Epiphany (Matthew 2:1-12) 01/06/2013

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Happy New Year! The New Year always brings an opportunity that I look forward to each year, an opportunity to find some new and interesting calendar to guide the days and months ahead. And as we take down last year’s calendars and replace them with new ones, we too have been given an opportunity to renew our lives and begin this New Year with a fresh start. The end of the year also invites us to spend some time in reflection, giving some thought to these past twelve months; where we have been, what we have seen, and how we might approach this coming year with new and enlightened understandings of our world. During this past year we have experienced many challenges: Hurricane Sandy, Sandy Hook School and the fiscal cliff…and that just covers the past three months. But we have also witnessed the joys of watching the world come together in London for the Summer Olympics and closer to home we have heard from our young Pilgrims and their trip to Belize and our community has visited our friends in Haiti and Cuba. Our experiences of this past year are memories now, but our reflections provide us with insights that help us to learn and grow into a new year of hope filled opportunities; opportunities that await us if we are willing to turn our faith in Christ into actions of love and service.

Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany; a day when the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, was made known throughout the world. The people of Israel were familiar with the prophetic texts that proclaimed there would be a day of a new King, and in Matthew’s Gospel account the story of the Epiphany is the day when the long expectant Messiah had finally come. The words of the prophets had finally come true and the memories and promises of the past had finally become reality.  As we hear this story in our Gospel lesson this morning, we might imagine that the long awaited Messiah would have been first recognized by the people of Israel and welcomed with joy, but that is not the story that we hear this morning. The story of the Epiphany is that the revelation of God’s holy Word was made known throughout the entire world, but the world did not receive the news of the Incarnate Word of God in the same way; and here we feel a great tension in this miraculous story.

The visiting Magi from the distant East traveled a great distance to pay homage to the newborn King. The wise men were not Jews, they were not familiar with the traditions and stories of God’s relationship with Israel, yet they understood something miraculous was breaking into our world by following the star, by following the signs of God’s creation. The people of Israel (King Herod, the scribes, and the people of Jerusalem) we are told were frightened by the news of the newborn King. The people of Israel had long heard the words of the prophets but they were not ready to act, not ready to move into this new time of God’s action in the world. As King Herod and the scribes stayed in Jerusalem waiting for more information, the wise men of the distant East moved on to Bethlehem. (the distance from Jerusalem to Bethlehem is approximately 6 miles – the distance of a 10k race or a walk from here to Christ Church Cathedral and back again!) The popular story of the feast of the Epiphany is quite familiar to us (the story is an exciting part of our Christmas Pageant) but the story we know is often focused solely on the wise men seeking Christ to him homage; and we do not remember those who chose to stay home. The full story of the Epiphany is a challenging story; a story that asks us to consider how we respond to the Good News of Christ. The remarkable difference in the actions of the wise men and the people of Israel is the subject of a reflection by 19th century Danish philosopher and author Soren Kierkegaard. He wrote, “What a difference! The three kings had only a rumor to go by. But it moved them to make that long journey. The scribes were much better informed, much better versed. They sat and studied Scripture like so many dons, but it did not make them move. Who had the more truth? The three kings who followed a rumor, or the scribes who remained sitting with all their knowledge?”[i] Kierkegaard points to an important lesson of the Epiphany story: God acts in ways that may surprise us, in ways that may unsettle us, but we are called as faithful servants of God to be open to the mysteries and grace of God as those miracles are given to us…and some of those miracles may compel us to move in new and surprising ways.

Today, in this feast of the Epiphany, we celebrate the truth of God’s holy Word as it is revealed to us in the Incarnate Word of Christ.  As we enter this New Year may you be filled with the Light and love of Christ; may the reflections of your past give you courage and confidence to know that God’s grace is among you in abundance; and may the hope of this New Year fill you with the imagination and inspiration to get up and follow Christ’s call of love and service in the world. AMEN.