Submitted by: Bishop Tom Ely
This is a favorite parable of mine: A rabbi asked his students, “When it is at dawn that one can tell the light from the darkness?” One student replied, “When I can tell a goat from a donkey.” “No,” answered the rabbi. Another said, “When I can tell a palm tree from a fig.” “No,” answered the rabbi again. “Well, then, what is the answer?” his students pressed him. Only when you look into the face of every man and every woman and see your brother and your sister,” said the rabbi. “Only then have you seen the light. All else is still darkness.”
The church and all its members are called to be the bearers of Epiphany’s light – the light that shines in the darkness with such hope, veracity, and conviction that the darkness ultimately has no power over it. Of course, it is not always an easy thing to be that light and yet we are called to be light even as we hope to receive that light. And so, we rely on the One who is the source of that light to sustain us; we rely on one another as companions on the journey; and we make our response again and again, in the Renewal of our Baptismal Covenant, “I will, with God’s help.”
Sunrise over Mount Sinai in Egypt – Photo taken by Diocesan Administrator, Jessica Thielke
