This past Tuesday, January 6, a major Christian feast day slipped by, almost unnoticed. Tuesday was Epiphany, known in other places around the world as Three Kings’ Day, the day when the twelve drummers started drumming. In the West, the importance of Epiphany as a day has been lost in favor of an entire Epiphany season, which typically lasts until Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.
Epiphany is the climax of the Advent/Christmas Season. Quite literally, it means “to show” or “to make known” or even “to reveal.” In Western churches, it remembers the coming of the wise men bringing gifts to visit the Christ child, who by so doing "reveal" Jesus to the world as Lord and King. The Wise Men or Magi who brought gifts to the young Jesus were the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as "King" and so were the first to "show" or "reveal" Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ. This act of worship by the Magi, which corresponded to Simeon’s blessing that this child Jesus would be "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32), was one of the first indications that Jesus came for all people, of all nations, of all races, and that the work of God in the world would not be limited to only a few.
Epiphany, as a season, is a time not simply to focus on the mission and work of Jesus which led to his death, burial, resurrection, but is also a time for us as a church to reflect on our mission to the world in light of Jesus’ work. So as we begin to think about how our service to God and the world will play out in 2009, let us remember the mission that we believe God has called us to, expressed in the Cahaba Valley Church Mission statement.
In love and faith, by grace, we seek to do God’s will, both as individuals and as part of a fellowship of believers known as Cahaba Valley Church, an Ecumenical Church of Christ. We believe God calls us to know and to be known by God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and to love all humans as God loves us.
To accomplish this mission we commit ourselves:
• To serve the poor and the poor in spirit
• To build relationships with those who seem separated from us by country, language, community, economy, race, age, gender, and creed
• To be with those who suffer and to share our burdens in prayer, that we may comfort and be comforted
• To seek simplicity and honesty in the face of the world’s temptation
• To celebrate the abundance of God’s blessings in worship and generosity
• To hunger after God’s word and seek the guidance of the Spirit in prayer and fasting
• To nurture the young and the young in Christ, sharing the Good News in word and deed
• To praise and worship God in unity with brothers and sisters throughout creation
• To cherish and encourage the intimacy of membership in God’s family, to gather in God’s house and in our homes for meals, prayer, play, work, and worship
• To encourage and equip one another to use the gifts God gives us for service
• To leave our hearts and purposes open to God’s surprising actions
• To experience the joy and peace that comes from being a child of God
In all this, we ask God to send us forth in boldness, filled with grace and love.
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