Feast of Epiphany 2013

Feast of Epiphany 2013

Well, today, as you know marks the beginning of the Season of Epiphany—this strange almost pseudo-season that fits right between Christmas and Lent. It’s a strange season because it falls between two such contrasting themes as the birth of Jesus and the season of repentance leading us through his Passion. It’s also a little odd because it tackles such a big concept—namely epiphanies, or theophanies: these revelations of God breaking into our reality. It’s kind of a tall order when you think about it. I mean we have a whole library of books in the Bible recounting a multitude of times that God has revealed God’s self in signs and wonders. We even have a number of stories of Jesus performing miraculous signs…the problem of course is that we only have so many Sundays, and only so much Lectionary that we can fit in. And, of course, this is to say nothing of the ways in which God chooses to be revealed in our lives and in our hearts.

All the same, we start this strange season with kind of an odd story, the arrival of the Magi. From what we gather from Scripture and derive from tradition, these men were not only Wise, but they were also astrologers and kings. And what we can intimate from their brief discussion with King Herod, they have taken a vested interest in the religious and political climate in Israel.

  

Now we may find it odd that men who are called wise would tell someone like Herod about the reason for their journey. After all King Herod was known for having his sons executed, and then of course had only recently ordered infanticide in his own kingdom—all to protect his power and position. One would assume that this sort of notorious behavior would have gotten to these wise men long before ever meeting Herod.

Likewise, the fact that Herod, the king of Israel, is only now hearing about the birth of the true King from foreigners perhaps only adds to the irony.

However, there are a lot of ironies in this story, because not only were these wise men not very wise in their interaction with Herod, but they also show-up late to the manger. In fact, they get there well after a group of shepherds had arrived at the invitation of a host of angels. While I suppose distance relative to the manger should be accounted for in this argument; the fact that shepherds (not the most respected class of people, I might add) were the first witnesses of Christ’s birth, and were called by angels—a host of them, in fact…and not some lame star. Well, you get my point.

  

Here again, we see those ironies that I talked about. In an odd way these shepherds play a kind of counter-point to those who are considered wise, and yet are the first to be able to see the savior of the world at his birth.

There’s really a lot of interesting stuff here, if we think about it. As I said, it’s an odd story that sets the stage for an odd season. It’s a story, that when it’s put into context reads like a very dark fairy tale that foreshadows Christ’s inevitable death, even as he rests on his mother’s lap after just being born. Even as shepherds keep watch, and the baby sleeps, these weird, almost comical kings arrive—and the gifts that they bring for this baby happen to be the stuff that would have been used for burial…

But this is the exactly the kind of story that we need to initiate this weird season…this season that dares float between Light and Darkness; Birth and Death. Like this story, and every story about God breaking into our world, we’re left trying to figure out how it fits with what we understand about God, our world, our lives and even ourselves. Because what such examination asks of us is, naturally, to figure out how what we’ve experienced of God fits into our lives, and who we are.

Unfortunately, unlike a stubborn puzzle piece, a hammer won’t work here. If anything understanding God’s revelations to us, and what the Holy Spirit does in our hearts, in our lives and the lives of others is a very delicate process. It calls us to community so that we can share our experiences as well as our questions, so that we can form clearer understanding. It challenges us to listen deeply and inwardly so that we can develop discerning hearts. It also tempts us to live as awake and aware people, because what we live may hold the key to integrating God’s interactions with us into our lives.

I think the saying that hindsight is 20/20 is not only true, but I think it’s appropriate here. I would imagine that these Wise Men, who had the good sense not to return to Herod, were probably glad that they had gone a different way. They may have even wondered why in the world they ever gave a poor child such expensive and morbid gifts. But what their presence in this story reminds us is that sometimes God’s activity in life is erratic and a little hard to reconcile to the rest. And just so we don’t forget, the Season of Epiphany invites us into that limnal, paradoxical place where we have to live in the tension of birth and death; mystery and stark, clear empiricism. So that when God is revealed in the various places of our lives, we’ll be able to trust some how, in some way it’ll all just fit.