St Michael's Church (Church of England)

I suggest a real epiphany does need to be something fairly substantial, not just what to have for breakfast! We can for example have an epiphany about who we love, or what we should be doing perhaps with work or with our lives.

A divine Epiphany is obviously a moment of clarity concerning God.

All the readings today show clearly the importance of recognising a moment in time to be action of God.

In Isaiah the prophet foretells how the nations will recognise God and come to worship (an important prophecy to remember on this day when we recall the arrival of the wise men)

In his letter to the Ephesians Paul reminds his followers of his own Epiphany, when he realised that Jesus brought the promise of salvation not just to the Jews but to all peoples.

Paul describes the inclusion of Gentiles into God's people as an earth-shattering revelation. Like a great scientific breakthrough, it has changed the lives of millions.

And the final epiphany, moment of clarity is the one which has come to be symbolised by the word itself: The recognition by the wise men of the importance of that baby born in Bethlehem.

Yet again, as we have noticed all through the nativity accounts the vital ingredient in God’s plan is the human response.

Mary said yes, let it be according to your will, implies she might not have chosen that path excepting an obedience and setting aside of self for God.

Joseph said yes and set aside his pride his status for humility and trust before God.

And we know of other examples of human responses or epiphanies about the work and intention of God.

Abraham trusting God to say yes and prepared to sacrifice his son,

Moses faced his fears to lead God’s people,

Jonah took God’s warning to Nineveh,

( now that did take a couple of goes) !

Simeon and Anna recognised Jesus as the Messiah –

Their yes was in an instant – perhaps the old are more observant….

And there are many other moments in the Bible when people have realised God’s presence and bowed down to it, participated in his call.

Sometime I wonder though. Were there other times when God spoke and was not seen or responded to?

How many times has / DOES God offer ‘yes moments’ and they get missed.

Do we miss them? Why might we miss them?

Well thinking of the ones we know of they could have seemed so impossible, ridiculous or unjust they could have been turned down.

A death of a son from Abraham

Elizabeth or Sara bearing children in their old age.

A virgin birth

Gentiles to be saved.

Or perhaps they could easily be dismissed -

As a dream, a coincidence or fancy. After all no one really see’s angels do they?

It is so important to be ready, not just for Christmas but for God. Or rather

Emmanuel, God with us.

Even the wise men realised they needed to be open about their understanding. Because when you look at it they nearly got it wrong.

They had studied the stars, the history and all the known science of the day and concluded there was an important ruler to be born. They had worked out how to locate him, followed the star and arrived at the home of the ruler – the palace - enquiring of Herod’s new son!

Herod must have been a bit taken aback but like all good politicians entertained the foreigners in order to obtain information useful to himself, Ensuring, in his mind therefore, that he would eliminate the threat of any supposed new leader by killing the child once he knew where it was.

I wonder what the wise men felt like that day: when they knew they were wrong, they must have felt pretty stupid on arrival at the palace……. Herod must have been a master at smoothing over any insults they had made.

But I believe we have another moment of human choice which affected whether the Epiphany would have come about. In fact perhaps it was precisely because the wise men needed to realise that Jesus was not of so called ruling class in a palace but born to low status parents in a cow house out the back of an inn. What did that do to the understanding of the wise men. Did they need to show humility to accept their assumption of power was wrong, was it an effort to walk on to that stable, we always imagine they were glad but perhaps they were struggling with other emotions, we just don’t know it doesn’t say –

What it does say is that once they got there, they were overwhelmed with joy. Their epiphany was in recognising the truth of that child.

The choice was that they could have turned back and said the star was a mistake, they could have refused to pay homage to people so much lower than themselves, they could have tucked their gifts back into the camel’s saddles and just said hello.

But they didn’t. and they did not mistake the word of God when told to return without telling Herod of the place of the birth.

But in case we want to stay a little too cosy with the crib and the baby lets just listen to another reading:

Page 129 cloth for the cradle; Read dramatised scene 'the soldiers'.

We cannot stay with that baby in the stable, for Christ moved on.

Salvation goes on.

And relationship and dialogue between God and human kind goes on.

Just as that night Joseph did not close his mind to God but heard his warning and continued to trust God.

And Mary trusted Joseph and his dream and did not moan or say ‘you’ve got to be joking but got on the donkey and rode off to save the life of the child from the massacre of Herod.

So we too are part of the relationship. Open to God, sometimes able to see quickly like Simeon and Anna the meaning in the moment, sometimes being a bit thick like Elijah and hiding in the cave of our busy lives, sometimes being stubborn like Jonah, a grumpy old man or woman moaning even when things go well.

Do we think we are so far from God or from his presence that we are not part of this story? We are all part of God’s plan. We matter. But in ways that are suited to us. We can start each day living in a way that is open to God being present, making the effort to do the things we know that God desires. To love, to trust, to pray, to study and to share. These are the gifts we bring - may we offer them willingly even if it seems we are wrong, or maybe only in a small insignificant place and time. If that was good enough for wise men then it is good enough for us.

Amen.

The Rev'd Camilla Walton

Vicar St Michael & All Angels Church, Beaconsfield.

www.stmichaelsbeaconsfield.org.uk Tel: 01494 673464

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