Insights
When I was a child,
I didn’t know very much about Epiphany – as either a religious feast or a
spiritual resource – all I knew was the old Christmas carol, “We Three Kings.” Like most of suburban America, my family took
down our Christmas tree sometime before New Year’s Day, we put the decorations
away, too because for us the holiday was over.
We may have sung “The 12 Days of Christmas” together as a family in the
car going to visit my grandparents, but we had no idea what it meant or why it
mattered.
· Today we
do things differently: our Christmas
tree and all the decorations are still up as we honor and celebrate the full 12 days of Christmas; now I know
that Epiphany literally means manifestation or a living encounter with God’s
light; and because of that light these days I want to know more about the spiritual wisdom of this season.
· Don’t get
me wrong – I love all the decorations and feasting – and I don’t think that our
old way of doing Christmas was bad or wrong.
It’s just that this moment in my life I also want to go deeper: beyond the obvious – to ponder what the real
nature of the Christ Child means for our lives today – and try to understand
how the unique festivals and celebrations of this season can help me better
live into the life of Jesus.
Sr. Joan Chittister
said it best for me when she wrote that there are deeper meanings to all the
celebrations we encounter at this time of year – from Christmas and the Feast
of the Holy Family to Epiphany and the Baptism of Jesus Sunday – if we are open
to their mystical truths.
Each
of the feasts of Christmastide is another star on the horizon of the soul,
confirming what our hearts already know:
God is with us… (If we are paying attention) we discover that we are not
left wondering like John the Baptist, whether Christ is the one who is to come
(and bring us God’s blessings.) Now we
can watch the Lord Jesus grow in God’s grace... (And) never need to fear the
darkness again nor live like a people who walk in darkness…
… Because now we
have seen, experienced and encountered God’s light in Christ Jesus our Lord.
· Do you hear what I’m saying? If we tenderly and playfully enter into the
wisdom of each of our celebrations in the days after Christmas, we too can be
strengthened by faith to face every darkness that life might bring to us: in our tradition Christ is clearly the light
God has promised to illuminate, warm and renew each and all of us.
· But this blessing – this assurance – this
Epiphany doesn’t come by accident or all at once; it takes a life time of
walking in the way. It takes a
commitment to nourishing an alternative to the status quo. For if we just “do” Christmas – pop up the
tree for a bit, put on a few carols and then tear everything down after the
gifts are opened – nothing changes.
So let me offer you
three insights from the Epiphany story that might give you another way to
celebrate and honor this time after Christmas – a way to go deeper into the
sacred story – so that this becomes a season that nourishes the faith of both children
and adults. And let me start with a word
of prayer:
Precious
Lord, you bring together people of different nations and languages, different
races, classes and cultures in your grace:
may our hearts be opened now that by faith we might become one with
all. For we pray in the Spirit and
Presence of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Insights
The first insight about Epiphany has to do
with the Three Wise Men – or Kings – or Magi:
what do you know about them?
Who were these strangers who travelled from what is now Iran and Iraq to
worship the Christ Child? In our
tradition the Magi tell us some interesting truths about the journey of faith –
ideas that sometimes clash with what we think
we know about being faithful – and certainly bump into one another when we hold
them all together.
For example these visitors were not
really kings – we get that idea from the poetry of Isaiah 60 that speaks of
gold, frankincense and myrrh – but in fact the Magi were both respected
spiritual scientists from their world – people who studied astrology and dream
interpretation in Persia – and simultaneously so-called pagan barbarians who
were hated within the realm of Judaism.
· We get the word magician from the Magi and the
Jews of Christ’s time believed that those who dabbled in magic were not to be
trusted – they were not only superstitious – they were dangerous and opposed to
the love of God. Did you know
that? They were loved in their world and
hated and feared in the land of Jesus.
· What’s more, the Magi came from the East – each
week we’ve been having our Three Kings make their journey through our Sanctuary
to the Christmas Crèche from the East – so why was that a problem for the Hebrew
people? Kate Matthews Huey puts it like
this:
They come from "the East" – the
same direction from which most of Israel's conquerors approached, including Assyria,
Babylon, and Persia… East of Judea is the Tigris and the Euphrates – the Garden
of Eden – Ur of the Chaldees – and Babylon, where Jews lived in Exile after the
destruction of the first Temple. East of Judea is the Jewish community who
stayed behind in Babylon when other Jews returned to rebuild their Temple and
Jerusalem. (So) these Magi… were probably among the Gentiles who had been
influenced by the Jews who remained beyond in Babylon after the rest of their
community returned home to Israel…
Strangers from the
East were not trusted – they were not loved or revered – but feared and hated and
held in profound suspicion. And yet OUR story tells us that these
same strangers not only saw some-thing of the Living God in the heavens that
attracted them to Jesus, but acted in such a way that is we can learn about
living in faith from them. So
what do you make of that?
· What does this story say to you about strangers
who are simultaneously hated and wise beyond our comprehension?
· Have you ever met strangers who have surprised
you with their insights? Or kindness? Or generosity? Have you ever bumped up
against your own prejudice or fear in the company of strangers? What’s that like – what have you learned from
your suspicions?
One truth the story
of the Magi offers us is that God is at work beyond the obvious – beyond both
our fears and comprehension – beyond the limits of our experience and
imagination. Here are strangers acting
by faith, breaking down barriers of suspicion, race and culture, reminding us
that God’s grace is bigger than all our divisions. So this is an invitation to humility – and
trust – to watching and waiting more in silence than in judgment. Because let’s be honest: most of the time our knowledge about most of
life is incomplete – at best.
· We don’t know what’s in another’s heart,
right? We barely understand ourselves
let alone those who are strangers and outwardly different from us. How does the poet Isaiah put it: Lift up your eyes and look around… get over
yourselves and your hearts shall rejoice... because God’s light is coming to
you in the most unexpected way.
· And in an era like our own – when so many
(myself included) are often too quick to speak and judge rather than watch and
learn – the wisdom of the Magi matters:
Lift up your head – take a look around – and you will discover God
coming into the world in ways you could never imagine.
And there are two
other important insights to glean from the story of the Magi, too. One
has to do with the fact that they needed both the testimony of nature AND the
wisdom of Scripture to comprehend the light of God in Christ. If you pay attention to the story it tells us
that while the Magi saw the start – and followed it on a journey of faith –
they needed help interpreting its meaning.
And where did they go but to the Bible?
I know that a lot of people these days discount the Bible: some say it is filled with religious bigotry
that disqualifies it for use in the 21st century while others
believe it is only mildly valuable in a world filled with competing truth
claims and spiritual diversity.
I don’t disagree –
I’ve seen the Scriptures used in horrible and mean-spirited ways, too – and I
don’t want to have any part of that. And
at the same time, I have come to believe that we need to be grounded in a
spiritual tradition that is bigger, wiser and older than ourselves if we’re
going to live as people of compassion in the world.
· Let me put it like this: none of us is smart enough – or consistently
good and loving enough – to be the sole judge of our own ethics or
morality. “All of us have sinned and fallen
short of grace,” as the Apostle Paul reminds us. All of us – the good, the bad
and the ugly – the wise and the foolish, men, women and children.
· And while we can all discern and discover
something of God’s loving light in the world like the Magi, we need help turning
this insight into something that advances healing and hope in the world. We need help learning how to worship – we
need help practicing compassion – we need help in accepting and sharing
forgiveness – we need help in trusting God’s presence is with us even in the
darkness.
Preacher Thomas
Long said:
The world is full of 'stars in the East' – events in nature, personal
experience and history that point toward the mystery of God…" but we the
Bible to help us to "recognize these holy moments for what they are…to see
God's face clearly in them." Without scripture, we would be like the wise
men, trying to figure out the deeper meaning of what they had experienced and
then what to do about it.
First the story
speaks to us about the enormity of God’s love that comes to us and the world in
the most unexpected ways – in strangers and babies and stars and mystical
experiences and nature and the arts and so much more. Second we’re reminded that we all need help
in discerning what these experiences mean – and what we might do with them – which
is where tradition, Scripture and community comes into the picture. To grow and mature in the light, we need
direction, training and guidance.
And the third insight from the Epiphany
story is this, I think: not only is God honored and discovered by
the Magi in the Christ Child and the Scriptures, but the whole world and its
people are honored, too. “This is not a Christian child only,” you see,” this
Child belongs to the whole world.” (Chittister)
This Child recognizes and loves ALL the people of the world – Jews and
Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, rich and poor, women and men and children, gay
and straight, sinners and faithful, soldiers and pacifists.
· In the stable there are shepherds and animals,
Mary and Joseph, heaven and earth and now favored and feared strangers from the
East – the Magi.
· And just as they recognize the heavenly in this
child, so too does the Child “recognize the whole people of God in them.” (Chittister)
Conclusion
Epiphany has become for me the culmination of
the Advent/Christmas arc. It is a quiet light leading me through my worst fears and prejudices, beyond
my traditional understandings of the sacred and away from my time tested habits
of worship towards the grace of God. It
asks that I shut my mouth more than I speak words of judgment, that I let God’s
love guide my thinking and that I learn what love looks like through the life
of Jesus Christ. It is how the
blessing of the Christ Child ripens within my life.
May God’s love be a
guiding star before you – a glorious song in the heavens above you – a gentle path
on the road below you – a galvanizing voice deep within you – and loving
presence wherever the journey may lead you.
Amen.
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