Epiphany 2019
Canon L W Doolan St. Paul’s Athens
It is St. Matthew alone who records the journey of the Magi to the city of Bethlehem, and to the very stable where Jesus lay.
We refer to this as the Epiphany. This we generally translate as ‘manifestation’ or in more contemporary language ‘revelation.’ I don’t need to tell most of you here that comes from the verb phanerono. Most of the ladies here will know what a diaphanous frock is, and cling film is a diaphanis membrana. This sounds so much better than cling-film!
In terms of today’s feast, through the arrival of the Magi to the stable in Bethlehem, we are celebrating the revelation of the glory of God in Jesus to the non-Hebrew speaking world, that is, to the gentiles. St. Matthew is making it clear that the birth of Jesus has an impact on Jew and Gentile alike – it is a universal event, a truly catholic revelation of God to his entire creation.
This Epiphany has been the subject of much interest, in situations like quizzes. For example, ‘name the three wise men’. We all know that traditionally they are called Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar.
How many Wise Men were there? We all know the Quiz answer is that we don’t know, as St. Matthew mentions only three gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh, without revealing the number of Wise Men who brought the gifts.
Some non-scriptural, but ancient, traditions mention 10 or twelve. Some even give the names, though these exclude the 3 names we are familiar with.
Astronomers have tackled this journey, star-led, as it is. Was there a special star in that year? Can Matthew’s reference be scientifically proved?
Poets too have been inspired by the journey of these Magi; Eliot is perhaps the most famous, but here is the one stanza of a poem by Sir John Betjemin.
For me these three kings symbolise
Jesus revealed to Gentile eyes.
Not just to Jews was Christ revealed
Nor from the rest of us concealed.
He was hailed as God by learned men
From far away. Today, when
I hear of clever scientists
Becoming sure that God exists
And think the Christmas story true,
And when I hear of highbrows who
After long thought at last decide
The Christ was God, the Church His Bride,
I thank Him for those star-led three
Remembered at Epiphany.
(This is the final part of a much longer poem, broadcast by the author on the BBC Home Service on 6th January 1956. Published for the first time in Kevin Gardner’s “Poems in the Porch”, 2008. The Nativity Play.)
There is something powerfully attractive about this slow, methodical, and calculated journey that brings intellectuals from far way to a small Jewish city via a visit to the foxy and jealous King Herod. Theirs is a stark contrast to the unconditional response of the shepherds, with their simple, perhaps even naïve acceptance of the message brought to them by celestial beings.
These Wise Men have something of the status of Patron Saint of the rational, intellectual approach to God and to faith. Thank God for the shepherds, I say! However, our faith is not without intellect. Religion cannot be lazy. Our church practice cannot just be blind and unthinking. We are all on the same journey as those Wise Men, and we journey as a church towards the mystery of the Word- made –flesh. We all need to follow the star to discover Christ.
We may not have a physical star to follow, but we may have a little starlet in Fr. James! Over the next few months until Pentecost, James is offering a series of opportunities to discover and develop our faith anew. In this series there is a chance to explore who we are, what we believe, and how that affects what we do, as Christians in the Anglican tradition. This offering of study will be a rich blessing to us at St. Paul’s. I urge you to participate.
I return to literature to finish off this reflection on the Feast of the Epiphany – this celebration of the journey of the mind to accept the love at the heart of God in Jesus. It is the words that Evelyn Waugh puts into the thoughts of the Empress St. Helena on her quest to discover the True Cross of Christ. This is what she says of the Wise Men.
‘Like me… you were late in coming. The shepherds were here long before; even the cattle. They had joined the chorus of angels before you were on your way. For you the primordial discipline of the heavens was relaxed and a new defiant light blazed amid the disconcerted stars. How laboriously you came, taking sights and calculating, where the shepherds had run barefoot! How outlandish you looked on the road, attended by what outlandish liveries, laden with such preposterous gifts! You came at length to the final stage of your pilgrimage and the great star stood still above you. What did you do? You stopped to call on King Herod. Deadly exchange of compliments in which began that unended war of mobs and magistrates against the innocent.
Yet you came, and were not turned away. You too found room at the manger…
You are my special patrons, and patrons of all late comers, of all who have a tedious journey to make to the truth… pray for the great, lest they perish utterly…pray for all the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let them not be quite forgotten at the Throne of God when the simple come into their kingdom.’
Helena: Evelyn Waugh Penguin 1963 pp144-145 passim
‘Lord God, humbled in the Christ-child in a manger, raised to glory on the cross, guide us to your perfect light.’ Amen.
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