January 4, 2004
The Epiphany of Christ
(Matthew 2:1-19)
One way to reflect on this great story of the Epiphany is to see it as
the three movements of the spiritual life: the journey to Christ; the
realization that we are in the presence of Christ; and what happens to
us after we meet Christ.
I think this great story sums up the whole Gospel and it says that the
first movement of the spiritual life is to seek Christ. That’s what
life is all about it. Like the three wise men, we’re on a journey,
a holy pilgrimage throughout our lives to find Christ. The Gospels never
call anyone “wise.” That’s our first clue. The wisest
thing we can do with our lives is to seek the holy Christ. And from the
start, we read that the spiritual life, the journey to Christ, the pursuit
of truth, has political implications. The wise men meet the horrible King
Herod who is “greatly disturbed along with all of Jerusalem”
about a rival king, and he summons them and asks them about the star and
the holy child and pretends to be religious and interested in God, and
like all rulers, he tries to coopt the religious leaders and keep the
religious community under control. But the difference here is that the
wise men are determined to seek Christ, so they go ahead with their journey
and follow the star, and that’s what we have to do: decide that
no matter what anyone else says, we are going to seek Christ and worship
him and do what he says and live our lives according to him and his Gospel.
The second movement of the spiritual life comes when we suddenly discover
that we are in the presence of Christ, when we recognize Christ in our
midst. That’s an epiphany, that dramatic, sudden realization of
God’s presence. Like the wise men, at some point, each one of us
has had an epiphany moment when we realized we were in the presence of
Christ, when our hearts were filled with joy and we gave our gifts to
Christ. I think the point of life is to seek Christ and to be ready for
those epiphany moments, to be on the lookout for Christ and to prepare
for epiphany moments!
The third movement of the spiritual life according to our story is how
our lives change after we meet Christ, how like the three wise men, we
go home a different way. Once we meet Christ, like the three wise men,
we no longer cooperate with the empire or the rulers or King Herod or
the president. Once we meet Christ, like the wise men, our lives are permanently
changed. From now on, our allegiance is to Christ. As people of wisdom,
we are going to worship Christ and do what he says, not what anyone else
says. This disobedience infuriated Herod, who like all rulers, wants only
to kill his rivals and maintain his imperial power, so Herod massacres
2000 young kids in Bethlehem in order to kill Christ. If the wise men
had gone back to Herod, he would have killed them, too, so they disobey
him and obey God, and that’s what we have to do, disobey those who
kill and obey the nonviolent Christ.
Today, our country and other countries continue to kill holy innocents
around the world, and our job, as people of wisdom, people who worship
and obey the holy Christ, is to non-cooperate with the rulers who kill
the innocents, to resist them, to defend the children, and to stop the
slaughter of the innocents, because first and foremost, we are epiphany
people. We have met Christ. Our lives are changed. We love our enemies
and practice the nonviolence of Christ.
Today the Gospel asks us: where are we in the epiphany story? Are we on
the road to Christ, are we meeting Christ, or are we going home in a new
direction? When did you meet Christ? How has your life changed because
you have met Christ?
Right now, we’re going to break bread and pass the cup and I invite
you to experience this moment as an epiphany, to realize that we are in
the presence of Christ. So let’s give him our best gifts--our very
hearts and lives.
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