Getting Ready for Epiphany

I know that many churches will not be celebrating Epiphany as its own Sunday.  Still, we could celebrate Epiphany as a season.  Here are two ideas:

--We could decorate.  I have this on the brain because yesterday I helped my mom and dad decorate their church in Williamsburg, St. Stephen Lutheran.  We got there to find that the heavy work had been done, the Moravian stars hung:

But even if you don't have the budget for these types of stars, you could still decorate.  We hung cardstock stars strung on ribbons.  Some of them had been decorated with glitter, and some were white.

This project would be so easy, and it makes the sanctuary so much more festive.  We looped them around the candles that line the walls, but if you're nervous/cautious about climbing and draping (as we all should be), you could string them in other ways.

--You could use star words even if you're not celebrating Epiphany.  Star words involve having a bag of stars with evocative words on them, words like "Peace" and "Say Yes" and "Say No" and "Patience" and on and on I could go.   You can find a more comprehensive list here.

Some people on social platforms will choose a star word for us.  Here's mine for 2024:

People use these words in all sorts of ways.  We could meditate on the word or use the word to focus on what God might say to us.  We could see how the word is used in the Bible.  We could do a Google search.  We could write for 5 minutes without stopping to see what comes up for us.

I wrote a blog post about the process and the possibilities here, and if you want to use your star words in a group, in a Bible study sort of process, I wrote a blog post about how to do that here.

I love the way Epiphany amplifies the Advent message of the importance of staying awake and alert. Some of us will hear God speaking through an angel choir.  Some will hear God speaking in dreams.  Some of us will have an encounter with a John the Baptist, some type of prophet that speaks God's word in a way that only he or she can.  But others of us will study the sky for years or decades, looking for a sign, waiting patiently.  Epiphany reminds us of the need to raise our eyes from the minutiae that can consume us, the need to stay alert as we study the expanse of what we don't fully understand, as we appreciate the mystery.