Search Diligently 

Planning Worship

Focus texts: Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12 

Look around your worship space. Are your Christmas decorations still up? Are you prepping to finally bring the magi out of the box and place them on the altar? Have you dusted off the banner featuring the wise men for its once-a-year appearance? Or have you already started the post-Christmas clean-up? Are you coordinating volunteers to take down the Christmas tree, wrap up the wreaths, and transition into a much-needed, yet brief Ordinary Time before Lent begins? Wherever you and your church find yourselves ahead of Epiphany Sunday, take a moment. Take a breath. Look around. A new year is here. We made it to the other side of our glorious yet hectic Christmas Eve services. We’ve arrived at Epiphany, a Sunday of transition from the anticipation and celebration of Christ’s birth into a season focused on Jesus’ life and ministry.

Though many of our symbols and art for Epiphany emphasize glory and light cutting through the darkness, Epiphany is about revelation, the revelation of the Incarnate Christ, not just to his parents and some shepherds, but to people from a distant land who were paying attention and came to find what God is up to. Now, it’s no wonder our art emphasizes light; “revelation” is not an easy thing to portray. But we encounter revelation in multisensory ways. We hear the Word, see God at work, taste the goodness of God’s provision, smell God’s creation, feel the warmth of the sun or a hug from a dear friend. Epiphany requires us to notice, to be ready, to pay attention to how the revelation of God’s love and grace shows up in our midst.

So, as we join the magi in searching diligently for a revelation of God’s love, invite your congregants to engage the story with all their senses. Many congregations will celebrate Holy Communion today. Guide the gathered body to notice the taste and feel of the elements, to recognize Christ’s presence in the sacrament not just with their minds but with their senses. Sing the story through carols like “We Three Kings” (United Methodist Hymnal 254) or “The First Noel” (United Methodist Hymnal 245). Offer a breath prayer or a guiding question for the week ahead to encourage one another to search diligently for God’s presence outside the church’s walls. Find ways to call your congregants to “go and search diligently,” not to find God revealed through spectacle but to discover God revealed in the beautiful and mundane moments of our lives.

Author bio: Dr. Lisa Hancock, Director of Worship Arts Ministries, holds a Master of Sacred Music and Master of Theological Studies from Perkins School of Theology and a PhD in Religious Studies from Southern Methodist University, where she researched and wrote on the doctrine of Christ, disability, and atonement. Lisa is also the co-lead of Growing in Grace: Accessible Worship for All God’s Children.