Feast of the Epiphany
The wonderful feast of the
Epiphany brings back many memories for me, especially of my childhood. When I was in grade school
back in
But the Magi, the feast of
the Epiphany is more than just you know worrying about the camel’s head or the
camel’s hump. It’s a beautiful
feast. It reminds us that these Magi, astrologers,
kings, whatever they were. It’s only in
the western culture that we call them kings.
The eastern church considers them astrologers,
Magi. But the important thing is that
they were seekers in search of somebody, of this Child, and they brought
gifts.
So there’s the tip-off for
you and for me. If we’re going to
celebrate Epiphany we have to be people who are seeking, searching, and people
who use our gifts.
Now notice the last line of
the gospel, they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod and they went by
another way. Now we could say
physically, yes they went back by a different route. I think that’s symbolic. They were different. They didn’t return to their former way of
life in a sense, they had seen this Child.
They did Him homage. They
realized that God somehow had broken into their culture, into their world. Notice they were non-Jews, so they were
realizing that God’s love was meant for them too, not just for the Jewish
people. So there’s a tip-off for you and
for me. Again the feast of the Epiphany
is saying that you and I just because we are here this morning and we’re Roman
Catholics, we’ve got God. Hopefully we
do. But God is big enough for all people
of the world. This Savior Jesus came for
the Gentiles, for the non-Jewish people as well. We can’t keep God to ourselves.
So we want to go back or we
want to return by a different way. This
is Epiphany 2010. By your and my
presence here this morning we can’t go back to what 2009 was, or 2000, or to
1950. We want to move forward. Epiphany is challenging and calling you and
me to go a different route because we have been changed by Who
we receive again this morning in this Eucharist. Jesus Christ is going to come to you and to
me. We will be changed, transformed. We will be different. We can’t go back to business as usual.
How are we going to do that. I think of two
simple little ways. This is something I
want to work on in my own life. Think of
it this way:
1.
Build on the
good things that other people have done.
Alright. What do I mean by that? Back during the bombing of
2.
A second thing
I’ll offer us. Again it’s very
simple. Show somebody else who God is
without telling them that you’re doing it.
If you want to go stand on a street corner and say, “The end of the
world is coming, repent.” Go ahead and
do it. Are you going to convince a lot
of people? Probably not. They’ll say, “Look at that wacko.” What are we accomplishing? How will you and I show God to somebody else
without telling them that you’re doing it?
You and I will do that by the simple kindness that we show to other
people. Just by the way that you drive
your car could make a big difference.
The other day, I noticed this myself as I started to try to practice
what I was going to be preaching and instead of not letting three cars in front
of me get in line I said, “Okay, I’ll be patient, I’ll let them go in front of
me.” Of course the people behind me were
not happy but at least I let a couple people go in front of me without saying,
“Wait your turn.” Simple. I had not placard on
the side of my saying, “I am a Roman Catholic priest and I’m doing a good
deed.” Okay. Nobody knew who I was. You just do it because of who you are. By the way you will greet someone with the
sign of peace this morning during this Eucharist you will show to them who God
is to you. By the way you hold that door
open, you say thank you, or the kindness you show a
total stranger, or the love and affection you give to a long-time friend, the
cards, the greetings, whatever it might be.
It’s so simple, so basic. A story
was told to me by a friend. He said as a
kid he was always coming home late and Mom and Dad would wait supper for
him. Time after time after time. Finally you know they had reached the end of
their patience, and they said, “Okay, you come home one more time late for
supper. You know we always have supper
at 6:00, you’re going to find bread and water to
eat. That’s it. Nothing else.” He said, “Yea, right.” Next night, came home late. Here’s Mom and Dad sitting at the supper
table, beautiful plates of food in front of them, and there at his place was a
piece of bread and a glass of water. He
sat down and he said, “I just couldn’t believe it. They actually were going to do it.” He said, “I sat down. Mom and Dad looked at me, smiled. We said Grace. Then my Dad, he took his plate and put in
front of me, took my plate with the bread and water and began to eat it. And he didn’t say a word.” He said, “From
that day forward I knew inside myself what God was like by what my Dad did for
me.”
See it’s that simple. It’s that basic. There’s no fanfare about that. There’s nothing in the news about it. You don’t have to text that to someone
else. You’re not going to find it on the
Web. It’s because who you are.
Each one of us here this
morning in a sense is a Magi. We are
called to bring our gifts for the good of one another, for the good of the
Church. We are called to go forth from
this Eucharist by another route. We
cannot be the same for having been here this morning. God has touched us, the Lord is coming to us,
now we go forth through those doors and throughout this beautiful new year of
2010, not to be people of darkness, complaining, griping, moaning, groaning,
but to be people who build on the goodness of others, who continue the good
work, who enlarge it and then people who show God to others without them
knowing what we’re doing.
What a great way to
celebrate Epiphany.