• "A Feast of Epiphanies" - A Reflection for the Feast of the Epiphany

  • Jan 6 2021
  • Length: 6 mins
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"A Feast of Epiphanies" - A Reflection for the Feast of the Epiphany

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  • Dear Friends,

    These first verses from the second chapter of Matthew are among the most action-packed accounts found in the sixty-six books of the Bible. A Hollywood scriptwriter would be hard-pressed to match the intrigue, the triumph, and the tragedy. As a preacher, I’m swamped with the symbolic richness of this gospel. A single sermon doesn’t do it justice. But let’s try. The dictionary tells us an “epiphany” is: a sudden intuitive insight into the essential meaning of something. This week’s gospel for the Feast of the Epiphany is literally a feast of epiphanies. It is chock full of insights into the meaning of the coming of Christ and the transformation it promises. Start with the vision of the Magi. They had devoted their lives to studying the heavens. And then suddenly there was a brilliant light they had never seen before. For all their astronomical knowledge, they were baffled. They dropped everything and set out to follow wherever this strange star would lead them. For mile after mile, over mountains and across deserts, they fixed faithfully on this single, celestial signpost which led them to the newborn Jesus. The journey of the Magi raises some challenging questions for us: What star do you follow? Does it lead to Jesus? Or is it all about getting and keeping more stuff… filling the hole in your soul with things… a bigger paycheck, a bigger house, season tickets, the best table, the latest iPhone, the hippest sneakers? Sure, these are nice to have. But go to as many funerals as I do and they shrink to insignificance. The Magi got it right the first time. Follow your star to Jesus…his love, his way… they are all that endures. All four gospels have examples of the Messiah of the Chosen People gathering in all the people of God’s creation. Significantly, right from the birth of Jesus, God mobilized the heavens to reach all the way to Persia. Today, we walk in the footsteps of the Magi. Our home is further from Bethlehem than was the Magi’s home in Persia. But his call is just as strong. His star is just as bright. We follow Christ from across cultures and across millennia. The gates of heaven have been thrown open to us. No matter how humble our condition, we stand before the throne of God no less noble than the kings, no less beloved than the prophets, no less entitled than Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Magi did not come empty-handed. And neither should we. Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, does not need our gold, frankincense, and myrrh. All creation does his bidding. But he does want us to give back for our own sake… to demonstrably express our gratitude, to get some skin in the game. Our gifts, our tithes, our charity, our service… all our good works… they don’t buy God’s love. They don’t buy redemption. Those are gifts outright. The Magi did not bribe the star to lead them to Jesus. They did not pay Mary and Joseph to see their child. Without claim or condition, they humbly laid their gifts at the feet of the newborn king in awe, in adoration, in gratitude… and so should we. And then there’s Herod. The world has seen his like so many times. In his self-centered soul, the Epiphany is all about him. It is his opportunity to eliminate a potential rival, no matter the cost. Deceit, deception, mass murder: these things afflict other people. To him, they are just an average tyrant’s way of doing business. Today the lands crossed by the Magi are plagued by a new slaughter of the innocents. And these new Herod’s are just as fiendish as the original. Canon Andrew White, the Anglican Vicar of Baghdad, reported on the beheading of four children who had refused to renounce Christ. With knives at their throats, they told their ISIS tormentors that they would always love and follow Jesus. And so, they did follow him… all the way home to the Father. While we are appalled by this horror… to be honest… haven’t we all got the tiniest touch of Herod in us? Too often, we tell ourselves that we are the arbiters of good and evil. What we see as good for us, we see as the obvious good. We don’t operate on Herod’s scale, but we do let our egos lead us around by the nose. Epiphany is a good time to alter that course. It is time to remember that only Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light. It is time to recognize that our star is the grace of God and it still leads to Jesus. God love you!
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