Isaiah 60.1-6, Matthew 2.1-12
The Epiphany, 6th January 2019
Austwick, Clapham
They came from another place – they left by a different road.
We can spend our time with the Epiphany story worrying over the astronomical problem of the star, the number of magi, the date – adding to the endless and largely fruitless debates on these topics. Or we might spend time instead with the obvious but profound truth the story carries: that Christ was visited by non-Jews, who had worked out who he was, and his significance to them; Christ was visited by pilgrims who had no ethnic or religious ties to Judaism. [1]
They came from another place – this is a message that bears repetition. The wise men came from the East – from a different society, a different culture, a different belief system to the one practiced in Bethlehem. The Epiphany story invites us to consider the roots of our Christian faith: that we are inheritors of a form of Judaism affirmed by Eastern religion. In a world where religious and social identities are hardening, the Epiphany story invites us to embrace humility and openness towards others. In a society whose doors are closing to people who are different from ourselves, the Epiphany story invites us to dialogue with those who come from another place.
And one area of human life which always needs redirection is the religious life. Left unchecked, the world’s religions drift onto a road which divides people of faith from each other, with fatal consequences. That the child Jesus was visited by pilgrims from the East prefigures for us the mission of the adult Jesus: inviting those who followed the old ways to ask whether they were ‘living in a bubble, confusing their world with the whole world, lost in their little rituals and taboos, failing to see or embrace others’. [2] Epiphany also prefigures for us the message of the adult Jesus: that the good news of the Kingdom of God is for all people – not just our own. They came from another place – Epiphany invites us to reconsider our religious life as we live it out in relation to others.
A daily ‘toll of bad news’ may face us, but let us caution against the temptation to ‘look inwards in despair’. [3] In a world of people wielding ‘hard power’ let us learn to use ‘soft power’, to open up to those who are different from ourselves, to play our small but significant part in building a world at peace with itself. [4]
For this connects us with the other main point of the Epiphany story, which is that the visitors left by another road.
We can see it now, from Herod’s perspective – that the magi showing up at Jerusalem and excitably telling the citizens that they were looking for the new king who had been born there, was like you or me showing up at the airport of a country with a dictator, stating the purpose of our stay as a visit to the leader of the underground resistance. [5] These not-so worldly-wise ‘wise men’: their search for a king of peace got them embroiled in the troubles of a king in torment, got them entangled in Herod’s nasty vengeful conspiracy. What began as a hopeful journey for the magi ended in an anxious escape.
No wonder Herod reacted as he did, for he was a temporal, temporary, vulnerable, volatile ruler who only knew the ways of hard power. It was all that the magi would expect, ‘a world of crowns, fawning courtiers, royal robes, and hard cash’.
But, sensing that the star was leading them towards an altogether different power source, the magi witnessed another world breaking through: [In] a comfortless barn reeking of livestock, through a crude delivery, and an overwhelming fear for the future, what they sensed was a profound sense of holiness, an overwhelming current of love, a reverence for all things so deep that the visiting kings … knelt, and a poverty that shimmers with prayer. [6]
It dawned on the magi that this child was not a king, this child was the king, but a king with no position – except the position of complete vulnerability, a king with no power – except the ‘soft’ power to fill them and all people with overwhelming joy.
The King Herod they’d met was flexing his muscles in a show of hard power, and seeing the contrast the Magi left by another road – propelled forwards in the power of their joyful encounter with the new-born king.
Their story resonates for us today, especially for those who might feel that the road we are on is a dead-end, a road too dependent on things which won’t last; for those who feel at a crossroads in our lives; for those who feel we’ve arrived at our Jerusalem but long to get to our Bethlehem. For those longing to learn how to exercise soft power in a world where hard power seems dominant.
The Bethlehem pilgrims could not return to the old ways of kings – they left by a very different road. That’s what we mean by epiphany – a situation which causes one to be transformed, to see things a whole new way, to travel from thereon in another direction altogether. To leave by another road. ‘We cannot encounter the Christ and remain unchanged,’ says David Bryant. ‘The old signposts get knocked sideways, and our thought-forms are fundamentally realigned. This is precisely what happened to the kings.’ [7]
Epiphany invites us to recall those times in our lives when we travelled into a new situation from another place, and those encounters we had with others there who welcomed us, helped us find new perspectives or set out in a new direction. Epiphany invites us to remember those times when outsiders have come into our lives – people quite different from ourselves whose words and ways have educated, challenged and changed us.
They came from another place – they left by a different road. May the journey which the magi took influence our own journeys this year as we seek to faithfully contribute to the wellbeing of all.
Notes
Earlier versions of this talk were given in Somerset, Epiphany 2015 and Devon, Epiphany 2013.
[1] Leader comment, Disorganised religion, Church Times, 3 January 2015.
[2] Nick Cohen, whose article The Great Betrayal: How Liberals Appease Islam, Standpoint, January/February 2015.
[3] Madeleine Davies, Welby: 2014 was a tough year, Church Times, 3 January 2015.
[4] Archbishop’s House of Lords soft power debate – opening speech, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury website. House of Lords website, The Committee on Soft Power and the UK’s Influence.
[5] Rosalind Brown, Readings: Epiphany, Church Times, 4 January 2013.
[6] David Bryant, Returning by another way, Church Times, 4 January 2013. Paraphrased.
[7] David Bryant, Returning by another way, Church Times, 4 January 2013.
