This
morning we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
actual date is always January 6th of course, but we're celebrating today, since
the sixth is not a Sunday this year. Epiphany is one of the least understood of
the Christian holy days. For many of us, I'm afraid, it's little more than the
"official" end of the Twelve Days of Christmas--and thus the day we
recycle the Christmas tree.
But
the Feast of the Epiphany is one of the most ancient celebrations in the life
of the Church. It has a far older history than the celebration of Christmas, in
fact. In many Orthodox churches, it is
still considered a more holy feast—incorporating many of the theological
aspects of Advent and Christmas. In both East and West, the Feast of the Epiphany
is symbolized by the visiting of Baby Jesus in the manger by the wise men, or
the Magi, (also known as the three kings of Orient we just sang about).
Because
the Magi were gentiles, not Jews, the church celebrates the Epiphany as the
revelation of Christ as Messiah to the whole world. And that includes you and
me. The feast celebrates God's choosing to show up among all of us in the
person of Jesus Christ. Epiphany then,
is a celebration of the fact that we-- you and I have not been left out in the
darkness. It is a celebration of the fact that the Messiah did not come only
for Israel
The
story tells us that it was by the light of a star (or possibly a conjunction of
planets) sent from God, that these gentile outsiders were led to the Child who
would save and illumine the world. So
the Feast of the Epiphany is a festival of light—light in the midst of our
annual season of darkness--a celebration of the coming of the Light of Christ
into this dark and barren planet. Light is the real theme of this season.
But
Epiphany is more than a midwinter feast. It’s a reminder that in Jesus Christ,
we see everything in a new light—the true light of God. The world is illumined
for us and we at least perceive everything--jobs, politics, economics, relation-ships, emotions, events, even life
itself in a whole new way—the way things were meant to be, the way God wants
them to be, the way you and I are called to remake them.
Light
is what it's about, just as light is what the story of the Magi is all about.
Astrologers from the East, magicians who followed the light of a star to a Babe
in a humble manger who would light up the world.
"Arise, your light has come!"
For us, with our electrically illuminated homes, our street lights, our car
lights and flashlights, it's difficult to realize the full power of that
symbol. It’s rare that you and I
actually find ourselves in utter and complete darkness. But for the people of
the Bible, and for people right up to the beginning of the last century, the
symbol of light was no doubt one of the fullest possible symbols of God's work
and presence in the world.
"Arise, shine, your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen about you."
wrote the prophet known as the Second Isaiah some five hundred years before the
birth of the Babe in the manger. "Your
word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path."
The Hebrew Bible is filled with
the promises of light.
"I have
given you as a covenant to the peoples, a light to the nations, to open the
eyes of the blind." "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom
shall I fear?" "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great
light." Light was a gift from God. Without light, men and women and children had
to face the chaos of darkness and confusion.
Young Johnny was afraid of the dark. One
night his mother wanted him to go find the mop on the back porch. The child refused. His mom asked him,
"Haven't I always told you there is
nothing to be afraid of in the dark?"
"Yes," Johnny said, but still did
not venture out the kitchen door.
"Johnny," his mother said,
"you know that Jesus is always with you, so that you are never alone and
have nothing to fear." Johnny
finally opened the back door a tiny crack, held out his hand and said,
"Jesus,
will you please reach out and hand me that mop?"
So
when you and I say that God is light, we are really saying that it is God's
very nature to show up among us, just as it is light's very nature to shine and
illumine. Light can't help but shine, and God can't help but reveal love among
us.
"Arise, your light has come."
Light-- by its' very nature-- cannot ever be totally confined or contained.
Cover it, and it will always leak out through the cracks and crevices--seeking
to spread and shine forth and illumine the world. In the same way, God-- by
God's very nature-- is always shining forth, always being revealed as light and
love and compassion and hope and goodness-- in a word-- as God.
And
while like Moses, you and I can only bear to see God's back, or like Isaiah of
Jerusalem, we can only catch a glimpse of the hem of God's robe as it fills the
Temple-- we can however, see directly into the heart of our God, and know that
it is faithful and just and loving.
Fight
a war, oppress a people, crucify a Messiah, whatever sinful humanity does to it
cover it up, the light of God's love will always spill out through the cracks
and crevices of our broken lives, seeking to heal and illumine and enlighten
and transform us-- and our world.
So
not only is our Creator light--but that light which is very life itself has
been made manifest among us frail human beings in the person of Jesus Christ.
It was He that those Gentile stargazers traveled so far to worship. It was His
star that guided them.
Those
who beheld Him, Jew and Gentile alike, beheld the love of God in fully human
form. This God who is light and love, is now and forever present with all of
humanity in Him. His coming among us announces the dawning of a new day-- which
will never be followed by night.
"Arise your light has come!" In the prologue to his Gospel, John tells us
that Jesus is the light of the world. But what does that mean? Ask Stephen
Hawking, and he might tell you that light is the ultimate constant in the
universe, that it always travels at 186,000 miles per second, that light
transmits energy, radiation, and information. Ask a third-grader to put a
sunbeam through a prism and you’ll see the spectrum of a rainbow.
Physics
can tell us a great deal about light. But there's one thing physics or any
other branch of science cannot do and that is define light. We can describe it.
We can measure how fast it travels.
What
is it Dr Einstein? Wave or particle? Well, it’s really a mystery you see--
sometimes it acts like one and sometimes like the other. We know it when we see
it, but we can't really define or explain what it is—but would you like to know
how fast it goes? . Unlike space or time, light cannot be defined over against
anything else. Light simply exists. Darkness is not the opposite of light—it is
the utter and total absence of light.
In
the creation story found in Genesis 1, the very word of creation first
spoken by the Sovereign God Yahweh is “Let
there be light.” Before anything else in all of creation
could come into being—light was
necessary.
So when Jesus says in John’s Gospel "I am the light of the world"?
He does not simply mean that He is the light at the end of the tunnel. He does
not simply mean that if everyone lit just one little candle what a bright world
this would be. He does not even necessarily mean that when the paramedics
finally give up on us, our souls will lift off the gurney and float down a long
passageway toward a white light.
Jesus
Christ is not just one of a thousand points of light glowing in the shadows of
night, or a little light we're gonna let shine, or a lighthouse on the rocks,
or a guide through the darkness or a light on the question, or a ray of hope
that briefly illumines our dark world. True as they are, none of those images
are enough. Light itself is far more than anyone of these. Jesus Christ is more
than all of them, far more.
Jesus
Christ is the radiating, life-sustaining light of all creation, who comes in
power and glory like the sun bursting forth on the horizon. In Him, a new dawn has broken--one that will
illumine our lives, our relationships, our world, the very cosmos itself. He is the Sun
of Righteousness that the prophet Malachi promised. He is the promised One
who will come with healing in His wings.
Old
Simeon in the Temple
"A light to enlighten the Gentiles,
and to be the glory of God's people, Israel
Jesus
is the very morning light of the world, simply because he reveals for us at
last, clearly, the loving, human face of our Maker. As He said of Himself in
the Upper Room, "Anyone who sees me has also seen God the Eternal Parent."
Jesus
Christ is the light of the world because in His life and ministry and sacrifice
and resurrection we see once and for all the fullness of the Creator's love for
creation. Jesus Christ is the light of that very same creation because only in
Him and His love can humankind find rationality and justice and purpose in this
tragic and confused and fragmented existence we call our earthly life.
Jesus
is the light of the life of men and women because only in His service can you
and I find hope and peace and ultimate meaning in our own lives and
hearts. Only in His service, do you and
I have the opportunity to light our own tiny corner of the world with acts of
love and compassion and justice. Only in him can you and I find illumination
for the deepest darkness of our own hearts
I
have a friend, a man who has been progressively losing his vision, due to a
work related injury. Since he was
self-employed, he did not qualify for Workman’s Comp. He went from prosperity
to poverty. After his injury, my friend lost not only his sight but his way of
making a living, and then his home, his financial security, his business, and his marriage, his relationship with his
children, his respect for women, his faith in humanity, and his own
self-respect. For a while he wallowed in
anger. For a while he became a callous seducer of young women. For a while he
wallowed in self-pity.
But
somehow, he did not lose his determination or his spirit or his humor. He has
continued to become progressively sightless it’s true. He ain’t Helen Keller,
yet.
He
still has a long way to go in life. Like
most of us, he’s still a lot more sinner than a saint. But he has not allowed
any of that to blind him to possibility, to growth, to open-ness. He went back
to college in his fifties and in the process of finishing his degree—became a tireless
advocate against bureaucratic callousness and mentor for younger students
struggling with physical challenges in the academic world due to.
He
got involved with a church, and with the self-help movement. One day he
realized that the young women he’d been chasing and using so carelessly were
the same age his daughters—they were all somebody’s daughter. Would I want
someone like me going out with my daughters? He asked himself. And so he
stopped chasing young co-eds.
Slowly,
my friend has made a new life for himself—a life of purpose and hope, built
around growth in Spirit and around service to others. Slowly over the past few
years, he had redefined his life and it’s mission around sharing and educating
others about what he called his “own journey into darkness”.
And
that service to others and to self, I saw gradually him finding the
Christ-light of healing and reconciliation and self-knowledge-- growing
emotionally and physically and spiritually more healthy each day. He might not
use that sort of “religious talk” to describe the process, but that is what has
happened. (he’s now a Unitarian and they don’t talk that way.) Out of a journey
into darkness, he found illumination.
I
haven’t seen him in several years—but the last message I received from him was
a wedding invitation—to a woman who was too old to be his daughter—but old
enough to be his wife..
For
as the old Gospel song reminds us, about our Lord,
"…In Him there is no
darkness, no darkness at all."
"Arise, your light has come." Let
us present ourselves to Christ Jesus this morning in humble love and adoration.
Let us come forward to His Table to be fed and nurtured by the Bread of Heaven
and the Cup of Salvation. Let us open our hearts and lives to him that we may
find ourselves enlightened and empowered and inspired to go forth as vessels of
His love, as followers and channels of His light to illumine and transform our own
dark world. Amen.
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