Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
“Another parable put he forth unto them”
Epiphany runs out this year with talk, a parable, words rather than signs and wonders. Perhaps it is words that are the real signs and wonders. Epiphany season suggests that we are constituted for thought and it is often words that convey ideas and thoughts to us. But what kind of words?
“As all of the fruits of the season come to us in their proper time, flowers in the spring, corn in the summer, and apples in the autumn, so the fruit of winter is talk.” Basil the Great, one of the great philosophical theologians of the early Church, one of the Cappadocian Fathers, captures well the point of our considerations and an essential aspect of our liturgy. Epiphany is all about the light of divinity, light conveyed by words which are sown in our hearts like seeds upon the ground. But what kinds of seeds, what kind of words will be made manifest in us, in our lives? The seed and words of good wheat or the seeds and words of deceit and despair? This is the question that the Gospel presents to us while reminding us that Epiphany is equally about judgment. The judgment is God’s judgment not the limited and biased judgment of humans. That is the good news actually. We are held accountable to the word of God. That is the point of the parable.
It is complemented by the Epistle reading from Colossians which exhorts us to put on “mercy and compassion” “forebearing one another, and forgiving one another”, important spiritual concepts that belong to our living in the light of God’s truth made manifest to us in the words and deeds of Jesus Christ. In a way, it is all about the words. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another”, as Paul puts it. Epiphany is the season of teaching. The words are words of purpose and meaning. The fruit of winter is talk that is meaningful and purposeful, serious talk that recalls us to who we are in the light of God revealed in Jesus Christ. “In thy light shall we see light”, is our constant prayer but that means an openness to the teachings of Christ, to his talk to us while among us. That is the condition of his epiphany in us.
