3rd January, 2021
St James, Louth
Psalm 72.10-15; Isaiah 60.1-6; Ephesians 3.1-12; Matthew 2.1-12
+ May I speak in the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Before Christians ever celebrated Christmas, they celebrated Epiphany.
Sometimes we might see this feast, like the three wise kings in a nativity scene, as a bit of an add-on. But it is in fact a climatic moment. When the kings and
seers of far-flung nations come to Jesus’ feet, they represent the love and homage of every person. They tell us that this is not just the saviour of the
Jewish people but, as Jewish prophecy had itself implied, the Saviour of those of every colour, creed and culture. As kings, they bring with them symbolically
all power and all authority. As wise seers, magi, they bring with them wisdom about ancient texts, wisdom about the stars: a fusion of scientific and literary
knowledge. In their gifts, if we include the camels, they bring creation’s elements: animal, vegetable myrrh and frankinscence, mineral gold. To the
Christ Child’s feet it all returns, as free, glorious gifts which can only illumine his reality and his preciousness more fully. To him only, to God only, all
creation and force must return and rejoice.
With Epiphany, then, we celebrate manifestation, unveiling, revealing. Christ known for who he truly is. And yet. And yet! The star may burn, the son of
righteousness shine, but it is our eyes and our hearts by which Christ wishes to be known.
The wise king’s quest is not to simply know the answer to their question—why does this star shine, or who is this saviour. It is, from the outset, a quest of
faith, as they tell the bad King Herod: ‘that we might worship’. By contrast we know his motives are those of opportunism and exploitation, of threat and
fear. For Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar there is a purity like the best of science and culture: they seek the truth that they might love it more, delight in
it more.
And this means that this is OUR story—the story of all who are on a seeking journey of love and faith: however little we may know to begin with, however
long and complex and painful our journey may be.
It is important to remember how T.S. Eliot carries on the wise kings’ story in his famous poem ‘The Journey of the Magi’. He imagines them after their ‘cold
coming’, when they return home, ‘uneasy in the old dispensation’, with all that had seemed beloved and familiar and comfortable now ‘alien’. But they do not
regret, instead they have become the Christian ‘exiles; strangers and pilgrims’ who long for the journey once again, hard as it had been. Everything has
changed for them: and yet the world has not changed. They still have a journey to make.
That is something to think about, how ‘the end is often the beginning’ to quote Eliot once again. It’s important to hang onto, in a Christmas that may
not have seen ‘our sons and daughters come from afar’ and that may have been lacking in many ways. It’s important to remember, in a world whose flaws are
becoming ever more and more clearer in our crisis-ridden times.
In this season of Ephipany, in our Gospel readings, we will see Christ more and more and more revealed: at Cana, at his Baptism. That unstoppable
motion mirrors the one he seeks to make true in our lives. God makes himself ever more seen, and known. But not in a way that makes it all so easy that it
does not demand our coming, our seeing: just as the star would have been any star if it didn’t have the eyes of the faithtful wise men on it, the Christ Child
unfindable without their overcoming aim of love and worship.
We cannot choose the moment, or the way, in which Christ will have himself be sought and found. The wise kings saw the star and they went, regardless of
the consequence and hardship. When they arrived they found a light so bright, and yet so unlike what they had perhaps expected, that it changed their lives
forever. So too we cannot wait for better times to pray, or trust, or find our joy.
Our journey has the shape God has made for it, and his lineaments are discoverable in its every twist and turn. Every feast tells us something true for
all days, weeks, months and years of our life-stories. This one tells us that God is ever manifest, and his grace ever ours to seek.