Bishop Hughes reminds us that even though this is time when many are fearful, our role as Christians is not a role of fear – it is a role of showing the light of Jesus, the light of God’s love, the light that the Holy Spirit leads us into, not only receiving that light, but showing it to everybody who is near us. (Time: 4:59.)
Video Transcript
This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. Christmas has come and gone, and this week, we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany. And it is on my brain, this notion of the wise people, those visitors, those officials that came from the east, following a star, knowing that there was going to be something, knowing that there was going to be someone wonderful and life-changing, about where that star landed and what it was pointing to, and that they came along that journey.
This has stayed with me all throughout Christmas. It still is with me now, and I imagine it’s going to stay with me, because I think this is our moment, as church, truly to be a light in the way that Jesus was light, is light, and will always be light, and a light to all people.
That’s the really wonderful thing about Epiphany, that it wasn’t Jewish people. It wasn’t people from Israel. It wasn’t those that we think of as God’s chosen who were coming to see Jesus. It was these people who came from a distance, from a very far land, who knew nothing of – Christianity hadn’t been born yet. It just came into fruition with the incarnation of Jesus. But we certainly weren’t saying anything about someone following Jesus at that point, but they knew someone was important that was coming. And that, that light that was Jesus, was impossible to ignore, and it spoke to people, not only in his world, but in worlds far beyond. That is who we are called to be as Christians right now, not only in our churches and in our neighborhoods, but to the world beyond.
There is going to be much that is demanded of us, and I’m aware that part of that demand is because we have been so given so much by God. We have been blessed by God, blessed with knowing who God is, blessed with being loved by God. Many of us have experienced God’s healing, sometimes physically, sometimes emotionally, spiritually, of relationships, in the workplace, in all kinds of ways, our lives have been touched and transformed by God.
And we are surrounded by people, some of us – some of them sitting in our homes, some of them our closest friends and family, some sitting in our pews at church, some that we work with – we are surrounded by people who are afraid about what is getting ready to happen, what is going to come. Our role as Christians is not a role of fear. It is a role of showing the light of Jesus, the light of God’s love, the light that the Holy Spirit leads us into, not only receiving that light, but showing it to everybody who is near us.
Now we’re going to do that in very specific ways. We talked about this in Convention, and there are groups of people that have been formed to look specifically at ways that individuals in parishes can respond to the pressure of this time. How are we to support people who are LGBTQ+? How are we to support and care for people who are migrants, or are refugees? How are we to support people who have concerns about women’s health and women’s leadership? How are we to support younger voices so they can be heard, not only in our church, but heard all over our legislature, heard in their schools, heard by the people who need to hear the sound of young people talking about what they want, not only now, but in the future.
We’ve got groups looking at all of these things, and later this month, they will be making recommendations that we will send out to the whole diocese. These activities – this caring for other people, reaching out to other people, being an advocate for other people, standing in solidarity with other people, offering prayers for other people – these are not just tasks for us to accomplish. This is not simply outreach for us. This is our Epiphany moment. It is where we share the light, we share the love, we share the care and the generosity that God has given us and given us abundantly, and we share it freely and generously with others.
Christmas may have ended, but the light of Christ continues in Epiphany, and Epiphany and Christmas will continue to travel with us all throughout the year. I invite you, today and every day, to ask yourself, How can I share the light and love that God has shared so generously with me?
