January 9, 2011
(First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ)
(From The Lectionary Page)
An Epiphany Requires Incarnation
Today the Church moves into the season of Epiphany. The Epiphany is the celebration of God’s revealing of Christ’s identity. In the Western tradition that we are part of, The Epiphany refers to the coming of the Magi to visit the infant king Jesus. But there are numerous epiphanies in the gospels, including the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. The word epiphany itself means “reveal, or manifest.” But a secondary definition is, “the sudden perception of the essential nature or meaning of something.”[1] A moment of insight, perhaps.
In a very broad sense, we frequently have little moments of insight.
When I moved from Kansas City to Austin, Texas, a number of years ago, I
didn’t know a soul there. I heard that the seminary bookstore would be
open for a few hours shortly after we got there, so I thought I’d go look
around, and perhaps meet some people. When I walked in, I was
addressed almost immediately by a man who had introduced himself to me just
the evening before. We had talked briefly about sports and such, and
then off he had gone. Now, he was in the seminary book store, with a
group of about six other guys, trying to get my attention. “Hey Behen
– come over here.” Before I even got to the counter where they were
gathered, I was given a sort of quiz. “Name three schools,” he said.
I started to ask for some context for the question, but got another command.
“Don’t think about it. Just name three schools. Off the top of
your head.” So without further thought, I said, “Kansas, Kentucky, North
Carolina, and Duke.”
With his response to my answer, I was given my own private epiphany about
the nature of their conversation before I arrived. He said simply,
“See – Behen doesn’t know squat about football.”
While there are many epiphanies in the gospels, you could say that the Incarnation itself, is the epiphany, the manifestation of God to us in the plainest way. God is brought forth not in word alone, but in flesh. It is the only way that it could be – looking backwards, of course. It is like saying that something is true, and then acting in a way so as to bring that truth into being – the incarnation of that truth. As we saw in the readings on Christmas morning, the incarnation of God into the world has everything to do with relationship. And 90% of relationship is about being present. Jesus summed up the entire teaching of the Old Testament in terms of relationship. Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.[2] The question this leads to for us, then, is this: How do we incarnate truth? More specifically, how do we incarnate relationship? Hold on to this, and we’ll come back to it.
Did you notice the connection between Matthew’s story of Jesus’ baptism and the reading from Isaiah? Often, the readings in our lectionary are chosen in such a way that the same thing is being addressed in two or more of them. But today is one of those great days when the gospel is actually commenting on the Old Testament reading. It’s almost as if, what Matthew wants us to understand about the significance of Jesus’ baptism, is incomprehensible apart from this particular reading from Isaiah. At the very least, his message is only fully clear in light of Isaiah.
Isaiah describes the servant as one in whom God’s “soul delights. I have put my spirit my spirit upon him,” God says, “and he will bring forth justice.” He will ‘bring forth,’ live out, or incarnate, what is important to God. The spirit of God gives the servant an epiphany, which points him toward justice. If we put this into a mathematical type equation, you could say that an epiphany is like the equal sign between understanding and doing. One cannot happen without the other. An epiphany not only shows us where God is, but also points us toward a response.
Justice, then, is what is important to God. Justice is also a relational term. If God loves each person as much as me, then I must work toward the incarnation of that truth. To live justly is to seek the common good, not just my own. This is one of the major themes throughout all of the Bible. Luke expands on this idea more than Matthew. After the crowds heard the teaching of John the Baptist, they asked, “What then should we do?’ He replied to them, ‘whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none.” And James, in his letter, says much the same thing. “If one of you says to someone, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?”
This brings us back to the question, “How do we live relationship?”
Imagine someone so completely selfless, so concerned for others that you
wonder if they give enough attention to their own needs. In watching
them, you wonder what is behind it all. What could possibly drive them
to live this way?
Then you learn that this person holds close to their heart, Jesus’ summation
of the law, to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. You have
your own sort of epiphany, and suddenly it all fits together. That is
a person on whom God’s spirit rests, and who brings forth justice.
This person incarnates relationship in the fullest sense.
It’s also true, then, that this person has been a light for you. They’ve lived in such a way that your epiphany was possible. This by-product of their “bringing forth” has become a tool in God’s hands, and God acted on you through it. That is the holy function of God’s people, to be a light to the nations.
The task assigned to followers of Christ is to incarnate relationship where we are, to live justice. That is the “bringing forth” that The Epiphany points toward. Where ever this is done, light is offered to the nations, and epiphanies abound, all pointing toward love of God and love of neighbor.
Amen.
[1] Webster’s 9th New Collegiate Dictionary
(Springfield, MA: Merriam Webster Inc. Publishers, 1983).
[2] A paraphrase of Mathew 22:37-40.
