Isaiah 9:1-4
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23
Psalm 27:1, 5-13
Homily by Fr James W Mathieson, Visiting Preacher and Celebrant
Epiphany – “WOW!”
Epiphany is that time of the church year, like the times in your life – those moments when you’ve been wrestling with a question and the answer comes to you like a beam of light. Or maybe you thought you knew the truth and then circumstances change and make you realize that there is another way of looking at things.
Last week, after Jesus’ baptism, John was stunned by the truth: “I didn’t know him!” John and Jesus were cousins. They probably grew up together, and yet John was now seeing a new side of Jesus, a new light had dawned.
Many scholars think that John and Jesus both went to the school of the Essenes together, down in the Quam Ran Society.
The Quam Ran Society was composed of a group of people who made the choice to separate themselves from the society of Israel. They didn’t like the Temple priests at Jerusalem, or the corrupt kings. They didn’t like the growing Greek influence in Israel, or the Pharisees with their constant adding to the law. They thought the people of Israel were not devout enough, and they certainly did not like the Romans, their customs, their language, or their moral laxness.
So they decided to separate themselves and to shut out the world. They read nothing but Scripture; they were very pious. They performed baptisms as a rite of cleansing, as a way to seek forgiveness of sins.
John decides he’s a prophet of God, a missionary, calling a wicked world to repent. He goes out into the desert and preaches to anyone and all who come by, chastising them as “you brood of vipers.” John must have been delighted when his cousin Jesus came to his baptismal ministry. After baptizing Jesus, John hears a voice from God,” this is my son in whom I am well pleased.”
John knew Jesus one way and now knows him as “the Lamb of God.” Wow! The lamb who carries the sins of the world on his shoulders.
John begins sending his own followers to listen to this New Covenant that Jesus is preaching about – God’s love – redeeming love – atonement (one with him) – not separated. And John has to re-think his prophetic ministry. Although still a zealot, he becomes a changed man.
Late one night, a man is searching the ground around a streetlight. A policeman approaches and asks the man what he is doing. The man has lost his car keys, and the policeman begins to help him look. Finally, he asks the man, “Are you sure you lost your keys here?” The man replies, “Oh no. I lost them down the block, but I can see so much better in the light.”
That’s the story of Epiphany. People lose their way in darkness, and it is only in the light that they begin to know the truth.
One day, I received a call, “My husband has a gun and he’s going to kill himself!” I ran. I rushed into the house. The wife pointed me into another room. Her husband had the barrel of a shotgun in his mouth trying to get his big toe in position to pull the trigger. I knocked the gun out of his mouth and then called 911.
Much later, we were talking. He said life was like looking down a barrel or a tunnel. There was light on the other side, but gradually it had closed and become full of darkness. He had no hope. Without hope, no light, no life. He had lost his way! One needs light for hope.
The fanciful stories of St. George killing the dragon, of Robin Hood fighting for the poor against King John, the stories of Arthur and the chivalry of knights were made up in a time when Darkness covered the land and the people needed to think that good could triumph – through the Light of Goodness and Bravery.
Remember Zorro or the Lone Ranger? Out of a time of sinful anger, darkness and desperation, light would appear. Who was that masked man?!
Jesus tells us, “The truth will set us free!” But so often, we embrace our darkness, our ignorance. Copernicus has a “wow” moment – light enters his dreams: “The Earth is moving on its own axis.”
The power structure of the church of his time does not like this idea. From time immemorial, it has been known that the Sun and the Moon revolve around the Earth. The church crushed him – shut that thinking down. We enjoy and are blessed by our ignorance. We burn at the stake those who would disagree with our darkness.
Gutenberg invents movable type, and the printing press is born. One of the first books published is the Bible – in Latin, which was the only language then used by people who could read. Then come calls for the Bible to be printed in the languages of the people. “No!” thunders the Church with all of its authority. “The Bible cannot be put in the hands of the people; they will become confused. Burn them all!”
Martin Luther was put on trial for challenging the Church’s ideas and the Pope. The court is composed of churchmen and local German barons. Luther begins his defense speaking in Latin and soon realizes that the barons, speaking only German, do not understand what he is saying. He switches to German and the barons perk up to listen to him, and he is eventually acquitted.
In their own understanding, the Medieval Church and kings thought the darkness of ignorance was blessed. They were afraid of the light, as were the Essenes of John’s time.
Jesus instinctively knew or grew into knowing that the way of John – of denouncing people – of making God’s image one of threats and darkness was not the way of God – the image of God. People needed the light of hope.
Organizations, courts, state, ruling bodies, corporations often embrace the darkness and enrich their own positions through threat and darkness.
In 1765, England passed the Stamp Act. Not many people know that Samuel Adams was originally a tax collector responsible for collecting the Stamp tax. Adams often let people get by when they pleaded poverty. Realizing the people were indifferent to the tax, Adams began to enlighten them:
- You want to get married, pay a tax.
- You want to buy land, pay a tax.
- You want to open a business, pay a tax.
- And on and on…
The anger of the people over the Stamp Act became one of the causes of the Revolution leading to the creation of the United States of America.
Jesus leaves the Jordan to go into the desert. There he meditates alone – separate.
From the desert, Jesus goes up to Galilee, to Capernaum with its sea of people to gather his followers announcing that God’s Kingdom is at hand! Wow! What a moment for the Galilean Jews.
We are not to assume solitary joy but a community – the church. We are the light. We honor God’s presence with us.
So share the light!
Wow! Now that’s Epiphany!