The season of Epiphany focuses on
how God was made manifest in the flesh of Jesus. The church spends time hearing of the
miracles, the signs and wonders, of Jesus in the world. And this made plain to
all that Jesus was who He said He was: He was the Second Person of the Holy
Trinity, the only-begotten Son of the Father, in the flesh. For “the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us” (John 1:14)
It is revealed for all the world
to see that Jesus is God in the flesh. It is made manifest by His words and His
work, by what He said and by what He did. And these belong together, for “the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Jesus is the Word and will of God
in the flesh, that is, He is the walking, talking, enactment of God’s Word. It is no different for us. We are called not just to believe in God in
hearts, but also to trust in God in word and deed.
As James wrote: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers
only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22), and again, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does
not have works? … So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
… Show me your faith apart from your
works, and I will show you my faith by my works. … For as the body apart from
the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:14, 17–18,
26).
Our faith is lived out in works
for our neighbor. Our trust in the Word
and will of God is lived out not in word only, but also in deed and in truth. In other words, the Epiphany of the Lord
creates in us an epiphany of our faith in our works of obedience to God who
commanded them. By this, our faith is
made manifest to the world. It is, as
Luther wrote of faith:
“Faith is a divine work in us. It changes
us and makes us to be born anew of God (John 1). It kills the old Adam and
makes altogether different people, in heart and spirit and mind and powers, and
it brings with it the Holy Spirit.
“Oh,
it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. And so it is impossible
for it not to do good works incessantly. It does not ask whether there are good
works to do, but before the question rises, it has already done them, and is
always at the doing of them.
“He who does not these works is a
faithless man. He gropes and looks about
after faith and good works and knows neither what faith is nor what good works
are, though he talks and talks, with many words about faith and good works.
“Faith is a living, daring
confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man would stake his life
on it a thousand times. This confidence
in God’s grace and knowledge of it makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing
with God and all His creatures.
“And this is the work of the Holy
Spirit in faith. Hence a man is ready and glad, without compulsion, to do good
to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything, in love and praise to
God, who has shown him this grace.
“And thus it is
impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate
burning and shining from fire. Beware,
therefore, of your own false notions and of the idle talkers, who would be wise
enough to make decisions about faith and good works, and yet are the greatest
fools.” (Preface to the Book of Romans)
So, then, let our faith be active
by God’s power in the Word through the Holy Spirit. And let then our faith be made manifest to
the world by what this faith does: serving our neighbor — in church, in the
family, and society — with the works of faith in time, talents, and treasures.
