Reflection Epiphany:
Uneasy wildness E
piphany may very well be the most uneasy of liturgical seasons. It brings with it a certain kind of ironic and inopportune instability.
Each new year we begin again with our expectations and
hopes. I suspect, if we are honest, these expectations are of the domesticated variety. Most often they take the form of grand plans, the next benchmark or the next measurable goal. “This will be a better year,” we say. Like in the begin- ning, we imagine ourselves, a bit like our Creator, shaping the chaos of our lives into well-ordered gardens. Epiphany will have none of this. John appears in the wil-
derness. He is rather wild. The people attracted to his min- istry are drawn out of the ordinariness of their lives. I doubt “get baptized by wild John” was on their list of new year’s res- olutions. John bears witness to the one who will baptize with the Spirit, that wild-as-the-wind side of God who seems to always elude our best efforts to stabilize things. Even John’s ministry is disrupted. He seemingly did not
expect to baptize Jesus. The proclamation of Epiphany— “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” —sends Jesus into the wilderness where, as Mark’s Gospel tells it, the wild beasts accompany him (1:11-13). The wildness of Epiphany uneasily greets us each year
just as we are settling into our own resolve and resolutions. What might it mean to welcome that?
God of new beginnings, help us resist the temptation to domesticate the Epiphany you gave us. May we turn away from our desire to keep things overly ordered. Draw us into the wildness to trade our expectations for your Spirit’s imagination.
Author bio: Snyder is a doctoral fel- low in practical theology at Boston University and director of education at Faith Lutheran Church, Cambridge, Mass.
JOHN THE BAPTIST/IMAGE FROM SHUTTERSTOCK January 2015 23
By Timothy K. Snyder
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