“You Gotta Be There!”
By Rev. Sid Burgess
Sid is the Pastor of Edgewood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He is a graduate of Samford University and Columbia Theological Seminary, is married and has two teen-aged daughters.

Epiphany with a big “E” is an annual event on Christian calendar, celebrated on January 6, since the early Christian centuries. Epiphany with a small “e” is a much less predictable, a much more infrequent experience.

In my own life I can count only a half-a-dozen times when “spiritual light bulbs” have flashed in my head and a “sacred heart” has pounded in my chest. Even so, by the biblical standards, with only a couple of dozen epiphanies spread over three thousand years of sacred history, I have been truly blessed.

It is hard to tell other people about one’s own epiphany. When, at the Transfiguration, a voice came from a cloud saying, “This is my Son, my chosen; listen to him” (Luke 9:28-36), Jesus told the disciples to keep it quiet. As Jesus undoubtedly knew, with epiphanies, ‘you gotta be there.’ Epiphanies, by their very nature--sudden, intuitive, mysterious--are hard to translate.

Of course, that does not keep people from trying. As everyone who has ever been to youth camp or church retreat can tell you, something precious is lost--to both speaker and listener--in the retelling of even the most profound moment. ‘You gotta be there!’

The same is true for Sunday morning or other worship. ‘You gotta be there’ to have that chance for experiencing God’s sacred presence. Scripture says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them”(Matt. 18.20). This does not mean “me, myself, and I,” gathered at Starbucks in the name of the Sunday NEW YORK TIMES.

Of course, the problem is, you ‘get there’--whether at church, on retreat, or at St. Peter’s in Rome--and you look high and low for God. But all you see are just plain people. Some look alike and some look different; some are loud and some are quiet--but where is God? For an epiphany, look again: “The Lord, your God, is in your midst”(Zephaniah 3:17).

So, this year, this new year, why not make plans to go? Why not make plans now, in the dead of winter, to go somewhere--to some sacred place--where you might likely experience the rare experience of divine presence

Now, all of the above is not to say that you cannot have an epiphany in our very own worship service at church on Sunday morning. Quite the contrary! As Presbyterians, we believe that the Risen Christ is truly present each Lord’s Day as the Word of God is read and proclaimed and then sealed in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. But, then again, ‘you gotta be there!’

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