Sermon for the First Sunday after the Epiphany
Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased
“There came a voice from heaven”, Mark tells us, just after Jesus “com[es] up out of the water” “baptized of John” in the river Jordan, and sees “the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him”(Mark 1. 10). The Baptism of Christ is an epiphany, a making known of the essential divinity of Christ, thus an epiphany, too, of the Trinity. As such The Baptism of Christ is an integral feature of the Epiphany; its propers provided for within The Octave of the Epiphany (BCP, p. 119).
Epiphany is the season of teaching, hence the imagery of light. Advent, too, is the season of teaching with an equal emphasis upon the imagery of light. The difference is that Advent focuses on the Light of Godcomingdown to our world of darkness; Epiphany focuses upon the Light of Godnowin the world. The emphasis is on the nature of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The “voice from heaven” is the Father’s voice which proclaims “Thou are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”(Mark 1.11). This is the beloved “servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth,” God says in Isaiah, the one upon whom “I have put my spirit” (Isaiah 42.1).
On the one hand, the servant here is Israel in her divine vocation as “a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles” tasked “to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness” (Isaiah 42.6,7). Powerful images that signal human redemption as grounded in God. On the other hand, the servant is the Son in whom the Father is “well pleased” because the vocation of Israel is only fulfilled in Christ.
The Gospel for The First Sunday after the Epiphany, which this year is also The Octave Day of Epiphany, is the unique story of the boy Jesus engaged with the doctors of the Law in the temple at Jerusalem, “sitting in their midst,” “both hearing them and asking them questions”(Luke. 2. 46). It is a scene of wonder. “All they that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers”(Lk. 2. 47). It is unique in one way because it is the only story in the New Testament about the childhood or boyhood of Christ. But it is uniquely important in another way. Here is Jesus as Divine Teacher and human student. It is an epiphany about who Christ really is. His question to Mary and Joseph highlights his mission and divine identity. “Wist ye not” – did you not know? – “that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Lk. 2. 49). Some translations have “in my Father’s house.” Literally, it is “the things of my Father.” In any event, it is a telling phrase which points to the temple, to the church, as a place of teaching. Teaching and learning, and living the teaching that is learned. That is the Epiphany in us.
