Christ Episcopal Church
January 3, 2016
Epiphany Sunday
When my sister and I were little girls, one of the great delights of our childhood was spending the night with our grandparents. Our grandparents understood that their chief responsibility as grandparents was to spoil their granddaughters and shower them with unconditional love. That responsibility was taken seriously. They lived out in the country, in a small house with a huge yard that was bordered in the back by a creek, on the front by a field where a helicopter could land, on one side by woods, and on the other side by a family with a daughter our age. There was no end to the adventures we could have outside. Inside the house....well, neither of my grandparents put much value on a clean or orderly house, so pretty much anything our young imaginations could come up with would create order rather than chaos. This was heaven for two little girls and our visits to our grandparents would sustain us through chores, homework, and rules during the week.
But even better than being at our grandparents house was getting there. Our grandfather would pick us up in his car, which, even at our young age, we realized was not a very reliable means of transportation. But before we even pulled out of the driveway, we got to decide which route to take. Would we take the route that was longer but took less time? Or the route that was shorter but took more time? Our young minds had a hard time understanding how those choices were even possible. Another attractive option was to go the middle way, through town, which had the added benefit of passing by a toy store. Add to the choice of route the ever present adventure of a flat tire or running out of gas, and the journey to their house was an experience in itself.
The Magi are on a journey this morning, and while camels or whatever their means of transportation, don't get flat tires or run out of gas, the journey of the Magi is also an adventure. They traveled some distance from the East to Jerusalem, following a star that beckoned them to the newly born King of the Jews. Their friends back home must have questioned their judgement! The Magi make a strategic error when they stop to consult Herod, the current King of the Jews, for advice on where to find the newborn and unrelated King of the Jews. The Magi apparently underestimated the depth of Herod's insecurity and jealousy. Then they travel to Bethlehem, guided again by the star, until the star stopped over the house where Mary and the child were. Overcome with joy, they enter the house and moved to kneel before the child, pay him homage, and deliver the gifts they had carried with them on their journey. Afterward, they must have gotten some sleep because they are warned in a dream not to go back to Jerusalem, but to return home by a different route.
Which part of the story is journey and which part is destination? The feast of Epiphany celebrates the arrival of the Magi to visit the baby Jesus and proclaims that the Christ Child is a gift for all people. The feast of Epiphany also brings the Christmas season to a close. We, like the Magi, have now been to the manger and can get back to normal life. Today, we even unhang the greens and deliver the poinsettias to homebound parishioners. By all appearances, Christmas is over. By next week, the baby Jesus will be a grown man being baptized in the Jordan River.
At the end of the story of the Magi, we are told that the Magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they left for their own country by another road. While, on the one hand, this seems to be a matter of geography in order to avoid Herod, on the other hand, I wonder if the change of route was not also a spiritual matter, showing that the Magi had been changed by their journey. The trip to meet the Christ Child was not simply an out and back experience to drop off some gifts and be on their way. Perhaps after the journey to meet the Christ Child and pay homage to a king who was not their king, they arrived home changed by the experience. We have no way to know as the story of the Magi ends here. But people who are willing to be guided by a star, to bring gifts to an unknown King who is not their sovereign, and abide by the directions of a dream are likely to be open to being changed by their journey.
Likewise, our trip to the manger is not an out and back trip to drop off a casserole, or in our case jars of baby food, for the new baby and his parents.. However we got to the manger, some journey or other brought us here. If we have engaged the Christ Child, the story of God who became human in the person of Jesus, if we have brought him the gift of ourselves in addition to whatever other gift we might have brought, we may not go home by the same route as we arrived. We will have been changed in some way, large or small, by the experience. Perhaps we experienced a moment of grace in the glow of the candle light, or felt God's presence in the many voices lifted in song, or perhaps we heard some bit of the Christmas story in a new way. Or perhaps, in the encounter with family, friends, or even a stranger, we met the Christ child. Our visit to the manger each year is not a destination, but another point on a journey-a journey that may involve flat tires and running out of gas, but will also involve great joy, adventure, and unconditional love and can change the way we experience the world. Christmas is only over if we think of the manger as a destination. By what route will we go home?
Amen
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