Today is the first Sunday of Epiphany, the season during which God steps into the world and announces that he is going to make everything OK. Our God isn’t silent or distant. Our God is not a shy god, and the Bible is full of accounts of revelations and epiphanies. He appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Sometimes he’s like a dove, or he is a voice coming out of a cloud. He spoke to Joseph and Jacob in dreams.
God is always declaring himself to us, revealing himself, and that’s what the word Epiphany means. God doesn’t keep to himself and the more we open up to God and let him into the fabric of our day to day lives the more he shows his glory and presence. He’s there in special moments… when we feel that surge of emotion when we see a sunset, or look out over the ocean, it’s God who’s speaking to us saying, “This is what I’ve done, I’m here all around you, here are my works.”
God is always waving his arms around trying to get our attention, but often we’re too busy doing other things. God is the big revealer. Sometimes he wakes us up in the middle of the night. Now and then I fancy that insomnia is God’s way of getting our attention. I get the feeling that he waits for us to be alone and quiet, and I imagine that he gives us a shake and says, “Hey I want to be with you. Let’s spend some time just talking to each other, here in the middle of the night in the quiet. I’ve got something to tell you.” God is speaking to us all the time, how lovely that is.
God has his own language and unique ways and means to communicate with us. Sometimes it’s a whisper and sometimes it’s a shout. In this technological age, If we want to connect with someone, we just pick up our mobiles and call or text, but God doesn’t do that, he works in different ways. God operates on a whole other system of communication, and we have to be tuned into that system. It’s like radio waves. We need to be tuned into the right frequency to receive the signal. It’s like those old transistor radios we used to have, you needed to get the number just right on the dial to hear the music coming through. Our Lord operates on the God frequency. We can compare this situation to a mother with a new born baby. She can sleep through her husband’s snoring but as soon as the baby makes a peep, she’s wide awake and on the alert. She’s tuned in to the baby frequency, which broadcasts all hours, 24/7.
Tuning in to God means that we need to be God focused because the frequency of everyday life distracts us from God. We need the quiet and stillness within, when all the background noise is tuned out. And if our lives are filled with God and if our thoughts are occupied by God, then we can see God and hear him. Sometimes it’s comforting, sometimes it’s thrilling, sometimes it can be frightening. We can think of the shepherds on the first Christmas night. They were there, guarding their flock, on the alert for danger, but I’m sure that they were also praying to God for protection, and so their thoughts had turned to God too. They were shown God’s glory that night.
Being shown God, detecting God in our lives and having him reveal himself to us is what keeps us going, and makes everything feel right. All the confusion, doubt and worry go away because we know that he is our God.
The baptism of Jesus is an event that shouts about our King and his unending love for humanity, and this world. At that moment the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, heaven opened up and God’s voice could be heard, “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” God’s glory was revealed and in a very public way, there on the banks of the Jordan. In this Epiphany, all three persons of the Trinity were present.
In the New Testament the word, glory, refers to honour or praise, and to “glorify” someone is to bestow honour or praise on them. Jesus, for example, told a parable about taking the lowest seat at a banquet, he said that you should take the lowest seat so that when the host comes, he might say, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ The host might honour you by moving you up a place, and glorifying you in front of the people gathered there. Everywhere, the Bible calls us to glorify God. In Psalm 29 it’s written “Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name.” And in Corinthians it says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Everything that Jesus did on earth was for the glory of his heavenly Father. Jesus’ healings, the feeding of the multitude, all the giving, self sacrificing things he did, honoured God. I’m sure it made him feel good to do all these things, and he made a difference in so many people’s lives, but above all, these things were done to glorify the Father. The greatest act of obedience, love and charity that ever happened in the world was when Jesus Christ gave up his life for us on the cross, and he did this too for the glory of his Father in heaven.
The Gospel of John chapter 17 is a pivotal chapter in scripture and marks the apex of the theology of the whole of John’s Gospel. John takes us into the Garden of Gethsemane during the final hours of Jesus’ time on earth. Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.” As we can see in this critical time in the Garden, the great love of God is revealed in the Son. We too, by our acts and words, glorify the Lord and that’s how we should approach the work we do in God’s name.
People’s motivations to do good are varied. People do good things for social kudos, for a pat on the back, or for political prestige, or because sometimes it just makes them feel good to help someone; but feeling good is just a byproduct of the charitable acts that we do as Christians.
Charitable acts should be done first and foremost to glorify God. It’s so important to realise that we can do nothing by ourselves. It is God’s grace that moves us, and it’s only ego and pride that lead us to take the credit for the good works that we do. All credit and glory and honour go to God, who we serve. It is God only who fills us with the desire and the will to do his will and his alone. If what we do glorifies God, then it’s fitting that we don’t hide our actions. Jesus says in Matthew 5:15-16, “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
When we act as the body of Christ on earth, we are his hands and feet in the world, and all our charitable deeds and good works in the community should not be hidden, or made less of. We shouldn’t be shy about doing God’s work. If we proclaim that it is God’s work, others will realise exactly where this grace and goodness is coming from, that it is coming directly from God, who works through his people. Our purpose is to merely be the channels of his love and care, so that we can honestly say, “God’s will be done.” We do what we do, firstly, for the glory of his name, and, secondly, for the glory of his universal church in the world. God is the engine that drives our actions, so that we can accomplish the good in the world that we are called upon to do. As a body in Christ, our words and deeds, and good works are a light to others, demonstrating God’s love and power in the world. We are all part of this great Epiphany by revealing his infinite love.
May we always be ready to serve and honour our God, the source of all goodness, for his name’s sake. Amen.
Tell Out My Soul 
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