Epiphany. What does it mean to proclaim that "God is with us?"

 

Epiphany

Isaiah 60: 1-6.The light of God shall illuminate the people and in turn our light will draw the whole world to our light.

Ephesians 3: 1-12. This light is Christ who was revealed to the apostles and prophets by the Spirit and that through the church, we are to make known the plan that God held from the beginning to the world in confidence and boldness.

Matthew 2: 1-12. The visit of the Magi.

 

Christmas and Epiphany are joined at the hip which is why we use the same liturgy for both until Candlemas.

Christmas is the incarnation from which everything else flows then Epiphany is the celebration and exploration of what the incarnation of Christ means.

What does it mean to proclaim “God is with us” – Emmanuel in Hebrew.

There are several stories that fit the bill – and we’ll hear them throughout January but the main one traditionally used in the West is the visit of the Magi.

This is a sumptuous story of exotic foreigners coming to pay homage to a Jewish Messiah which means that the significance of Jesus is universal – of importance to every human being - not just those who happened to be Jewish.

So the first revelation is universal relevance and importance of this event, just because of who they were.

(Incidentally, this event took place up to two years after the birth in the Manger. By now the family were living in a house (v.11) but commercial interests have successfully transferred the image of the Magi to the crib scene almost universally.)

So there is significance in just who they were – foreigners from a strange land – the other significant revelation lies in the gifts they brought for Jesus.

Gold for a King – we sing at Christmas – and spiritually that means that Jesus is Lord of our lives. This has always proved to be the most subversive gift of all, because people who give their lives to Christ are saying that we owe our ultimate allegiance to Christ and not to any worldly power.

Christ ultimately rules our lives – NOT Caesar, NOT the Emperor, NOT the king or Queen, NOT any political leader or philosophy there has ever been.

This is why human powers and anyone who exercises and expects complete obedience have always tried to domesticate and control Christianity by pretending that their goals and the goals of Christ are the same – to rein in a potential adversary to their own aims. “For God and country” conflates and confuses the aims of God with the aims of human beings.

So the second great revelation is that Christ is Lord of our lives.

Frankincense is the next gift. A gift always associated with priesthood. What is a priest? A priest is the intermediary between people and what Jesus referred to as the Father (God himself). Who Jesus calls the Father, the Eastern church has traditionally called the “Sourceless source of all things” the creator God. The ultimate reality revealed in Exodus 3:14 simply as “I AM” pure transcendent being

Jesus reveals that he has an intimate relationship with this sourceless source – so close in fact that you could say that the words and actions of Jesus Christ are the words and actions of this sourceless source. God has actually and certainly revealed himself within a human life. Should you want to contact or commune with God you need only look at Christ and draw on his Spirit – to follow Him – to know that you are drawing near to God. There is no gap between people and God in Christ.

So the third great revelation is that Christ is our high priest.

The last gift is Myrrh, significant because it is associated with death in that it was used to anoint dead bodies in ancient times.

This is a profound gift and touches on the twin poles of suffering and death that afflict all living things.

This gift says that Jesus’ death will say something profound about all life, all suffering and all deaths. It says that suffering and death are real and must be borne by everyone and every thing. Our central act of communion Jesus tells us to drink of his blood shed on the cross. Jesus Christ enters into profound solidarity with all created things when He submits to the cross, but the even more profound thing that is being said is that Suffering and death - yes, they are significant – but they are not the end – because of the resurrection.

Death and resurrection are not just what happens when you physically die they are templates for living life. True resurrection is when light or love overcomes or grows out of a hopeless situation in any stage of life.

Light over darkness – Life out of death. This is the central gift of Christianity that lends a healing balm of hope to the human soul.

These are the revelations of Epiphany.

God is universal – there is no-where where he is absent.

Christ is Lord of our lives. We are called to follow Him.

Christ is our gateway to real communion with God. We plug ourselves into the source of all things.

Christ through his death and resurrection speaks into the universal problem of suffering and death and proclaims that light and life, healing and wholeness are the true will and end of God.

Amen