'Epiphany’ is a Greek word meaning ‘manifestation’, ‘appearing’, or ‘revelation’. Each week in this season we have a story which reveals something more of the meaning and purpose of the Incarnation which we celebrated at Christmas.

As the festive season draws towards its end and a new year begins, we reflect upon the meaning of the Epiphany. Twelve days after the birth of Christ, God revealed Himself to the Gentiles in the form of his only son.

This year the first Sunday of Christmas falls on Boxing Day. We will not be holding our usual Sunday services but we shall celebrate a short said mass in church at 10.30am.

In our last Sunday before Christmas we are given a glimpse of something truly radical. Our texts are still facing doom and disaster: in our first reading, Micah 5:1-5, the little nation of Israel is under siege, humiliated and oppressed by its mighty neighbours; in the Gospel, Luke 1:39-55, Mary, poor, disgraced and possibly in fear of her life, is running away. Yet here is hope in the face of hopelessness. And the hope comes not from the strong and the powerful but from the poorest and the weakest. In response to Elizabeth’s welcoming embrace Mary lets loose a song of revolution: if God is in her womb, then the world is truly turning upside down. A future of justice and peace will be brought forth by the little and the lowly, and Bethlehem, the most insignificant town in the most insignificant nation, will be the birth place of a new way of living with power to transform our world.

Good news? What good news? We are now well into Advent and the themes of judgment and repentance are growing louder. John the Baptist, Luke 3:7-18, starts by calling us a brood of vipers and ends with a warning that on the day of judgment the chaff will be burnt with an unquenchable fire; which doesn’t sound very good newsy to me. But judgment always comes joined with the assurance of forgiveness. The word of judgement is always a word of salvation, it shows us where we are going wrong and how we can change for the better. John gives specific advice to his hearers: share with one another, do not abuse your power, use your position to the benefit of those around you. Judgment is hard to hear but it is ultimately liberating, bringing with it the chance of being restored into a joyful relationship with God, one another and the whole of creation, poetically imagined by Zephaniah 3:14-20.

In Advent, the season of looking forward, the season of hope, we hear of a time when the people of God, like us, were longing for change and the word of the Lord came to them. Our reading, Luke 3:1-6, begins with a list of all those who held power and authority: an emperor, a governor, three tetrarchs and a high priest. But the word of the Lord does not come to any of them. It comes to John in the wilderness. John has left the centres of power behind searching for god knows what. It is here, in the middle of nowhere, in a place of vulnerability and uncertainty, that John hears God’s voice. The voice tells him that God will come, that God is coming, that change is possible, and asks him to prepare the way, to call for change. In a world of vulnerability and uncertainty change is often the last thing we want yet is the one thing we can count on. Are we ready to embrace it?

Advent Sunday: Today is New Year’s Day in the life of the church. We begin the year by looking to the end; the end of all years and all time. We look to the promise that we have been given that the world will be made afresh; that all that is broken will be healed; all that is crushed will flourish. It is a season of hope and expectation.

Our gospel reading this morning, Luke 21:25-36, may not seem that hopeful at first glance; it speaks of distress, confusion and fear. Whether we are at the beginning, at the end or somewhere in between, no life is free of distress, confusion or fear. But our hopefulness, our belief in what is possible, shapes how we respond. Christ tells us we are to stand up, raise our heads, and look for the signs of the kingdom that are surely springing up around us.

Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King.

The focus of this festival is not on Christ, king of the universe in heavenly glory as shown to us in the reading from Daniel, but on how we follow Christ here on earth and use the power he has given to us.

If Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 gives us a vision of Christ, the human one, being given all power and authority, the gospel, John 18:33b-37, uncovers a little of the nature of this power.

Pilate has earthly power, economic, political, social, military. When he questions Christ’s kingship he is pointing out that Christ has no power in this court.

Christ replies that he was born to testify to the truth. And the truth he seeks to tell is the truth of those without power. This truth is always at odds with how the powerful see the world.

We too are called to share in Christ’s “kingship”; God’s power is available to us too. It is the power to speak truth and live truth even when it challenges those with earthly power.