Like Shadows, Like Dawns

To live like Christ as a beloved child of God is to be full of courage and humility and grace and truth. But it is also, like Christ, to be poured out, to be misunderstood, overlooked, taken advantage of, spent beyond our capacity, even killed. Epiphany life begins with us dying to ourselves and to the ways of our world. There is a foolishness at the heart of grace, and to say yes to God in this way is to live in subversive witness to his upside-down kingdom. The way to find your life is to lose it. The way to be made whole is to pour yourself out, again and again, for the life of the world.

Epiphany is a season marked by baptism. And baptism is for us a death-dealing and life-giving reality. In baptism, we signal our death, with Christ, to the ways of this shadowy world. And we rise again, with Christ, like dawns. Ten thousand little lights breaking forth, icons of that which is most real. God, at the very center of things, for us. God, at the very center of things, with us. Right there in the middle of this invitation, there is a flame that will burn away all shadows until only reality is left. It is the flame of God’s love. So let us draw near together, with Christ, for the life of the world.

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From a sermon on Isaiah 58.