Epiphany is not just a day or a season in the church year. It’s a way of life! This is your invitation to experience the presence of Christ in the ordinary moments of our lives.
Meeting Christ in the Ordinary Moments of Life
Epiphanies are everywhere. An epiphany is a powerful insight, a revelation that can strike at any moment, in any place, and to anyone. An epiphany enlightens us, provides a deep understanding of reality, and can profoundly impact our lives. Often arising from simple yet impactful experiences, these moments can catch us off guard with a sudden clarity we may have otherwise overlooked. What if these extraordinary moments result from everyday insights that sharpen our ability to see God’s revelations in a new light? In Everyday Epiphanies: Meeting Christ in the Ordinary Moments of Life, James A. Harnish invites you to see the presence of Christ in the everyday moments of our lives. In seven chapters, he takes you through the moments in the gospels where ordinary people experienced the extraordinary revelation of Jesus as the Son of God. As you read this book, you’ll learn to pay attention to the ordinary epiphanies in your own life, the small revelations of Christ that point to God’s dramatic self-revelation to the world.
Gregory Palmer, Executive Secretary, Council of Bishops, The United Methodist Church
In Everyday Epiphanies, Jim Harnish weaves together Scripture, story, history, poetry, cinema to summon and guide us to pay attention to our lives, experiences, creation, the people around us, trusting that what we need for the living of our days has already been made available to us. This is a book full of wisdom from one who has “gained a wise heart” by paying attention.
Charlene P. Kammerer, Bishop, The United Methodist Church, retired
Get ready to soak in these rich biblical texts, which will lead you to surprising moments of epiphany awe. Practicing spiritual disciplines help prepare us to be startled by God’s light, which appears unbidden on our path. In reading and reflecting on Epiphany, I found myself continually singing, “Tune thy heart to sing thy grace,” from the famous hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
Magrey R. deVega, Senior Pastor of Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa, Florida, and author of Questions Jesus Asked and The Christmas Letters
Too often, we think of the season between Advent and Lent as merely a pause to catch our breath between Christmas and Easter. But Jim Harnish’s latest book reminds us that Epiphany is itself full of wondrous possibility. In recalling the stories between Christ’s birth and the start of his public ministry, we discover that God’s capacity to surprise us takes no such pause. We just need to open our eyes and our hearts to experience the splendor of grace, every day.
Ken Carter, Bishop, The United Methodist Church, Western North Carolina Conference, and author of Unrelenting Grace
Jim Harnish is a wise pastor and a brilliant interpreter of the Scriptures, but in these pages he also becomes for us an essential guide to the ordinary and ongoing ways Christ is present with us. Epiphany is a season of the church and a spiritual practice, and we will more fully access these gifts as we journey through these pages.
Leonard Sweet, prolific author, professor, preacher, publisher, proprietor (sanctuaryseaside.com)
James Harnish’s Everyday Epiphanies is a soul-stirring jam session, riffing on the wild notion that Christ crashes our mundane moments with divine surprises. The book is a kaleidoscope of grace, spinning sacred stories and street-level epiphanies into a dazzling dance of faith that’ll jolt your spirit awake. Harnish doesn’t just write—he ignites a holy fire to see God’s glory blazing in the everyday grind.
Preston Davis, Vice President and Minister to the University, High Point University
Jim Harnish is a master of training his attention on the grace of God. It’s no surprise that Everyday Epiphanies will make you want to do the same.
Christine Parton Burkett, Consulting Faculty, Duke Divinity School
Jim Harnish’s new book, Everyday Epiphanies, is an invitation to wonder, faith, and revelation. Jim helps us find glimpses of goodness and glory hidden in ordinary, even mundane, moments. God is in dark gardens and smelly stables, not just on sunny mountaintops and synagogues. God can be found, if you keep your eyes and heart open, in the quiet moments of the everyday.
Available at Cokesbury.com or Amazon.com.
Jim Harnish 
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Congratulations. Can I go to Amazon Kindle. I’d really love to read it.
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Yes! It’s on Kindle.
Congratulations! So many will be blessed by this book as they are by your others.
My preorder of 3 books for my family members arrived a week ago. I can’t wait to read it and send out the other two copies. Thanks, Jim, for your thoughts and writings!
Hi Jim Looking forward to reading! Hope all is well Susan
Susan: Hope you enjoy the book. I’m doing well, still dealing with numbness in the leg, but the mamentine seems to be helping the MCI. Martha is very well. We are very grateful.
Are there videos to go along with the new book Everyday Epiphanies? Where can we find them? From a small group at HPUMC. Thank you. Priscilla
Are there videos to go along with the new book Everyday Epiphanies? Asking for a small group at HPUMC. Thanks Priscilla
Sadly, there are not. I would be willing to have a couple Zoom conversations with the group.
Thank you so very much, that is very kind of you. Our Wednesday At Noon zoom group is small. You know everyone in the group except me. Ann Campbell, Ann Spillane, Maggie Arnold, Allison Alexander and Valerie Houge. We will start your book in a few weeks and then we can discuss our schedules and coordinate with you dates that you may be able to join us. Blessings. Priscilla Raasch-Mason
I’ll look forward to connecting with your group. Greetings to each of them!
I am thoroughly enjoying your book, Everyday Epiphanies. You rwriting, reflections, study of scripture and beautiful imagery have been a guiding light for me during this season.
I am curious to know why, in chapter 2 on “Old Eyes and New Vision”, you felt compelled to spend time on the 2024 election and what was clearly for you an unwanted outcome. If I am honest, it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I know it was a very emotional election with strong feelings on both sides ~ I would love to hear from you why you chose to disclose your feelings on the election results?
I loved Chapter 1 ~ it caused me to pause and ask ” When have I caught sight of the light of Christ?” So much opportunity for rich reflection in the words of this chapter~ Magi, Light, Awe and Joy at the revelation of a star. I spent a great deal of time journaling in my Lectio Divina journal on what it means to depart/return another way. After they worshipped Jesus, they could not go back the same way they had come. This is true for us today! Once you have met God, you will never be the same. An encounter with God changes you. Things become different.
You commented that “We don’t even know if the story literally happened.” p. 4 Am I to derive from this that you do not believe in the inerrancy of scripture?
I look forward each morning to opening your book and reflecting/chewing on the words you share. Thank you for sharing your gifts.
Warmly, Julie Gilbert
Thanks for your affirmation of the book. I’m grateful for every way it may help you experience the epiphany of Christ in our lives today.
In answer to your questions, I included my reflection on the election because it speaks the deep realities we face in our nation today and because I believe the way people responded to it demonstrated one way faithful disciples are dealing with this kind of experience. I hope the lessons I drew from it are helpful even if you were evidently pleased with the results of the election.
Regarding scripture, a brief answer to a large question. I believe and attempt to live on the basis of the authority and inspiration of scripture. I find “inerrancy” to be rationalistic concept that denies the vitality of the way the Spirit was and continues to be at work through the written word to make it a living word through the complexity and beauty of human history.
Thanks for your affirmation and your questions.