Epiphany- Oh, now I see It!

Nativity scene in my house, brought to you by Calderon, Ecuador

Growing up, my family and I celebrated Christmas: festive lights, Christmas mass, and lots of family and food. This might sound like your family’s Christmas. Where your and my family may differ however, is that my mom was (and still is) pretty adamant that the Christmas tree stays up until at least Epiphany. Likewise, for most of my childhood one of my uncles hosted a family video-making contest (yes, it’s as good as it sounds with 1990’s camcorders involved!), with the screening of the videos taking place at an Epiphany party (cue in two different kinds of chili, frozen pizza, and cherry pie with ice cream). So, so far, we’ve established that Epiphany is some Christian feast/holy day that takes place after Christmas, but the question is- celebrating or commemorating what?

Officially, Epiphany marks the twelfth day of Christmas when the wise men, or magis, came to visit the baby Jesus. As the story is told, these men had studied scripture and the stars and had seen signs that the messiah was coming. They arrived in Bethlehem then, ready to pay homage to God.

<Great,> you might be thinking. <Nice Christian story, but isn’t this a blog for the religiously unaffiliated? Sure seems like this story is hard core Christian, right?> Well, in my current spiritual pursuits, I’ve been curious to put these well celebrated Christian traditions and feast days through my spiritual but religiously unaffiliated “translator” and see what wisdom there might be for me, someone who currently identifies more as agnostic than anything else.

So, in keeping with that intent, let’s break down the components of the Epiphany story to the archetypal level:

* Poor hetero couple (Mary and Joseph) are traveling far from home (per government order to be counted for a census). Aka: These two folks are nobodies, really. Nobodies, as there is nothing particularly unique or shiny about them.

* Pregnant Nobody has baby in only spot available to her: a barn (a place where animals take shelter).

* Wise people journey far and pay tribute to this woman’s baby, who no one in town seems to have cared anything about or noticed? (Shepherds came but they aren’t urbanites.) It seems relevant to note that the term “magi” used to refer to the wise men has connections to the word “magician.” What if these wise men could see things that ordinary folks could not see? That the magis were not tricked by the veil of illusion but saw through to a deeper truth about how the human psyche and world work?

A humanistic or agnostic translation of the Epiphany then? Maybe it’s my yoga background shining through in how I interpret the story, but what if the epiphany in the Epiphany is the realization that God/the Divine Spark/That Which is Greater Than Ourselves But of Which We are a Part- what if that Force was (and is) in the least of us? A baby? Think of how hard you are trying to move up the career ladder, or show up as more “lovable” for your love bug to be attracted to you a bit more, or how hard you try to prove that you are !Someone! Maybe it’s just me, but how I translate the Epiphany story is that the wise folks realized that the Divine is in us all, including a poor little kid who was born to two nobodies. The baby hadn’t done anything yet and was already considered revered! The baby simply was! Ah, the yogic namaste: the Divine in me recognizes and honors the Divine in each of you. What if the gifts that the Epiphany (and the wise men) has to offer us is the idea that our inherent being, who we have been from the moment that we were born, that that aspect of ourselves is sacred, worthy of being revered and honored? How would we treat ourselves then? How would we relate to others? My guess is that if I could hold this truth close, I would live my life in such a way as to see each moment and each person with whom I interact as sacred, not to mention I’d probably ease up on my perfectionism.

Still challenged by the concept of Epiphany and what may feel like Christian baggage? Check it out! Parker Palmer, in Let Your Life Speak, talks about our relationship to cultural heroes and in talking about Rosa Parks, reminds me of the nativity/Epiphany story. Listen to what he says about the Rosa Parks’ Refusal to Move to the Back of the Bus story. It seems that much of the retelling of Rosa Parks’ ultimate decision to defy segregation (particularly the retelling done by elementary school teachers, it seems) focuses on how Rosa Parks was anyone but us…

"But if the Rosa Parks story is to help us discern our own vocations, we must see her as the ordinary person she is. (Italics added.) That will be difficult to do because we have made her into super-woman-  and we have done it to protect ourselves. If we can keep Rosa Parks in a museum as an untouchable icon of truth, we will remain untouchable as well: we can put her up on a pedestal and praise her, world without end, never finding ourselves challenged by her life." (p. 35)

Right! I’m not saying that Rosa Parks is the baby Jesus but do you hear the similarities in these stories? What if our power and Divinity come from being just as we are- with nothing to prove and nothing to hide?! Talk about a counterculture idea!

Parker Palmer goes on to tell how Rosa Parks’ alignment with her inner truth and vocation led her to coordinate with the civic disobedience movement and ultimately, decide to sit at the front of the bus. When we pay attention to the Divine in ourselves- we, who are certainly not on pedestals but are nobodies, what are our paths of truth or vocation- the manifestation of that Divine presence in us? For Rosa Parks, it was civil disobedience. For me, it’s teaching and ministry. In these areas, my interactions are light and the Sacred easily accessible. May you, too, have an epiphany about your inherent Divine nature and shine that forth in your life.

Invitations to celebrate the Epiphany in your own life:

* Spend time with a baby or toddler. Delight in the Divine in them! They are inherently worthy, so are you!

* How do you recognize and/or pay homage to the Divine made manifest in the flesh (aka: the Divine in yourself/others)? Experiment with recognizing the inherent Goodness in yourself and others for a morning, evening, or day.

* How would the recognition of this spiritual truth impact your understanding and interactions with yourself and others?

* Who are the wise people or magis in your life who help you see things differently, to see beneath the façade to how things truly are? Connect with one of these individuals and notice the direction that you feel called to take based on their visions of you and the world.