With Jesus and his life among us, there is always the two-tier, if not three-tier, and perhaps even more layers to all that he does among us.  Each action, at least those that are recorded, is loaded with meaning.  Mary and Joseph, Jesus’ earthly parents, were fulfilling the religious laws of good Jews in bringing the little Jesus to the temple to be presented.  They were on the run from Herod, most likely—but this they had to do first!

Coming to the temple, which was Jesus’ first time of several that Scripture records for us, was about fulfilling an earthly, religious law, but it was also about the beginning of a short life, fully immersed within humanity, doing what his God asked of him. This, my friends, is a good reflection for each of us, “doing what God asked of him,” and ultimately—of us.  In the words of the prophet Malachi, “the messenger of God’s promises is surely coming!”

The basic action of bringing a newborn to the temple to be presented to God with the prayer that this same God would protect the child and assist them throughout life was the top tier of the meaning of this feast.  There was a dual purpose for Mary, his mother—or any mother, presenting herself as a way to be, “purified” according to the law, after the birth of a child.  And again, Mary and Joseph, being good and faithful Jews, would have felt the need to do, “all that was right.”

With these surface actions fulfilled—those that all good Jews would do; we then must go deeper, to have well-known prophecies fulfilled, in order to make the connections to a greater plan.  We read in Luke today that, “Simeon was prompted by the Spirit to come to the temple,” on the very day that the parents of Jesus arrived to present him.  We also know that the Spirit had spoken to Simeon earlier, “a devout and just man,” Scripture says, that, “he would not see death until he had seen the Messiah of God.”

So Simeon and his counterpart, Anna, had the task of confirming for Mary and Joseph that their child was indeed the Messiah of God! We can only imagine in the day- to-day life of caring for an infant, and those of you who have done that know what I am speaking of, the miracle of all that they both had learned along the way of how this child had come into their lives, would need confirmation throughout their life times of who he truly was.  Simeon and Anna were two such people in God’s hands to “shine a light” into so much that this young couple more than likely just didn’t know.

And the layers of meaning continue—Simeon lets Mary know that, “a sword will pierce her heart.”  A reality check, yes! Again, she didn’t fully know what lay ahead for her precious child, “meant to be the rise and fall of many in Israel—a sign to be rejected,” the prophet continues. And then there was Anna, a prophet in her own right.    Don’t you wonder—what in fact, she may have said to the young Mary?  I like to think, a woman to another woman would have said what Simeon said, but through a woman’s compassionate heart and words for another sister to hear.  This is yet another layer to think about as we try to make this story real for our own lives.

Because my friends, these Scriptures, or any Scriptures really only have purpose and meaning in our lives if we take their lessons to heart—make them our own.  The Scriptures can’t just be “nice stories” that we read each week and forget about until the same time next year—but stories in fact that help us reflect on our own lives and how we are “to be” in our world, as followers, we say, of this Jesus, from a backward town called Nazareth, of which some asked in his time, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?! Indeed!

We cry out with the psalmist today in our search to make sense of all of this, “Who is this holy one?” And we might add, “Where can we find him?” And why does it matter if we do?  The writer to the Hebrews tells us basically that, Jesus is “strength” for us in our search for right living—he was one of us, having gone through all that we do.  In other words, we must keep our eyes on him, checking—always checking, with each new situation—how would our brother Jesus respond to this?

Our present lives have many places for us as followers, we say—of Jesus, to first ask, what would he do and when we have figured that out, doing likewise.  And you see, for each of us, this is where we often get stuck—following through! We are often like Paul who said, “I know the right thing to do”—it’s doing it, is the thing!  I will offer just a few examples for you to consider that I looked at and reflected upon this week:

• Jaimie Mason, writer for the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) wrote on climate change in this week’s paper, quoting Sister Elizabeth Johnson’s words. “We have to be converted to the Earth,” adding that our care for the planet must become, “an intrinsic part of our love for God.” She continues, “The ecological crisis makes clear that the human species and the natural world will flourish or collapse together.”  This seems true, doesn’t it as Australia and its wildlife burns, as storms—hurricanes and tornadoes become more lethal, as temperatures on the planet rise and ice sheets, long intact, melt.  We, each of us, who sees these changes and can make the connections, must do our part and speak out when the leadership of this country continues to weaken the safeguards put in place over the years by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect our planet. And when we realize that these protections are being done away with merely for momentary, monetary gain, we should feel righteous anger at this endangerment.

• We recently watched a public television program on the sand dunes in Indiana and of how in the early part of the 20^th Century, this complex system—home to a great variety of plant and animal species was almost lost forever to what some considered necessary material advancement in the form of a shipping port on the Great Lakes. In this case, through the advocacy of concerned citizens, a national park was eventually established, saving some of the dunes and establishing a shipping port as well. The point here being, all this natural beauty would have been destroyed except for concerned people speaking up.
• Another writer for the NCR, Father Thomas Reese wrote this week about the appointment of Bishop Nelson Perez of Cleveland to replace retiring Archbishop Charles Chaput, an ultraconservative in the Philadelphia post. Chaput followed Cardinal George, also a conservative who died in 2015. It has been the practice of Pope Francis, in his papacy, to replace bishops when they reach the age of 75 if they have disagreed with him in his pastoral approach. Chaput’s offense was to respond to Francis’ directive that remarried Catholics should be allowed to take communion by stating that, in his diocese, he would allow this, but only if the couple refrained from having sexual relations! Francis’ contention has always been that communion is food for the wounded, not a reward for the perfect, and Chaput’s successor, Perez, sees communion as Francis does.  Reese makes clear that Perez won’t make all the changes that many Catholics long for; birth control, ordination of women, and gay marriage, but his focus will be care for the poor and marginalized as Francis has directed for his bishops—that they cease being about clericalism and return to being shepherds, and this is a least, a very good start!  With the naming of Bishop Nelson Perez, the memory of pastoral leaders such as Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who died in 1996, and led American bishops in reforming the Church after the Second Vatican Council is again raised.

• And finally, I will just lump together a few things in closing—the fact that 10 years ago, Citizens United was sanctioned by the Supreme Court of our country, allowing unlimited amounts of dark money into our elections, basically buying great influence for the rich and powerful, to the detriment of the rest of the people—an action in need of change! At present, the Senate of our country is basically preparing to say,  that for all time, the president is above the law—that the person holding this office can do whatever they want, (forget the checks and balances of the other two branches of government) if they claim that they did it in the national interest!

Now, if you are sitting there wondering if your pastor had gone off the rails here—what in fact all this has to do with the Scriptures—let me say, “it all fits,” as Father Richard Rohr would say.  Our God is all around us—not, “out there, somewhere,” —in our lives, in our beautiful world for all of us to enjoy—in all the plants and animals and people, given into our care to protect and love as we say we love God.

Today we remember Jesus’ presentation in the temple, basically being offered back in service to the God who sent him—the God who sends us through our baptisms and confirmations.  If we as his followers, truly wish to follow him, we too must present ourselves as servants, seeing as many of the connections as we can, naming untruth, injustice, lack of mercy and understanding, hoarding of this world’s goods by the top 1% to the detriment of the rest in this world, pursuing war to get to peace instead of pursuing peace by eliminating war and demanding that these infractions to the law of love not be allowed to stand! We are all better than this and it is time, as our world struggles with poverty and the lack of basics for so many, where violence rather than goodness seems the tone in our own country, to speak our truth, saying, “Enough is enough! Amen? Amen!

 

 

My friends, let’s begin with the Scriptures—always a good place to start! Without being redundant, the 3^rd Sunday as with all the Sundays in Ordinary Time must be considered “extra” as we have spoken of in the past, as it is full of challenge for us.

Isaiah, first off, tells us that as people who tend to “walk in darkness,” from time to time, there is hope, because we have seen a “great light in Jesus!”  And the challenge for each of us, as his followers is to realize that we cannot allow, bullying, name-calling, lying—basically, abuse of any kind to stand.  I was pleased to even hear Chief Justice, John Roberts, in the impeachment trial going on at present, call the members of Congress back to being their “best selves,” in this regard, as the halls of Congress demand, if they expect to truly be heard by each other.

I felt the psalm response this morning needed to be sung—“You are my light and my salvation,” that we beautifully sang, “of whom should I be afraid?”  Of whom indeed—when we have such a friend as Jesus.  The psalmist continues—“You are the stronghold of my life!” In modern parlance, we might say, “Our God truly has our backs!”  Therefore, fear is a “place” we really don’t have to go—at least not for long.

Jim Wallis, minister and creator-editor of Sojourner Magazine, in a new book, entitled, Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus, in a chapter on “fear,” reminds his readers, unlike the apostles who found themselves in a “storm at sea,” to invite Jesus into “our boats.”  The Scriptures show us that it can make all the difference!

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians; we find the people squabbling over small differences, failing to keep their eyes on Jesus’ message—one of love, mercy, attempts at understanding—basically being—again, “our best selves.  In our present day Church; we see the same—factions for Benedict XVI, pope emeritus fighting against those of Pope Francis.  And yet, the Scriptures tell us that, “a light has shown in our darkness” and it would behoove all serious Christians to keep an eye on its glow.

Now practically speaking, someone has said that in future, and I think, it could happen now, if and when a pope retires, he (dare I say, “she?”) should discard the white cassock and go back to their pre-pope name and cardinal clothes in order to be most clear about who is in fact—the pope.  I respectfully agree.

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians continues by saying the same—keep your eye on the message and who you are following! Let the Spirit of our great God do her work!  And in that regard, let us lift up the fact that Paul in today’s reading is taking counsel from Chloe’s household church community—a woman leader no less—let Church men take heed! We still need to shine light into that darkness—inequality.

This past week our country, as you know, celebrated Martin Luther King Jr’s holiday.  I read several articles and news items with regard to this great man and one in particular, about a lawyer; Bryan Stevenson with Equal Justice Initiatives in Montgomery, Alabama especially caught my attention. I would like to share a bit of his story here as we remember the work of Martin Luther King Jr., truly a light in our midst!

• First, I was saddened to learn from Stevenson that in the State of Alabama, Robert E. Lee is honored on the same day as the King Holiday. In a new book and now a major motion picture—both entitled, Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson has this to say, “ The Southern landscape is littered with iconography of the Confederacy—we actually celebrate the architects and defenders of slavery…this has to change if we are to get past this and to a healthier place.”
• He goes on to document how the precedent has been set around our world and that we as a nation could learn from the example of others in order to get past racism. In Johannesburg, South Africa, there is a museum and monuments that talk about the wrongfulness of apartheid.  In Berlin—you can’t go two blocks without seeing markers and stones placed next to the homes of Jewish families that were abducted during the Holocaust.
• But in this country Stevenson continues, we don’t have institutions that are dedicated and focused toward making a new generation of Americans appreciate the wrongfulness of what we did when we allowed lynching to prevail and persist. Yet, our Scriptures tell us that, “A light has shown in our darkness!”
• Stevenson has worked for over 30 years with others against wrongful convictions, over incarcerations and excessive punishment of blacks. And it was because of the lack of institutions to address this wrongfulness that Stevenson and his organization opened the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Both are dedicated to the legacy of slavery, lynching, segregation and mass incarceration of blacks in the United States.

• For Stevenson, the above are a way to address the past and change the future—we need, he says, to create institutions in this country that clearly say, “Never again!” The museum tells the shameful truth about lynchings and of how when they stopped, they were basically, “moved indoors” through mass incarcerations and the death penalty for many blacks with a high rate of innocence among them!

As part of our trip last fall; we traveled through Montgomery and got there on the only day of the week when the museum was closed, but in walking around the block perimeter of the building, reading what we could about the site, realizing that it was built upon the spot of an actual “slave market,” the experience was quite soul-stretching.  Truly, we as a nation must shine a light upon such darkness!

Additionally, for this reason, when the leadership of our great country spews hatred for those who come to our borders who are different than those of us known as “white,” it should cause us to worry and vow to make changes.

Friends, our God calls us to be our best selves—always—to continue to shine a light into the dark places as Isaiah, Jesus and Paul spoke of in today’s readings—to see in fact when there is inequality, hatred, dishonesty, lack of mercy, justice, and do our part to better the situation .  We are capable as humans of so much good, but equally of so much bad—let us choose the good!  Amen? Amen!

 

Friends, this weekend brings our focus back to that time in our Church Year, Ordinary Time, while not a specific period like Advent, Christmas, Lent, or the Easter Season, is just as surely, an important time because this time of some 30 weeks, nearly 2/3 of our Church Year calls and challenges us to live out the messages instilled in us from our brother Jesus during those seemingly more special times named above.

And it is for this reason that I, as some others have chosen to name this part of our Church Year, “Extra” Ordinary Time, so that we wouldn’t forget its importance.  We only have to look at today’s readings to realize that we do not have a free-ride during Ordinary Time.

Isaiah and the God who inspires him, gets right to the point:  “You are my servant in whom I will be glorified.” Notice that we aren’t being asked here—there is just the realization that, “Yes,” this is the response that we will make in first having been loved by our God! It is almost as if God is saying, “Could you make any other response given what you know of my love for you?”  The prophet continues God’s words:  “I will make you a light to the nations,” and your light will be such that it will be seen, “to the ends of the earth!”

There is great joy here and we really shouldn’t miss that—it is much the same as we will see in upcoming weeks as Jesus calls his first disciples to be those same, “lights” that will shine to the ends of the world—or at least throughout the world within each of them lives.

The joy within those first followers was palpable when they said, “Master, where do you live?” and Jesus answered, “Come and see!” I am of course getting ahead of the scriptural story for today that simply identifies our brother Jesus as the One sent by our God to show us the way.  But one step really does lead to the next and our response to the knowledge that Jesus is the Christ—the Anointed One is to respond with the psalmist, “I am here to do your will!”

Paul then lets us know in this regard that he, “is called to be an apostle of Jesus,” and therefore tells the Corinthians that they are called to “be a holy people!”  “And what does that mean to be a holy people,” we might ask?  I would say that it calls us to be our best selves.  And going further, what does that in fact look like in our own lives?

Looking over my past week, a few things come to mind:

• As you know, Dick Dahl stood in for me last weekend as I spent time with my family completing our Christmas celebration. He always tells me, “Doing this is his privilege!”  That in itself is wonderful!—certainly a way that he shines his light.  In the homily that Dick shared last week, he commented on serving twice monthly at the Catholic Worker house staffing that facility over the dinner hour.  Very honestly, he spoke of not looking forward to this service, but doing it anyway because he knows that we will find Jesus there!  I value his comments so much because they support me when I feel the same way.  I too instinctively know that I must go as well or else I make a sham of ever looking for Jesus any place else, especially here among the love and care and respect of all of you—if I can’t find him there; I shouldn’t expect to find him here, either.
• I read a number of letters-to-the-editor of the National Catholic Reporter this week, probably 2/3 of them in support of the paper’s decision to name Nancy Pelosi, Catholic Newsmaker of the Year. Regardless of where any of us might be politically, I believe it is important to say that what Nancy Pelosi has done to earn this recognition went far beyond party and politics as she is accused of, by some—her actions were about patriotism—upholding the Constitution of this country that says that no one is above the law.  Now of course, everyone doesn’t see it that way and when a person decides, “to shine the light of our brother Jesus in our world, as we all must do if we are to be his followers; we can be certain that we too, as Pelosi, as Jesus, as Paul, may be ridiculed—but we must do it anyway.
• As I prepared for this homily, I took a look at what I wrote 3 years ago at this time as one administration in Washington was ending and another about to begin. Throughout the rhetoric of the previous election year, there was much talk about “making America great again.”  I found myself then, as now, asking, what is not great about working for the weakest among us, securing healthcare for millions of people who had none, standing up for equality in marriage for all those who love each other, protecting the environment through laws that curb abuse, done simply for monetary gain, leading the way in making our world safer from nuclear proliferation, standing up for women in equal pay for equal work and for women’s rights over their own bodies?  All of the above are about “shining our light” as Jesus asks of each of us.

In his final speech to Congress, President Barack Obama challenged each of us to do our part for our country and the same could be said for our Church, and of our families, because all these entities are ours and they will only be as great as we each are great.  At that time, the president’s words were simple–we all need to lace up our shoes, put our feet on the ground and get going!”

I can’t help but reflect on what a different tone this is to so much of what is coming out Washington these days—the hate, the back-biting, the meanness, the smallness, the lies and lack of truth-telling—a tone so much about, “what is best for me,”  so devoid of service toward all the people which should be the guiding force of any and all who would ask to be an elected official of this great nation.

But with each New Year, in both Church and State, there is hope anew, for change. A new year’s letter from a friend had some hope-filled thoughts—here are a few:  walk more—to the library, the post office…go outside, even when it looks gray and cold, eat more vegetables, get more often into that appreciation state of mind, noticing all the things that are genuinely worth appreciating….

Our Church and our brother Jesus, calls us in today’s liturgy as throughout the entire Church Year, “to be lights” in our world, “to touch,” “to be seen with,” “to keep company with,” those we may not want to be with—to see their needs, to hear their stories, to do our parts and in so doing, to make life better for all, including ourselves.  I can still hear Barack Obama’s encouragement to us in that final speech—“Yes we can!”  Amen? Amen!

Dear Friends, below find a homily from Pastor Dick Dahl who stood in for me last Sunday as I was away completing our Christmas celebration with our immediate family. Our gratitude to Pastor Dick for covering for me and for this wonderful homily–and my apologies for my lateness in getting it out to you!–Pastor Kathy

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On New Year’s eve I had the pleasure of being invited to dinner at the home of friends whom I know through the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship. After dinner we watched the movie “The Two Popes.” In it there are flashbacks to 1976 to 1983, when the Argentinian military dictatorship took thousands into custody, tortured, and who “disappeared,” never to be heard from again. During that time our present Pope Francis whose name was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was head of the Jesuits in Buenos Aires. To appease the generals, he told two of his priests to stop working with the poor in the slums but which they refused to do. By his censuring of them, they lost the protection of the Church and were taken into custody and tortured for many months. Bergoglio came to recognize his sin in not standing up for them. He was sent to live and serve among the poor in a small village. In a moving scene when he first arrived to celebrate Mass with them, he sat down in front of them and said, “I have nothing to tell you. I need to listen to what you have to teach me.” The Holy Spirit opened his understanding and his heart to a new awareness as he found Jesus in the poor and the outcasts of society. 

In these first days of a New Year we see Jesus beginning something new–his public life, after three decades of living in obscurity. He entered the water of the Jordan with others to be baptized by John. Despite John’s protestations, Jesus did this to act out his identification with all who are sinners. He then went into the desert for forty days where the Spirit prepared him for his life especially in reaching out to the marginalized—lepers, the sick, the blind, the deaf, the lame, prostitutes, tax collectors, even a Roman soldier whose daughter was dying. 

It is no wonder that early Christians found the Servant songs in Isaiah, such as the one in our first reading today, to be describing Jesus: 

“Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I am pleased. Upon him I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out, nor shout, nor make his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.” 

We find a similar process of new understanding in chapter 10 of the Acts of the Apostles from which we heard a few verses in today’s second reading. It dramatically describes a member of the occupying Roman army whose name was 

Cornelius. He was a centurion who commanded 100 archers in the Italica cohort. Despite this, he is described as a man who prayed constantly and gave alms generously to the Jewish people. The Spirit came to Cornelius in a vision and called him to send some of his men to Joppa, a city by the sea, more than a day’s journey away, to find a man named Simon Peter and to bring that man to him. 

At at the same time the Spirit told Peter in a vision that the Centurion’s men were coming to get him and he was to go willingly with them. When the group finally arrived in Caesaria and came to Cornelius, the centurion fell down in reverence before Peter who immediately told him to get up–that he Peter is a human just like the centurion. Peter then described how God anointed Jesus with the Spirit and power, how Jesus went about doing good and healing the afflicted, how Jesus was put to death nailed to a tree but rose from death and was seen by witnesses who even ate and drank with him. 

While Peter was speaking the Spirit fell on all who were listening. Peter was astounded that the gift of the Spirit had been poured on on these Gentiles. He exclaimed, “I see that God shows no partiality. Rather in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” 

So the readings today powerfully reveal the way God has continued through to bring about change and an ever more inclusive awareness of his presence in and love for all people. The Spirit came upon Jesus and prepared him for his ministry when Jesus emerged from the Jordan. Moved by the Spirit Jesus broke norms of rigidity and by his actions he showed God’s preference for the poor and outcasts. In the same way the Spirit led people in the early Christian community like Peter and Paul to see God in the lives of people different from them. 

Bergoglio was also led by the Spirit to find Christ in the poor, the helpless, the outcasts the imprisoned. As Pope he is now teaching and urging us to do the same—to recognize Jesus in people different from us, to see beyond distinctions of status, culture, politics and religion. In his recent Christmas message Francis denounced rigidity in the Church. He warned that “rigidity” in living one’s faith is creating a “minefield” of hatred and misunderstanding in a world where Christianity is increasingly irrelevant. He declared, “Tradition is not static, it’s dynamic.” 

The Spirit, promised to us by Jesus, enables us to be more open, to recognize him in those who look, think and act differently from what we are comfortable with. I think it is well summed up in a recent daily meditation sent by Father Richard Rohr in which he quotes the thoughts of his friend and colleague Brian McLaren who has spent the last two decades passionately advocating for “a new kind of Christianity.” Brian identifies shifts Christianity must make if it wants to serve as a universal path of spiritual transformation. The first shift is to become “decentralized and diverse.” Brian writes, “In other words, it will have the shape of a movement rather than an institution. It will be drawn together . . . by internal unity of way of life, mission, practices, and vision for the common good. . . . 

“This, of course, was Jesus’ original approach. He never announced to his disciples: ‘Hey folks, we’re going to start a new, centralized, institutional religion and name it after me.’ Instead, he played the role of a nonviolent leader and launched his movement with the classic words of movement, “Follow me” He used his power to empower others. He did great things to inspire his followers to do even greater things Rather than demand uniformity, he reminded his disciples that he had “sheep of other folds” He recruited diverse disciples who learned…his core vision and way of life. Then he sent these disciples out as apostles to teach and multiply his vision and way of life among ‘all the nations’.” 

So, as we proceed in this new year, with the hope it brings, I suggest that like Peter in his meeting with the centurion Cornelius, and Bergoglio’s immersion in the slums of the poor, that we seek to be open to the dynamic presence and enlightening action of the Spirit in our lives. Let us recognize the Jesus in people we consider outsiders, the ones we tend not to identify with, perhaps even people we may in all honesty not like. These are likely the ones we need to humbly approach as Bergoglio did, to learn from and pay attention to. 

Along with a lesbian friend from the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship, I host at Bethany, the Catholic Worker House, twice a month. In all honesty I usually do not look forward to going there for my 3:30 to 8 PM shifts. I go there because it is the place I believe I find Jesus as surely as I would in the tabernacle of a church. 

This past week, one of the men who comes there daily for a meal is in his 70s and looks even older. He has been homeless since last summer and goes to the Warming Center to sleep. The Warming Center doesn’t open until 9 PM and Bethany House closes at 8 PM. So I have given him a ride to McDonalds downtown where for a dollar one can buy a cup of coffee and stay in a warm place for an hour. Several times I have given him the necessary dollar, but this past Wednesday he had some money. He was sharing the few dollars he had dollars with a couple others who also needed to go to McDonalds before the Warming Center opened. One was a woman in her early 40’s who had just been released from five months in jail and knew no one in Winona. The old man not only gave her a dollar, but when it looked like she had no gloves, offered her the warm pair he had. It turned out she did not need them, but I was struck by his generosity. I saw Jesus in him. 

I’d like to close with a prayer for our community that Father Rohr has posted with his meditations this week: 

O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each other’s burdens…. Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our world.. . . Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God, Amen. 

 

With today, as you know, we conclude our official celebration of Christmas time.  Also, with this feast today; we find ourselves in a new year—2020.  I read a piece somewhere relating this New Year to 20-20 vision and as we all know, such vision represents, “seeing quite clearly”—perhaps a wish, a prayer for a new year, a new decade of time!

“Epiphany” is from the Greek meaning, “manifestation” and it refers to the divine coming into humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  Such a coming, as we have heard all of our religious-spiritual lives has the ability of changing the course of history.

One of the wonderful things with a new year is that it gives us a new start—a time to reflect on what has been, what hasn’t been, and what could be in our lives.  A friend sent me a reflection recently that was advocating for all religions going back to their sources, finding what is best there and rather than leaving behind institutions that have failed miserably in living out their founders’ missions, picking up those core beliefs and beginning to live these best principles again.  A worthy cause for a new year—it would seem.

In modern language, “epiphany” means an “aha” moment—coming to a realization, perhaps, of what is needed to make a situation, an institution—our world, in fact— better.  It would seem our world is in need, now, of some “aha” moments!

There must have been something wonderful that the Magi, astrologers from the east saw when they encountered the baby and his parents in Bethlehem to enable them to first of all, recognize the child as someone special in his poverty and simplicity and then to be able to go back to their own country and share the wonder with others of what they had experienced in a stable so far from home.

These kings, in their own right, went in search of a king, following a star by day and night, for several months, we are told, and discovered that to be a king is really more about “how” one behaves as a king than “who” they ultimately are.  Would that those who lead us now in church and state could wrap their minds and hearts around that concept!

These kings, that we celebrate today, going in search of a king were at first surprised to find the object of their long search in such surroundings, but something about what they experienced was indeed, for them, an “aha” moment.  So profound was their experience that they knew what they must do.  If this were not so; we wouldn’t be talking about these kings today!

So for us friends; what can be our takeaways from this feast?  The prophet Isaiah is clear about what must be done—we are to, “arise” and “shine,” for our “light has come,” he says.  Exegete Diane Bergant says that this demands a two-fold action from us.  First, that we take notice (arise), but then this action requires another action, that we, “shine.”

To me this says that we must take notice of how our loving God chose to come into our existence—not in glory, but in poverty—not with a great deal of notoriety, but in simplicity.  This reminds me of one of the years when I was working as a chaplain at our local hospital and our pastoral care department was looking for a nativity set for our chapel.  The gift shop had a set that depicted not just the 3 Kings, but Mary, Joseph and the baby in royal, golden robes and to me, it was just, all wrong!

Even the Magi didn’t know what they were looking for and foolishly went searching for answers from the only person who would see Jesus’ birth not as a blessing, but as a rival to his throne.  But those who have written at any length about the ultimate finding of the long-awaited child say that “the place” of his birth was not what they expected, but upon seeing him there with his parents realized, “the rightness” of the place and the circumstances of his birth—not in glory, but in poverty.

Why is it, do you think, that we as humans need to rewrite this beautiful Christmas story about a God who loved us so much as to become one-with-us, to help us then to  become our best selves—“shepherding,” as it were, all the people who are in need just like Jesus ultimately did throughout his life?  Is this call just too hard for us?—making sure that the basics of this world are there for everyone, instead of just a few? Why is it that so many of our mainline churches just don’t have the following that they once did?  Could it be that too many of them, especially for us, the Christian ones, very seldom proclaim the message of Jesus?  Has their message become too much about the rules and regulations, devoid of love, with too little understanding of peoples’ true needs with little willingness to grow and change as times change?  For a good study in this, the film, The Two Popes, depicting the relationship between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis is a good watch.

The beauty of the Christmas story is found in its simplicity—if we can look there and see how our God chose to become one-with-us.  This signals then, how we, as Jesus’ followers, must move in our world and if we can do this, then Christmas will have worked its magic on us! It was this simple, yet profound message that the Kings from the east discovered in Bethlehem and which they got, by the way, knowing that it was a message that they could carry home and to every place that their lives would lead them.

The God of us all chose to come simply so as not to give the wrong message—it is not about status, “who we are,” or think we are, but about, “how” we are in this world—how we share, care and ultimately, love!  Again, The Two Popes is a good look at that.

The other profound challenge of this feast of the Epiphany is, “to get out of the box,” in our religious thinking!  The Jews mistakenly thought that the Messiah was for them alone and it is this feast that calls the lie to this idea!

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians today basically tells us, that, “the Gentiles,”—translation, “all of us,” are heirs of this great act of love. And it is for this reason that the Interfaith Council of Winona is of such interest to me—demanding that each of us from our different religious backgrounds break out of our small boxes of belief and see what we share in common for the good of all.  Present day writers like Diamuid O’Murcho and Franciscans, Ilia Delio and Richard Rohr call us to this type of thinking in their writings on the “Cosmic Christ.”

So my friends, on this feast of the Epiphany, my prayer for each of us is that we open our eyes, ears and hearts to bigger concepts than we have perhaps dared to think about before—that we would have some a-ha moments in this New Year, 2020, reaching out to those things that include, that heal, that spread the best of all the religious underpinnings in all of us—basically, love for our world, and for its people! Amen? Amen!