May I speak in the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Arise, Shine, for your light has come And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you

Transcription

1 1 May I speak in the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit Arise, Shine, for your light has come And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you Words from our first reading From the prophesy of Isaiah Imagery of divine light Shattering the darkness Which covers the earth Divine light as a sign of God s Glory made manifest on earth made clear and obvious to the eye and ear Which is the meaning of Epiphany The feast we celebrate today You may have noticed That the Kings in this cathedral have finally reached their destination And are with Mary and Jesus Displacing the shepherds From their solo role In the Nativity scene Pushing them out to one side Which feels right and proper Because the kings and the shepherds Belong to distinct and separate stories Both stories of the first Christmas The nativity stories in Matthew and Luke Are resplendent with Light: light which is the glory of God light which directs the wise men to Jesus and both stories involve a journey: and an arrival

2 2 and in the stories the Shepherds and the Kings encounter the infant Jesus Who they recognise As the Messiah they have been seeking The shepherds Find Jesus close to their fields In their town He is as close to them As the sheep they look after The three Kings Or if we are true to the text The wise men Number unstated Have a different journey Isaiah prophesied Nations shall come to your light And Kings to the brightness of your dawn Which all sounds simple and straightforward Until you read the text Because in Matthew s story There is conflict between light and darkness The story begins with light The wise men from the East Men of learning and curiosity Who know the stories And prophesies of the Jewish people Who look for signs Who are open to the possibility Of Divine light The wise men See a star at its rising

3 3 And in a spirit Of what I like to think of As scientific method They examine it Check their parchments Review the facts And decide that this star Is important Important enough to leave home And travel to foreign lands And so the wise men Arrive in Jerusalem Where they openly ask A perhaps unwise question where is the child Who has been born King of the Jews And Herod the King of the Jews Is frightened His Kingship is dependent On his Roman overlords And he is frightened By the possibility of change By disturbance in his kingdom By the threat posed by another King Herod who was close to the message Who would have known the prophesies And the hopes of his people Did not himself see the signs Of Christ s coming And rejected those signs When they were shown to him Herod the King Who prefers to sit in darkness Because there he has power

4 4 Divine light reveals everything Including the secrets of our hearts So after a presumably Awkward encounter with Herod in secret out of the light The Wise men continue on their journey And come to the place where the star stops And they find In a house An ordinary domestic scene A child with his mother At this point in the story the faith and trust of the wise men is impressive because surely they expected something else something more obviously regal something less ordinary this is their epiphany not the study or the journey not the clever avoidance of Herod s plotting but the moment of revelation that this child is the Christ is the light of the world The wise men s openness allowed them to see what was usually hidden then you shall see and be radiant your heart shall thrill and rejoice

5 5 The wise men s role In Matthew s gospel is complete and they walk away out of the story by another road Nations shall come to your light And Kings to the brightness of your dawn However we know what happened in the story after the Kings left for home Herod ordered a massacre of infants And Jesus and his parents Fled as refugees to Egypt Outcomes that have a chilling resonance For the twenty first century where refugees run from persecution and the threat of death in many places are there signs of light in this darkness? Today s psalm points to places of light The deliverance of the poor The needy and those with no helper The redemption of lives From oppression and violence These are God s promises But they need God s people To make them happen Later in Matthew s gospel In Jesus first discourse Jesus tells his disciples you are the light of the world; let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works

6 6 and give glory to your Father in heaven.' Or as St Theresa of Avila wrote Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. And it comes down to revelation The shepherds Saw the Glory of the Lord And were given a direct revelation From the mouth Of the angel of the Lord The wise men Were open to the possibility Of Divine Light Looked for signs And followed them On a long and arduous journey to an encounter with Jesus their moment of epiphany Two different forms of revelation Two different journeys I find that comforting There is no route map With my name on it No journey laid out before me The only certainty Is that God reaches out to us And If we are open to the possibility

7 7 That Christ is among us Through the power of the Holy Spirit We will see signs of God s work And glimmers of God s light and opportunities for encounter with Jesus through his likeness in other people through the scriptures and through the sacraments then you shall see and be radiant your heart shall thrill and rejoice