Feast of the Epiphany

06Jan
The weather has been awful,
The countryside is dreary,
Marsh, jungle, rock; and echoes mock,
Calling our hope unlawful;
But a silly song can help along
Yours ever and sincerely:
At least we know for certain that we are three old sinners,
That this journey is much too long, that we want our dinners,
And miss our wives, our books, our dogs,
But have only the vaguest idea why we are what we are.
To discover how to be human now
Is the reason we follow this star.

-W.H.Auden, For The time Being: A Christmas Oratorio, 1944


Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. An epiphany is a discovery, a revelation, a showing forth. We often think of the season of Epiphany as the Season of Light. One of the symbols of this season is the appearance of the Magi, the Three Kings, who follow a star--a light--in search of the One whom they will call the Savior of the World. Magi, the Latin plural of magus (magos), referred originally to the priests of Parsiism, the monotheistic religion proclaimed in Persia by Zoroaster in about the sixth century BC. In later years it came to mean astrologers, magicians, priests, physicians, scribes, scholars, or learned men. From “magi” we derive our word "magic." The King James Version translates the word as "wise men." Matthew’s gospel tells us how these magi came to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem and brought gifts to the infant Jesus. Although the story does not mention the number of wise men, the tradition describes “three kings” probably because they were said to have borne three gifts. Christian writers have interpreted the gold as a sign that Jesus is King, the Frankincense as a sign that Jesus is God, and the myrrh (used in embalming) as a sign that through his death and Resurrection Jesus has become the Savior of the world. 


One of the 20th Century’s greatest poets, W. H. Auden, had emigrated from England to the United States at the beginning of World War II. He became a communicant of St Mark’s-in-the Bowery Episcopal Church in lower Manhattan and his faith informed much of his best work. Written in 1941-42 during the darkest days of the war, For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio is a 32 page long poem that unfolds around the major Christmas events, including the preparation of Advent and the Annunciation to Mary, the visit of the Magi, as well as Herod's massacre of the Innocents and the Holy Family's flight into Egypt. The poem is set in the world of the first-century Roman Empire and the twentieth-century, two worlds very much alike. The Three Wise Men are portrayed as a scientist, a philosopher and a sociologist and their quest, their reason for following the star, is to “discover how to be human now.”


What could that mean? Here’s what I think. We are fully human as we live into our consciousness of the Christ that dwells within each one of us. The Apostle Paul says over and again, “You are hidden with Christ.” “You have been crucified with Christ.” “You are in Christ.” 


Do you know that Paul says that over 70 times in his letters? “You are in Christ.” The second century theologian, St. Irenaeus, observed that “the glory of God is the human being fully alive.” And being fully alive, fully conscious of our divine connection, we can follow the pattern of Jesus’s life, the full and complete human being who fully lived into his Christ nature. We too can be healers and reconcilers; we too can welcome the stranger and the weak and the poor and those on the margins; we too can walk the path of sacrificial service and devotion to something larger than our own small selves. Being fully human means to be fully alive to the Christ within. 


The Magi followed a star which led them to a rude barn where a poor family had found shelter on a cold winter’s night, a night where Christ consciousness had miraculously burst into the world. In this Season of Light may we too become ever more fully alive to our own Christly nature, more fully alive to our own unique Divine calling. May we continue to discover what it means to be human.


Musical Reflection - We Three Kings - The Petersens


O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Worship

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