January 6th was Epiphany. Epiphany is always on the 6th of January, so it doesn't move around from year to year. It is the culmination of the "Twelve days of Christmas." As far as lectionary readings go, Epiphany is the day we read the story of the wise men visiting Jesus and Mary and Joseph in the Gospel of Matthew. Epiphany is a word which means "a revelation to." In the story of the wise men, Jesus is revealed to us to be: the king of the Jews, the Messiah, a ruler who is to shepherd God's people, Israel. Because of the star that led the wise men to him, we think of Epiphany as revealing to us that Jesus is the light coming into the world. Because of the gifts the magi brought, we think of Epiphany as revealing Jesus to us as King and God and sacrifice. Epiphany is sometimes called a season, but it's really just a single day--and not necessarily a Sunday at that. The season following Epiphany is what's called ordinary time, a series of Sundays measured from Epiphany, but not a season called Epiphany. "Ordinary," here means "ordered," as in counted in order from Epiphany; every Sunday is extraordinary to us, as every Sunday is a celebration of the day of Christ's resurrection.
The next real season on the liturgical calendar is Lent. Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, 40 days (not counting Sundays) before Easter. This year, Ash Wednesday is March 5th. We at First Presbyterian and the congregation of the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will be joining the First United Methodist Church for an Ash Wednesday Service at 6:00pm. This service features the imposition of ashes. Rev. Dr. Jay Pi, and Pastor Elaine Howsley, and myself will mark your forehead or your hand with a cross drawn with ashes. Traditionally, these ashes are created by burning the palm leaves from Palm Sunday the year before. The point is to remind us of our mortality: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." This kicks off the season of Lent when we examine ourselves and identify parts of our lives where we need to repent of our wrong and strengthen our good and find ways to be better disciples.
Before we get to Lent, though there's one last word to hear from the Sundays of Ordinary Time after Epiphany. The last Sunday before Lent is Transfiguration Sunday, when Jesus and some disciples go up a mountain, and Jesus' face and clothes are transformed into dazzling white light. Elijah and Moses appear, and in Luke, they "appeared in glory and were speaking about his exodus, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem." We've been saying that the Gospel of Luke is all about Jesus fulfilling prophecy. Here on the mountain of transfiguration are Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets, talking about Jesus fulfilling "his exodus," the way he is supposed to leave the world, in Jerusalem.
The profound thing about the transfiguration is that this, also, is an epiphany. In the dazzling white light, we get a glimpse of Jesus revealed to us in his true form. It is as though he is walking this earth in a body that does not conform to his true identity, and for a moment we see that he is really divine light incarnate. We thought the star the magi followed represented the divine light coming into the world, but here on the mount of transfiguration it's here, not way up in the sky, and it's so much more than we could have imagined.
That sounds a little like the Docetic heresy of the 2nd- and 3rd-centuries, which argued that Jesus was not fully human. Docetism was finally fully rejected by the Nicene creed. I'm not going that far. What I'm saying is more like Jesus' humanity hid his divinity, and on the mount of transfiguration, his fully human and fully divine nature could be seen fully . . . for a moment.
Actually, even that is still overstating it. The truth is that we can't comprehend Jesus' fully human and fully divine nature in our mortal minds made of dust. We can't comprehend it; the "eyewitnesses to his majesty" who were with him can't comprehend it; if the magi were there, they would not be able to comprehend it; . . . and so God explains it and makes it explicit: "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" Jesus is revealed to us not just as a ruler and a shepherd, but as a Son--as God's Son. To describe Jesus as an ephemeral spirit or as a bunch of light waves, to describe Jesus as a human or a bunch of flesh and bones, even to describe Jesus as a fully human and fully divine paradox--all of these miss the point. God describes Jesus' true essence: "This is my Son."
And what are we to do with that? As we go into Lent examining ourselves in penitence and seeking to be better disciples, how should this help us? There are two things: The first is about this epiphany of who Jesus is. Knowing that Jesus' main identity is as the Son of God and the Chosen of God, how does that change how we live our lives as disciples? It's relational. It's about love of the Son. As we encounter people while we live our lives of discipleship, we should treat them as beloved daughters or sons. There is nothing they can do to make God stop loving them. There is nothing they can do to make us stop loving them, if we're being good disciples. When they hurt, we hurt in the depths of our souls. This is what the Son of God taught us. This is how the Son of God fulfilled scripture in his very being. He put on a towel and served us and told us to do the same. He wished for us the peace of God and told us to do the same to others. He fed us and told us to feed his sheep. He loved us and commanded us to love one another in the same way.
Second is the epiphany about what God said we should do with all this. "This is my Son, the Chosen; listen to him!" What are we supposed to do? Listen to Jesus. How can we be better disciples? by listening to Jesus. How are we to live? in accordance with what we hear from Jesus: serve, bless, feed, make peace, and love one another. That's the last word before Lent. Listen to him!
Blessings,
--Chas
Comments