The Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, 2010

The Rev. Dr. Katharince C. Black, preaching
Isaiah 60: 1-6
Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3: 1-12
Matthew 2: 1-12

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD shall appear upon you. AMEN.

"Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we have observed his star, and have come to pay him homage. Eventually, when they followed his star and saw where it had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy."

We know this narrative from a couple of unsatisfying hymns, pictures of men in somewhat incongruous outfits, or from images made to show us in a literal way what this text says. We rarely engage, I think, with the idea of 3 powerful leaders, going to a strong and vindictive ruler, to bargain for the life of someone who might be a threat, if he existed and lived to grow up, if one believed in dreams. We're saying when the trio arrived at the suspected star's anchor, they were filled with joy, overwhelming joy. What was their joy about- what did they see? Why did they leave by another way, neither returning to the ruler they'd made a deal with, and not going home in a safe, but familiar way? Virtually none of our Magi images have been translated into images realistic to us or particularly relevant to us, so why do we remember them, the event, and their unending joy?

Eliot, in The Journey of the Magi, all of which Carole-Jean Smith will read next Wednesday, asks a similar first question in the voice of one of the Magi:

"And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different;"

Jeffrey Fiskin describes their journey this way:

They were kings, after all.
Cold, raddled by the wind,
Drilled with foreign sand,
They were political

By blood of birth or war
And so followed the news
Through unexpected snows,
Sheltering among the poor

In rough splintered lofts
Until the first light came
And they at last saw Him
And offered their useless gifts.

They were kings, after all,
Their journeys political.

In some ways, every year, that is our journey. We must decide to follow the star and decide to where it leads us, and then what we find. Maybe even political for us as well, we too must find where to go and why. Politics could be seen as the moral codes which help us know why and what we choose to do, politics not meaning just the hurly-burly of elections. Politics includes the communal goals of us living in our societies, so in some ways all journeys are political, our personal travels in our living circumstances. Like the Magi's gifts, ours also would be useless, because as the hymn says, with the shepherd, all we can give is our heart.

Interestingly, there are many, many poems written about, describing, the Magi. The shepherds and some fortunate people come to faith, come to Jesus running in leaps and bounds straight ahead. Others of us wander around, conscious of who we are ourselves, maybe not Magi, but self-aware people, knowing what we know. We arrive after journeying, at what, at whom?

Ramon Guthrie describes the three Magi, who "looked equivocally at three different stars."

"We found three different Kristkinder
in three different mangers
and went home satisfied
leaving three different infants to make what they might
of frankincense and myrrh.

We have written three different books
all unpublished
each in his own tongue
telling of the hardships and perils of the voyage."

Each of us, finding the baby, finds something different, something connected to ourselves, not as easy to dismiss psychologically as what we see in the baby is a projection of our own selves. We may see in the baby, his life, death and resurrection, a projection of what we are in need of at every stage of our own lives. Maybe it's that people who write poetry don't see in themselves, the babe, or their relationship anything as simple as whatever it was, however it was the shepherds knew and saw.

The poems speak of the journey and of the wondrous revelation, but the range of poems rarely says how the magi, the poets or we come to "get" what it is we're seeing.

"It is time for the others to come
This child is no more than a god."

(Then James Dickey's poem concludes:)

"Where is the woman to tell me
How my face is lit up by his body?

It is time for the others to come
An event more miraculous yet

Is the thing I am shining to tell you.
This child is no more than a child."

That's our journey: to see the miraculous in the ordinary, as well as the ordinary in the miraculous. How we do it, is about each of us. We don't come in Magi robes, but we journey and search. Seeing their travails makes it easier for us to slip into their entourage, struggling and watching for the star, and keeping on against considerable obstacles. We can identify with the Magi as our own metaphorical seeking selves.

Our society is in many ways against our finding the object of faith, and then changing our lives to stick to the baby in the stable and his path from there. Working, serving and managing our societies, participating in the issues of the day, our families, our friends, and more keep us from most opportunities for journeying to find our heart's source, our heart's home. The Magi stand down Herod and find Jesus, so maybe we can go along.

What did they find? A baby? How did they know it was THE baby, their life's goal, our God? The star helped, but more, they knew because they knew.  When some of us have met our own children, we've known we'd love them and be changed forever with and by them. Not all of us have children, and not all of us even with children, have that profound experience. The Magi always do, and those of us here, have had something of that experience. Something about their experience caused them to put an asterisk over this experience. In sports record books, there are occasional asterisks to convey something special about a given written record. The star that led the Magi turns into the asterisk over this birth record. This birth of an ordinary child turned out to be the birth of the Saviour. The star led the Magi and leads us. Its brightness lights our way to see the baby as more than just any old baby, and the star helps light up our journeys to keep an eye on the person of Jesus. The star adds lightness to warm our journey, to warm our understanding. The star lingers not only in Epiphany, but also where people seek god and yearn to find god in the world and  to find their worlds in God. The baby shines with eternal brightness to lead us towards his secure cradle, and to light his path for us to follow. His light always beckons us and always is there to brighten our way whoever we are, wherever we journey. His star watches over us throughout our lives, lighting our path, and warming outspirits-Good News.

© Katharine C. Black,  6 January 2010