For most of my adult life I belonged to The Church of the
Epiphany Episcopal Church in Plymouth, Minnesota, so you can probably guess
that Epiphany is an important liturgical date on my calendar.
Our church logo for a number of those years was a star. Our priest would give shiny star ornaments to
all the kids who came forward each Epiphany.
We nearly always had three men from the choir sing “We
Three Kings” wearing crowns and carrying bejeweled packages as they walked to
the front of the church to deliver their gifts to Jesus in the creche.
So when I was asked one year by a patron at our annual
rummage sale what “Epiphany” meant, I told him it was when the Holy Spirit gave
out the spiritual gifts. I couldn’t
believe it when I realized my gaff. I
had just explained Pentecost, not Epiphany.
I can shake my head at myself now, but in a lot of ways, it
can be hard to describe what Epiphany really means.
We can describe it as the time when the three kings come
bringing the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus, all the
while picturing a Christmas card with the star illuminating a stable.
But there are some theological and historical mistakes and
lots and lots of questions in that picture.
First, Jesus was no longer an infant.
He was likely about two years old, toddling around with his mother and
father. Next, I’m sure they were no
longer living with the animals. Then,
were there three kings or were they astronomers and where did they come
from? Were there three? Were they all men? Who cooked for them or put up their tents
along the way or protected them from danger for all the years they traveled?
Now, I’m a big fan of the film A Nativity Story and I love the way the men are depicted. They are consulting maps and equipment while
looking at the sky. They come from a
distant land and in many ways, they provide some comic relief to the nativity
story. They do not claim to be kings,
but scientists or magicians or seers and they cannot quite agree on whether
this trip is something they should take or not.
In the end, the three men embark on their journey, without
helpers, and go to the palace, which makes complete sense, if you are out and
about looking for a future king.
Of course, this visit backfires, as we learn in today’s
Gospel. We learn that Herod puts up a
good face with the men, but in reality, he is steaming mad and afraid that he
will be ousted from his ill-gained throne by a child. He tells these travelers to find the child
and return to him with the location, claiming he will then go and pay homage to
the child.
We know that that isn’t his plan at all, and so do the
angels, who warn the travelers to continue on their way after they meet Jesus,
for they know, even though our Gospel story ends before we get to this part,
that Herod plans to have all the children about Jesus’ age murdered. Mary and Joseph learn of Herod’s plan and
together with Jesus, they become refugees and flee to Egypt.
So this is the basic plot line of Epiphany. Some travelers from a far away land who are
not Jews come to bring expensive gifts to a young boy.
Does that mean Epiphany is about gift-giving then?
Well, yes. But maybe
not in such a tangible way.
I believe that the gift is the ability and willingness to
be surprised by God.
We talk about epiphanies as “A-Ha” moments. Those times when something unclear becomes
clear; when we are changed by a new understanding of an old concept; when a
lightbulb seems to go off, illuminating something hidden.
So why not think of an epiphany as being surprised by God?
Now that this epiphany lightbulb has turned on in your
heads, I wonder how many of you are thinking about all the times something
truly unexpected happened to you that changed you in a way you didn’t know you
could change?
[raise hand]
For many, reading and studying scripture can do this. While regularly attending church and hearing
the stories told for years is good, a deeper dive into scripture can help
anyone better understand just what it means to be a Jesus Follower. We learn examples of what Jesus means when he
says to love one another as God loves us that may seem easy with the people we
know, but when we start to consider people we don’t know or understand, changes
our understanding of these two commandments.
We see Jesus spending time caring for those who are left on
the margins of society. We see him
healing those with some of the scariest, most communicable diseases. We see him changing the world one person at a
time. We learn that Herod had no true
understanding of what this King could be or do to change the course of
creation, and that he killed a generation of children out of his own fear.
These are epiphanies for many people who want to keep Jesus
in the manger, that lovely baby, cooing at the moon, being greeted by shepherds
and scholarly travelers alike. We desire
to hold him in our hearts as this helpless babe, forgetting that who he becomes
will challenge us and our ideals of what it means to be people of faith, people
of God, people who, if we truly are to follow the example of Jesus, will
challenge the world as we know it by expressing God’s love and giving dignity
and respect to every human being.
Being surprised by God is a gift. We journey through our lives, maybe not on a
camel for years in the desert, but we do journey in search of Jesus, searching
for that special relationship that marks us as God’s beloved. At any curve or bend on that journey we can
be surprised, by a prayer, by the breaking of the bread, by recognizing our
unique gifts and sharing them, by being in community.
As we begin to journey through the season after the
Epiphany, I invite you to reflect on your journeys so far. How has your life been changed unexpectedly
by God?
Sometime in the next few weeks, I challenge you to share
your story or stories with someone who might not know who God is to you. Invite them on your journey.
Together, may you be surprised by God.
Amen.