The Season of Epiphany: An Anglican Perspective

The Season of Manifestation

The Season of Epiphany is the Church’s season of manifestation, beginning with the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 and continuing through the Last Sunday of Epiphany, Transfiguration Sunday. It follows the twelve days of Christmas and carries the mystery of the Incarnation forward into the public manifestation of Jesus Christ. It is not one of the Church’s great penitential seasons, nor is it itself a season of fasting. It is a season of revelation: the steady unfolding, Sunday by Sunday, of who the Child born in Bethlehem actually is.

The Feast of the Epiphany manifests Christ to the nations in the coming of the Magi. The season that follows traces the disclosure of his identity in the waters of the Jordan, through his calling, teaching, healing, signs, and authority, and finally upon the mountain where his glory is revealed and the Father commands the disciples to listen to his beloved Son. The Child worshiped at Bethlehem is revealed as Son, Messiah, King, Servant, healer, teacher, Lord, light of the nations, and finally the glorious one toward whom the Law and the Prophets bear witness.

The BCP 2019 provides the Collects for the season on pages 601–604 and the Sunday lectionary on pages 718–720. The season’s length varies because Easter moves. When Easter falls early, there are fewer Sundays of Epiphany; when Easter falls late, there are more. Yet its theological movement remains remarkably stable. The light manifested at Epiphany is received week by week until the Church reaches the mountain and Lent turns her more directly toward the Passion.

The Season of Manifestation

The word epiphaneia (eh-pee-FAH-nee-ah) means appearing, manifestation, or showing forth. The Feast of the Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles through the Magi, but the season extends that theme beyond Bethlehem. It asks the Church to look again and again at Jesus until the identity of the one who has come becomes unmistakable.

The First Sunday of Epiphany is always the Baptism of Our Lord. Here the manifestation becomes explicitly Trinitarian. The Son stands in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descends upon him, and the Father declares, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17, ESV) The Magi had worshiped the Child; now the Father himself identifies the Son. The Sundays that follow unfold what that declaration means.

The season does not tell exactly the same story every year. Each lectionary year approaches Christ through the distinctive witness of its Gospel, but the purpose remains consistent. Epiphany is a sustained schooling in recognition. The Church sees Christ call disciples, teach with divine authority, confront evil, forgive, heal, proclaim the Kingdom, and draw people toward faith. It is therefore more than a collection of stories from the earthly ministry of Jesus. Each Gospel episode answers the question raised by the Incarnation: Who is this who has come among us?

The Baptism of Our Lord

The Baptism of Our Lord gives the Sunday sequence its opening declaration. The Child born at Bethlehem is now an adult standing in the Jordan. The Father speaks, the Spirit descends, and Jesus’ public messianic ministry begins.

The event also establishes an important distinction between Christ and Christians. Jesus is the beloved Son by nature; Christians become sons and daughters by adoption. He does not enter the water because he needs repentance or forgiveness. He enters obediently as the sinless Servant and King who has come to identify with sinners and accomplish their salvation.

The Collect makes the connection to Christian Baptism carefully: “Eternal Father, at the baptism of Jesus you revealed him to be your Son, and your Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove: Grant that we, who are born again by water and the Spirit, may be faithful as your adopted children.” The identity revealed in Christ becomes the ground for understanding the grace Christians receive through union with him. The Baptism therefore begins the season with both revelation and grace: God tells the Church who Jesus is before the Church watches what he does.

The Epiphany Lectionary

The Sunday lectionary for Epiphany is found on pages 718–720 of the BCP 2019. The Baptism of Our Lord and the Transfiguration anchor the season in every year, while the intervening Sundays follow different Gospel paths.

In Year A, the Sunday after the Baptism begins with John the Baptist’s testimony: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, ESV) Matthew then carries the season through the calling of the first disciples and into the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes, salt and light, Jesus’ teaching concerning the Law, and the commands that follow reveal the authority of the King whom the Father identified at the Jordan. The season closes with Matthew 17:1–9 and the Transfiguration.

In Year B, the season moves from the Baptism into John 1:43–51, where Philip brings Nathanael to Jesus and Nathanael confesses, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:49, ESV) The lectionary then moves principally into Mark, where Jesus calls disciples, teaches with authority, confronts unclean spirits, heals the sick, and manifests the authority of the Kingdom in action. The Last Sunday appoints Mark 9:2–9.

In Year C, the season moves from the Baptism to the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine and John tells us that he “manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11, ESV) Luke then carries the season through Jesus’ proclamation in the Nazareth synagogue, the calling of disciples, and the teaching of the Sermon on the Plain. The Last Sunday appoints Luke 9:28–36, where Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus concerning the exodos (EX-oh-dos) he is about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

The Old Testament readings, Psalms, and Epistles support these Gospel manifestations from different directions. Israel’s Scriptures provide the language of kingship, Servanthood, covenant, light, holiness, wisdom, and divine presence by which the Church learns to recognize what is being revealed in Jesus. The Gospel events are therefore heard within the whole witness of Scripture.

From Manifestation to Mission

Epiphany does not permit the Church to receive the revelation of Christ as private religious knowledge. The light revealed is meant to be proclaimed. The Collect for the Second Sunday makes that movement explicit, confessing Jesus Christ as “the light of the world” and asking that God’s people, illumined by his Word and Sacraments, may shine with Christ’s radiance “that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.” The Church receives light in order to bear witness to the Light.

That missionary movement reaches a particular focus on World Mission Sunday, the Second-to-Last Sunday of Epiphany. Its Collect asks God to pour out the Holy Spirit anew “that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” The BCP permits that Collect, together with its corresponding Psalm and lessons, to be substituted for another Sunday of Epiphany except the First or Last.

Its placement is fitting. The season that began with Gentile Magi coming to worship Christ now sends the Church outward with the Gospel. At the beginning of Matthew, the nations come to Jesus. At the end, the risen Jesus commands his disciples to make disciples of the nations. Mission therefore arises from manifestation: the Church proclaims Christ because she has first been shown who he is.

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple on February 2 always falls before Lent and therefore within the Season of Epiphany. It is a fixed Red-Letter Holy Day with its own Collect, readings, and Preface of the Presentation.

The feast belongs naturally within Epiphany’s theology. Simeon takes the infant Christ into his arms and blesses God because his eyes have seen God’s salvation, prepared “in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:31–32, ESV) Christ is revealed, salvation is seen, Israel’s hope is fulfilled, and the nations are already in view.

The Presentation does not describe God turning away from Israel toward an unrelated Gentile people, nor does it leave us with two covenant peoples. The Child is the glory of Israel precisely as he becomes the light of the nations. Israel’s covenant vocation reaches its fulfillment in her Messiah, and through him Jews who believe in Christ and believing Gentiles are gathered into the one New Covenant people of God, the true and renewed Israel in Christ. The promise to Abraham always included blessing for all the families of the earth, and Simeon recognizes that promise reaching its fulfillment in the Child he holds.

The feast also begins to turn the season toward what lies ahead. Simeon’s proclamation of light is followed by the prophecy that the Child will be opposed and that a sword will pierce Mary’s own soul. Even in the midst of Epiphany’s light, the shadow of the Cross begins to appear.

The BCP 2019 Collects

The BCP appoints distinct Collects for the Sundays of Epiphany, and together they provide a theological movement of their own. The First Sunday begins at the Jordan and asks that those born again by water and the Spirit may live faithfully as God’s adopted children. The Second Sunday moves immediately outward, asking that those illumined by Word and Sacraments may make Christ known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.

The Collects of the intervening Sundays turn toward dependence, holiness, protection, faithful obedience, and perseverance. Epiphany therefore does not teach the Church merely to identify Christ intellectually. The one manifested to us calls forth a life shaped by grace.

World Mission Sunday makes the missionary movement explicit, and the Last Sunday gathers the whole season at the Transfiguration: “O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory.” The sequence matters. The Church is shown Christ before she is asked to follow him toward the Cross. Grace and revelation precede response.

The Preface of the Epiphany

The Preface of the Epiphany on page 153 gives the season one of its clearest theological summaries: “Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took on our mortal flesh to reveal his glory; that he might bring us out of darkness and into his own glorious light.” (BCP 2019, p. 153)

The movement is concentrated into a few words: mortal flesh assumed, glory revealed, darkness overcome, light received. The Incarnation is itself revelation. The eternal Son does not merely bring information about God; in taking our mortal flesh, he makes the glory of God known in his own Person.

The Preface of the Epiphany is appointed for the Feast of the Epiphany and for the First through Fourth Sundays of Epiphany. On the Fifth through Eighth Sundays, the Prayer Book permits either the Preface of the Lord’s Day or the Preface of the Epiphany. World Mission Sunday appoints the Preface of the Epiphany, while the Last Sunday provides for either the Preface of the Epiphany or the Preface of the Transfiguration. These directions help hold the season together while allowing its final Sunday to name the glory revealed upon the mountain explicitly.

What Christmas announced, Epiphany unfolds: the Word has become flesh, and in that flesh the glory of God is revealed.

Liturgical Colors and Worship

The liturgical color is white for the First Sunday of Epiphany, the Baptism of Our Lord, and again for the Last Sunday, the Transfiguration. The intervening Sundays from the Second through the Second-to-Last are green. The Presentation on February 2 is also white.

The colors make the season’s structure visible. White marks the great moments of manifestation at either end: the Father’s declaration at the Jordan and the revelation of Christ’s glory upon the mountain. Green fills the intervening Sundays as the Church follows Christ through his public ministry and grows in the recognition of who he is.

The Baptism of Our Lord also provides a natural occasion for the renewal of baptismal vows. Such a renewal is a fitting parish practice rather than a requirement of the Sunday. Its theology is strongest when the order of grace remains clear: Christ is the Son by nature, while those joined to him in Baptism have been received as children by adoption and are called to live faithfully within grace already given. In that sense, the whole season possesses a catechetical quality. The Church is learning who Christ is and, because she belongs to him, what it means to live as his baptized people.

From the Incarnation Toward the Cross

Epiphany belongs to the movement that begins with the Incarnation and turns increasingly toward the Paschal mystery. Christmas announces that the Word became flesh. Epiphany shows the Church who the incarnate Word is. Lent will turn more directly toward the Cross and Resurrection.

The connection is clearest at the season’s two ends. At the Jordan, the Child born at Bethlehem stands as an adult and is declared to be the beloved Son. The Epiphany Preface interprets the Incarnation itself as revelation: Christ took on mortal flesh to reveal his glory and bring those in darkness into his light.

At the other end stands the Transfiguration. The Collect says explicitly that Christ’s glory was revealed “before the passion.” In Luke, Moses and Elijah speak of the exodos Jesus will accomplish at Jerusalem. Epiphany has not yet entered the Passion, but by its final Sunday the Cross is unmistakably in view.

The glory and suffering are not competing stories. The face shining upon the mountain belongs to the same Jesus who will be crucified at Jerusalem. Epiphany teaches the Church who he is before Lent asks her to follow him more deliberately toward what he came to accomplish.

The season is therefore a genuine bridge between Christmas and Lent, but it is not merely an interval between more important things. It has its own work to do. The Church must learn to recognize the Son before she can understand the Cross as the saving work of that Son.

The Last Sunday: Transfiguration

The season ends as its Sunday sequence began, with the Father speaking. At the Jordan he declares Jesus to be his beloved Son, and on the mountain he speaks again: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”(Matthew 17:5, ESV) Moses and Elijah appear, the glory of Christ is manifested, and the disciples fall before the divine presence.

The repetition is not mere symmetry. The Baptism announces who Jesus is as his ministry begins, while the Transfiguration reveals his glory as the road turns toward the Passion. Luke makes that direction especially clear when Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus about the exodos he is about to accomplish at Jerusalem. The one revealed in glory is going toward the Cross, and his suffering will not be an accidental defeat but part of the saving work he has come to fulfill.

Epiphany therefore closes in revelation rather than uncertainty. Lent begins only after the Church has been shown whom she is following.

Observing the Season

The Season of Epiphany begins with the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 and continues through the Last Sunday of Epiphany. Its length changes with the date of Easter, but its spiritual movement remains consistent.

Follow the Sunday lectionary as a sustained act of recognition rather than treating each Gospel reading as an isolated story. Watch how each evangelist reveals Christ through calling, teaching, healing, signs, conflict, authority, and confession. Read the Old Testament lessons alongside the Gospel and listen for the scriptural language through which Israel’s hopes find their fulfillment in him.

It can also be fruitful to read the principal Gospel of the current lectionary year devotionally during the season. Reading beyond the Sunday portions helps each appointed passage sit within the evangelist’s larger testimony to Jesus and allows the cumulative character of Epiphany to become more apparent.

Pray the appointed Collect each week and allow it to shape the days that follow. Notice their movement from Trinitarian manifestation and baptismal grace through mission, dependence, protection, perseverance, and finally the Transfiguration prayer that asks God to strengthen and transform his people.

Mark the Presentation on February 2 as a genuine Epiphany Holy Day. Pray the Nunc Dimittis (noonk dih-MIT-iss) and hear Simeon confess that the Child in his arms is the light of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel, the Messiah in whom Israel’s covenant promises reach their fulfillment and the nations are gathered into blessing.

Let World Mission Sunday press manifestation outward. Pray for missionaries, evangelists, church planters, pastors, Bible translators, persecuted Christians, and peoples among whom Christ is little known. The light revealed to the Church is the Christ whom the Church is commanded to proclaim.

Finally, let Transfiguration Sunday perform its proper work. Do not hurry past the glory in order to reach Lent. The Church does not enter the penitential season uncertain about whose footsteps she is following. She has heard the Father’s testimony and seen the beloved Son manifested in glory. Only then does she turn toward Jerusalem.

Conclusion

The Season of Epiphany is the Church’s annual school of recognition. The Child worshiped by the Magi is revealed as the beloved Son at the Jordan, the Lamb of God, the King who calls disciples, the teacher who speaks with authority, the Lord who heals and saves, the light of the nations, and finally the Son revealed in glory upon the mountain. Week by week the Church is taught to see more clearly the one who has come among us in mortal flesh.

Yet Epiphany does not end by asking the Church merely to admire what has been revealed. The light moves outward in mission, while the glory upon the mountain turns toward the Passion. The one whom the Church has learned to recognize is the one she must proclaim to the nations and follow toward Jerusalem, because the glory and the Cross belong to one saving story in the Person of the Son who willingly goes to the Cross.

The Last Sunday therefore gives the season its fitting final prayer: “Grant that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory.” (BCP 2019, p. 604) The Church does not make that journey by the strength of her own recognition, resolve, or discipline. God reveals the Son, God grants faith, God strengthens his people, and God changes them by grace. Having seen the light, the Church is now prepared to follow the beloved Son toward the Cross and, beyond it, the glory of his bodily Resurrection.