Jan 6^th, 2006

Isaiah 60:16 Psalm 72 Ephesians 3:23a, 56 Matthew 2:112

1. The feast of the Epiphany is primarily a feast of the Eastern Church. Epiphany or Manifestation of the Lord was mainly a remembrance of the Baptism of Jesus. “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” When it came to the West, it became a commemoration of the Visit of the Wisemen from the East... or as we like to call them Magi from which the word Magic comes... and we are fascinated with things magical.

 However, we can get swallowed up or distracted with These mysterious wisemen, their long journey, their gifts of Gold and other exotic treasures and then there is the magical Star that appears and disappears. It almost seems as exciting as the Survivor Series. We have however, sanitized the story. We have turned the Wisemen into Kings, we have given them names and limited them to three because of the three gifts that are named. We have put them into royal robes and put them on camels that look regal. However, if we stop there, we would miss the point of the Gospel entirely, as they did when the Wisemen were lost. The centre of this whole Narrative and its challenge is the Child Jesus.

2. The centre of this Gospel account is a defenceless child. It has no power other than give us hope, abundant hope. And yet like Herod, we seek to kill this child, the child that is within us. You might protest, not I - or even get angry, how dare you ! However, if we take a look at Herod - we might see reflections in our selves.

 Common sense should have told Herod that he could not rule forever. By the time the Child grew up and became even a possible threat, Herod would have retired. So why fear the Child. Why fear any child? Perhaps because the children make us face the truth. When we beat around the bush, they come to the heart of the matter.

 We all know the story of the Emperor who wore no clothes. The Emperor was deceived by a pair of frauds. They told him that they would weave such fine clothes for the emperor, that he would neither see nor feel the garments. They made a great charade of putting on the invisible and weightless garment, leaving the Emperor naked. The Emperor decreed that he would walk down the streets in these superb garments - and the people assented to the King’s decree. They oohed and aahed at the wonderful garments, until a Child wondered aloud “Why the Emperor was wearing no clothes.” And that was the truth.

The child in us makes us face the Truth. The Child in us challenges us to dream dreams and take risks. The child in us wants to jump into space and trust that someone will hold us up, and not let us dash ourselves against the rock. But like Herod we are afraid. And so we smother the Child. We tell the Child in us to keep quiet. We distract it with a hundred and one excuses.

 The Child in us is at risk, because it challenges the values of our culture. The child points to a Star with Awe and wonder. It reminds us as William Henry Davies would say

“What is this life, if full of care

We have no time to stand and stare”

the child in us stops midstream, and causes us to halt and move slowly and around it, - or as we often do, we push the child down and trample it. Dollars and cents tell us to move on. Be productive or get out of the way.

3. In the last few years we have killed millions of such children. They die in Iraq, in the Sudan, in Rwanda, in India, in China.

• we will not give them money for HIV/AIDS
• we will deprive them of food, vitamins, medicines in an apparent search for Weapons of Mass Destructions.
• we will kill them because India, China are overpopulated.

There are reasons enough to kill not just the One Child, but like Herod we kill all under the age of two lest the One escape. And all this because of Utilitarian purposes. Those children stand in the way of $s and cents.

4. The great Indian Poet, Rabindranath Tagore would say that every child born in this world is a sign that God has not lost faith in humankind. But we will get rid of this child because

• we have lost the courage to dream dreams and see visions
• we have lost the courage to hope when things are stacked up against us.
• we have lost the courage to trust. The Egyptians of the time of Moses put their trust in horses and chariots. We put our trust in RRSPs, in large houses and Real Estate, in Saving Bonds. Then we see them washed away in Indonesian Tsunamis, Pakistan Earthquakes, Hurricane Katrinas.

5. Epiphany is not an Anti-Abortion feast, but rather a feast to put our trust in the Child. First in making the Child Jesus the centre of our lives, and then trusting in the Child in each one of ourselves. With Jesus as the centre

• we will see the Star when we are lost
• we will grow in Wisdom and Knowledge before God and man/woman.
• we will even turn Water into Wine.... the water of every day life, into the Wine of Divine life promised to us.

Meanwhile the Herods around us and in us try to seduce us with

• deceit. They sell us a bill of goods, they encourage us with false hopes, and empty promises.
• they foster feat in us. They make us doubt that we are truly made in God’s image and likeness. They make us doubt that in our Father’s house there are many mansions prepared for us. They make us doubt that the Prodigal Father is always gazing out into the horizons, waiting for us to come back with all our hearts....no matter how much we stray.

In conclusion, we know in reality, no matter how brilliant the preacher and no matter how erudite his homily - if we see a child’s face in the congregation - we forget the preacher and focus on the child, we even make funny faces. The child smiles. We know God is in heaven and all’s right with the world. This Sunday, let the Child in us continue to Smile brightly.