One of the themes of Epiphany (the season which began on Sunday) is the manifestation of the divine to human beings. This column (and our two adult forums upcoming on January 13th and—if continued interest—on January 20th) will touch upon the personal encounters people in Scripture had with God and will offer space for participants to share stories of their own personal encounters with the divine.
The word Epiphany comes from the Greek: ep-i-fawn-eye-oh means to appear, for an object to show itself—as a sun or star; to show oneself, to make an appearance.
ep-i-fawn-aye-ya means a visible manifestation of a hidden divinity, either in the form of a personal appearance or by some deed of power by which its presence is made known; Related words mean to shine forth, to dawn, to break, to arise. [1]
Those who encounter God are said to have experienced a “theophany”—simply put, to have experienced the appearance of God to a human being. How exactly does God appear to someone? The short answer is: however God so wishes. Undoubtedly there is a diverse and wonderful array of ways in which God reveals something of the divine self directly to someone.
Both ancient Near Eastern religions and Greek mythology record examples of theophanies. So do the Hebrew Scriptures. [2] Peruse the latter and you’ll appreciate the diverse ways in which God makes the divine presence known to someone. Here are but a few of many examples:
Genesis 3—Adam and Eve hear God’s voice
Genesis 4—God speaks to Cain
Genesis 6, 7, and 8—God speaks to Noah and his sons
Genesis 18—God appears to Abraham, showing up at Abraham’s tent in the form of three men
Genesis 32—Jacob wrestles with God
Exodus 3—God appears to Moses in the burning bush
Exodus 13—God appears to Moses and the Israelites as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night
Exodus 19—God appears as thunder, lightning, fire, smoke, earth-shaking, and the sound of a trumpet to Moses and the Israelites, and atop Mt Sinai speaks to Moses out of the flames
Prophets and leaders such as Samuel, Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah hear the voice of God and/or hear God through visions or dreams.
Why does God choose to appear or manifest to someone? Is God lonely and seeking company? One scholar tried to address that question by grouping Old Testament theophanies into the categories of Mosaic (because Moses had a number of theophanies), Judgement (Genesis 3 would be one example), and Covenant (God showing up to assure someone that God would keep his side of a covenant). [3] I would add a category to those: Call & Guidance. Scripture abounds with examples of God manifesting to someone to call them into ministry (think of the prophets), and to guide them toward God’s will.
What theophanies are there in the New Testament? A short answer might be that the entire gospels comprise a theophany. Jesus of Nazareth was the walking, talking, breathing, eating, healing, drinking, laughing, loving, raging, and suffering manifestation of God. And after his resurrection? Jesus Christ continued to appear to his friends. (Some people call such experiences of the risen Christ “Christophanies”.) Jesus Christ appeared to the women at the tomb, helped his friends find fish, ate breakfast with them on the beach, walked through a door into a room where his friends were meeting, invited Thomas to plunge his fingers into the wounds, and walked with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And then there was St Paul’s Damascus Road experience, so powerful it changed Paul’s life and shaped the foundations of the Christian faith forever after.
Then what happened? Did theophanies and the accounts of theophanies end with Paul and his epistles? No. I can’t offer you any concise inventory of theophanies in the earliest centuries of the church but if you fast forward to the writings of the Medieval mystics, then accounts of encounters with the divine abound. One of the most famous—and perhaps my favorite—are the visions (or “showings” in her words) of Julian of Norwich. Much more recently, Joseph Smith in 1820 saw a pillar of light descending from the sky and coming to rest upon him. Within that light, he saw two figures, one of whom called him by name. The experience forever changed Smith and led him on the path that would establish what is now The Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints. [4]
My hunch is that Theophanies/Christophanies are under-reported among people of faith. However, if you search the web for “angel encounters” or “near-death experiences” reports abound! So perhaps semantics have something to do with it. Polls show that eight out of 10 Americans believe in angels [5], and 63% of Americans believe that near-death experiences are real. [6]
Still, talking about an encounter with the divine—call it what you will: theophany, Christophany, angel encounter, or near death experience—takes courage because the one telling of the experience is making him or herself vulnerable to ridicule and challenge. Dr. Eben Alexander famously wrote of his experiences with God, hell, and heaven in his book “Proof of Heaven” and he is almost as famous for the large body of evidence debunking his claims and attacking his credibility. I offer this not to advocate for or against his account of his experience but rather to show that the cost of sharing such an experience can be quite high.
My own encounters include both auditory and visual experiences of the divine. They came to me because God apparently wished to extend a call to me or to offer me guidance. To summarize some of them, I experienced God’s voice in 2002 on a mountain trail in Seldovia, Alaska, calling me into ministry. In 2007, I heard that same voice in the seminary chapel one morning, calling and guiding me deeper into ministry. In 2010 up a canyon in northern Utah I had a tactile and visual theophany for the purpose of guidance—this time, the manifestation was in the person of Christ. Finally, at the end of a yoga class (during the “Shavasana” pose) in the summer of 2018, I had a visual theophany that I can only comprehend as being for the purpose of call.
How do you discern whether it’s a theophany or simply your own over-active imagination? I can only speak to this from my own experience. A theophany feels more sudden and unsettling than anything your imagination could produce. It’s why (in Scripture) when a theophany includes an angel the angel often says, “Be not afraid.” A theophany also tends to lead you somewhere you might not otherwise go or compel you to consider something you might not otherwise entertain. I also think a theophany is indelible, staying with you in a way something borne of your imagination does not. Consider that in 1738 Church of England priest John Wesley, at age 35, had what might be called a tactile theophany when he described his heart being “strangely warmed”. It was such a profound and memorable experience for him that he broke away from the Church of England and founded what is today known as the Methodist Church.
I further believe that all of us who experience God in Nature or in the love of another human being or creature is experiencing a kind of divine revelation, but I think those experiences are different (no less valuable and no less marvelous—just different) from theophanies. To recap, then, a theophany can be sudden and unsettling, compels one to do something perhaps not previously under consideration, and it makes an indelible mark on one’s memory and life. I’m not sure those are the only descriptors, so consider them but a start.
I’m wondering if you have had an encounter with the divine and if so, if you’d be courageous enough to share the story of it—not with me but with your fellow parishioners. I have a sense that just beneath the surface of our communal life lies a rich and beautiful vein of such stories. I am hoping that in two adult forums upcoming we might mine and lift up some of these stories as jewels to inspire and affirm one another. After church on Sunday, January 13th we’ll gather in the church in small groups to talk about precisely this. To get you thinking I’ve offered some questions below for you to ponder. If we run out of time on January 13th and there’s continuing interest, we’ll gather again and take up our story-telling on January 20th. In this season of Epiphany, we are reminded that God continues to come among us and reveal something of the divine self to us, for Love is always seeking to establish a bond.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
1. What’s your favorite theophany story from the bible? Why does it appeal to you and what do you think it says about God?
2. If theophanies can be characterized as sudden and unsettling, compelling one to do or consider something one might not otherwise, and making an indelible mark on one’s life, can you think of an experience of God you have had that fits one or more of these criteria? If yes, can you tell the story of that experience?
If no, what additional descriptors or criteria might you add to or take away from this definition of a theophany, and does a fuller or different definition better help you to think of an experience you have had?
3. If you have had an experience you would categorize as a theophany (and remember, guardian angel encounters and near-death experiences can be considered revelations of the divine), how has that experience changed your life? Has it changed the way you think about God and if so, how?
4. Can you recall powerful divine encounter stories others have told you—that seemed to you to be theophanies—that the storyteller described as “coincidence”? Do you think there is an unwillingness to call a theophany a theophany, and if so, why?
5. Do you think God reveals the divine self to only some people or to everyone? If the latter, why do you think not everyone recognizes and/or talks about the experience?
[1] Greek-English Lexicon, Bauer, 304
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophany
[3] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-ultimate-theophany/
[4] https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/joseph-smith
[5]https://www.beliefnet.com/inspiration/galleries/are-angels-for-real-captivating-stories-of-angelic-encounters.aspx?
[6] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutesvanity-fair-poll-the-afterlife/
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldersgate_Day
