The Epiphany, January 6, 2008

The Epiphany

Year A

January 6, 2008

Isaiah 60:1-6 Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14

Ephesians 3:1-12 St. Matthew 2:1-12

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany means a revealing or a making of something known and the Epiphany in the Church Calendar refers to the revealing of Jesus to the gentiles represented by the wise men, who, to be historically actually, arrived a few years after the birth of Jesus. Most of us think an epiphany experience has to be like a light bulb going off in our heads. But an epiphany can be more or less than that. And as we will discover, an epiphany can sometimes be a negative experience or have negative consequences.

Epiphanies can happen all the time. They happen when a scientist discovers something new. They happen when we discover something new about ourselves or the world around us. Sometimes they happen when something we have long known about starts to suddenly make sense to us in a new or more powerful way.

There can also be different kinds of results from epiphanies. There are a number of epiphanies we can look at in the Christmas story.

The first to look at is the epiphany of Mary. Mary’s epiphany resulted in obedience. It must have been a hard thing for her to discover that she was pregnant. Aside from knowing that it was, as far as she knew, a physically impossible event at that moment in her life, I’m sure the realistic concerns about how Joseph, her family, and her community would react was never far from her mind. As a result of this unplanned pregnancy she would be an outcast and even worse her very life was at risk. And yet in spite of all these concerns which must have been running through her mind, Mary was able to respond in obedience to the call of God in her life. We may likewise face great challenges from God. Sometimes challenges may seem overwhelming and impossible to us at the time. But we can learn from the example of Mary to still respond with grace, faith, and obedience, no matter how great the obstacle.

The next epiphany in this series was the epiphany of Joseph. Actually Joseph had two epiphanies. The first was an epiphany of betrayal when he discovered Mary’s condition. But Joseph displayed what I can only view as amazing grace in the midst of the epiphany of betrayal. It seemed that Mary had betrayed him and make him look foolish. But rather than trying to extract the maximum amount of revenge and retribution, Joseph was of a mind to handle things quietly. We should remember this lesson the next time ideas of evening the score enter into our thoughts or desires. Joseph’s second epiphany was when the angel appeared to him. That epiphany had to be as hard to handle as the first. To hear those impossible words that the child Mary was bearing was a child from God. Joseph’s second epiphany resulted in a change of attitude and action. Joseph willingly accepted his place in God’s plan for the Incarnation. How willing are we to submit to God’s plan for our lives when those plans are untidy, or uncomfortable, or embarrassing, or downright humiliating.

The next epiphany in this story is one that has tragic consequences. It is the epiphany of Herod. Herod’s epiphany resulted in fear. Herod wanted no news of a King of the Jews. This was competition. This was bad news. His position was precarious enough without another pretender to the throne. Epiphany’s can also result in our response of fear. While it highly unlikely that fear would drive us to the excesses of Herod, we need to remember that fear can often accompany change or the unknown in our own lives.

Fear can accompany many kinds of epiphanies. Mary I’m sure felt a whole lot of fear in her epiphany. Put yourself in her position for a moment. You are a young girl who has never had sex and you find yourself pregnant. Now that can inspire a lot of fear. It is not feeling fear at something that God has called you to do that is wrong, what can be wrong is how you respond.

The wise men’s epiphany resulted in a pilgrimage and their paying homage to Jesus.

So we have seen the result of epiphanies in all these people. Obedience, betrayal, change of attitude, action, fear, pilgrimage, homage. These are just a few of the many possible reactions of epiphanies.

Epiphanies can involve the threat of change. They call us to look in new ways at old things and to look at new things for a first time. They can challenge our faith. They can help us to grow spiritually.

Pray for a year of epiphanies in your life and at St. Peter’s. We will be enriched and grow in ways we might never have imagined if we open ourselves up to the power of God in our lives to change and form us.

Sermon for All Saints's Day, Year C, November 4, 2007

All Saints’ Day (tr)

Year C

November 4, 2007

Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18 Psalm 149

Ephesians 1:11-23 St. Luke 6:20-31

Passed away. Resting peacefully. Expired. Fatality. Demise. Release. Went home. Lost someone. All these are terms for death. That is the one word that neatly sums up what All Saints’ Day is about. It is about death.

Death is something all of us must face. Some people fear death. They fear the unknown. It is this fear that leads so many to use less stark terms to discuss death. It does not seem as terminal if you go home or are released or have passed away. We want to make death a peaceful experience so as we face our own we can have greater courage and strength. However as Christians we know that death is not the end of a journey, but the beginning. We do not face death as the great unknown. Like the children today, we know that we are the saints of the Church and that our place as saints of the church will continue secure beyond our life here on earth.

Some are able to face death with an inner strength I can only imagine. I’m reminded of a teenager I knew many years ago in a parish in southern California. After many years of fighting cancer, with victories along the way, the battle was finally lost for him. At age 17 he again had cancer which was terminal. The only thing left was to wait for death to come. He was hospitalized for many months before his death and I had the very great privledge of visiting him and bringing him communion on most Sundays. It was a responsibility that I didn’t want and quite frankly had I not known him and his family I suspect I would have begged off the assignment. But I could not. What was amazing was his spirit and attitude. In fact, after every visit I left felt that I was the one being ministered to rather than this young man. He died never waivering in his faith, surrounded by his family and high school friends.

For many death is the great unknowing. Death is that place just beyond our knowing. I think that explains the great interest in our society surrounding near death experiences. People want to figure out what is beyond this life. You see, most people, no matter how hardened or lacking in faith they might be, still believe that there is something beyond life. Something they cannot understand or know completely, but at the same time something they years to have knowledge of. It was the unknowning that Daniel experienced in his visions that lift him troubled and terrified. Daniel experienced fear mixed with faith. Daniel’s visions troubled his spirit. The visions of the four great beasts terrified him. Yet in the midst of this terror God’s promised kingdom, a kingdom that will conquer all, even death, remained.

Even with our faith there can be those moments of questioning or being unsure. What really follows when our life here is done? Is there really a heaven, or a hell.

As I was reflecting on our attitudes towards death, it occurred to me that for some, life can be death. People who live in fear, or pain, or hatred, are experiencing a type of death even as their bodies take breath and their hearts continue to beat. They are experiencing the death of their own spirit. This is the most terrible death of all. Kierkegaard used the expression “sickness unto death.” This sickness was a product of despair, which is to be without hope.

There is good news in the midst of our focus on death today. We are not hopeless. We are the hope-filled. Paul speaks of the hope that lies within us. As Christians we are to be filled with hope, not despair. “Sickness until death” is something the non-believer experiences, not the Christian. The Letter to the Ephesians tells us that we have obtained an inheritance in Christ. That inheritance is everlasting life. We need not fear death, because Christ has conquered death for us.

So we have a paradox. Life leads to death and death leads to life. Kierkegaard believed that Christianity as a way of faith was not logical and that Christianity is absurd at heart. This seemingly contradictory belief that life leads to death and death leads to life makes it easy to understand why a person could come to the same conclusion as Kierkegaard. And yet, faith is at the very heart of the Christian tradition. But as the lesson from Ephesians further states, we are a people who have “set our hope on Christ.”

It is on this paradox and this same hope that our faith lies.

There is another paradox to be found in the Gospel passage today. Now you might have been saying to yourself as the passage was read, “hey, the words today from the Gospel just do not seem quite right” this morning. Most of us are more used to hearing the words known as “The Beatitudes” from the Gospel of Matthew. There is a significant and important difference between Matthew and Luke in reporting this sermon of Jesus. Today in Luke we hear “blessed are you who are poor” while Matthew records “blessed are the poor in spirit”. Luke says “blessed are you how are hungry now” and Matthew says “blessed are you who hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Quite a difference!

Because Matthew spiritualizes the message, it is easier to accept. If we are talking about spiritual hunger then being blessed by it is not quite so hard a concept to swallow. However, Luke’s stark message forces us to confront ourselves and our ideas. It is one thing to say the poor in spirit are blessed, we can all live with that. But to say that the poor are blessed is tough to accept or believe. We look at the poor and wonder how it can be a blessing to not have enough food for meals.

Death leads to life. The poor and the hungry are blessed. Any outside observer might be inclined to see the same absurdity which Kierkegaard observed. And without Jesus I would be agreeing with them. But Christians do not look at things the same way as others. We look through the eyes of Jesus and through the experience of our faith.

This is why we celebrate All Saints’ Day. We share the same hope and confidence of the sisters and brothers in Christ who have gone before us. Let us not be afraid to share that hope and that faith with others.