Happy Epiphany! Let’s Choose Kindness for the New Year!

This Saturday, January 6th, marks the beginning of the Epiphany Season. It is a fairly short season situated between Christmas and Lent. If you look up the meaning of the word, ‘epiphany,’ in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, you will find several definitions. I am partial to these two:

“a … sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something”

“an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure”

The signature story of Epiphany is from Matthew’s gospel. It’s about wise stargazers who see a strange star in the sky and travel a great distance to discover what it means. These astrologers are attracted to the divine light of God revealed in Jesus.

So, in this Epiphany season, how will others discover the light of Jesus in us? Will we share our stories of what Emanuel means for us? How will we disclose this good news we have received? What if our first step is simply to be more kind… kind to each other, kind to ourselves, kind to the planet, and kind to everyone we meet?

There is a movement afoot in Hillsboro. It’s called Resolution:Kindness. It was begun by a local pastor, but it is not meant to be a ‘church’ thing. It is meant to be a Hillsboro thing, and then perhaps a Washington County thing, and then a… you get the idea. It is really about offering a healing counter-narrative to the divisive and uncivil discourse that saturates our lives each and every day.

Resolution:Kindness consists of five suggested actions: Smile, Listen, Encourage, Help, Say Thank You. Sounds simple doesn’t it? It isn’t though. It requires work and intentionality. It is a choice that one has to make. I’ve already started putting this into practice and I have been surprised by the results. For instance, did you know that people act really weird sometimes when strangers smile at them for no apparent reason?! I’m going to keep working at it though, because it is already changing me. The more I smile at people, the more I want to smile… the more reason I have to smile. Weird, huh? Feels like good news to me though.

Want to learn more? Go to www.resolutionkindness.org and see how you can get involved.

You can even purchase your own Resolution:Kindness yard sign!

Happy Epiphany (and Happy New year too!),

Pastor David