It’s Time for an Epiphany
Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins
Jan. 8, 2012 – Sunshine Cathedral

In seminary three of us were chatting over coffee about what we’d like people to say about us our own funeral. My friend Elsa said, “I want someone to say that I was a very good preacher.” My friend Christa said, “I hope someone says that I was a very kind person.” I of course, had a much more practical desire. I said, “I would like to someone to say, ‘Look, he’s moving!’”

Sometimes, we try to make religion be more other-worldly than it needs to be. We all know people who are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good; but I believe religion should be more practical than that. Religion should engage our minds as well as our emotions, and it should offer us skills for navigating this life as well as hope that there may be something beyond this life. Today’s gospel story is one that is often presented as an other-worldly tale, but I believe it may be more practical than that.

The story of magi traveling to discover the Christ Child appears only in Matthew’s gospel. It isn’t one of the stories that is told over and over in scripture nor is it a story that is referenced throughout scripture. Matthew alone mentions it one time only. Within the biblical canon itself, it receives very little attention. But once each year, we give it attention. And so, today we are challenged to look at it with a fresh perspective, to mine it more deeply for new treasures, and to let it be something awe-inspiring again for us.

Matthew doesn’t tell us how many magi he’s imagining in his story. We know they bring three kinds of gifts…money, incense, and herbs. Magi is plural, Matthew is imagining at least two, but as few as two could carry these gifts, or as many a dozen could carry the gifts. The number of magi isn’t important, at least not important enough for Matthew to specify.

We know what the gifts are, but we don’t often ponder what they mean. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh seem like odd gifts. I mean, gold is pretty nice, but smoky incense and bags of herbs don’t seem all that special. Gold, diamonds, and pearls…now those are some gifts. But incense and myrrh seem odd companions for gold. That is, until we look at them allegorically.

Gold, representing abundance, myrrh, an herb used medicinally, representing health and healing, and frankincense representing ritual and prayer: the gifts the magi bring are gold (a portion of their income), myrrh (their health and vitality), and incense (their prayers). Money, action, and prayer, or time, talent, and treasure. Time (the journey took a commitment of time), talent (they are using their astrological skills), and treasure (the gifts they bring) are together the model for faithful worship. They are worshiping with all they have and all they are; in fact, that’s what worship really is.

Now, what about this slow moving navigational star. If a star moved slowly through the sky for months or years, someone other than “Mathew” would have noticed and mentioned it. And P.S. – Matthew isn’t present for Jesus’ early years. Matthew is writing about 90 years AFTER Jesus’ birth. Not only did he not witness it, he probably wasn’t even alive when it happened. Remember, this is a story Matthew is imagining…this is a work of literary genius, not literal recollection.

In Greek and Roman pagan mythologies, deities and demigods and super-heroes were announced with cosmic portents at their births. The notion of astrologists finding signs in the heavens announcing the birth of a hero seems much more pagan than Jewish, and that may be Matthew’s point.

Vanderbilt University’s New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine says that Matthew’s story could be a parody of the very similar pagan myths about divine-human children being miraculously conceived and their births announced with cosmic portents. Matthew might be saying, “We don’t need that.” And Levine suggests the original hearers of the story would have gotten Matthew’s intent.

What is important isn’t that astronomical oddities happen following Jesus’ birth, but that this baby will grow up to make a huge difference in the world. He is so real he doesn’t need to be shrouded in myth. He will be so fully human that his divinity will be experienced in that fully embraced humanity. He doesn’t need the trappings of the pagan myths; his significance will be in how he courageously and generously lives his life among real people.

Matthew isn’t creating one more unbelievable story…he’s making fun of such stories and inviting us to embrace a real life faith where untouchables are touched, and the sick are made to feel whole, and the oppressed discover glimpses of liberation in the midst of their circumstances. Ours isn’t one more other worldly tradition of myth and magic; ours is Good News that empowers us to live real lives of hope and service and empowerment and radical change.

One final point I want to make about the story of the magi. The Magi are from a different culture than Matthew’s and a different religion, and yet these “Other” people, these Persian Zoroastrians are the ones who find what Christ symbolizes. They have the Christ experience in their own context and return to their culture and religion. They are not converted; just as they are, they are able to find what they need in their spiritual lives. The incarnation, the experience of divine love in our human earthly lives is what the Christ-event symbolizes for Christians; but the experience is not limited to Christians. Our stories and our vocabularies are Christian, but the experience of longing for and encountering the divine in one’s own context is universal. Jewish people, Muslims, Buddhists, Humanists, Hindus, and as Matthew points out, Zoroastrians, all people can experience the Sacred whenever and however they are open to it.

Gays and lesbians, Americans and non-Americans, men and women…all people can experience, and ultimately must experience the perfect wholeness that many of us call God.

This Universalist message is consistent with other times Matthew affirms the “Other” throughout his gospel. It is also consistent with the message from Sirach this morning that suggests divine Wisdom is everywhere, all throughout the earth and the cosmos.

Now, how is this story relevant for our lives today?

The word epiphany suggests an appearance. In common usage, it refers to a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the essential meaning of something. The epiphany isn’t the appearance of an impossibly low positioned star. The epiphany isn’t that strangers from Persia found a baby. The epiphany that Matthew wants his readers to have is the discovery of their own sacred value.

A poor family is affirmed in the story- Jesus’ family.

Strangers from a distant land, Persians who in the past had oppressed Matthew’s own people – these foreigners are affirmed in the story. Former enemies are seen as God’s friends in Matthew’s imagination.

They aren’t just Persian, they are practitioners of astrology, reading the stars and making meaning from their observations…they are occultists, and they are affirmed.

They aren’t just astrology buffs from Persia, they are magi, the root of the word of magician…they are priests in another religion entirely, but they are affirmed.

Poor people, foreigners, people of other religions…in Matthew’s imagination, everyone can have an epiphany of God’s universal and unconditional love. The epiphany is that God is among us, with us, expressing through us, WHOEVER we might be. Everyone is part of the divine, ultimate reality. That is the epiphany that Matthew offers, and that is the epiphany for too many centuries too many people have missed.

YOU – whoever you are – you are a child of God, loved unconditionally and eternally by God – that is the epiphany Matthew wants us to have. Are you starting to see the light? Not a far away star, but the light of divinity shining right in your life right now.

This is a new year, and the new year offers us opportunities to reflect, to start over, and to have our own epiphanies.

1. Will you dare to be believe, or at least be willing to believe that in essence, regardless of whatever mistakes you may have made, but that in the truest sense, you are good, you are nothing less than an expression of God? Can you let yourself have that epiphany this year?

2. Will you let yourself see the amazing gift this spiritual community is? We are a different kind of church…an intellectually honest church, a church that affirms the sacred value of all people, a church that is unapologetic in its commitment to hope and in its expression of joy, a church where the comforted are challenged and the challenged are comforted, a church determined to be relevant in the 21st century, a church that is available to people where and how they actually live, a church that stands for justice and equality and liberation. Can you let yourself have an epiphany of what a special community this is that we are forming?

3. Will you let yourself see the growth that is happening and commit to continuing that growth? If everyone here brought one more person to this church in 2012 just think of the hope and joy that would be shared in our community. In 2010 our attendance in worship grew by almost 1000 people, and in 2011 our attendance grew by another 1200 people, and that doesn’t count the 6000 people each month who watch us online. Can you see and celebrate the amazing growth and then do what you can to help us grow even more? Can you see that people need what we have to offer?

4. And will you begin to see how your prayers, your generosity, your service, your positive attitude, your loving speech, your goodwill, your light can a make a difference?

It’s time for an epiphany. It’s time for each of us to believe in ourselves and it’s time for us to believe in and fully support our mission of sharing healing love with a wounded world. It’s time to know that the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities. Will you know that today? Will you be open to that kind of epiphany? If you will, then together in 2012 WE will be the good news. Amen.
© Durrell Watkins 2012

Affirmations
In my life, I see God today.
In my world, I see God today.
And with all that I am…
I worship God today.
Alleluia!
Amen.

Final Word
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” William James