A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The Lectionary readings for the Baptism of Jesus are here.
When was the last time you had an epiphany? Well, if you were paying attention, you might have had one yesterday which was the Feast of the Epiphany. On January 6, 12 days after Christmas Day, the Church celebrates the arrival of the three men from the East at the home of Mary and Joseph with their seemingly odd baby gifts. Despite the millions of manger scenes that depict otherwise, tradition and a few clues from our scriptures tell us that it could have been as long as two years after Jesus’ birth that these men showed up. So, technically, yesterday’s Feast of the Epiphany is the end of Christmas 2021. That’s way more than 12 days but 730 days of Christmas would be an impossible song to write much less sing!
Matthew tells us that the star the men followed guided them to Mary and Joseph’s home, not the stable in Bethlehem where he was born and not on the same night as the shepherds and angels. But their arrival is important enough that the Church has given it it’s own Feast Day. And the time between January 6 and Ash Wednesday is marked by the number of Sundays after the Epiphany.
These men, wise in reading the stars and evading Herod’s treachery, were not Jewish, not Roman, not local folks congratulating the family on a new arrival. In their profession of reading the stars, they discerned that there was a grand shift in Creation, something extraordinary and awesome was occurring, and they wanted to acknowledge it. They had an epiphany. An epiphany is much more than just an aha moment. It is the manifestation of divine insight. Epiphanies are God revealing to us the divine intent so that we can participate with God in the goodness of the Kingdom on earth as in heaven.
Remember a few weeks ago when we talked about Mary and I said she may have not have been educated but she was far from illiterate about the God who asked her to bear God’s Son? Mary would have understood the significance of the odd gifts these men brought. Gold belonged to royalty, Frankincense was burned as incense to symbolize prayers being lifted up, and Myrrh was used for embalming. These were not items possessed in any significant amount if at all by common people; they are gifts given by and to the wealthy and powerful. These odd baby gifts only make sense alongside what the angel had said to Mary. Perhaps in the two years between the birth of her baby and the arrival of these men, Mary and Joseph had settled into a typical life with their new baby, Joseph earning a living, Mary running the household, both waiting and wondering when and how all of the amazing things the angel told them would take place.
Imagine Mary’s wonder as she receives these men into her home and they present the gifts that assure her that God is still at work in her little family. Now, that’s an Epiphany!
So, although we may distinguish one day a year, January 6, as the Feast of the Epiphany, we have many stories in our scriptures of Epiphanies and when we seek to live awake and alert to God’s presence in this world, we continue to grow through the epiphanies we have of God with us in both our struggles and joys.
Now, today, the first Sunday after the Feast of the Epiphany, we jump forward approximately 30 years to the story of Jesus’ baptism and another epiphany moment. And who said time-travel was impossible?
And, again, if our reading today sounded very familiar as we just read it a few short weeks ago on the second Sunday of Advent. In the story of Jesus’ baptism, we should never lose the amazement that Jesus is being baptized. The baptism John proclaimed was a sign of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And Jesus gets inline with the rest of us in a sign of solidarity with us, God truly with us as one of us.
This is the model Jesus gives us for our lives as we follow him, a lived example in flesh and blood of sincerely humble collaboration and compassionate fellowship. Jesus teaches us that we are most complete, most whole, most holy, when we are together, not just in the same place but in sync with each other, striving for the greater good of all of us and our wider community, knowing that each of us is necessary in the whole. Sincere humility isn’t saying ‘I’m less than you, or I have nothing, or I’m not good enough, or I’m not needed; humility is about our view of others, knowing that we are all God’s beloved, we are all created for God’s Kingdom; not trying to portray ourselves as less than others but seeing all of us together as whole and holy. We cannot see the true worth of others if we don’t know our own worth as God’s beloved. Each and everyone of us, each and every human ever born or who will be born is loved by God. And there is absolutely nothing any human can do to make God love us more or less than God loves. We are just not that powerful, my friends.
It is not quite clear in our reading just who saw the skies open and heard God say “this is my beloved in who I am pleased” but imagine the ongoing epiphany of those who followed Jesus remembering that he was baptized just a they were – God choosing to be one of us!
Jesus steps in line with us and then says follow me in the Way of Love, together we will show the world the life we are all created for, a life of humble collaboration and compassionate fellowship. If we try to convince ourself or others that we are more or less than God’s beloved it is pride, not humility. Jesus knows who he is and wants to help us discover who and whose we are.
In our baptism covenant, after we proclaim what we believe, we make promises about how we will live. We promise, with God’s help, to continue the whole of our life to learning who and Whose we are, to do life together, to share all we have, both grounding and framing our life in prayer. We promise, with God’s help, to accept responsibility for our own actions and admit it when we harm others so we can learn better how to live in collaborative fellowship with each other and God. We promise, with God’s help, to look for the epiphanies of God’s image in every other human being we encounter. And we promise, with God’s help, to live on earth as in heaven, living for the greater good of everyone, in the sincere humility of knowing that we are all God’s beloved.
I may have paraphrased the actual covenant a bit. If you want to check my interpretation you can find the actual words in the Book of Common Prayer.
All that we do in here on Sunday mornings and all that we do on this campus throughout the week is about living our life every day of the year. The coming of God in our lives isn’t just during the Christmas season; epiphanies of God’s presence isn’t about one feast day; reorienting ourselves on God’s path doesn’t just occur during the six weeks of Lent; bearing witness to God giving of God’s Self to us isn’t confined to Holy Week and Easter. Our baptism isn’t a one day event. These are the foundation and framework of every moment of every day of our life as God’s beloved as we follow Jesus in the Way of Love, doing life on earth as in heaven together and with God’s help. Amen.
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