The Solemnity of Epiphany is celebrated on January 6 or the Sunday between January 2–8. The term “epiphany” comes from the Greek epipháneia and means “manifestation.” The festal ritual refers to the event of the newborn Jesus revealed as the manifestation of the long hoped-for Messiah of the Jewish people and the Son of God incarnate, and thereby the light of all nations as the prophet Isaiah claimed (60:1–6). Christians, thus, celebrate the manifestation of Jesus as Christ and Son of God to the whole world.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus is revealed to Magi who have come from the East in search of what God has done (Matt 2:1–12). These searchers are the first fruits of the so-called “Gentiles,” a term from the Greek noun, éthnē, indicating all other nations to the Jewish people. All humankind is, therefore, now also invited into intimate covenantal relationship with God based upon believing that this is precisely what God has done in and through Jesus. The Magi lead all peoples of the earth into the eternal covenantal relationship with God through Jesus as Christ and Son. Epiphany Sunday is, therefore, an affirmation of the universal possibility of salvation for each and every person in God’s creation.

Our reading from Isaiah comes from what scholars call Third Isaiah, a prophet from Israel’s post-exilic period whose summonses from God are preserved in the larger collection of the historical prophet Isaiah of Jerusalem who worked in the 8th century BCE. This later prophet, writing in the name of his forebear, lived after the Israelites were exiled from their homeland into the Babylonian Empire (ca. 587-6 BCE) then were allowed to return by the succeeding Persian Empire and the edict of King Cyrus in 538 BCE. As the people resume autonomous worship of God and their ensuing way of life, Third Isaiah summons God’s people to look to God’s light that is shining upon them, whose glory is radiating around them. The hope is that one day all nations will walk through this light with which God blesses his people. God’s beacon will, thus, gather all the peoples of the earth into the relationship between God and his chosen people, the Jews, which is a model for all humankind to live in right relationship with God.

The Magi, a term that indicates Zoroastrian priests from the East and, in Matthew’s vocabulary, those tuned into God’s activity in creation outside of Judaism, recognize the true manifestation of God the moment they encounter it (Matt 2:1–12). They’ve come this far resulting from their openness to how God is acting in the world and have used their political connections to pursue their vocation. Now that they encounter the truth of how God is manifesting in the world, in intimate communion with all humankind, each and every human being, they forsake their political connections with Herod and follow their consciences. Now they must face this world that God has created anew, having encountered the manifestation of God incarnate.

God’s question for us, on this Epiphany 2023, is how we might let go of worldly affiliations, political and otherwise, to pursue God’s vocation for us in this new year based upon our openness to God and his sustaining covenantal relationship with us through Jesus, Christ and Son, who calls us to ever deepening relationship and openness to God’s plan for the world. Paul believes that God’s grace gave him a new vocation (Eph 3:2–3a). He would argue that God does the same for all of us all of the time. Our only task is to respond.