Lord by the radiance of your brightness, shine into our lives your glory and help us worship you in spirit and in truth…
Epiphany is a Feast that so often gets lost – its sort of tagged onto Christmas, arriving rather late in the day when really we’d rather get on with packing away the decorations, throwing out the tree and getting on with ordinary life again. Despite the wonder and joy of Christmas, in our modern day world especially, we are so often glad to see the back of the drooping holly and ivy, the desiccated pine needles all over the carpet – these time-limited trappings of festivities which can quickly seem tawdry, even excessive and so, along with unwanted presents, are put out of sight.
In just such a way, the three kings take so long to get here, that it can feel a bit like too much effort, its all going on too long, and really – who do they think they are anyway, arriving so late, and with such strange gifts for a young child?
And yet, can’t we feel the magic, the exotic ‘otherness’ of it – the shimmering silks and damasks, the smell of spice and incense, the weightiness of the gold, the words spoken in a foreign tongue – the huge strangeness of the camels…and the mysterious bright star that leads them on such a journey.
There is so much we don’t know for sure –for a start, were they actually Kings? Matthew uses the Greek word ‘Magi’ which really referred to a caste of Persian Priests who were renowned for interpreting dreams. Our words magic and magician come from this word ‘magi’ and perhaps they were so wise and learned that they seemed almost magical. Certainly they obviously knew a great deal about astronomy and in the ancient world the study of the whole earth and heavens was interlinked.
We are transported back to those resonant words at the beginning of Midnight Mass as the figure of the baby Jesus is placed in the crib – ‘Great little one, whose all encompassing birth, brings earth to heaven stoops heaven to earth.’
It made sense to people of ancient times, that if God was doing a great thing on earth – signs in the heavens would give witness to this, and vice versa, that if some great event occurred in the stars, then something incredible was about to happen on earth.
And so begins both the story of the Nativity, and of the Epiphany.
Just as we don’t know if they were Kings, we don’t know if there were only three, or more, or whether they came on camels or horses, or exactly where they came from, but be it Persia, given their name, or Babylon, where astronomy was studied so intently, or Arabia or Syria, because of their gifts – but what we do know is that their late arrival in the story is hugely significant.
Of course, they may have arrived late from our perspective but in fact, they began as soon as they saw the natal star, probably long before that of course, in that they were prepared, you might say, to set out on such a journey. They arrive late, when Jesus is by now a toddler, but then they had had to travel such a long way through many experiences and challenges, gaining in knowledge as they travel, so that their wisdom grows even more.
Despite this, they still make the terrible mistake of seeking the new King at the Palace of the old one! Herod, an insecure, brutal man, who kills even his own wife and sons when they threaten his popularity, has a very dubious claim to the throne, he is not a ‘real’ King and is certainly not going to tolerate one who seems to be the very embodiment of Jewish prophecy, get rid of him now before he grows and has a chance to become a serious threat.
This mistake has appalling consequences, and many little ones die, for the sake of the one, who ultimately will die for everyone. The Nativity story is not a cosy comfortable tale, far from it – it is life and death to bring new life – but then, what else is birth all about?
But when they find Jesus, they don’t just kneel in homage, a striking enough picture – these important, powerful, learned men, kneeling to a poor child – but more than that, they worship him. The first people to recognise that here is God – and yet they are gentiles, strangers, yes foreigners, from far off lands.
And this theme returns the other way around at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, where the disciples worship the risen Jesus, as he gives them the Great Commission – to go and make disciples of all nations.
The great story behind Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter suddenly is revealed in all its wonder and we see what is behind those stirring words of Isaiah ‘Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you – nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.’
As the Magi fall to their knees and worship the infant Jesus, we see a tiny child, held on his young mother’s knee in all their fragility, and we see a grown man, nailed to the cross in brokenness and pain, and we see the true King, risen, enthroned in heaven, in the fullness of God’s glory, full of grace and truth.
Epiphany then, is not the tail end of Christmas, when its all over bar the shouting, with a few twinkly lights forlornly trailing – but a wondrous season of revelation, of the brightness of a star heralding the rising of the Morning Star, the promise of glory and hope and new life for all people, an invitation and good news for all nations, a journey of discovery that will last a lifetime, and a reminder that God is at work in our world, in just such surprising and unexpected ways now as then.
Service: Reverend Michelle Dalliston. 8th January 2023.
(St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)
Referenced Scripture: Isaiah 60: 1-6, Ephesians 3: 1-12