First United Methodist Church of Bristol

At Annual Conference in 2017, the organizers of our 5K run around Lake Junaluska decided to give water bottles instead of t-shirts to all our participants. The water bottles were cheaper, which meant that more of the proceeds could support the annual mission offering. The organizers also have a lot of race t-shirts, so we thought a water bottle would be a nice change. We printed the slogan for last year’s Annual Conference on the front: “behold!”

Shortly after the race, Rebekah looked at her water bottle and observed:

“If you take the ‘h’ out of ‘behold,’ it says, ‘Be Old!'”

And we thought of the hundreds of people who surround us, gathered quietly and reverently (for the most part) in Stuart Auditorium; and we thought of the demographic of churches across the Holston Conference and across America…

and we guffawed.

And the Reverend Dennis Loy and my wife and I conspired to walk into Stuart Auditorium during one of its vacant hours and make away with the “H”.

We conspired, but we chickened out.

So I’ve asked Rebekah McGrady to do it for us.

What I really love about that particular image is that Doug Grove-DeJarnett and Brenda Carroll are two of our clergy who are keenly aware of the way the Holy Spirit is continually revealing new aspects of God all around them. While much of the church around us is stuck doing old things in old places, wondering why our communities are in decline but refusing to change anything and even reverting to other old, failed practices in hope of a different outcome; people like Doug and Brenda are trying to lead our churches into new visions and new practices. They see God still saying to us today, “Behold! I am doing a new thing! Don’t you perceive it?”

I think that’s fundamentally what Epiphany is about. We tend to think of God appearing in human form once upon a time in ancient Judea, a done deal that is perpetually unchanging.

But God doesn’t just self-reveal once. God appears to us in every moment of all time.

Once upon a time is only a fairy tale.

God is still present in creation, and creation is still being redeemed and transformed in reaction to God’s presence. If we want to get the meaning of Epiphany right, we’re going to have to open ourselves to the possibility that God is still doing something new today, and will continue to do something new until all creation is made new, and all souls are reconciled to God.

Epiphany may just be the opposite of “Be Old”.

“Behold!”

Peace,