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January 15, 2006, Epiphany
2,
All Souls' Church,
It means to show forth or appear...
We are now observing the
Second Sunday after the Feast of the Epiphany. The word
epiphany comes from the Greek phainein – to show, and
epi – forth. It means to show forth or appear. A
dictionary definition reads that epiphany means “a
sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of
something.” In the Epiphany Season what is shown forth
and made manifest is the identity and purpose of the
child of Bethlehem whose birth we have so recently
celebrated. It begins with the visit of the wise men,
those ancient magi from the east who come bearing gifts
for the new born king – “sacred gifts of mystic meaning”
which honor the Christ child as divinity, royalty, and
sacrifice. The Gospel readings in the 1928 Prayer Book
follow the New Testament pattern in establishing this
epiphany. On the First Sunday of the season we read of
the child Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem, astounding
the learned men with his understanding. This is a
manifestation of the divine wisdom of the incarnate word
of God. The Second Sunday presents the baptism of our
Lord in which his public ministry in inaugurated with
the proclamation of the Heavenly Father: “This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This is a
further manifestation of our Lord’s identity in the form
of a divine affirmation and blessing. On the Third
Sunday, we read of our Lord’s first public miracle, the
turning of water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana.
Now we see his divine power, the power of the one
through whom the worlds were made. St. John refers to
this miracle as a sign. It points to the power and
authority of Christ. And yet, first we see a showing
forth of the divine wisdom of Christ before we see a
manifestation of his divine power.
It would be a wonderful thing
if before beginning any new venture and any new chapter
in our lives we first, in all honesty and humility,
sought the wisdom of God. Sometimes, we hear the
expression: “All we can do now is pray.” It’s as if
prayer is the final recourse when all else fails – the
last refuge of a scoundrel. But prayer, distilled to its
essence, is the praise of God which changes us. In
prayer, we seek not to tell God what to do, but to
discern by God’s grace, what we ought to do. Prayer
reminds us that the bottom line of any exercise is to
please God and glorify Him. Seeking God’s wisdom also
leads us to seek the advice and counsel of wise people
of integrity. It means we must be willing to have our
assumptions called into question. It means we listen not
only to what we want to hear but to what we need to
hear. If we’re truly willing to have prayer change us,
then we must be prepared to have advice change us as
well. It means considering the consequences of our
actions before we act. It means thinking ahead. How
often have exasperated parents asked their children,
“Did you think before you did that?” How often do grown
up people forget to do this very same thing? First,
wisdom, and then power is the pattern of Epiphany. We
must first seek wisdom because we cannot just assume
that we know what is pleasing to God. To come to any
sort of understanding as to what is pleasing to a divine
savior, we must seek divine guidance. Remember what the
wise men’s gifts signify – divinity, royalty, and
sacrifice. We cannot please a divine savior without the
benefit of his divine wisdom.
The Epiphany Season reveals
Jesus as our King.
Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain,
Gold I bring to crown him again,
King for ever, ceasing never
Over us all to reign.
Our Lord Jesus is the divine
Messiah, the Christ who came to found his eternal
kingdom by first establishing that kingdom in the souls
of those who believe and follow him. The Kingdom of God
– His divine rule and authority – not only is real, but
is the final and ultimate reality. Living under that
authority and rule is to begin living a real, eternal
life here and now. We are inheritors of a kingdom and we
begin living by the principles of that kingdom even now.
Think of the wise men that went in search of the king.
They found him in a modest place. They found one whose
life was threatened by those clinging to earthly power.
They found the most extraordinary and miraculous king in
the most ordinary and humble of places. We must find our
king and our kingdom there as well, in the ordinary,
everyday, ho-hum, world in which we live. And this is
where we must honor him – in our homes, at work, at
school, at mealtime, in every casual walk of life. For,
this is where he has chosen to reveal himself and makes
himself manifest. He invests everything we take for
granted with divine significance and with eternal
purpose.
The wise men brought myrrh to
the child king to signify his sacrificial death.
The King of love my shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never.
I nothing lack if I am his,
And he is mine forever.
By faith, we follow the King of love. We follow the
one who created us in his own image and knows us better
than we know ourselves and loves us more than we can
love ourselves. How can we not obey him? How can we not
ask him to lead us wherever he would have us go? How can
we not trust our lives to him knowing that wherever we
go and whatever happens, we walk into it together with
our Lord? That is what we have to remember. When we’re
wondering about what will happen in our lives and when
all is uncertain, we can say with the old gospel song:
“I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who
holds the future.” A friend sent an e-mail to me last
week with the following meditation with which I’ll
conclude.
The will of God will never take
you,
Where the grace of God cannot keep you,
Where the arms of God cannot support you,
Where the riches of God cannot supply your need.
The will of God will never take you,
Where the hands of God cannot mold you,
Where the mercies of God cannot sustain you,
Where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears
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