As I write this article, it is not yet Christmas, and even though I try to resist the ‘white out’ of the pre-Christmas time, I discover myself caught up in it. I am put to the test to keep my eye on Christmas, much less Epiphany. However, you will receive this when we have started into the very short season of Epiphany, so I find I must think about life after Christmas.

To me, Epiphany is a season that can get lost, or perhaps taken for granted, as it comes on the heels of Christmas, which is one of the most celebratory times of the year. The joy and excitement of Christmas, of giving gifts, and of being with loved ones has passed, and Lent seems a long way off.

When I was growing up, not much was made of Epiphany. Our Christmas pageant had passed. We had heard the story of the birth, and shared the wonder of the King of Kings with the Magi. What more could there be until Lent and then Easter? Like most children then and now, I assumed that all the events of Christmas and Epiphany - the birth, the shepherds, the Magi, the flight to Egypt - all happened in a very short period of time. After all, we saw them all happen together at the Christmas Pageant. (I love Christmas pageants, and most of all I love the children reenacting the story of the miracle of the Incarnation.) The next lesson from the gospels that really stuck in my mind then was the story of Jesus’ baptism, which of course seemed a bit strange since he was now an adult, and had only been born a few weeks ago.

Of course, as I grew older, I was able to get the time line straight, and make the connection that the sequence of the events we heard about in Scripture was not the actual sequence of events. But this still raised many questions - while we said that the season of Epiphany was to celebrate the showing forth of Christ to the world we (at least our parish) did very little to actually exhibit this deed. So the season of Epiphany remained a bit of an enigma to me. It came after the joy and excitement of Christmas. After the lights were down, the tree brought to the curb, and the presents put away, Epiphany seemed to be the darkest time of year when the days were cold, snowy or rainy, and very short.

Even long after I could understand and even encourage our using this time to share Jesus’ Incarnation, it was not a time of year when we might feel like sharing the Good News of God among us. Our journeys often took us, as I know it has taken many of you, to places where there was very little encouragement to want to go out (50 degrees below zero does not make for leaving the house) at all let alone try to feel the joy of Jesus being right next to us.

But God does strange and wonderful things, and it was in the midst of one particularly dismal Epiphany seasons that I had my own epiphany. It came through the renewal of my baptismal vows.

The first Sunday after the day of Epiphany is the Sunday we hear about the baptism of Jesus, and so it is one of the days designated to celebrate the rite of baptism. During the service, we renew our own baptismal vows, and are reminded that as Jesus began his ministry at his baptism, the beginning of our ministry begins with our baptisms. We respond to each question with a resounding ‘I will with God’s help’, and are reminded that God has claimed us as his own. Perhaps some of us may even dip our hands in the font as we go pass touching the water to our foreheads to remind us of how our life in community began.

As much as reminding us of our call to ministry, our baptismal vows remind us that even in this dark time of year, we are called to spread the Light of Christ. It is a time for allowing the spark within us to light a fire for the world to see.

True Epiphany happens every day. It happens in how we live, what we say, and the things we do. We are marked with the sign of the cross, but it is a sign others can only see when we dry off to go into the world.

Epiphany is the time when the angels are back in heaven. The shepherds are back in the fields. The Wise men have returned home.