The Epiphany of The Lord
It may come as a surprise to you – but it is with the feast of the Epiphany that we come to the heart of the Christmas season. Not December 25th but today, this feast, gives us the reason for the season. Epiphany explains Christmas.
Let me explain a little bit the way the Church understands this season and this feast. The word “Epiphany” means “to shine upon”. It means bringing light to what has been hidden. On Christmas there’s an explosion of light. The Eternal Word of God appears in the flesh – in a babe found in a feeding trough. The “Epiphany” tells us what this explosion of light shines upon – what it reveals and makes clear. The Magi represent genuine seekers – seekers for the truth from every age and culture. So the question is: what does the Christmas light shine upon so that these seekers can see the truth? What basic truth or better, what basic reality becomes clear and plain to them, as they see the babe in the feeding trough?
An early church father, Peter Chrysologus, answers: “…the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven… man in God and God in man.” The Magi see “man in God and God in man.” The bright light of Christmas shines on human flesh – on the babe’s in the manger, and also on our own human flesh. What the Christmas light makes clear is that the human – people – people like you and me – people are the means and medium through which God makes himself present. To accept the babe – to accept Jesus – is also to accept that the human has become holy home for our God. All of us – people of faith and people full of doubts and unbelief – good people and bad people – friend and foe – all of us are God’s holy home. We bear within us God’s ever greater, ever deeper presence.
Our vocation – our Christian responsibility and duty as a parish – is to bring forth that deeper presence – for others. Like a living Christ, we are to bring to bear God’s presence, God’s gracious life into every aspect and circumstance of life. In how we live and work together as a parish we become “Church”; we become “Body of Christ”; we become “Living Christ”. Here – among us – people will actually see the life they see in Jesus.
The Epiphany that we celebrate today – the climax of the whole Advent and Christmas season – is that God chose to express himself in Jesus and now, in the very same way, continues to express his life and his love through us. It is the human that makes God present – people, just people. We are God’s holy home. We can look at one another and there truly see the living Christ.
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