We are now transitioning from the Christmas season to Epiphany,
a season of light in the dark of winter.
The word Epiphany means, of course, as we are all probably well aware, shining forth,
a word to signify revelation, light, manifestation, enlightenment.
And the Epiphany season then comes to its conclusion
in the grand finale of the Transfiguration,
bright dazzling light, blinding in its brilliance.
But there is a dark side to the Feast of the Epiphany as well.
The story related for today has evil and violence implicit in it,
not what one ordinarily would expect.
It is a story of great darkness in the human heart,
the darkness of greed for power and of the fear
that fuels self-centeredness and compulsion to control
to the extent of deliberately ordering the ruthless killing
of the innocent children of a whole town
out of fear that one of them might grow up to be a personal threat.
How much this is the picture of the condition of the world today!
Do we not see this all around us?
- the slaughter of innocents who by their simple presence
are taken not only as an inconvenient obstacle
but also as a threat to be removed by any means of force
whether that is refugee children with their families at the southern border,
or homeless families for whom there is no housing
or children exploited in human trafficking for cheap labor or sex trade,
or children who look different from us in our own neighborhood.
The slaughter of innocents is not only about baby boys under the age of two
in Bethlehem 2000 years ago,
but people subjected to genocide, the oppression of women,
the exploitation of human labor in jobs that do not pay a living wage,
exploitation of other species in how farm animals have been treated,
in over-fishing the oceans,
and the way humans have impacted the whole planet
in the use of fossil fuels to the extent that we have changed the climate
so that it has contributed significantly
to the extinction of whole species of living beings,
including possibly our own extinction.
This is great darkness, catastrophic darkness,
the darkness of the dereliction of our humanity.
So this story of the wise men, the Magi,
is not just a nice story about visiting dignitaries being added
to the lovely tableau of the manger scene, the Christmas crèche.
This is an event of enormous political and cultural and moral consequence.
The story starts with huge assumptions about who the Christ Child was:
the wise men from the East assume the sign in the heavens
indicate the birth of a king.
King Herod assumes a political rival to his throne.
Herod is frightened, and given who Herod was and what he was like,
if Herod was upset,
all the rest of Jerusalem had good cause also be frightened.
This was a ruler known for his merciless use of power.
No good could come of this; innocent lives would be lost,
sacrificed to the continuation of power and political control.
The wise men, the Magi come to Bethlehem and find Jesus and his mother
and give their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh,
gifts fit for a king,
but as it turns out, gifts they handed over to a humble family
that could hardly look royal.
And so it was that these expensive gifts
probably provided the means by which
Joseph was able to take Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt
in order to escape Herod’s purge of Bethlehem,
The slaughter of innocents is the backdrop for our Lord’s nativity,
he who at his maturity
would take on these innocent lives
and all the world’s suffering
and bear it himself on the Cross.
Into this evil and darkness the Light of the world comes
and is born as one of us, as us,
and he gathers all that darkness into himself and takes it all to the Cross.
And so we enter the Epiphany season in the church year.
And as we do so, now is an opportune time
to consider our own relationship to light
and to the One who is the Light of the world,
and the path of illumination that this season invites us into.
There is the Light of the world
and then there is being lights in the world.
We are specifically called by virtue of baptism
into discipleship, into a process of learning,
in which we are to become living lights in the world.
In Matthew 5:14,16 from the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says,
“You are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot be hid…
Let your light so shine before others
that they may see your good works
and give glory to your Father in heaven…”
Ah, but there is something very important to get first,
lest we assume that all we need to do
is run up a sizeable number of good deeds
and figure that’s sufficient.
That presumption of making light will produce only a feeble result
if it is our own ego-driven efforts,
for it is God who is the active agent of illumination, not ourselves.
St. John of the Cross, with great insight into the human soul, wrote:
“… the values of [a person’s] good works, fasts, alms, penances, etc.,
is not based on their number and excellence,
but on the love of God which prompts him to do these things.”
This is the ray of Divine Light
that can be so bright as to blind the eye.
It is beyond comprehension, [and again from St. John of the Cross]
“… a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion from God.”
Love is that Divine Light. Love is the expression of Divine Light.
Divine Light manifests as Love.
Knowing this liberation, this salvation, this mercy, this grace, this love
is not just for our own sake, my own well-being, my benefit alone,
but for the sake of the whole world, the whole created order,
for the sake of every living, breathing thing.
In other words salvation is not just a personal experience,
but always has global implications.
So the Light of the World is not for our own exclusive possession,
as though we could even think
that we could manufacture it ourselves, or even possess it.
This Light being manifest to the world, this Epiphany of God,
is for the sake of all alike.
This Light of Christ is for the sake of all victims of prejudice and discrimination.
This Light is for the sake of healing and unity,
for the poor, the homeless, the hungry and the abandoned,
for the sick and the dying,
and for those in power, in positions of leadership and authority.
Yes, even, or especially, for them,
those who are blind to their need for light.
Wherever there is human need,
wherever there is despair from lack of hope,
wherever there are cries of loneliness and suffering,
there is given to us the obligation to be light bearers
of what we have been graced with.
To know Jesus is not just about our own individual relationship with him.
You and I cannot be separated from the rest of creation.
If I truly know Jesus then I have no leave
not to be a Light-bearer.
So consider here in the darkness of winter
being engaged in openness of heart to what the Spirit, God’s Self,
will do to illumine and nurture and rekindle Light in us,
so that Christ’s Light, Christ’s Love,
will be our motivation, our empowerment,
our message and our witness.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us
- dwells in us -
And the Light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness does not overtake it.
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