God energized", "God passionate", as Eugene Peterson puts it. Their role is to speak on God’s behalf; to wake us up, to get our attention. And in the process, God can be revealed to us. Such words go beyond the concrete of what can be seen, touched, smelled, heard or tasted. Prophets plunge us into the intangible world of presence. We are brought into the deeper reality of love, compassion, justice, of sin evil and faithfulness; an experience too deep for mere words.

It is this sense of Presence, it seems to me, that drew the Magi to make the long trip from Persia to Bethlehem. These wise men were not just wise about astrology and things of their world. They had a sense of wisdom that took them beyond the limits of the concrete world; a world that would scoff and laugh at them making such a trip by camel to see a baby. But they knew what God’s word meant when the prophets said, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." But such words of truth can only be heard by those with wisdom, who are attuned to God being revealed.

I think this story might have taken a very different turn if the Magi had not been ready to receive such a revelation. What if they had not been familiar with the prophet’s words? What if they rationalized and followed the world’s doubts, instead of the star? What if they ignored the warning of their dreams?

They would not have felt the angel’s wings. Instead they would have told Herod where Jesus could be found, and Herod would have killed him. It was their readiness, their faithfulness, which led the way for Jesus to be part of our lives.

There are times in our lives where the whisper of angel wings can lead us out of our darkness, out of the world’s ways, into the light of Jesus, who promises us a better way. These are the epiphanies of our lives; times when we encounter God; times when God is revealed to us in words, in new wisdom, in ideas; times when we experience an "A ha!" moment. And they are not to be missed.

Epiphanies are moments of recognition; times when Jesus is no longer just an historical figure; times when we can no longer say, Jesus is just for religious people. They are times when Jesus is real. It is that moment when Jesus moves from something "out there" to something "in here". When God becomes real to us we have had an epiphany experience.

The wonderful thing about epiphanies is they are not a once in a lifetime experience, not only for certain people, but can happen again and again. It is when God is saying to us, "Listen to me; I was born for you." But of course they are not for us if we don’t listen, watch, or set aside any quiet in our schedules to reflect.

I know many of you have been teachers along your journey, either professionally, as I have, or in other ways. What energizes me most about teaching is that reciprocal learning that accompanies teaching. When my daughter was 4, I remember the light that came on in her eyes when she first made the connection between a word she spoke and the printed word. It was a moment of revelation. If she had not learned the letters and the phonetic sounds of the alphabet, such a moment of connection would have been impossible. It was an "a ha" moment when she exclaimed delightedly, "I know that word! See it? I know it!" She had known that word for awhile, but that day, she knew it in a new way.

I think it is like this with God; moments when we are able to sense God in a new way. It may not be an angel appearing in a dream, or a trip by camel, but God comes to each of us who can listen, who can wait, who are faithful, and says, "Come to Bethlehem with me. Come and see the child who is born for you. For unto you a child is born, unto you a Son is given that is Christ the Lord." It is God’s supreme gift to us.

The Magi had some sense of the magnitude of this gift, the promise this baby held, so they brought gifts of value. Gold, the king of metals was the gift for a king; frankincense, the sweet perfume used in worship, was the gift of priests; and myrrh used to embalm the dead, was the gift of one to die. They were gifts who prophesied who this Jesus was to become; a king, a priest and one to die.

God may choose to reveal himself to us in dramatic hard to miss ways, or in the little everyday events of our lives. And when we get it, we, like the Magi, fall to our knees, wanting to offer our gifts too.

As I was musing over this sermon, I wondered about our gifts. What would they look like today? They probably wouldn’t be gold, frankincense or myrrh. But what if this year we made our New Year’s resolutions our gifts to the Christ child? What if instead of making the yearly resolution to lose weight, to clean out the garage, to change who we are as people, we offered something different?

What do you suppose might happen if we took the very best parts of ourselves, wrapped them up in sparkling paper, tied them with the prettiest of bows and offered them to our world? I’m talking about those things we are good at, things we love to do, gifts of who we are; those parts of us that God created in us that make us unique? What part of ourselves would we choose to lay before the Christ child?

What if we decided to accept the invitation to join our church- wide small group experience in January to consider the purposes of our lives? What if we decided to purchase an easier version of the Bible like The Message where we might commit to reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John this year? What if we started a group that provided a place of epiphany for others? What if we started each day saying to God, "Light my way today with your Presence" ? What if we decided to become a SM, or receive one? What if we picked up the phone and called every person we knew who hadn’t been at church for awhile and told them we missed them? Maybe, just maybe, we might feel the brush of angel’s wings.

So what will our gift be to the king? The one we claim to be Lord of our lives? The One who has given us the gift of life and love itself? What will we choose to offer the Christ child?

After all is said and done, we have choices. We can follow the Herods of our lives or we can travel with the Magi. We can live in darkness or let Christ’s light shine through us. We can plod through our days in hopelessness, or we can listen for the brush of angel wings. For regardless of which way we choose

"Christmas Comes" described here by Ann Weems:

"Christmas comes every time we see God in other persons.

The human and the holy meet in Bethlehem

or in Times Square,

For Christmas comes like a golden storm on its way

to Jerusalem—

Even now it comes

in the face of hatred and warring

no atrocity too terrible to stop it,

no Herod strong enough,

no hurt deep enough,

no curse shocking enough,

For someone on earth will see the star,

someone will hear the angel voices

someone will run to Bethlehem

someone will know peace and goodwill:

and Christ will be born!"