For Epiphany 2025, which falls on 6 January, the Revd Philip Brooks, Deputy General Secretary (Mission), offers this reflection:
My memories of Epiphany or twelfth night are tinged with sadness.
As a child it was the moment when all the Christmas magic was put away in its box. Down came the tree and decorations, the chocolates and Christmas treats had all been eaten. Worst of all the parties and holidays were over and the dreaded first day back at school beckoned.
The concept that Epiphany represented a spiritual moment of revelation, as Jesus’ divine nature was revealed to the exotic travellers from the East in the form of Magi or wise men, had not even entered my horizon. The three Kings as I knew them appeared in the Nativity set under the Christmas tree at the start of festivities and were all now tidied away for another year. An Epiphany of light and hope for the New Year ahead could not be further from my thoughts.
Nowadays, society has invented Blue Monday, which in 2025 will fall on 20th January, as a formal marker of the post-Christmas doldrums. So called because it represents the perfect storm of bad weather, stretched finances and unattainable New Year resolutions.
My son and his family live in Germany. Chalked on the brickwork by their front door are the letters C M B alongside the numbers of the calendar year. Chalking the door is an old European tradition usually enacted on the day of Epiphany. The initials stand for the traditional names of the biblical Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar). They also denote the Latin blessing, Christus mansionem benedicat (May Christ bless this house).
My prayer for this Epiphany day is that, amidst the tensions and pressures of the New Year, all our homes may be blessed with the revelatory light of Christ, offering hope and meaning. As a very uncertain and daunting 2025 begins, so many people in the world are desperately in need of Epiphany.
Image: Marcio Chagas/Unsplash.