Epiphany Sermon

Five years ago today, on January 6, 2021, America changed. The sanctity (you might say) of our republic shifted. The stability we’d known and taken for granted – of the rule of law and the peaceful transference of power – became less stable.

In the subsequent years, our sense of being America has continued to change: Who we are as fellow Americans spanning party lines has changed; who we are in the world and what America promises has changed.

Jan. 6 was a turning point in our national identity and therefore for each of us as citizens of this nation.

But before 2021, January 6 was already a feast day of the church. The Feast of the Epiphany is a story also filled with political drama and violence. King Herod was a violent, violent man, fueled by ambition and mania. Human history is filled with such men; with such instability; with such violence and bloodshed.

This was the context of the magi’s visit – this chaotic, threating, violent world. But the context of their visit isn’t the point of the story. It’s just the context. Just as the political conditions of our age are not the main story. They’re real. They’re the context of our lives, but not the focus of our lives.

The focus of the Epiphany story – of this night, of our lives – is here (pointing to candle). It is Christ: come into the world; come into our context; come into our chaos – Christ: the light of the world; the hope of the world; the Lamb of God that takes aways the sin of the world.

This candle – this Christ – floating (as it were) upon the waters, becomes like the Spirit of God, blowing across the face of the deep even before the days of ordering creation began. It becomes like Christ walking upon the waves to meet his disciples in the boat, frightened in the storm.

And like when Christ walked upon the waters to meet his disciples, he now bids us to join him where he is. It is safe. He is safe. All will be well, for he has come.

And so we come, like the magi with their gifts; with our lives; with our hopes … and with our fears. We come.

Later in the service, we will come forward like the magi with their gifts. The gifts of money we bring and place in the offering plates will go the Diocese of Jerusalem, our closest partners in caring for the victims of violence in Palestine, to the children there, the Christ child of our day, for so Christ will teach us, “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do unto me.”

And we will come forward with our lives, offering them afresh at the start of this new year and with our individual resolves to Choose Love in bringing life and hope and healing to our neighbors in this world.

You are welcome to light a candle from the Christ Candle. The candle is you, aflame with the light and life of Christ. Set it afloat in the water where it will be safe – where we will be safe – for we are with Christ; we are as Christ, the Body of Christ, alive in this world.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.