The Feast of the Epiphany is the day on which we in the Church calendar celebrate the arrival of the Magi, the wise men, into the Christmas story. We have heard of the journey of Mary and Joseph, the greetings of the angels, the arrival of the shepherds, and now we have these mysterious characters from the East.
And with their arrival they brought out 3 rather mysterious gifts for a little child, gold, frankincense and myrrh. There have been different interpretations of the meaning of these gifts, and some have suggested that they were simply gifts with no hidden meaning, but this morning I just want to think of 2 things – firstly the fact that the wise men came at all, and secondly that they brought gifts with them.
In the reading we heard from Isaiah (60:1-6), the Prophet writes of the darkness covering the earth, but the light of God shining through it. Today the world has many dark places. Any news programme will remind us of that fact. We have conflicts in so many parts of the world, we have tragedies and suffering, we have people living in incredible riches and people living in dreadful poverty.
None of these things can ever be trivialised – as Christians seeking to live out the gospel of Jesus, the gospel of love and care and compassion, the gospel of hope and peace, for all people, it is our duty to try and help those in need in whatever way we are able, but as we are reminded today that the light of God is shining even in those darkest places, we are also challenged to ask how that light is revealed to people.
For the wise men they saw a star and were attracted to Jesus. For us, there will probably be many different stories as to how we got to where we are now, wherever that may be, in our faith, but for those who do not yet know Jesus, they are looking for the light, and that light will often be you and me.
Isaiah wrote, ‘Lift up your eyes and look around’… All around there is the light of Christ waiting to be switched on in the full view of people everywhere. Today we are called to lift up our eyes and look around at the need, at the suspicion, at the corruption, the apathy, the misery, the neglect… and respond.
The wise men saw the light and followed it to Jesus, and in doing so they took a long journey. On their way they visited Herod and told him what they were doing. It was probably the natural thing for them to do. That was the society in which they moved, but by the time they saw Jesus they knew that Herod had no good part to play in this story.
Jesus had shown them that God, not our social or political structures, is where we find real and lasting light. Again we return to Isaiah who wrote that the light of God has been shared and shines upon each one of us. Loosely we may say it is privilege to be a Christian. Loosely we may recite the creed and say our prayers, but the light, the love and the power of God are very real, and things that must affect every moment of our lives.
Our faith can never be put into neat compartments – If we believe that Jesus came as a child to show us how much God loves us, if we believe that he lived and showed us a way to live, if we believe that he was even prepared to die, not just for all of us, but for any one of us, then our faith demands our commitment.
The journey that was taken by the wise men was long, not just in distance, but in terms of their own spiritual journey. They had recognised the Messiah, and their journey was taking a new twist. And that is true for so many other characters we can think of in the Bible – Peter, when Jesus asked, ‘Who do you say that I am ?’ replied, ‘You are the Messiah’ (Matt 16:16). The thief on the cross next to Jesus recognised him as a Saviour, ‘Jesus remember me when you come in to your kingdom’ (Luke 23:42). Thomas, in spite of his earlier doubts, recognised the risen Christ (John 20:28), and Paul recognised the risen and alive Christ, whom he had tried so hard to destroy, on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:5).
Just as the wise men saw the light of Christ, so the light of Christ shines upon each one of us today and we are invited to live in that light completely - How do we respond ?
And so it was tremendously important that the wise men went to Jesus, but it was important also that they took their gifts, however strange they may have been for a little child, because they recognised that to someone we love, to someone we care about, it is good to give gifts.
Now gift giving can be a difficult thing to do – I read just before Christmas about some things not to buy your wife. It went as follows :
1. Don't buy clothing that involves sizes. The chances are slight that you will get her size right, and your wife will be offended if you get it wrong. It will either be too big, in which case she’ll wonder whether that’s how you see her anyway, or too small, and she’ll have the idea that that is the size of woman you want!
2. Avoid all things useful. The new silver polish advertised to save hundreds of hours is not going to win you any brownie points.
3. Don't buy anything that involves weight loss or self-improvement. She'll perceive a six-month membership to a gym as a suggestion that's she's overweight.
5. Don't buy jewellery. The jewellery your wife wants, you can't afford. And the jewellery you can afford, she doesn't want.
6. And do not fall into the traditional trap of buying her frilly underwear. Your idea of the kind your wife should wear and what she actually wants to wear are light years apart.
7. Finally, don't spend too much. "How do you think we're going to afford that?" she'll ask. But don't spend too little. She won't say anything, but she'll think, "Is that all I'm worth?"
Anyway back to the wise men. It’s useful to think about the gifts they brought – it’s useful to analyse what they may have meant for the future of this child, but what is important is that they gave, and ultimately that is what is important for us. R W Emerson, an American poet with many strange ideas, did say that ‘the only true gift is a portion of yourself’.
For the wise men, the gifts may or may not have made a difference to their lives, but what they gave later certainly did – they gave their commitment. They moved away from the society of king Herod and in doing so took on a new life. They gave themselves.
And that is true of so many people who have helped to bring the gospel to us today. They gave not just their money or even just their time, they gave themselves… We thought earlier of the commitment of faith and giving ourselves means that it affects the way we live, every moment…
The incredible riches of Jesus have been shared with us. We are inheritors of everything that he has, and we are bearers of his light into an often dark and cruel world. Jesus’ love for us is remarkable – he loves us enough to die for us, he loves us enough to offer a second and third and even thousandth chance when we get things wrong, and as bearers of that light we must share those things with others.
Do we really help others to look with amazement at what God has done, and is doing today ? That must be our mission as Christians, that must be our mission as a Church…
Epiphany is not just a date in history, but it is an attitude that invites other people to recognise what we have seen and found, and a way of unleashing the full grace, mercy and love of God into a world where people are waiting. AMEN
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