THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD
Filed under: Messages |
There is a Christmas carol that sings about the need for Christmas, just a little Christmas. Who could argue that observation? But this year, I think a case could be made for the need to celebrate the older feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. If we take our lead from the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah, you’ll see what I mean. The glorious opening sets the tone for us. Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. Splendor. Glory. Thrilling words, they conjure lush images in the hearer’s imagination. Then comes to proclamation that Jerusalem’s splendor will be so radiant and their riches so magnificent that foreigners from the East will come with their gifts and praise the Lord.
There is a challenge if we hear the message in its historical context. It is true that the exile, the Babylonian Captivity, has come to an end. Cyrus has allowed the Jews to return to their beloved Jerusalem. Ah, but what did they find when they arrived home? Destruction and ruin, the aftereffects of war and pillage. Even the Temple is destroyed. Imagine the tears and the wailing. Hear Isaiah’s prophecy in that setting. How would your heart respond?
We need a little Epiphany, just a little Epiphany this year. These are difficult times, for some, desperate times. Tough economic news fills people with terror and dread. Who isn’t stunned when the tolls are told of the many who are jobless, the many who have lost their homes, the banks that have failed? The memory of recent natural disasters is fresh in our minds. Think of Zimbabwe’s people dying from cholera and famine. And there is the war. You may be carrying the burden of poor health, advancing age, or the loss of a loved one. Hear Isaiah’s words and believe – which is another way of saying, hope in the Lord. Epiphany is about hope and the revelation of God’s love for us in the One who is born among us.
No one ever said that living in faith would be easy. Jesus always said that those who would follow him would have to dispossess themselves and carry the Cross. I think some of us might have concluded that we could choose the cross and temper the dispossession. These times and personal experience prove otherwise.
The word Epiphany means: manifestation, or, showing forth. For us, in the celebration of this feast, Epiphany means recognizing the glory of the Lord in the one who has come and chosen to dwell among us, the One who brings God’s love to embrace all people. Through Jesus, the walls that separate and divide people have been torn down. Even racial and gender differences have been bridged and healed. In Christ the human and the divine have been united and all know the love of God as their dignity and worth are solemnized. That is what Paul tells us in the reading from the Letter to the Ephesians. The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. John said it another way. Beloved, we are God’s children now. What we shall become remains to be seen.
Do you see evidence of Epiphany’s reality around you? Please God, yes, especially when you gather for Eucharist. Please God then you experience the unity that is yours in the one Bread and the one Cup. Please God you recognize the wonder as you celebrate the Mystery.
Epiphany is rife with challenge. The word means manifestation, remember? Who will do the manifesting? Ah, there’s the rub.
Hear the gospel reading for today. The first thing to note is that those who should have been most informed by their studying of the Scriptures should have rejoiced at the star’s rising and understood its significance. But that is not the case. Foreigners, nonbelievers, recognized the sign and immediately set out to follow where it led. There is nothing in Matthew’s Gospel that identifies the travelers as kings, much less that they were three in number. Matthew does say that they were astrologers; they studied the heavens and saw implications in stars’ configurations. And recognizing the implications, they came to adore and give gifts, dispossess themselves of gold, a gift for a king, frankincense, a gift for a god, and myrrh, the ointment of preparation for one who would die.
Isn’t it curious that when the Magi seek information from Herod’s court that will be specific in helping the strangers locate the newborn King of the Jews, Herod asks the chief priests and the scribes who know just where to go in the Scriptures and so determine that you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel. The Gospel is not always good news to those who do not want to take its message to heart and change their lives accordingly. Herod was quite happy being king of the Jews. The chief priests and scribes were quite comfortable beholden to him and did not want to rock the boat, so to speak. This king they knew. They had no idea what having a new king would mean for them, even if that king, that shepherd, were sent by God.
Herod sends the Magi off with instructions to return once they have found the newborn one so that he can go and likewise adore? No. So that he can annihilate the threat to his throne. Lest you curse Herod, remember that he is a figurehead, a symbol for all of those who will recognize Christ’s significance but not want to pick up dispossess themselves, pick up their crosses, and follow him.
This takes us back to the feast we celebrate, Epiphany. We make a mistake if we think we are meant to be passive spectators of the proclamation of the Word or the celebration of the Eucharist. We are meant to be transformed by both and then to be sent. The Epiphany happens, the manifestation or showing forth happens through the transformed lives of service of those who have seen and have believed. This cannot be clung to for selfish purposes only. Certainly there is comfort and consolation in the hearing and the Eucharist, but having been nourished we are then sent to make a difference in the world, to be the star seen at its rising, that is, to live lives that make no sense except for Jesus whose other self we are. That can only be seen through the works that we do.
I was very touched by 17-year-old Jourdan Urbach’s story. He is a brilliant violinist, a prodigy who as a 10-year-old gave a little performance in the wards of a children’s hospital. He was touched by what he saw. And so the child founded Children Helping Children (CHC). He would give a portion of his earnings to the support of these ill youngsters for whom he had played and invite other children to do the same. To date he and his organization have raised nearly 2 million dollars.
I don’t know what his faith is, if he is Christian or a non-believer. But he is an Epiphany, one whose actions show forth the love of God revealing the hope that is ours in Jesus.
Next week, the Epiphany continues in the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. Are you ready for that?
Sincerely,
Didymus
