Friday was Epiphany, the end of the
Christmas season, the time when we celebrate the coming of the Magi to Jesus
bearing gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrr.
This act itself, is interesting, some
countries celebrate it in a Halloween type fashion, sending out kids to
neighbors dressed up in beards and robes to receive pieces of fruit.
But, this story isn’t really the
point—some chaps, probably Persians, following a star and finding the baby
Christ—that’s not the point, the story has to be cracked open for us to understand
In today’s readings, it is Paul who
gets us there
—Epiphany
is about the Revelation of the great mystery of God. What was once hidden to
many, God’s faithful presence for the whole world, is revealed to the world.
In other words, Grace for all people!
God’s
bounty is without boundary. Whoever you are, through Christ, you have access to
God, be confident in that! Be bold in
that even!
And
it is the Church’s calling to receive, and to be, this multi-colored Wisdom of
God, this variegated, diverse, multifaceted, face of God for us, Jesus Christ our Lord.
PRAYER
It’s one of those things, this
revelation, this Epiphany. In retrospect it is obvious
—it’s
like looking in your rearview mirror
—it
appears closer and clearer, than it is.
In
hindsight, God’s grace for all people was always floating just below the
biblical surface
—you
could even say God’s love of all peoples
is the worst kept secret in the bible.
It’s
like that famous velvet painting of dogs playing poker…
we
all know dogs would be horrible at poker
—they
have a tell, their tail
—when
that thing starts wagging the whole table knows that its time to fold.
God too, has a tell.
God too, is pretty obvious about the
cards he’s going to play—his grace
for all hand of cards is laid out for us.
Think of it—In the beginning, that
famous poem in Genesis tells, God created one
ancestor for all of us.
Abraham was a pagan, pushed into a
relationship with God through no act of
his own.
Moses, the man who brought in laws to separate God’s people from foreigners, had a foreign wife.
Every time particular people are excluded we have a Rehab, Ruth, or
Bathsheba who break this mold.
For that matter the Prophet Ezekiel has
a vision of God on a throne with wheels, because God doesn’t concern Godself only with things happening in one place.
The story of Jonah shows mercy upon the Ninnevites, foreigners who had shown no mercy to the Israelites.
Isaiah goes even further and scandalizes us not only with today’s
reading about foreigners bringing
people and goods to Jerusalem, but puts in God’s lips words about Egypt and
Babylon being God’s people before God ever dealt with Judah.
The book of Proverbs is filled with sayings from foreign kings, and the
book of Job is about a faithful foreigner.
So, by the time God lays all His cards out on Epiphany—it shouldn’t be a
revelation—of course it is, strangers from the East acknowledging the Christ
Child, signifying that all have access to God through him.
This truth triumphs in Paul’s ministry—his whole mission is creating
communities in which Gentiles, non-Jews, foreign people often excluded from
relationship with God, are welcomed and given equal authority and affirmed as
having equal access to God.
By the last book of the Bible, Revelation, John is given a glimpse of
the court, the political cabinet if you will, of the Lamb, Jesus Christ ruling
as King of Creation, and finds countless peoples from all places present!
All that to say, Epiphany reveals something that, once revealed, is
apparent everywhere; it’s like getting a new car, once you do, you notice that
model everywhere,
so to, once we realize God’s great mystery is Grace for All peoples, we see it everywhere in scripture, and hopefully in our lives together.
And that’s where the rubber hits the road, the church must always be
aware that we not only receive this
great revelation—grace for all people—but we also embody it.
We, as church, must always be aware of who is being left out,
who has not heard,
who we, in our sinfulness, exclude and even try to separate from
the Grace of God.
We can not say:
“Hey, you have substance abuse problems, or you are depressed,
I don’t like your politics or cultural dress,
your skin tone scares me or your life is a mess,
Or your too young or too old,
you just don’t fit the mold.”
No, we live out the reality that
first found us—Grace for all people.
In Paul’s day. joint Jew and Gentile Churches were mind blowing and
transgressive
—he had to defend non-Jews as:
Part of the Family of God,
Part of the Body of Christ,
Part of the Promise of God.
Co-inheritors, Co-members, Co-Promisees.
He then goes on to say something stupendous and very strange,
“through the church, the wisdom of God in its rich variety (God’s
multi-colored wisdom) might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”
As a rule I don’t preach on the goings on in heaven, because speculation
atop speculation is often specious, but hear clearly what Paul is saying,
“When the Church
holds onto, and lives out, the Epiphany Revelation—Grace for All—that shakes
heaven, even angels quake!”
Some read this to mean all those evil forces that defy God, those powers we renounce in Baptism, are
put on notice that they can’t separate people any more, because God is on the
move.
Others read it more gently, that every nation, every people, have their
particular guardian angel and these angels now know they can retire, because
Christ cares for all people.
Or, and this is my take—and what I’m leaving you with, Paul is simply
being motivational here,
“Live out the great
Epiphany Revelation, Grace for All
People, within your Christian Community, in all the wonderful diversity God
has offered to us, with such vigor that even angels in heaven stop what they’re
doing and take note!” A+A
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