I've been thinking about journeys in recent weeks. We are all on journeys of one sort or another; even life is for each of us a journey. I'm nearing the mid point of my own journey to ordination in June 2009 and my studies this term are taking me on a breakneck journey though over a thousand, three hundred years of history covered by the Old Testament.

The theme of journeys runs through this season of Epiphany which runs from Christmas to the start of Lent next month. Journeys all have beginnings. Over recent weeks, the readings in church have been full of firsts, of beginnings, of moments of revelation - of Epiphanies. We've heard about the Coming of the Wise Men, the Baptism of Christ, John bringing his disciples to Jesus, Jesus' first proclamation of the Kingdom, the first miracle at the wedding at Cana and finally at Candlemas, the Presentation of Christ in the temple and the prophecies pronounced over him by Anna and Simeon. We too are called to live out our baptismal promises and renew our commitment to take the life of Christ out of the church and into the world. It is for that reason that Epiphany is the season that turns the church outwards again after the more reflective period of Advent and the joyous celebrations of Christmas. It's a season of reminders of the journey we are on.

The word Epiphany means a 'shining out', a manifestation. All through this Epiphany season we see glimpses of the divine glory shining through the humanity of Christ. Back at the beginning of January we heard the well known story of the visit of the Magi to the infant Christ. They represented the start of the great gathering of the nations forecast by Isaiah in the Old Testament. 'Nations shall come to your light' and he was talking about non Jewish nations. That was the shocking thing. The Jewish people knew that they and they alone were God's chosen people, but all through the books of the Prophets in the Old Testament are these visionary statements that one day, things will be thrown wide open to the rest of the world - the Gentile world. The apostle Paul understood this and writes forcibly about it in his Letter to the Ephesians; they are now fellow-heirs, members of the same body and sharers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

Paul had his own Epiphany, after all, on the Damascus road. To quote the old spiritual song, 'My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.' And I think this explains why Paul was so vehemently against those who tried to make conditions around and impose limitations upon God's generous gift.

Actually, Paul also had a lot in common with the Magi. Both got there late. As far as we know, Paul never saw Jesus in the flesh. In that, they are like us, too. Most of us come to God with a sense of opportunities missed, of years wasted, but to all of us he holds out the precious promise that our latecoming won't matter. Both Paul and the Magi made some spectacularly tragic mistakes in trying to work out where God was leading them. The Magi trusted their own common sense instead of concentrating on God's guidance - they were looking for a king so they went to the local palace, and in doing so inadvertently betrayed Jesus to Herod, and caused the death of all the innocent children of Bethlehem. And Paul approved the killing of Stephen and persecuted many others before he found the right path. Maybe none of us have personally made such huge mistakes, but the church of which we are part has managed to slaughter quite a few saints and innocents in the last two thousand years. And no doubt most of us can look back over our journey of faith and cringe at some of what we have done in the conviction that we were doing God's work, when really we were following our own human pride.

But the Magi and Paul were prepared to set out on a journey, guided only by God, drawn by the light of Christ. And that's what we need to do too. We should always be ready for the next step of the journey; always looking towards the distant light; always conscious of our own personal Epiphanies, whatever form they may have taken; always remembering the riches that have been showered on us; always grateful, as Paul is grateful, for the generosity of a God who seeks to pour out his grace on everyone, even the people we have always thought were beyond the pale; always determined, as Paul is determined, not to let unnecessary cultural barriers block the free flow of that grace.

If we do all this, like the Magi, then others will come to see what we are gazing at and see the light of Christ for themselves. And they will go away changed - just as the Magi could not go back along the same route they came - and become, like us, sharers in the promise. What a thought! Happy New Year.