January 6 is the festival of the Epiphany. Unfortunately, January 6 now has other associations. Power, tyranny, uprising, violence.
Epiphany is a joyful feast. The infant Jesus is revealed to the nations. Represented by the Magi who come from the East to offer worship. Arise, shine, for your light has come, writes the prophet Isaiah. Light for all the world. Salvation for all nations. Hope for all people.
We love Epiphany at Holy Trinity. Children carry stars-on-sticks. Magi in costume process. We sing beloved carols.
Yet there are other associations, too. An unsteady tyrant king threatened by the birth of a baby. Known for his ruthless appetite for cruelty, domination and violence, Herod kills all the infants under two near Bethlehem.
This baby, this Christ, will be scorned, rejected, and crucified. Even in the birth stories Jesus’ death is foreshadowed. Consider the gifts. Gold for a king, incense for a priest, and myrrh for one who will suffer and die.
Some of our carols name the harsh realities of life into which Jesus is born. The world in which we too live. “Nails, nails shall pierce him through, the cross be borne for me, for you.” And the lovely hymn, “A stable lamp is lighted” juxtaposes the bright glow of the barn where Jesus was born with the evil rampant in the world. “Hearts made hard by sin, God’s love upon the spearhead, God’s love refused again.”
Being warned in a dream to go home another way, the Magi likely save the life of Jesus. By refusing to obey Herod they engage in an act of divinely inspired disobedience.
Today is also the feast of Jesus’ baptism. In the early church Epiphany marked three revelations of Jesus: to the Magi and all nations, at his baptism, and in his miracle of turning water to wine.
Today we have the joy of celebrating the sacrament of baptism. We are named “child of God.” But there are other associations. We are marked with a cross. We stand against all forms of domination, violence, and greed. Like the Magi, we are called to be courageous and bold as we work for justice and peace in all the earth.
