Epiphany - A Journey of Faith

Summary

In this episode of Speaking of Faith, Bishop DeDe and Adam explore the significance of the Epiphany, emphasizing the importance of recognizing God's presence in our lives. They discuss the role of the Magi, the inclusivity of faith, and the need for intentional practices to keep God at the forefront of our minds. They also address feelings of being lost and the importance of community in faith journeys, concluding with a hopeful message about embracing the light of Christ in the new year.

Takeaways

• Epiphany signifies a new understanding of God's presence.
• The Magi's journey reflects faith and the search for truth.
• Inclusivity in faith is essential; God invites all.
• Christian nationalism contradicts the essence of God's invitation.
• We must practice tuning our hearts to God's presence.
• Keeping God at the forefront requires intentionality and reflection.
• Community is vital in our faith journeys; we are not alone.
• When feeling lost, seek joy and connection with others.
• Every day is a new opportunity to start fresh in faith.
• Embrace the light of Christ as we move into the new year.

Chapters

00:00 Understanding Epiphany: A New Beginning
06:20 The Role of the Magi and Inclusivity in Faith
12:43 Keeping God at the Forefront: Intentional Practices
18:14 Finding Direction When Feeling Lost
22:25 Embracing the Light: A New Year Ahead

AI Disclosure: To support our staff in their limited time, many of our episode summaries are first generated by AI and then edited by the Communications Director to accurately reflect and preview our podcast episodes.

Transcript

Bishop DeDe (00:02.46)
Hey friends, welcome to the podcast, Speaking of Faith. My name is DeDe Duncan-Probe. I'm the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Central New York. And with me is Adam Eichelberger, our Director of Communications. And our conversation today, we're going to be speaking about epiphany. It is a season in the church, you may recognize the word epiphany, a new understanding. Our epiphany.

is centered around January 6th, but there's some lenience in that. Sometimes people will move that service to Sunday or to others. But we are talking today about what it means that God incarnate has come to be among us. And there's kind of two parts of Epiphany. One is recognizing that God has come to us, the light of Christ in the incarnation has come into the world.

And our epiphany is to see God in our midst and to understand that God is involved in our lives. And then the second is really has to do, it's connected with and has been connected with the coming of the three wise men, the Magi, the kings from the east. There's many sort of things that are said about them. Some of them are myth and some are more,

probably accurate. What we do know is that there were travelers who came, who were astrologers, who recognized in the heavens that God was doing something. And they come to follow Jesus. Now, often this is talked about as if the wise men are following a star across heaven, like following the bouncing ball. That is not really what's in the text and what's

talked about is that these astronomers saw in the astrological events that there was something happening. And there you'll even see historians talking about this today about whether or not in the Judah part of the heavens there were stars and things happening. But what's important for us in these contemporary times is to recognize that these people, these travelers, was a group,

Bishop DeDe (02:27.994)
not necessarily three, that was always tied to the gold frankincense and myrrh that is mentioned, but that these travelers have come in faith to witness that God is doing something here. And they have gone out of their way, left their homes out of a conviction that there's something that they want to see. And on the way, they get lost. I think whenever we talk about God and our faith and we're speaking about our faith,

We sometimes feel that we always have to get it right, that we have to understand what God is doing. And when we look at the gospel narrative, whether we're seeing Peter or the other apostles or the travelers from the east, the Magi, we don't always know where we're going. And we need to stop and ask directions, which is what they do with Herod. They stop and ask directions. And of course Herod responds, because Herod in,

is there's a power issue here. And so Herod wants them to go and find where Jesus is and come back and report to him. And this sense of taking power over this event, that Herod is going to control what is happening, not to receive it. And the Magi are traveling to receive what God is doing. I think that's kind of a helpful thing to look at in this time.

There's many ways we talk about epiphany. There's many ways that we can talk about our understanding of God. But I think first and foremost to start with a heart that wants to receive what God is doing. A heart that wants to respond to God's invitation. And then we know in the gospel narrative that after seeing Jesus and bringing their gifts and having this interaction, they do not return to Herod.

They choose to go home by a different way. They recognize that heresy and engagement is one of power over rather than a heart open to what God is doing. We see that in our own time, whether it's Christian nationalism or our desire to be right and who's read the gospel the correct way. There are times when we respond to the good news of Jesus.

Bishop DeDe (04:51.088)
by trying to respond with power over with our rightness by knowing something rather than the humility to not exactly know, to maybe ask for directions and to come from a place of humility and a desire to understand. In the epiphany, this moment of Jesus being revealed or an understanding of Jesus, of the three wise men, the travelers, however many there were,

of knowing Jesus is an epiphany, a recognition that God has done something. And they go home by a different way rejoicing to receive the proclamation of God. So for us today, with all that's happening in the world, with the divisions and the challenges that are not that different from the magi, with all the things that are happening for our lives, in what ways are our hearts open?

to receiving Jesus, to seeing God, and how might we be called out of our comfort zone, out of our safe space, to travel and to take a risk, maybe not physically or geographically, but certainly spiritually, to seek God's presence in our life, to come to a deeper understanding of what our faith means to us, especially in this time. Now there's a lot in those passages, and so,

Adam, I've already been, I know you have some questions and the listeners, I want to encourage you whenever you have questions to send them in to us. I'm very interested in making this kind of a helpful engagement with this podcast. So, you you can speak back and ask questions, but what are some of the questions, Adam, that we've received or that are out there for us right now?

Adam Eichelberger (06:45.272)
Well, just in hearing you share about this, Bishop, I've got one or two ones that have kind of come into my mind and that we do have one or two questions from our friends who have joined us and submitted questions through our podcasts page on the site. So the first thing that kind of came into my mind is this. You're talking about, in hearing you talk about epiphany and this kind of unveiling of Jesus, this revealing of Jesus to the world.

Bishop DeDe (06:57.671)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (07:03.707)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (07:10.834)
Mm.

Adam Eichelberger (07:12.45)
God starts in a small way, you know, he shows this plan in a dream to marry into Joseph. And then the first people that he reveals Jesus to are these Magi that you mentioned who are not kind of part of the in crowd as it were. by, and this is me based on my knowledge of scripture that these people weren't necessarily, these people weren't Jews. They weren't observing the same.

Bishop DeDe (07:14.234)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (07:18.321)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (07:26.354)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (07:39.564)
religious practices that Jesus and his family did. Now all that to say this, you mentioned Christian nationalism in this too. And this kind of seems to fly in the face of what Christian nationalism wants to accomplish. We've talked about that in some previous episodes and I encourage you listeners and viewers to go back and revisit those if you're not quite familiar what we're talking about when we talk about Christian nationalism. But what can we learn as people of faith from this story when we are confronting

Bishop DeDe (07:45.682)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (07:55.238)
Mm.

Bishop DeDe (08:00.55)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (08:08.514)
the exclusionary nature of Christian nationalism, especially in the church here today in America.

Bishop DeDe (08:12.242)
and

Well, we can learn a great deal. And I do want to say the first people who God reveals this to, it's not the Magi, it's actually the shepherds, depending on what gospel you're reading. We are kind of in Matthew when you're with the Magi, you're more in the Mathia and gospel. But the shepherds, like the Magi, are outcasts. These are not people who should know or understand what's happening. This is a proclamation that goes out.

One of the things that's very interesting about this is we think of our need to take a stand for Jesus as it's all reliant on us and us speaking. But in this gospel narrative, what we hear is that God's pretty up to the task. The shepherds watching the fields by night, the astronomers from the East, their God's proclamations go out. And while we are invited to be part of those proclamations,

and to join in spreading the good news. God is already at work doing that. So one of the things about Christian nationalism that's really a lie is this idea that someone holds power, that somehow Christianity is better than or other people need to be conscripted into. But God's way of proclaiming is always invitational.

and it's always going out and inviting all of us into something. And so I think one of the things we can learn as we're talking with someone who may be confused by Christian nationalism, may think it sounds like a good idea, is to say in what ways are we trying to make people Christians so that we can feel comfortable because we don't want them to be different from us? In what way is Christianity being co-opted and corrupted?

Adam Eichelberger (10:02.51)
Mm.

Bishop DeDe (10:08.752)
by a desire to have power over, much like Herod, much like people who are wanting, you know, we should all be alike. God hasn't made us alike. And God's proclamation goes out to people that we would not include. We would not have included shepherds in the time. were not your, you know, your higher rung of society. They were out in the fields with sheep and they were kind of a

rowdy lot. They are not what you think of when you think of holy people. And yet God immediately goes out to the outcast, goes out to the people and says, this is for all. You who are not empowered, you who have been cast out, you who have been put down, this good news is for you to be invited into a place of wholeness. So I think what we can learn right off is

Adam Eichelberger (10:43.928)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (11:08.644)
to have a greater appreciation for the way in which the Holy Spirit is at work and our willingness to receive and be invited.

Adam Eichelberger (11:19.086)
That's really good. I really like that a lot and it's something for us to be mindful of all the time. Like this isn't like especially this story. It's something for us to keep in the back of our minds or maybe not just the back of our minds but in the forefront of our minds all throughout the year as we are interacting with people. I know like just speaking from my own experience, I don't know if anybody else can relate to this but when I was being raised in the church in my own tradition before I came to the Episcopal Church, the

Bishop DeDe (11:25.714)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (11:32.261)
Right.

Adam Eichelberger (11:48.654)
that there's this big scary word called evangelization that we had to go on and we had to talk about Jesus and we had to win people over for Jesus, being martyrs for Jesus, this whole kind of, like you mentioned before, this coercion, this way of kind of like forcing people into this relationship. And in this, we don't see any coercion, right? I mean, we see, exactly. So kind of in keeping that in mind.

Bishop DeDe (11:52.305)
Right.

Bishop DeDe (11:55.761)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (12:01.616)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-mm. No, there's an open invitation. That's right.

Adam Eichelberger (12:15.918)
We do have two questions. Our first one comes from one of our listeners. They decided to stay anonymous asking this question, but they asked this. How can we keep God at the forefront of our minds, especially going into 2025? This is something we've kind of maybe hinted at a little bit before, but when I hear this, hear in Romans 12, it talks about, not be

Bishop DeDe (12:21.586)
Okay.

Bishop DeDe (12:37.295)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (12:43.096)
conform to the ways of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And how do we put on a new mind and how do we keep Jesus and God at the forefront of that? So can you share with us a little bit about how can we keep God at the forefront of our minds this year?

Bishop DeDe (12:46.139)
Right.

Bishop DeDe (12:55.698)
Well, absolutely, and I think, you know, some of the ways we already know, I mean, how do you keep anything at the forefront of your mind? You invest time in it. You intentionally say, is important to me. Sometimes I think we approach God being part of our lives a little bit, you know, like the lottery, like we're gonna put in one coin and then,

Didn't happen, so I'm gonna go do a bunch of other stuff. Instead of recognizing that our ability to hear God, our ability to see God, and our ability to respond to God, it takes practice. We're not used to looking for the holy. We're really good at looking for the fear, for the hatred, for the division, for the coercion, for all of these other things. We're not great at hearing God.

And so we have to practice. We have to tune our ears to a different frequency like at a radio station. Because our frequency often is tuned to what do people think of me or what am I succeeding or do I have power? What am I going to accomplish in my life? Instead of tuning to a frequency that's about life happening and us being a part of it intrinsically. So I think first is to make an intentional time that we have a

that we have times during the day where we stop and we reflect and we pay attention to where am I experiencing peace or joy or self-control or goodness? And where am I feeling really anxious? And how can I return to a place of peace in this? And to recognize that as we go into 2025, a lot of people have a lot of anxiety. There's a lot that's happening that is

scary, whether it's, you know, wars and or it's events or shootings or policies or the structures of racism that continue to exist or dehumanization. And if we keep our attention focused, our frequency tuned to those places of disruption, we continue to be terrorized by them.

Bishop DeDe (15:20.058)
So what we need to do is not turn a blind eye like, I'll just pretend that it'll go away, but rather to say in the midst of this brokenness, God is here. This is what epiphany is about. The light is shining. Where am I seeing the light shining? know, Mr. Rogers with, for the helpers, I mean, it's wisdom for the ages. Look for the helpers. And if you don't see a helper, be a helper. To change our response to it that we're not,

Adam Eichelberger (15:36.844)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Adam Eichelberger (15:45.634)
Hmm.

Bishop DeDe (15:50.002)
cast about to and fro, you know, that passage about God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind to return to what we know and say, no, not today, Satan. I am not today. I am not going to get caught up in fear and retribution. I'm going to remember who I am and remember whose I am listening to music, writing poetry, creating something, going for a walk.

Adam Eichelberger (16:05.166)
Hahaha

Bishop DeDe (16:20.37)
tree therapy, being with people we love, all of those moments, those touch points that help us ground our life in what we feel is most important. We can always be flung out into the, you if you don't stand for something, you fall for anything, we can always get spun out. But better is to say no today.

I'm gonna breathe, I'm gonna do the things I know to do, and I'm gonna start again. And when we fall down and when we get all turned around and we get really, you know, really twisted around to stop and say, every day's a new day, and I'm starting over today. Today's a day of a newness for me. And there's also passages in scripture about don't fear the strong man. Whatever the...

the situation we may face, God is continuing to create anew so we can rest in that faithfulness of God.

Adam Eichelberger (17:21.838)
That's really helpful for me hearing you say that, Bishop, especially when I look at the New Year. You we start looking at things like resolutions for the New Year. And even though I know that my faith practice, my beliefs aren't a resolution for the New Year, it's almost like

Bishop DeDe (17:29.49)
Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Adam Eichelberger (17:46.798)
You know, like at Lent, we kind of come up with these mini resolutions almost, or sometimes you treat them like, but this is really good for me. And I don't know about you listener to hear like, Hey, like just get back to basic things, making time and being intentional. That's really good for me. I know that my hack is I make reminders on my phone list. So part of that for me returning to that epiphany is like, all right, I got to make a couple of reminders for me to make time to breathe and pray and all that stuff. So that's really good. And I really appreciate that.

Bishop DeDe (17:57.052)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (18:04.176)
Mm-hmm. Well, that's great.

Bishop DeDe (18:10.098)
That's right. That's right.

Adam Eichelberger (18:14.286)
And so this next question is from a listener named Sarah and she gave a little bit of background before she asked her question She says that she's somebody who did not grow up in the Episcopal Church and she hasn't actually practiced a real faith For any time she actually uses the words. I wouldn't say that I'm an atheist. I'd say I'm maybe agnostic but she shared about how she's encountered some some times that have been difficult and kind of wants to reconnect with God

Bishop DeDe (18:35.42)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (18:40.635)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (18:44.13)
but feels like she doesn't have a lot of direction. She feels lost. So her question amongst all of this setup from Sarah was this, how can I focus on God when I'm feeling lost?

Bishop DeDe (18:44.242)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (18:58.66)
Sarah, it's a great question. And for all of us, no matter what practice we have, there are moments we all feel lost. Clearly the the wise men felt lost. I mean, they went and they went to Herod. So don't go to Herod. We have that represents in your life. But but all things are, you know, God's in a lot of things. So those things that bring you joy, those things that spark your heart or your interest in

Adam Eichelberger (19:08.824)
Right.

Bishop DeDe (19:27.182)
and change your focus in a positive way are wonderful places to begin to find what it is you're looking for. And for some of us, and I mentioned earlier, you know, going out in trees and being with other people, reading books, there are some wonderful books written by people who are also searching. In fact, there's a Henry Nowen book, you're not familiar with, listeners, familiar with him.

There's actually a book he wrote for someone else, explaining to them, like kind of faith and talking with them about this journey of discovery and finding. And so to read or to create, again, creating space to be intentional. I don't know that we exactly trip over God, but that does happen. mean, there are moments where we realize, my gosh, look at how my life is.

been impacted by this event that just broke into my reality. I think some, we can also get caught up in whether we believe these tenets about God or we believe in God. It is far more important to know that God believes in you, that your creation, that your inside of you, there's this deep part of you that feels connected with the trees and the rocks and the wind and the birds and all, that there's this deep,

Adam Eichelberger (20:42.562)
Hmm.

Bishop DeDe (20:54.162)
piece of you that you feel calling to you to allow that to be heard and to sort of bring out what are your, know, as we're speaking of faith, the whole purpose of this podcast is to speak of those deep truths and deep desires that are in each of us. So Sarah, I encourage you to continue this journey, to continue to reach out, but also to walk with someone and share your questions.

I had a parishioner one time who said, well, I would love to come to church, but I need to go figure out what I think about God. And I said to her, said, what if you came to church while you figure out what you think about God and ask your questions with other people who are also asking questions. Our faith is communal. We need each other. So if we're feeling lost, it may be that we're also feeling isolated. So to come together and speak truthfully to each other.

and search together.

Adam Eichelberger (21:56.098)
That's really great for all of us to remember that life, our faith, none of it is stuff that we're supposed to be doing alone. know, Jesus came among us and lived in community with us. We, as people of faith should be first and foremost found in community. We're not supposed to be on an island doing it alone. So that's a really good suggestion to just find people that we can kind of journey with and ask those questions with. So Sarah, I hope that

Bishop DeDe (21:58.574)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (22:03.506)
Right.

Bishop DeDe (22:24.188)
Right.

Adam Eichelberger (22:25.344)
some of that helps and please feel free to to reach back out and ask questions. Bishop, I don't really have any more from our listeners but what is anything what are the last thoughts that you have for us as we wrap up our discussion about the epiphany this week?

Bishop DeDe (22:30.224)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (22:42.482)
Well, as I think as we all start this new year, whatever you think about what 2025 will be to take a moment to picture in your mind. And I actually love art therapy, it turns out. I'm not a good artist at all. Adam may or may not know this yet, but I really am not a good artist when it comes to drawing. But I think this time of year to use whatever faculty you have to draw or to write poetry and to

to allow yourself to dream that 2025 is a year of the things that you want to do that are important to you, that you're going to embrace those things, to do something you've never done, to do something that maybe challenges you but takes you out of your comfort zone. But whatever it is we're thinking about bringing into 2025, that the epiphany invites us and compels us to bring Jesus with us, to bring our

our sense of God's light with us into 2025, that whatever may happen in our lives, we're walking with the light of Christ in us and to always reflect on that. I was told a story a long time ago, and I think this is a great one to end on with this podcast today, but the story is of a young boy on a farm and his father goes off on a trip and this young.

boy, not that young, but he's left to tend to the cattle and the horses and the animals on the farm. But he's very afraid of the dark. And his father tells him before he leaves, said, carry this lantern, light this lantern and carry it with you. And you'll be fine. And so the boy is faced with the darkness and he's got the lantern and he's lit it. And he's thinking, my gosh, how am going to get over to the barn? And he thinks, well,

I'm just gonna walk as far as I can see and then I'll stop. And because he was carrying the lantern, of course, he got all the way to the barn and back. I think we need to have that kind of an attitude about 2025. We don't have to see the whole path and we can be afraid of what may be coming, but let's carry the light with us and walk to the edge of the light and carry and allow God to illuminate around us the things

Bishop DeDe (25:03.536)
that will bring us hope and will bring us courage, the things that will challenge us, but things that will drive us to prayer. And let us remember this epiphany that we've had. God loves you. God is with you when you're lost, when you're found in the midst of all the messiness of life. God is right beside you. And so walk with the light and see in the light. And as Dr. King would tell us,

Faith is putting our foot on the first rung, not knowing where the ladder may lead. So maybe we walk into this new year following the light that is within us. So dear friends, may you be blessed and be a blessing. Walk with the light and I look forward to speaking with you soon.