Sermon for The Epiphany (January 5, 2025)
Sermon for The Epiphany (January 5, 2025) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day.
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Transcript
Today we are celebrating the Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ. An epiphany is a revelation, it's a manifestation. And in the Bible, when the words that we translate as epiphany are used we use it to talk about something that God does, a way that God shows up.
A way that God shows up not through what people do, but through God's power. And this is important because I was just having a conversation with one of you this past week where it's like we think, oh, if I pray right, if I do the right thing, if I tick off the right list of boxes, then God will show up. And it is true that we do practices and we prepare our hearts. And it's true that in this church, we believe that sacraments we share in Christ's table at Holy Communion, that if we show up to this table that God will reliably show up. But the sacrament is not an epiphany. An epiphany is God's decision to show up God's power in showing up unaided and undeserved by humans. And this epiphany is God showing up with us. God fully revealed the glory, and the love of God fully revealed in Jesus Christ; revealed in the person of a little baby. So this little baby, the manifestation of God.
So in the epiphany that we hear about today, there is a star, right? A great light which shows up over the place where the baby is. And what happens for St. Matthew and his story of the epiphany is, what is revealed in this baby, is the love of God. And St. Matthew is saying that this one who was promised and who is proclaimed the King of the Jews, is not just in the world for the people, the chosen people of God. What is God and his love for all people? So this star over the manger calls not just the people who God called into covenant with him and who have walked with God over the centuries, but the star manifests reveals that God, through God's people, is now calling everybody to God. That the love of God is for everybody, is for you and me and our neighbor, for people who are far off.
And so when this star shows up, these wise ones are called from far away. So these wise ones show up. Now this is all really good news, right? This Christmas story, God, God is for all people the love of God, the light shining in what had been darkness. The thing about turning on the light, the thing about turning on the light is it's not just the glory of the light that is revealed, but also we see, say what's in the room, right? If the lights have been dim in the room, if it's been dark, and then we turn on the light, all of a sudden we can see the broken chair, right? The dusty corner. This is why I love having my Christmas tree up. The light is so soft and gentle. And then mid-afternoon, all the light comes in. You're like, Ooh, it's kind of messy in here.
The thing about light, about this epiphany of Jesus is that with the showing up of this star, with the showing up of the brightness and the reality of the love of God, we also see the reality of the world more clearly. There's a contrast, the light of Christ and the brokenness of the world. And so it shouldn't be a surprise, right? That in the middle of our Christmas celebrations and in the middle of Matthew's story about the glory of God being revealed, I wrote to you on Friday about how there is this story of intense and horrible violence.
That same star which brightens the world, calls the wise ones. They come and they come to the king of the Jews, Herod, and they say, where is he the king? And Herod's like me right here? And they say, no, no, no. It's been made manifest to us that there is a king and we want to go pay him homage. And Herod says, do tell interesting. Herod says, I'll tell you what, when you find him, I'd like you to tell me exactly where he is, because I too would like to pay him homage. So the wise ones follow the star, they find the baby, and then they're warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, right? They're warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. And then Joseph is warned to flee. So he takes his family, they become refugees, they have to flee to Egypt.
And by the light of that star, Herod's violence is revealed. The violence of the order is revealed. Herod unable to be sure who this king that threatens him is he orders every child under two in that town of Bethlehem to be killed. During communion we're going to sing the Coventry Carol, which is an old medieval carol about this song, about the women, the midwives of Bethlehem asking each other, what should we do to protect these children? But it's by this very light of the manifestation of the love of God that the violence and the sin of our world is revealed. And we remember the story about these little children who were killed for the sake of Christ on the fourth day of Christmas every year. And it is when we remember all the innocents who die everywhere, all over the world, every day. It seems like we ought not to dwell on that violence and horror during Christmas tide, but it is by the light of the love of God that the burden of sin and violence is more fully revealed. And I think this matters.
I've been thinking about us, about our community, our church, and what we've had to go through since mid-November with this person who has harassed me, and by extension has caused great anxiety and pain in our own community and how we've responded in such a beautiful and loving way and how we've cared for each other, right? But there is no denying that it has been painful and difficult.
Jesus said, let your light so shine before others. But again, when the light is shining, it draws attention. When the light is shining, it draws attention. And not all of that attention is positive and appreciative and loving and applauding. The light that shines over the stable where the glory of God is revealed draws terror. But Jesus knew, right? This is what followed Jesus his whole life. But Jesus knew, Jesus knew that when the glory of God is made manifest , it inspires and encourages and gives hope and causes great rejoicing. And we experience all of that when the glory of God is being made manifest, it also causes fear and hatred. It leads to violence and sometimes insecurity. And I want you to know that when we are given this glorious light of God and when it is shining out from the doors of this church and from your faces, it may mean drawing that attention that we would rather not draw. And it may mean that the light of love that we are endeavoring to shine brings the hatred and the violence of the world into starker relief.
Doesn't mean we're doing something wrong. It means we're doing something right. We don't know what the next weeks or months are going to bring for us, for our country or for our world, but we know there's a lot of events on the calendar in the months ahead. Momentous changes for our community, our world, and I want us today to think about that star shining, the light of God, shining the love of God. Shining, shining. You are shining. Hey, we are going to shine. We have about eight weeks until Lent, and in these eight weeks, this is, we call this the season. Today it begins, it's the season after the epiphany and this season of the epiphany every Sunday stories about who Jesus is. Jesus the manifestation, the fullest revelation of the light of God, the love of God.
If you want to know, how am I supposed to let my light shine and do the right thing, if it's going to draw this kind of attention, the answer is we do it by the power of God within us. And if we need our knees strengthened and we need something to stand on, come to church every Sunday to hear about who Jesus is. We keep the focus on him. That's how we do this. That's how we love each other. That's how we show love and how we stand firm in shining our light into darkness. We're called to receive the love of God through Christ so that we can be the love of God. St. Paul. In his letter today, he says, where is my St. Paul says, through the church, the wisdom of God will now be made known to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places, right? This epiphany of the star has been given to us and we are now called to be an epiphany to the world, a manifestation of the light and the love of God. Not by our own power, but by fixing our eyes on Christ, knowing deep in our hearts and in our bones, who God is and what love looks like. Love, so that we can shine that light in the darkness. Amen.