05/01/2025
My sermon on the Feast Day of The Holy Epiphany 5th January 2025
"Pay Attention, be Astonished with 3 Guys with Gifts"
In a poem, by Mary Oliver, she hints on instructions for living a life: “Pay attention. Be astonished”.
An epiphany is an experience that makes you see and understand things in a way that will guide and shape your life from that moment on.
When we have moments of revelation we focus & are totes amazed and we can’t help but do things differently or ‘tell about the mystery of it’ through how it moulds and, often, changes our lives.
What we celebrate today is that deepest mystery – God’s revelation to the world in his son, born as vulnerable child in an humble and ‘out of the way’ place. God with us ALWAYS & EVERYWHERE, in our ordinary, mundane, everyday lives.
A slight aside at this point. When Prince William, his brother and all his children arrived, their ‘revelation’ to the waiting world was, as tradition dictates, with a plethora of camera flashes, 24/7 media trumpeting, even gun salutes across the country. In fact, had their mothers not actually been there at the moment of conception & birth, I often think they might have been amongst the last, much as my own former wife who, on giving birth to our first born after a terribly drawn out labour, bless her, wearily asked me, “is it a boy or a girl”? only for me to reply “I don’t know but it's BEAUTIFUL” (Actually I suggested something far more biologically-confirming but, well, modesty dictates etc).
And the gun saluting, the battery of cameras etc is the way we announce celebrity. Yet, in the case of Jesus’ arrival into the world, HIS is witnessed first, not by the religious or political rulers of the day but by strangers from far away. Magis, “wise men” who come seeking out the true ‘King of the Jews’. And when they find him they prostrate themselves, they bow down and worship Him.
Do they find Him in a palace, in the expected place?
No, but ‘God with us’ in the LAST place anybody today would think Him likely together found. In the grime and misery of poverty, bedding down in amongst cattle, rat infested hay, His mum filthy dirty from travelling with Joseph, Her fiancé, desperately fleeing harm and danger and looking for a breather during their, politically, illegal journey. And why?
Because, of course, they are outcasts, unwanted, threatened for living their lives differently than the way they were forced to by dictatorial and illegal administrations who ruled through fear and coercion, by stripping away individual freedoms and rights under an all controlling state machine. In other words they were REFUGEES…MIGRANTS.
Sound familiar?
Very sadly, when we should have had the opportunity for a few hours’respite from our arduous voluntary work as your clergy, we on The Council of St Stephens were, instead, fighting a difficult situation, where a member of our clergy had posted the most un-Christian and morally reprehensible comments about the so called ‘invasion’, ‘swamping’(pick an inflammatory descriptor of your own, it's been wrongly used at some point by the more extreme in our country) of the so-called ‘boat people' trying, oh so desperately, often sadly failing, to reach this wonderful, inclusive and welcoming country of ours. To have freedom to do and be WHO you are, to think for & express yourself whilst having a roof over your head and food in your and your childrens’ bellies without fear or favour is the most basic of human rights. It is something ALL humanity should have the opportunity of and, here in the UK we have had that liberty and those rights, for all, for as long as history can recall.
(At this point, whilst horrified that a priest would show such flagrant hate for these truly desparate people, with political rhetoric completely contrary to the teachings of the God of love He claimed to represent, I support unequivocally anybody’s right to hold such views, even though, as a Christian cleric, I vehemently oppose them. We all do, hence why we invited him to a frank and open discussion about it, to see what we could learn, but he decided to resign instead, which is a sad reflection of those who do not want to be challenged).
Which brings us back to the Epiphany story. As another clergywoman in another place once so eloquently out;
“It's about how God is found not at the centre of power but at the margins, not in the certainty of cultural and religious safety and conformity, but beyond the boundaries where new relationships and discoveries are made, where the elite bow down and kneel before a small child”.
It is, at it’s simplest, the story of refugees on the move, fleeing for their lives yet valued by, and influencing the hearts and souls of those they meet, Him most of all.
The Magi pay attention, are astonished and tell about what they see in their actions. They point the way for us to do the same as we too encounter this revelation of ‘God with us’ and allow the beauty and mystery of that revelation to guide and direct our lives so that we also can reveal God’s presence and light to the world too.
They faithfully try, using all means at their disposal, to follow the guiding star to find their new ‘King”. But their own actions can only get them so far. They read the revelation of historic writings, of Isaiah, other prophets and even those from outside the ‘elite’, astrologers and soothsayers of times past. They learn from history (& it's mistakes!) and are focused on following where the star is leading them, even when that goes against their expectations and they are led far beyond the bright lights and power in Jerusalem to a backyard in Bethlehem.
We are told that they are ‘overwhelmed with joy’ when they reach their destination, even though it's a drear and smelly manger down a filthy back street. Their first response on seeing the child is to fall to their knees and to worship Him. They allow the truth of what they see to transform and delight them. These seekers and enquirers on pilgrimage have become worshippers.
They tell about what they see by offering gifts that confirm the identity of the one they have found; gold for a king, incense for Jesus’s holy and priestly purity, & myrrh for symbolically washing His broken future body, His sacrificial offering of love for the world. This truly is the king they have been seeking, the holy Son of God, the suffering servant who will give His life for all. And then these wise men defy Herod’s order to go straight back & ‘snutch’ on His hidden home. They don’t tell Herod about what they see, but by their actions they tell the world where true power lies, here in this out of the way place, in this tiny child. “See, this is where God is found”, they say. They leave for their own countries, not by the expected way but by another road, to protect the little family from the false king’s all consuming ire.
In paying attention, in their astonishment and worship, in their telling about what they see, we see the world the right way round. Not a world that rests on power, privilege and political strength, but on this humble gift for all, light for all the world, worshipped in the Christ child.
We are invited to pay attention, to be astonished and tell about this gift too in lives of loving humble service. God invites us to pay attention to be where the light is, to follow faithfully. In his revelation of the incarnation, of Christ come to be with us, He shows us who He is, and who we are, in His light. Our response can only be to be astonished and amazed and to bow our knee and worship too. Transformed by that encounter and revelation, we cannot help ourselves from telling others about it, both by our words but more, much more, by our deeds. As we respond to his light we become witnesses to his revelation too, signposts of his love for others, the star that points his way.
How might you pay attention? Be faithful in your following, in your seeking after the light and goodness of Christ. Be open to looking beyond the boundaries of your life, your experience and your expectations – your expectations of yourself, of others and of God. Seek encounters with those who are ‘different’ to you because it is with them you will come to find and know God. Pay attention to the marginal places and the people you find there. Because that is where you will find God.
This tiny child can connect us ALL to a deep joy and grace within each other. Disregarding position, education, rank or status, people from all around the world, radiate light. We each have that capacity to connect to the deep joy within us. Allow God to meet you in that place, so that you also radiate his joy.
So allow this ‘Epiphany’ to change you so that you also go a different way. See your life as touched by the light of God and allow yourself to be that light, a gift for our world.
Sometimes just the saying of the Lord’s Prayer resonates with that ordinary moment of deep mystery and knowledge. A window into the heart and mind of God, and into God’s gentle, tender humour too – God knows how to get our attention & often does it in the most bizarre and unexpected way. For myself, it has, this time, in being almost ‘forced’ into facing interior domestic squabbles that needed me, and my beloved brothers on the Council, to take myself out of celebrations as normal, to sacrifice, even though, in the greater picture, my happiness to address another’s sadness.
So, rather like the Wise Men (not an epiphet I seek by the way) I have been transformed this Epiphany by the extraordinary presence of God in Christ in the manger, God’s revelation makes it possible to see that mystery in ordinary simple things. So pay attention to all that God wishes to reveal to you of His love & wonder…in the child, in the person of Jesus Christ. Be astonished and tell all you discover to the world, with boldness and confidence. Be Christ’s light and love for all the world.
In the name of The Father (+), The Son & The Holy Ghost… and we all say AMEN.
+Barry Melita
Bishop of Dorset & the Mediterranean Basin.
