Epiphany Sunday – evening
Sunday 7th January 2018
Epiphany
Baruch 4. 36 – end of 5
John 2. 1-11
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Tonight we really do get the impression that Christmas is now well and truly behind us; cleared away; done and dusted. On to the next thing! – in this evening’s case a wedding at Cana.
The turning of water into wine may not be the most tactful of readings in a month when – if the TV and papers are to be believed, many are attempting to do ‘Dry January’. But forgetting that for a moment, let’s think about whether this truly is the first sign that Jesus did.
Oh, it may be the first sign of the adult Jesus, but surely the baby was already demonstrating plenty of signs from the moment of his birth – some would say from the moment of his conception! Signs of God’s love for humanity, becoming incarnate in the Babe of Bethlehem; signs of God’s transformative power, affecting the lives of ordinary people – a simple couple from a backwater place with no great wealth or influence in the world; a bunch of despised and dirty shepherds who were the first to have their world turned upside down by the command to “Come and see where the Baby is lying with Mary his mother….”
And today – as we recall the events of the Epiphany, we celebrate God making himself available as a revelation not only to those most intimately concerned with the events of the Nativity; not only to the Jews as a nation; but even to strangers from the East. People from a different country, nation and religion who find themselves for ever changed by the birth of this one child in a remote corner of the Roman Empire. Epiphany is another word for Revelation or Showing – or Sign if you will. So while water transformed into wine tells us a lot about the generous over-abundance of God’s generosity towards us, I don’t really think it is the First sign he sends us.
The Magi or Wise Men probably hailed from Persia – modern-day Iran.
And then – as now – people from that part of the world evoked suspicion and fear. From the Magi we get our word magic and to the Jews the represented everything that was bad.
But the point of their presence in the narrative is to teach us that even people from a different country, a different race and a different religion may have something to teach us about our God, and we should welcome them to lay their spiritual gifts at the feet of Jesus.
Tonight I would like to share with you a few fragments from a modern retelling of the Christmas story – and particularly of the Epiphany – written by a fellow priest called Michael Counsell.
In an attempt to make the story more ‘real’ for modern audiences, the wise men from the East in this version become “Wise People” (gender neutral), coming from Africa, Asia and the West.
The narrator – The brightly shining Star of Bethlehem – describes them thus;
From far-off, three wise persons, not certain what they seek,
have followed me; with stardom they’re possessed;
The first one is a digital technology-type geek,
who hails from prosperous countries in the West.
From Asian lands there follows next a mystic type of seer,
a truly clever person from the East.
The third one comes from Africa,
informing people here,
black races are the greatest, not the least…
First we hear from the wise person from the West:
We have linked all our computers in a universal net,
we can access all the data that we want,
on a laptop we can process all the words that we can get,
and print them out in any fancy font.
Yet I’ve searched the World Wide Web to find the purpose of the whole,
and always get this message from above:
Information has no meaning till it finds its hidden soul,
in a Babe whose secret name is Love.
Next comes the wise person from Asia:
I have studied world philosophies, done all that God requires;
spent days in meditation and in prayer;
I have mortified my flesh, I have denied all my desires,
and felt I wasn’t getting anywhere.
So I battered heaven’s portals with my loud petitioning
and always got this message from above:
The meaning of existence lies in one quite simple thing:
in a Babe whose secret name is Love.
Finally comes the wise person from Africa:
I have joined with other black folk as we talked into the night
of the suffering of our people and its worth.
Where can we find the freedom then for which we seek to fight?
How is justice to be built upon the earth?
Yet ever as we argued on, we felt the slippery slope;
we always got this message from above:
all our struggle is self-destructive, till we place our final hope
in a Babe, whose secret name is Love.
Then they all speak together to the audience:
So all you many people here, who think that you are wise,
or who dream of understanding human life;
who think that your discoveries will take you to the skies,
or who simply hope to understand your spouse!
Take heed from our example as you travel on your way;
you’ll always get this message from above:
you will find the wisdom sought for when you see its shape one day
in a Babe whose secret name is Love.
So as you embark upon a New Year with all its challenges and possibilities and whether you look for answers through the bottom of a wine glass, or in the deeper truth of God incarnate in a baby; or indeed in the all too human symbol of a cross, do not forget the unique teaching of Christianity. That we worship a God of Love, and would seek to share that love with everyone, but that we also have much to learn from those who, like us, come seeking answers from the Babe, whose secret name is Love. Amen.