A sermon preached by the Reverend Sarah Grondin at St. Jude’s Anglican Church, on Sunday January 5th, 2025 on the feast of Epiphany.
I speak to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Happy New Year! (again) Although I suspect this time most of you were expecting that. We’ve flipped our “Gregorian” calendars from 2024 to 2025, and for the next month or so, many of us will have no idea what year it is, as we try to make the mental switch to one year onward.
The start of a new year often causes us to do two things… to look back at the year just ended, at the victories and trials, the highs and lows; and to look ahead to the possibilities of what the new year might hold. We might make resolutions to improve our health, to improve our relationships, we might think of ways to get that promotion at work, or to better balance our finances.
And sometimes, the thing we long for most at the start of a new year is simply a fresh start. A chance to do things differently, to start with a clean slate, to begin again.
But whether we have specific resolutions or simply a desire to do things differently this year, this future-forward dreaming awakens a longing inside us. We want something different because something is missing. We feel an absence of sorts in our lives… there’s something that we’re searching for, something that we’re longing for, something that we don’t currently have.
This feeling of longing rarely comes on its own however… it’s often accompanied by fear, the fear of missing out, the fear of losing a part of ourselves, and the fear of not living up to our full potentials. Much of our time as humans is spent between these poles of longing and fear, sometimes we’re caught in the middle, and sometimes we find ourselves pulled back and forth.
Now you might be starting to wonder what has longing and fear got to do with Epiphany? The simple answer is everything. But since I doubt I could get away with that as my whole sermon, I’ll give you a more specific answer as well.
Our Gospel reading today from Matthew is all about longing and fear, and Matthew tells us that it’s in between these two things that we find epiphany. Longing and fear are the bookends of epiphany.
On the one side: the side of longing, we have the wise men. These Magi came from the East following a star that they’d never seen before, all the way to Judea to find out what it meant.
They left their country and all that was familiar to them because of their longing to find something new, maybe even something unexpected. They didn’t know where the star would take them, but they felt compelled to follow it anyway.
Now, the study of astrology played a big role in the ancient world because the stars and heavenly bodies were steady in their courses, giving a feeling of order to an otherwise pretty chaotic universe.
So when some unexpected astrological event happened, it’s not really surprising that people believed this was God was breaking into the world to make some news known.
There were rumblings in both the Gentile and Jewish worlds around this time that something big was going to happen politically, and it would be centred in Judea. And in both pagan politics, and Jewish messianic prophecy, stars had a very special significance. The sudden appearance of one could have world altering consequences.
On the other side: the side of fear, we have Herod. Matthew tells us that Herod was frightened and all of Jerusalem with him. Herod was king of Galilee and Judea, appointed by the Roman Senate.
And these rumors of a new king were bad news… Another King? Herod might lose his power and privilege, he might end up losing his wealth and all that he had accomplished.
When Herod hears about this new so-called king, he calls the chief priests and scribes to him, to ask them about where the Messiah is to be born. Herod needs information. But unlike the wise men, he doesn’t want to travel to get it. He stays put, clinging onto the familiar and the known, and he makes others come to him. Fear can be paralyzing.
Both the wise men and Herod were responding to the same call: the birth of a child. But the way they respond is completely different. The wise men are open to something new, something exciting, something unknown. They travel in search of truth and beauty, bringing expensive gifts to offer this new King.
Herod is challenged by anything that would disrupt his life. He’s afraid and he wants to cling onto the way things are. He doesn’t want change, and he certainly doesn’t take any joy in knowing that another King has been born.
Longing and fear.
Both the wise men and Herod’s actions are because of the birth of a child. Both were an epiphany, though not in the way we’ve come to think about the word epiphany.
When I hear the word epiphany, the first image that pops into my head is some old philosopher with a thought bubble over his head that has a picture of a light-bulb clicking on, and he’s shouting “Eureka!”
Maybe you have a similar image that comes to mind when you hear the word epiphany… or maybe I just watched too many cartoons as a child.
In any case, I don’t think that’s the way our Gospel wants us to think of the word epiphany. If we think about epiphany as being bookended by longing and fear, than we’re challenged to think about epiphany in a different way.
Both the positions of longing and of fear, have something to offer us, something to teach us. And both are seeking a response from us. That’s what epiphanies do. They give us a glimpse of ourselves, our life, our world, and then they call for and ask for a response. That response is what distinguishes the wise men from Herod.
The difference isn’t that epiphany happened for the wise men but not Herod. The difference is that the wise men observed and followed the star, presented the King with their gifts, and went home “by another road,” … and Herod did not.
It might be easy for us to say, well obviously Herod chose poorly…. But it’s more complicated than that, because I believe that both the wisemen and Herod live within each of us. We’ve all been presented with the epiphany that is the birth of the Christ-Child, and each of us needs to look deep inside ourselves to acknowledge both the longing and the fear that are present.
And in all this searching something is being revealed to us, and something is being asked of us. Epiphany calls us to the side of the manger, and asks us to travel home “by another road.” A road that leads to courage, beauty, forgiveness, love, and so much more!
It asks us to travel home “by another road” that leads to overcoming our fear in order to fulfill that deepest sense of longing within us.
For several years I attended an annual New Year’s retreat at the Sisters of Saint John the Divine convent in Toronto. It was such a peaceful way to ring in the New Year. One of the things they always had us do was to select a mystery piece of paper. On the paper there were two things. There was a random word and Saint’s name.
The word was something that we were supposed to carry with us throughout the year and think about its implications and applications in our lives. A word to pray about. A word to practice. A word to ponder.
I found this an incredibly helpful way to add some intention to the year that lay before me. Perhaps they were a mini epiphany… they placed a call on us and asked for a response. You might say that these words we selected helped us to go home “by another road.” To choose the path of seeking what we long for most…
At the back of the church there’s a basket that contains folded pieces of paper. On each of those pieces of paper there is a single word, and there are no duplicates. I encourage each of you to take one at random to travel with you throughout the year.
To travel with you as you contemplate whether to choose the road that seeks to fulfill your deepest sense of longing, or the road that would keep you cowering in fear because you know the birth of this new born king will turn the world upside down.
Longing and fear are the bookends of epiphany. We’ve all been called to the side of the manger, where we go from there is up to us. Epiphany calls us… and epiphany asks for a response. Now it’s up to you….what will your response be?
I pray that we all might choose the life-giving way that satisfies our deepest longing--that we all might go home "by another road." Amen.
