Rise and Shine! Those words are usually addressed to people who are in no mood to hear them! I know all three of my daughters remember me saying those words to get them up for school, and those memories are not necessarily fond ones! If you have heard those words, you were most likely sleeping peacefully and they were a disturbance. They were not welcome. You didn’t want to hear them. You were snug and comfortable in your bed, then someone called out “RISE AND SHINE.” Most people respond grumpily, or with a groan. You pull the covers up over your head and hope you didn’t really hear what you heard. My wife calls our youngest grandson a “morgenmuffel.” It is a German word that translates as “morning grouch.” (By the way, Cheryl also identifies herself as a “morgenmuffel.”) The words “Rise and Shine” are not well received by morgenmuffels. Even though you may not like to hear those words, you know you should do what they say. If you don’t get out of bed, you will waste the day and not get anything accomplished. All of you have responsibilities and things to do each day. You understand that you need to RISE AND SHINE!

Isaiah tells the people of God to RISE AND SHINE. They were not literally sleeping, but had drifted into a kind of spiritual sleep mode. Sin can lull you into a relaxed and seemingly comfortable kind of sleep, but that is outside of God’s plan. God does not want you to just coast through life. Instead you are told to rise and shine with the light of Jesus Christ that has dawned upon you. You are to be a Light to the nations. That is what Isaiah was saying: It’s time to wake up and SHINE for the LORD. And you need to start by shining that light for others to see right where you live.

That is the overall theme of Epiphany: being a light to the Nations, or a “Light to the Gentiles!” To the Jewish people, anyone who was not a Jew was a Gentile, and that was not a complimentary term. The Jews spoke of Gentiles with contempt, much like people today people speak of “foreigners” with that little edge in our voice. It was hard for the Jewish people to accept that the promised salvation of God would also be for the Gentiles. The Old Testament people could not truly understand this — they were the chosen ones. They knew the Messiah would come through them, but after a while they began to think that He would come only for them.The Jews distorted God’s promise so that it applied only to them and no one else.

But not all the Jews had this faulty understanding. Isaiah’s message was heard and understood by many, that God would be the Savior of all men, Jews and Gentiles. In Isaiah God said I…will make you…a light for the Gentiles. Those are the words you heard Simeon echo in when he saw the baby Jesus: a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel (Luke 2:32). There were those among God’s chosen people who understood that God’s salvation is for all men.

The followers of Jesus – you and me – should have the same attitude. The light of Christ is to illumine the entire world–that happens through His followers. That is why you have been called to RISE AND SHINE. When you hear that call, don’t be a MORGENMUFFEL. Rise and Shine!