The Spirit in the Season of Epiphany

 The Spirit in the Season of Epiphany

 “As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” Mark 1:10‭-‬11 NLT

The season of Epiphany is the time between Christmas and Lent. Epiphany commemorates the visit of the three wise men to the Christ Child as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. The focus of the first Sunday after Epiphany is on the baptism of Jesus which is recorded in all the four gospels. In his sermon on 10th January 2021, Rev Malcolm Tan drew attention to the significance of the baptism of Jesus - it affirmed the identity of Jesus as the Son of God (Psalm 2:7) and His destiny to bring righteousness to the world (Isaiah 42:1). Likewise, our baptism affirms us as God’s beloved children and our calling to be His channels of love, joy and peace. 

As Christians the challenge is to live out our lives as the Fifth Gospel - to share the stories of our faith journey in following Jesus Christ. To do so, we need to recognize and understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We will live a distorted version of Christianity and Christian discipleship when our faith is based only on the bible, human leaders and the church instead of being rooted in Jesus Christ who is the Living Word, walking by the Spirit and worshipping God as our Heavenly Father.

Bishop Robert Solomon has written on the importance of the relationship between Jesus and the Spirit. The baptism of Jesus by the Holy Spirit as recorded in Mark 1:9-12 is to show us that the Spirit does not work without Jesus and Jesus does not work without the Spirit. He highlighted the need to rediscover the Reformation understanding of the Word and the Spirit. The biblical books were written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And it is the Holy Spirit who illuminates the reader’s mind to understand the Word:

“We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.”1 Cor 2:11-12

Bishop Solomon reminded us that John Wesley, together with Martin Luther and John Calvin, believed that it is the Holy Spirit who speaks through the Word and helps us to understand and apply the Word in our lives. It is the Word that brings the Spirit to the heart, and the Spirit that brings the Word within the heart. He gives us the following wise warning:

“If we try to read our Bibles without the Spirit, we will remain in our darkness. We may have the vocabulary of faith but not its reality. On the other hand, if we pursue the Spirit’s promptings without the Word, we would end up in a world of our own making where we can often mistake our own inner thoughts and desires for the Spirit’s leading.”

Our sinful human nature tends to focus on the gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues. But what the world needs in this apocalyptic time is the manifestation of the fruit of the Holy Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control to overcome the deadly spiritual viruses of lust, guilt, fear, anger, envy, greed, acedia, pride and gluttony.  

It is only when we read the Bible with the Spirit that our hearts can be strangely warmed like John Wesley and our lives transformed. To do so, we need to learn to listen to what is in our hearts - to be aware of our biases, prejudices, judgments, fears, doubts, resentments and other negative emotions and to surrender them to the Holy Spirit. Then the Holy Spirit can fill our hearts with God’s love and enable us to listen to the stories of the faith journey of others with an open mind. It is only with open hearts and open minds that we can listen and truly hear God’s amazing Love Story that is recorded for us in the gospels.

The season of Epiphany is a time for us to work out our salvation as we seek to follow Christ. It is a time to reflect on the meaning of our baptism - our identity as a child of God and our destiny to usher in the Kingdom of God here on earth.