The
Epiphany celebration spread from Egypt to the eastern church, and then to the
western church which by the fourth century had established Dec. 25 as a festival
honoring the incarnation of Jesus and to counteract the Roman festival of the
sun on this same date. The two festivals were merged together, and the time from
Dec. 25 to January 6 became the twelve days of Christmas.
We all love the song "We Three Kings Of Orient Are",
and there is value in seeing the three kings as representatives of all the nations,
near and far, paying homage to Jesus and recognizing that God's grace holds the
last word. However, Matthew doesn't call them kings. They are ambassadors and
messengers to the world. They become the way the larger world gets to know about
Jesus. Matthew is deliberately ambiguous about their exact number, origin, nature
and title, but it is quite clear they are not kings.
Earthly kings hold court in places. They expect the world
to come to them. Earthly kings are usually fearful of any birth or revelation
of new truth. That is why, following a suggestion of fellow parishioner John Harcourt,
we have the menacing face of Herod as part of the scene today. Herod is very much
part of the story of Epiphany for Herod represents the worldly fear, the threat,
and the distraction to the Gospel. The Herod kings of the world do not want to
discover good news, rather they want to squash and destroy any sign of its existence.
They attempt to send seekers down another road leading to a dead end.
The magi or wise men, were not distracted nor deterred
by Herod. Perhaps their clothes were frayed and their retinue was modest indeed,
but they were wise because they were willing to keep searching, to make a difficult
journey, and therefore were open to a revelation of epic significance. The gift
they leave behind is far more valuable than gold, frankincense or myrrh. They
leave the example of courage and willingness to search for truth and not be deceived
by easy paths or bribed by comfortable half truths. They call to us to examine
our lives so that we ask ourselves who are the Herods who distract or sidetrack
us from our journey toward greater and fuller revelation of the Gospel. What hinders
the spread of the birth Good News among us today? What worldly powers and ambitions
wish to send us down roads of dead ends? Those Herod-like fears and powers can
lurk inside of us as well as being external.
The magi's legacy to us reminds us that often the treasure of God’s presence
is often in humble, everyday circumstances, not in the world’s prestigious
palaces. While many things have the power to distract us, the magi give us the
example of soul searching, of changing direction, of going new ways, especially
when detours and roadblocks seem to spring up before us. On this Sunday, hundreds
of years after the first epiphany to these gentile seekers, what the poet W. H.
Auden said about the magi continues to applies to us:
