The actual date for Epiphany was yesterday, -- January the 6th, which is the 12th day of Christmas. It is considered one of the Principle Feast Days in the calendar of the Christian Church. I wanted to acknowledge it this so, which is why we’re celebrating it today!
The seasons of the Church along with the seasons of Mother Nature come together, they’re entwined and where very much a part of the day to day living of Christians for centuries. But as society has become increasingly secular, the influence of the Church has lessened and so for many, our understanding of the significance of Feast Days and Holy Days has decreased—especially in the western world. And celebrations around the Feast of the Epiphany is a good example. In many countries and Christian traditions, Epiphany is the day of gift giving—commemorating the giving of the gifts to the Christ Child by the wise men or magi, to use the biblical Greek word. Matthew is the only one of the 4 gospels to record this event happening. And it’s a story that has intrigued people for years, and so there are many legends and traditions that have grown up around it.
For example, how many wise men were there and where did they come from? Matthew doesn’t say. So where did the number 3 come from? Well, from the three gifts, it was presumed that each gift came with a different wise man, so 3 gifts, 3 wise men. Over the course of time, they even get names, and
a document dated to about 500 A.D. lists the names of Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar, a tradition that has been maintained in Western Christianity. Other Eastern Christian churches have ascribed other names to these figures. ...In the East, tradition has generally pictured 12 magi. ... Matthew’s gospel doesn’t specify where the magi originated from, except to say that they came “from the East.” The East could have been Babylonia or Persia, although later legends imagined them originating from destinations as varied as India and China. Ultimately, we simply don’t know how many magi there were, what their names were, or what color of skin they had.[1]
And just who were these wise men anyway? And why would they become so important in the story of Jesus’ birth? Well, these wise men or ‘magi’, were “a Persian religious caste”[2] according to Smith’s Bible Dictionary.
Another source describes them thus:
While Christian tradition holds that the Magi were kings … a more precise description might be that the Magi belonged to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism, which paid particular attention to the stars. This priestly caste gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. So these Wise Ones from the East were scientists and practiced other religions, and God used their faith and knowledge to bring them to the Christ. More ironic, God used scientists who practiced other religions to let King Herod and the chief priests and scribes of the people in on the news that their Messiah had been born.[3]
That is irony, isn’t it! It took strangers from far away to come to Jerusalem to tell Herod what was happening in his own back yard. Herod then confers with his ‘wise men’, the chief priests and scribes of the Temple, who check out the scriptures to confirm the knowledge the foreigners brought them. The light of the world, the son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour for whom they had been waiting and whose birth was foretold was in their midst and they were so busy with the details of their own lives, that even the religious ‘experts’ –those who studied the scriptures—had missed it. It took foreigners from far away to provide the locals with the “recognition that the prophecies of the Messiah had become a reality”[4].
God used the Magi, a most unexpected way and unexpected people to break into the lives of the upper echelon of Jewish society to announce the coming of Jesus. Now, God had used the angel Gabriel to tell Mary and Elizabeth about Jesus’ coming and their roles in this amazing event, and an angel also communicated with both Joseph and Zachariah. And God used a whole host of angels to announce the birth of the Christ Child to some of the lowliest of the Jewish people, the shepherds. Somehow God’s using angels to make divine pronouncements seems less strange to us than then using magi from the east, doesn’t it?
God does come to us, can break into our lives in unexpected ways and times, and if we maybe are missing the divine messengers, well, God can and does make God’s presence known to us in many ways! That’s what the birth of Jesus was, the in-breaking, the incarnation of God into our world, God coming to us at our level, in a body just like us. God wants so much for us to be aware of God’s presence, God’s love, the light of the divine that lights our way to God, and will use many ways and means to do that—even some unexpected ways! That is the kind of God we worship, one that doesn’t give up on us!
So, getting back to our story, what was the response of the people to the news of this special child , this God-child? That too is part of this Epiphany story. The magi recognized the specialness of this child and brought precious gifts, Herod felt threatened and fearful: this so called King could usurp his place of power. So he ordered all male Jewish babies under 2 years of age to be killed. And as we continue to read in the story of the earliest day of Jesus life, Joseph is warned by an angel to flee the country and the little family become refugees in Egypt until the threat has passed. Those were dark times for a child of God to be born into!
So on this Sunday of Epiphany Celebration, I will close with some words from a Sunday School resource I’ve had on file for a while, it’s called ‘Follow the Star’:
Epiphany is about…revelation, insight, mystery, and the offering of gifts; opening up our hearts and hands to give gold, frankincense and myrrh. But the story is also about power-hungry kings, and secret meetings, and signs and dreams, and violence. There are choices to be made and the journey is not straightforward. The Epiphany story tells us that there is light and glory in the world, sometimes hidden, but shining through for those who can see it, a radiance that can’t be overcome by cunning and violence. We are invited again and again to follow the star and to become spiritual adventurers in search of a more full and authentic life. We are invited to a lifetime of insights, epiphanies, and revelations on our pilgrim journey.[5]
Let us Pray: God of revelation, God of stars and epiphanies, guide us in light and in darkness to follow your leading and to recognize your presence wherever and however it comes to us. Create in us an unending desire for epiphanies, for revelations of You in our lives. Amen
[1] Ann Naffziger via http://bustedhalo.com/questionbox/was-one-of-the-three-wise-men-balthasar-really-a-black-man-like-some-artwork-depicts
[2] Smith’s Bible Dictionary: ‘magi’ p 364.
[3] Craig Satterlee, Commentary on Matt 2: 1-12, from www.workingpreacher.org, accessed Dec. 31, 2012
[4] William V. Arnold: Pastoral Perspective for the “Epiphany of the Lord” in Feasting on the Word, Year B. Vol 1 p. 212
[5] Cathie Talbot from The Season of Hope” Wood Lake Publishing [tip@seasonsonline.ca] www.wholepeopleofgod/epiphany2014 . accessed Jan 4.15