Sermon for the First Sunday after the Epiphany
“Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”
Epiphany marks at once the culmination of the Christmas mystery in Bethlehem and extends its scope and meaning in wonderful ways. It inaugurates something new in what I like to call the break-out from Bethlehem, the journey not to Bethlehem but from Bethlehem, a journey of the understanding. The Magoi from the East, from Anatolia, as Matthew styles them, present their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, “sacred gifts of mystic meaning”, signifying Christ as King, as God, and as Sacrifice. But in the mystery of Bethlehem, they, it seems, do not hang around but “depart into their own country another way: having been “warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod” in Jerusalem which conveys a sense of fear and danger. As T.S. Eliot suggests, in returning to their own countries and kingdoms, they are “no longer at ease”, but have been changed in some way by what they have sought for and seen in the child-Christ at Bethlehem.
Epiphany means manifestation, the making known of the essential divinity of Christ, on the one hand, but also the making known of the divine will and purpose for our humanity, on the other hand. Both aspects are present in the Epiphany story and in the other readings that belong to the Octave of the Epiphany, such as the commemoration of the Baptism of Christ, an explicit manifestation of Christ as the Beloved Son of the Father upon whom the Holy Spirit descends “like a dove”. His baptism by John is for us and signals the divine purpose of Christ’s coming to inaugurate a new relation to God; in him will be the renewing of our lives through our incorporation into Christ’s death and resurrection through our baptisms. Thus his baptism is at once a divine epiphany of the Trinity through the Incarnation and marks the beginning of new life in us, a new life which means as well the mission of the Church in making known to the world the meaning of Christ as the saviour for all, omni populo, hence the readings appointed for the Missionary Work of the Church Overseas.
There the Epistle reading from Romans highlights the concept of Revelation through Scripture and the proclamation of the Word of God through preaching while the Gospel complements it with the divine commission in Matthew to “go” and “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;” and “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”. Word and Sacrament go together and belong to the idea of epiphany. Something is made known to us which is also to be made manifest in us.
