Epiphany

1993 (Year A) 3 January / Christmas 2

St Peter de Beauvoir Town

A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.

The beginning of the poem, Journey of the Magi, whose arrival was retold in the gospel this morning and who traditionally arrive with Jesus, on Wednesday, at the feast of the 
Epiphany. For us it’s a very half-hearted affair, a bit of an appendage, as we all grind to a 
halt after Christmas, but for millions of Christians, particularly in the east, the feast is much more important than Christmas. It’s a feast which Robert and his family will remember with fondness now – they will recall his baptism.

The story is as compelling as the birth with the added dimension or urgency, ‘Where is the 
baby born to be king of the Jews?’ these men ask, ‘We saw his star when it came up in the 
East, and we’ve come to worship him.’ They’d set off, not knowing where they were going, 
or what they would find. Led by a star, driven by a desire to worship a new king and offer 
him gifts. They travelled to a country they didn’t know, to a people who proved in the end 
inhospitable. The light led them on. Perhaps it was the worst time of year for such a 
journey, but they were determined. Urgency encouraged them. Urgency, which the years 
passes us by. We are much more relaxed about the King sent by God than these strange men.

Being relaxed wouldn’t do for them. They set off to find a king, to discover him and his 
kingdom, to worship and adore him their only aim. And being relaxed wouldn’t do for the 
king they sought. He was later to praise those who hurried off to stake all they had to 
possess the one thing they wanted. He said that people like that would possess his kingdom. Be watchful he said. The Kingdom may come as a thief in the night, at a time you do not know or expect. Urgency.

Urgency, maybe it’s our thought and our aim, at least in our more pious moments and I 
guess our hope is to see the Kingdom. But our expectations are different. They expected to see Jesus, the King, at their journey’s end, to touch him, to be with him. And the end of the journey was in the foreseeable future. Unhelpful people might be obstructive, but they 
could be used and then forgotten. Long distances might have to be covered but they 
surmountable with effort. They expected to be able to worship a king. They expected to see him, commune with and him offer him gifts.

A famous, fairly modern play has two tramps waiting for Godot, but Godot never comes. They wait and wait again but he never appears. The play is a parable for us. Most of the time we behave as if we’re living in hope rather than expectation. And so we wait and wait.

Complete fulfilment is always in the future and always a little out of reach. God is always waiting to be born we never realise he is Emanuel, God with us. I think the truth is that most of the time we never expect to see him.

But urgency and expectation are what this season is about, even if they are difficult to 
sustain - after two thousand years. They are the truth of Christmas. I hope that they are 
things which Robert is encouraged to learn from his parents and god-parents as he begins 
his own journey today. They are necessary for us all for we need to realise again that we 
are living in the time of Jesus. He is our contemporary. We aren’t still waiting for him to be 
born, or to come sometime in the future. We are like magi, who expect to see him, expect 
to be able to worship him and adore him. We, like them have our gifts to offer. If these 
really are our expectations it all becomes very urgency indeed. Every relationship become 
special – our king is sitting next to us now. He is walking down the street towards us when 
we leave church this morning. He is the one waiting to be served at our work and in our 
school.

The magi knew this to be true, at least according to the poem that I started with this 
morning for their encounter with him changed the rest of their lives.

We returned to our places, these kingdoms
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation
With alien people clutching their Gods

Once the light has shone and enlivened those with eyes to see, they are no longer the same. They are no longer at ease. Things have changed. The magi knew they had. May the peace of God which entered the world at Christmas make Robert and the rest of us so uneasy that we continue our journeys in the expectation of meeting our king. AMEN