Epiphany

THE MYSTERY OF GOD’S PRESENCE

      SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON SUNDAY JANUARY 3rd 2010

                                                  

Ephesians 3?3? “The mystery was made known to me by revelation “

& verses: 9-10?“The mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known”.

 

We have entered a new year, and a new decade?and today we conclude our Christmas celebrations with the Epiphany – a mysterious feast on many levels.   The Magi, the Wise-Men, these kings, these astrologers, were in the East last week?surrounding the altar? They crept down the church during the week, and today we have carried them to the Christ Child?where now they kneel and worship him.

 

During the week I was explaining to a woman why the Church keeps the arrival of the wise-men after Christmas – that is on the twelth day, the actual feast day of the Epiphany having by tradition been January 6^th.

 

The woman was surprised. She, like most people, had assumed the wise-men were part of the Christmas day event.   She had never connected the concept of the Epiphany with the carol, The twelve days of Christmas. One of the reasons that carol is about the lover bringing a gift to the beloved is because it has to do with the kings arriving twelve days after Christmas.

 

In actual fact they arrived far later – up to two years according to the understanding of the Scripture.   As our conversation continued, she, expressing a typical sense of humor, said: “If instead of wise-men it had been three wise-women they would have brought sensible gifts, cleaned up the stable, and arrived on time”!!

 

The three wise-men and their arrival is a mysterious edition to the Epiphany story, in the proper sense of the word. And we all like a mystery don’t we?   The whole journey was mysterious. We can only comprehend how they traveled from wherever they came. Some say they came from Persia, some say they came from Arabia, and in some traditions one is black and one is Chinese – so the sense is that they have come a long way over two years.

 

In following that star for such a long time, they were obviously astrologers who saw in it some meaning.   These kings, these wise-men, these astrologers arrive finally at a stable – of all places, having called in at the palace in Jerusalem – and honor as a king this new born baby lying in a manger.

 

The great Anglican writer T. S. Elliott wrote a poem called “The Journey of the Magi”. In it he writes of the difficultly they faced in their journey.   The poem begins with one king saying: “a cold coming we had of it”, and describes a journey through the depths of winter. It goes on to describe the difficulties of the journey, and it concludes, because of the gift of myrrh, with the wise-men reflecting on death. And of course, the death of Christ – King, and God, and Sacrifice, as we sing in the traditional carol.

 

But we don’t think of the journey and what it must have been like. We dwell on the star and the gifts, and the arrival of the kings in all its mysteriousness.   In fact the arrival is more significant than the journey itself. This is perhaps a parable of our own lives, as we journey through life, hoping to arrive one day at our heavenly homeland.

 

So as we begin this year of our Lord 2010 and leave last year behind, we are probably thinking about our journey ahead. Also what we have left behind now that we have arrived at this new year, this new decade. As we reflect we can say that our journey through life is with both joy and sadness, with both disappointment and pleasure.

 

Every year as we reflect, we look forward in hope to a better year. In contrast, when we arrive at something that seems significant we have new vision and new hope for what lies ahead.   The mystery of life we might call it.

 

In his letter to the Ephesians Saint Paul talks about mystery in a particular way. For him the Nativity of Christ is arrival at the revelation of God’s mystery, and the fulfillment of the ancient mysteries. In a way, that’s what the wise-men represent – all those ancient mysteries and philosophies and religions now arriving at the feet of the new-born Christ Child, who, Saint Paul says, is the revelation of God’s mystery through the ages.

 

And this is the particular meaning of the feast. It is the arrival of all the ancient things at the feet of him who is the fulfillment of the ancient mysteries. This revelation of God’s mystery.   Christmas is about the arrival of Christ our Lord, not just the wise-men – and there is a sense of mystery in the arrival of both Christ and the wise-men.

 

Their arrival today points to a mysterious presence – the presence of God in that little manger. This is the mystery of all mysteries, that God would lower himself and be in that squalor and humility as the revelation of all the mysteries of God.  

 

The presence of God in the manger. In my sermon on Christmas day I spoke of presence as a reality and adding quality to our lives.

 

Presence. The presence in our lives of those we love, and the presence of God in life.   Many people think that the Christian religion is about action and activity and preaching. Indeed, as the year unwinds we’ll be exhorted to be active, to do things.

 

These things – action and activity – are surely just the result of what is really at the heart of Christianity. For at the heart of Christianity is not the activity, but the presence of Christ amongst us. The quiet humble presence that we acknowledge today, and the mysterious presence through the year, through our lives. That is the heart of the Christian religion…..the presence of Christ.

 

That is why the Eucharist is the center of our lives as Christians. For here we encounter the presence of Jesus, and receive that presence into our very selves. Here the presence of God in all its mysteriousness becomes real and alive within us, so that somehow we might be the presence of Christ in the world.

 

As these three kings kneel, worship, and adore, we are surely drawn by them to the presence of God in the manger.  

 

God’s relationship with the world has come to this point in time.   God created the world. God formed his own people Israel, and he sent prophets to them. Now he comes to his world in a personal presence.   These three kings recognizing this fact kneel and adore – and this is how it must be.

 

 

As I said on Christmas day, in our lives we cannot bear to leave friendship and love at a distance.   It is the same with God. He does not want to be at a distance from us, he wants to be a presence in our lives. And his personal presence is not beyond our grasp. It is within kneeling distance – as these three kings show us.

 

Later on in the Mass we will reach out our hands for that same presence of God. And again we will be just within kneeling distance of his presence. And like them, we will not be disappointed.  

 

The mystery of the Epiphany is also the mystery of Holy Communion. For the personal presence of Christ is not left at the manger, but is offered wherever God’s people celebrate the Eucharist. And so with these three kings we come today to adore, and to acknowledge both the mystery of that presence, and the presence of that mystery.