You Shall See and Be Radiant
By Dawn M.
Frankfurt
Glory
to the Holy and Undivided Trinity;
God
who is Three in One and One in Three; Who is beyond us, among us, within us;
Who
was, and is, and is to come, world without end. Amen.
When you hear the word ‘Epiphany,’ what do you think of? In graphic terms, I think of a bright white
light-bulb (the old fashioned kind) hovering in the air over my head. Pardon the pun, but an epiphany is like
having something ‘dawn’ on you. You
know, when you finally figure something out or get a brand new idea. That’s an epiphany.
[*][I had my own
epiphany of sorts not too long ago when I was thinking about water conservation
and what could be done about it. I read
somewhere not too long ago that if your style of shower is to hop in, get wet,
turn the water off, lather up, complete the scrub-job and then turn the water
back on for a quick rinse – that’s a ‘military shower.’ If you’re the opposite, standing under the
running water for luxurious stretches of time, letting the water run while
you’re soaping up, and then standing in it indulgently again as you rinse off –
that’s a ‘Hollywood shower.’
What, I thought, in the interest of conserving
water, could make Hollywood showers compatible with our environmental conscience? That’s when I had my idea, my epiphany, of
sorts. I thought, what if there was a
little tank of water which you would fill, say it’s right behind the wall where
your shower head is. As you take your
shower, all of the water which comes out of the tank could be caught as it goes
through the drain. Then, the water
could be quickly forced through a series of filters on its way back to the
tank. Once it’s back in the tank, then
the clean water could be on its way out of the shower head again, onto you, through
the drain and then the filters, back to the tank and so on. We could shower in a relatively small amount
of continuously circulating warm water – and our showers could be as long as we
wanted them to be. Why this
contraption, borne to me in an epiphany, hasn’t already been built, marketed
and installed all over the country, I do not know. Surely people smarter than me have thought of something like
this!
I looked in the online version of the
Merriam-Webster Dictionary on the internet, and one of the definitions they provide for ‘epiphany’ is: “(1): a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential
nature or meaning of something (2): an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event)
usually simple and striking (3): an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b: a revealing
scene or moment.” That, my friends is what one kind of
epiphany is, but it has very little to do with the kind of Epiphany we are
celebrating today. On the Feast of the
Epiphany we remember the visitation of the magi to the child Jesus to whom they
were led by a star to find with Mary, his mother. The wise men of the east came to pay him homage.]
Only in the
slightest way is my image of a hovering light bulb anything like the coming of
the light of Christ into the world. An
idea comes to you, and God came to us in the birth of Jesus.
The difference is, my little epiphany may save gallons of water in
comparison with the Epiphany of God which saves not only oceans but all of
creation. The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh are
meant to indicate that the wise men have traveled a great distance to come and
worship Jesus. They are gentiles who
have come from foreign parts. They have
gathered at the crib-side of an infant who came into the world to break down
walls, to bring nations together and to heal a divided world.
The unification of
the nations is easier to picture in some settings than in others. Over the last several days I haven’t been
able to get away from news analysts talking about the lack of diversity in
Iowa. I’ve lost track of how many times
I’ve heard commentators repeat the gross over-simplification that nearly
everyone in Iowa is white and that they have a majority of evangelical Christians
there. O.K., so in Iowa when you go to
the mall, the grocery store, or Target, it may be harder to see evidence of the
nations of the world actually coming together.
But there are places you CAN go where the customs you follow, the way
you dress, the faces you see and the languages you hear give much greater
evidence of the nations of the world coming together.
Go to London or New
York City. Honolulu, Miami or San
Francisco. In places like these, it’s
easy to see and hear people from all walks of life and places around the globe.
Other than large bustling cities, you
can go other places where you can be immersed in a variety of cultures and
races. You can see the coming-together
of our globe in airports.
Now, I know some of
you who’ve heard a few of my previous sermons or read newsletter articles I
wrote over the summer, probably won’t be able to believe that I am going to
stand here and say this; but, when I traveled to see my family right after
Christmas:
Gosh, for a second
it almost sounds like I have nothing to complain about regarding my recent air
travel! … Don’t let yourself be fooled!
People traveling
through airports on commercial airlines in the Unites States (and most places
in the world) all get treated about the same.
This lack of individualized treatment, even the lack of acknowledgement
from airline or airport employees that passengers, paying customers, are human
beings, is one of the things which really galls me. The person working at the newsstand will continue talking on
their mobile phone while you pay for your magazine and while the person behind
you buys their newspaper. It doesn’t
matter which cabin you’re sitting in; which country, state or town you’re from;
man or woman; professional or tourist; robed in ecclesiastical garb or not –
everybody:
It doesn’t matter
who you are when you travel. Everyone,
no matter which age or heritage, suffers the same travel indignities. Airports – bringing us all together – the
great equalizers.
When I travel, I
don’t usually talk very much with people seated with me. Maybe I’m attempting to avoid hassle by
staying quiet and keeping my head down.
Anyway, on this last trip, as it turned out, I made an exception on my
return to Dulles. You see, I just
happened to see a very attractive man traveling with two young children on my
flight from Dulles to Oklahoma City on Christmas Day. We weren’t seated anywhere near each other and we never
spoke. Let’s just say he “made an
impression.” I saw him way at the other
end of baggage claim after we landed, and from there we went our separate ways
never having met. Behold! I couldn’t believe it, but on my return
flight from Oklahoma City to Dulles, the person assigned to sit in the seat
next to me was the very same good-looking guy.
I recognized him immediately and said so, striking up a conversation
with him right away.
It turned out that
he and I went to the same Middle School in Edmond for one year, though he was a
year ahead of me. He’d moved to another
town in Oklahoma after that. He went on
to graduate from a small college in his hometown of Weatherford, OK. From there he went to DC working for an
Oklahoma Senator, and from there his career of diplomacy and deal-making was
born. He had lived the last 20 years in
Hong Kong. He was traveling with the
same children on this flight and they looked to share a Chinese heritage.
As things tend to go
in conversations like this, he asked me what I “do” and I told him I was an
Episcopal priest. I never know what to
expect when I tell people this, but his face lit up. He said his ex-wife (note to self) was studying religion at
Oxford. He went on to tell me about his
Mennonite up-bringing and revealed that he had a sister who was gay. He said he was having a difficult time
knowing what to make of that in light of the way he’d been taught to understand
Scripture. Eventually, he brought the
conversation around to the current rifts in the Episcopal Church and the
Anglican Communion over issues related to this topic. We talked about it for a while, and he came to understand that
there is a possibility that there could in fact be permanent divisions in the
Episcopal Church and/or between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. He must have been able to tell that I
wouldn’t like to see the break-up of our Church or Communion. He asked me why I cared, or why it mattered
if the splits took place? Why would it
make any difference if the Episcopal Church was no longer part of the Anglican
Communion or if the Episcopal Church fractured into a variety of pieces?
It matters, I said,
because in every way a break-up would be against what Scripture teaches. Jesus didn’t come telling us to divide
ourselves from others. He didn’t say
that we should stay away from people or groups who did or believed things
differently than we do. That’s exactly
the opposite of what Christ came to tell us.
He came for the whole world, not just part of it, and He came to make
the world whole. Nowhere, nowhere,
nowhere does Jesus tell the disciples to stay in one place, stick together,
shun outsiders and to avoid anyone in need of help or healing. Jesus didn’t come to tell us how to keep to
ourselves or make more divisions. The
last thing we should do is make more divisions in the church, the body of
Christ. Our goal should be to unite
denominations one with another rather than creating new ones.
This brings us back
to Epiphany. Jesus was born to Jewish
parents. Angels, shepherds, wise men,
gentiles and Jews were drawn together to him from the time of his infancy. The babe in a manger brought good news to
many nations, calling all of us to be together in the Kingdom of God. When my brother, sister and I make our
migrations to Oklahoma for Christmas, we are drawn from different states and
from different religious traditions to come together in love and on the
occasion of celebration for all that we have been given in Christ. And it’s not just me. My seatmate and his family returned home
from the four corners of the globe.
When we act with love and good intention we are drawn together.
Have any of you seen
the movie “Juno,” which is playing at the Visualite? It’s a great movie! One
of the things I loved so much about it was that even though the main character,
a high school girl named Juno, hit a rough patch and went through a really hard
time while she was in high school, her family stuck with her. Her friends stayed by her side. There was a problem and without discussion
or debate about whether to do it, Juno’s family and friends automatically
rallied around her. Even in the bad
times she was surrounded by love.
This is the message
of Epiphany. God came to us in love
through the child Jesus. Through that
child, and like the wise men, we are all called to come together and to come
toward God. We are to allow ourselves
to be led to the place indicated by a star, surrounded by angels and given in
love to the whole world by God. Jesus
is for everybody. No divisions. No favorites. No special treatment for certain classes or groups of
people. Not just us without them. Everybody.
In the story of
Epiphany, the world begins to come together.
On Christmas we celebrated that the reason for coming together has come
into the world. On Epiphany, when you come to
understand that God is for the WHOLE world, you will not build walls, you will
not practice division, you will not turn others away. With Epiphany in your hearts, you will see this.
When you come to the light of Christ, you shall
see and be radiant!
AMEN!
The
Lessons appointed for use on the Feast of the Epiphany
January 6, RCL
The Collect
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.
Isaiah 60:1-6,9
Arise, shine; for
your light has come,
and the glory of the
LORD has risen upon you.
For darkness shall
cover the earth,
and thick darkness
the peoples;
but the LORD will
arise upon you,
and his glory will
appear over you.
Nations shall come
to your light,
and kings to the
brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes
and look around;
they all gather
together, they come to you;
your sons shall come
from far away,
and your daughters
shall be carried on their nurses' arms.
Then you shall see
and be radiant;
your heart shall
thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance
of the sea shall be brought to you,
the wealth of the
nations shall come to you.
A multitude of
camels shall cover you,
the young camels of
Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba
shall come.
They shall bring
gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim
the praise of the LORD.
Psalm 72:1-7,10-14
1 Give the King your
justice, O God, *
and your righteousness to the King's Son;
2 That he may rule
your people righteously *
and the poor with justice;
3 That the mountains
may bring prosperity to the people, *
and the little hills bring righteousness.
4 He shall defend
the needy among the people; *
he shall rescue the poor and crush the oppressor.
5 He shall live as
long as the sun and moon endure, *
from one generation to another.
6 He shall come down
like rain upon the mown field, *
like showers that water the earth.
7 In his time shall
the righteous flourish; *
there shall be abundance of peace till the moon shall be no more.
10 The kings of
Tarshish and of the isles shall pay tribute, *
and the kings of Arabia and Saba offer gifts.
11 All kings shall
bow down before him, *
and all the nations do him service.
12 For he shall
deliver the poor who cries out in distress, *
and the oppressed who has no helper.
13 He shall have
pity on the lowly and poor; *
he shall preserve the lives of the needy.
14 He shall redeem
their lives from oppression and violence, *
and dear shall their blood be in his sight.
Ephesians 3:1-12
This is the reason
that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- for
surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given
me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote
above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding
of the mystery of Christ. In former generations this mystery was not made known
to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by
the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same
body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Of this gospel I
have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by
the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this
grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches
of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for
ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of
God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities
in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he
has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in
boldness and confidence through faith in him.
Matthew 2:1-12
In the time of King
Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came
to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?
For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When
King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and
calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired
of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of
Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
‘And you, Bethlehem,
in the land of Judah,
are by no means
least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall
come a ruler
who is to shepherd
my people Israel.’”
Then Herod secretly
called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had
appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for
the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and
pay him homage.” When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead
of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over
the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they
were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary
his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their
treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And
having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own
country by another road.
[*] Due to various time constraints, the sermon may be
read with or without the section in [brackets].