Linda Vogt Turner

Epiphany XII: Bethesda — Where the Threads Are Braided

A white-haired man in a camel hair pashmina stands beside a red-haired woman with braided hair carrying a bedroll near a pool in the first century.

Lying there was one who had been unable to walk freely for thirty-eight years.

But how did Jesus know this?

Epiphany XI: Jesus Talk — At the Well: The Source

An older man wearing a camel hair pashmina sits beside a red-haired woman with unbound hair at a stone well. They share a cup of water between them.

A Samaritan and a Jew speak — and those far off think they see what is taking place.
They are speaking at a sacred well — at Noon — the sixth hour.

Epiphany X: Jesus Talk — in the Dark

Man and woman in a first-century setting seated face to face on a couch with sandals removed, moon and night sky visible through a parted curtain behind them.

A night conversation in John’s Gospel raises a question readers seldom ask: Who is the Teacher of Israel — and what is he doing speaking with Jesus in the moonlight?

Epiphany IX: The Bridegroom Called Aside — Set Apart

A red-haired woman rests her hand on a stone jar as an elder, professorial-looking man lifts a glass of wine for a black man draped in saffron to taste.

At Cana, the master of the banquet tastes the wine and the bridegroom is called aside. This ninth Epiphany reflection pauses to notice that phrase — and what it reveals in Lent.

Epiphany VIII: The Anointing

A red-haired woman anoints a white man’s feet at a table while a black man seated in shadow watches.

In Bethany, Simon judges the Teacher — and the Teacher answers with a parable. As Nathan once confronted David, Simon confronts the Teacher of Israel, revealing the need for grace.

But where is Grace — who forgives her sister for anointing her Lord’s feet?

Epiphany VII: The Sapphire Wall

Simon Peter judges Ananias and Sapphira for concealing the full price of the field they sold.

Veiling Grace and Glory, judgment follows. Epiphany VII reveals how concealment, the price of leadership, and the sapphire mystery hide Truth and pave the way.

The crippled one in Acts is over forty — a detail that amazes. Human life forms in 39–40 weeks. How much longer, then, for divine life: forty years, and more, before the newborn, crippled from birth, walks — and leaps as a gazelle, taking Peter’s hand.

Epiphany V: Disturbance on Solomon’s Porch

On a stone porch, a Black man in saffron robes sits beside an older white man with a beard, who holds a leafless branch.

At Solomon’s Porch, an unexpected bloom appears on a leafless branch — the restoration of one long crippled. How can this be? And how can such a fragile miracle be protected without being silenced?

Epiphany IV: Peter’s Speech

A single red rose blooming in deep snow.

At Solomon’s Colonnade, an unexpected bloom appears — the restoration of one long crippled. Peter makes clear this did not happen by his power or John’s alone, but through an ancient love, wounded yet never destroyed.

Epiphany III: At Solomon’s Porch

Shaded stone porch with columns forming a public walkway.

At Solomon’s Porch, what many had long waited and hoped for is revealed in public: Christ, the Bride belonging to the Bridegroom. Long crippled by male-centred worship and male grammar, this epiphany restores not only the Bride, but the Bridegroom — and all who bear witness, from the Forerunner onward.

Author Archives: Linda Vogt Turner