The Feast of Theophany reminds each of us that Christ has revealed Himself to us. He brought His Light into the world, so we are no longer living in darkness. When light shines in the darkness, we no longer have anything to fear. Christ has shined His Light so that we could follow the Light into heaven.
My brothers and sisters, it was just a few days ago that we celebrated the feast of Theophany, the single greatest celebration that we do here in Tarpon Springs. And as we were surrounded by so many thousands of people, I want to remind you of the final verse of the hymn of Theophany. O Christ, our God who has appeared and has enlightened the world, brought light to the world. We are no longer, because of God’s love, we are no longer living in darkness. And now the Sunday after Theophany, we hear in this morning’s gospel, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
Now listen to this. It says, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. My brothers and sisters, we have seen a great light.” And I want to remind you of your childhood for just a moment. Remember when you were two and three years old, going to sleep in the dark and we were afraid. Every little sound, every little shadow we thought was a monster coming to get us. And we would beg our parents. And what would our loving parents do? If we had electricity. Some people on the island may not have had electricity back then. They would turn the light on.
Or in my case, they would leave the door open just enough for the light to come through the door so I didn’t have to be afraid of the dark. My brothers and sisters, Christ has brought the light into the darkness and we do not need to be afraid. The world in its darkness is filled with all sorts of traps and monsters. We do believe in demons. We do believe the world has things for us to be afraid of, but with the light of God shining and revealing them to us, that we now can walk safely in the path of God. You see, my brothers and sisters, this is why this celebration is so important to us.
It is not just our customs and our traditions to throw a cross into the water. We are celebrating God revealing himself to us. We are celebrating God shining his light in the dark world so that we don’t have to be afraid. There’s another important thing about light, light heals sickness. There have been studies done in hospitals that the hospital bed next to the window that gets light heals faster than the hospital bed away from the light. We know that many hospitals even use light to clean their utensils. And we’re very lucky. We have lots of light in Florida. We go outside and we’re being disinfected by the ultraviolet light.
You see, my brothers and sisters, when you have light, you have God’s grace and his love and you have health, spiritual health and physical health. And so as we start out our new year, and some of you probably have already forgotten your New Year resolutions. By the way, it’s January 11th and the parking lot at the gym is already empty. Don’t ask me, I don’t go to the gym. But by now, many of us have forgotten our new year resolutions. So every Sunday is a chance for us to make a new resolution. Forget about the physical things. Forget about the earthly things.
Make a resolution to follow the light of Christ. Ask God to light your path. Open your scriptures. Go find your Bible, first of all, some of you. Dust it off. Open it up and read it every day and allow the light of Christ to open up your eyes and to chase away the darkness. Because God has sent himself to us. God has revealed himself to us. We didn’t find him, he found us. He doesn’t wait for us, he comes to us. It’s now our opportunity to follow him out of the darkness. Leave the worldly things aside and follow the light of Christ. And I promise you, you will find the way to heaven. Glory to God for all things.
