Y’all…..

Do y’all get as tired as I do of the back and forth between conservative and liberal, Democrat and Republican, right vs. left, this religious denomination vs. that religious denomination back and forth, my way or the highway babble that goes on and on and on and on, ad infinitum? 

Sometimes I just wanna scream STOP It!  Other times it’s a quiet “Why can’t we all just get along?”  More recently, my thoughts have been, “What the hell is wrong with you?”  I find it exhausting, this push and pull and continuous descension, and I find myself wondering, “What if?  Why?   How can we stop this madness?”

Well, Imma tell ya.  We can’t.  We simply can’t stop folks from doing what they’re gonna do and being who they’ve shown to us they actually are.  But, as he so often did, Jesus gives us a bit of direction that we can apply here.  In Matthew 10, often called “The Great Commission,”  Jesus is telling the twelve disciples what’s up, just how they’re supposed to proceed with the “actually being disciples thing,” and what they can expect.  And in the middle of this oral handbook he’s delivering, he includes this little zinger:  “Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.”  To put a more modern spin on it, in the film “Frozen,” Elsa sings, “Let It Go.”

Along those lines, a dear friend of mine sent me an article this week in which the “Let Them” theory is explained.  He summed it up like this: 

I used to tolerate a lot because I didn’t want to lose people.  But I learned the hard way if they were really my people, they would never treat me poorly.  Don’t make the mistake of being so understanding and forgiving that you overlook the fact that you’re being repeatedly disrespected.  Let them be upset. Let them judge you. Let them misunderstand you. Let them gossip about you, let them ignore you. Let them be “right.” Let them doubt you. Let them not like you. Let them not speak to you. Let them run your name in the ground. Let them make you out to be the villain.  Whatever it is that people want to say about you, let them! Kindly step aside and LET THEM.  You can still be kind. You can even still love them deeply. But do it from the distance they created with their words and actions. Access to you is a privilege they have proven they can’t be trusted with. Let them go.

Now, having said all that, what are we left with?  In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus tells us to make sure that we are the folks who need to “Let them go,” rather than being the folks who are let go:  Jesus told his disciples a parable.

“Can a blind person guide a blind person?  Will not both fall into a pit?  No disciple is superior to the teacher;  but when fully trained,  every disciple will be like his teacher.  Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?  How can you say to your brother,  ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’  when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?  You hypocrite!  Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;  then you will see clearly  to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.  “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,  nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.  For every tree is known by its own fruit.  For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,  nor do they gather grapes from brambles.  A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,  but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;  for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”

So the bottom line here is, much like Glenda asking Dorothy, “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?”    Are you letting go, or are you being let go?  What kind of fruit are we bearing?  Are we being Jesus for folks?  Are we acting in love?  Coz love is what Jesus teaches us we are supposed to do.  Again from Matthew:  When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Notice there is no mention of race, gender identity, sexuality, citizenship or immigrant, religious preference or lack thereof, gender expression, or anything else that we today use to separate us into an “us versus them” mentality.  Nothing except acting in love.   There it is.  Are you gonna be ‘let go’ like a goat, or loved like a sheep? 

John Bell has written the hymn, “The Summons.”

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?

Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?

Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my Name be known?

Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Will you leave your self behind if I but call your name?

Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?

Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?

Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?

Will you set the prisoner free and never be the same?

Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen?

And admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

Will you love the ‘You’ you hide if I but call your name?

Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?

Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around

through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

Christ, your summons echoes true when you but call my name.

Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.

In your company I’ll go where your love and footsteps show,

thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me?

Love God.  Love people.  Act accordingly.  Amen.

Y’all….all few things……
Way, WAY back when I was but a teeny lad in the nursery and kindergarten at church, we were taught a song:  Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world…..

So yeah.  ALL the children of the world.  Now, Mr. Webster, that brilliant purveyor of dictionaries, defines “all” as this:  “including everyone or everything without exception.”

And, Mr. Webster, in his brilliance, defines “the world” as:  “the earth, together with all of its countries, peoples, and natural features.”

Ya put these two together, and there is a whole lot of loving we have to do.  Reckon wonder how do we do that?  Especially in today’s tumultuous world.  Funny thing, tho.  We have an answer for that.  It’s not often that I quote directly from the Scriptures, but today?  Yeah, Imma do that, coz today we have the answer for our “how do we do that” question straight from the mouth of Jesus:

Jesus said to his disciples:

“To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic.

Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.  For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners do the same.

If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount.

But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.  Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.  Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.  For the  measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”  Luke 6:27-38

I’d say, based on this little nugget of scripture, we all of us, every single solitary one of us, has some work to do.  Ya see, it seems to me that we let things divide us, we let our differences get in the way of what matters, and we, selfishly, want things to go our way and in doing so, we step on and over folks, and sometimes we just wanna knock them out of our way.  But ya know what?  Paul teaches us in Galatians that,  “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”.  (Galatians 3:28)  And again in Colossians, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”  (Colossians 3:11) 

Oops?  If this is the case, then we have some work to do.  Y’all are smart enough to figure out how to apply what Jesus has said to your own lives without me telling ya, and you can certainly figure out what Paul was saying on your own.  The trick here is to actually apply it.  To live it.

Like I just said, we, all of us, have some work to do.

Amen.

Nobody wants suffering, loneliness, or illness. Various professionals and individuals, regardless of their beliefs, strive to eliminate these problems. The gospels depict Jesus as a healer who cures people and alleviates their burdens, highlighting the importance of a savior who makes a practical difference.

So, in the story told in today’s passage from Luke’s gospel, a crowd of people was following Jesus, a man who had a reputation for being able to heal people’s illnesses and take away their problems. They came from all over the place looking for help, practical help. And what did they get? A sermon!

That probably sounds all too familiar for many people who have approached religious groups for help. And the sermon or the talking-to that they have to listen to is often about what they must have done wrong to deserve all that has been happening to them. People suggest, for example, that AIDS is a punishment from God for a lifestyle they can’t approve of, or that poverty is the product of laziness and so on.

But that is not the line that Jesus takes. He starts his sermon by saying, ‘Blessed are you poor…, blessed are you that are hungry…’ Now the word that is usually translated as ‘blessed’ or ‘happy’ doesn’t mean the sort of happiness you might experience at a good party. It comes originally from a word that describes the straight flight of an arrow. I think the best translation of it would be ‘on the right track’. So, Jesus is not saying you’ve done something wrong if you’re poor or hungry or are bullied and so on. Quite the opposite: you’re probably on the right track if things like that are happening to you. I don’t think he’s suggesting that suffering of any kind is a good thing or that you’ve got to go looking for it. It’s a message of encouragement. Problems come along to everyone, but when things do go wrong it doesn’t mean it’s your fault, God hasn’t given up on you.

The sermon goes on to give some guidance about how to cope with life in general. It’s all based around an idea of love. It is a kind of love that is free and generous. It’s a matter of trying to respond well even when people are unkind to us; trying to heal damaged situations by forgiveness where that’s possible; trying to improve our own reactions instead of just being critical of what other people are doing. It gives a whole framework for life. Nothing in the sermon comes across as being superficial or easy. Trying to be as open to people as it suggests means being prepared to allow ourselves to be very vulnerable. We are going to be hurt, we are going to be taken advantage of. But, says Jesus, when that happens, we are probably on the right track.

Maybe it is because so many people were following him, expecting him to take their problems away, that Jesus put the question back to them in the sermon. He was suggesting that they could free themselves from the weight of carrying around too much guilt for everything. They could give some shape to their lives by taking on board some of the ideals that he was presenting. They could heal their own lives without necessarily having their illnesses or their problems taken away from them.

The miracles of healing that we hear about in the gospels and elsewhere are spectacular, even if they do seem a bit out of reach. But the sermon is more practical, more possible. Thank God we can still rely on healing in various forms, some more or less miraculous, but there’s something just as important and more within the reach of everyone. To be able to love and accept ourselves, to give someone else the support of love and maybe some guidance if it is needed, even to be able to make someone feel better about themselves, is to bring a kind of healing that is very real and very important. It may not be spectacular, but it can still be a miracle.

Way back when, when I was but a wee lad, one of the most exciting things in the world was when my papaw would take my brother and I fishing.  We’d go about a mile from Papaw’s house to a wide spot in the creek, and spend many happy hours catching sunfish and then letting them go.  Or we would spend a short time catching nothing because my little brother insisted on throwing rocks into the creek, scaring the fish away, but that was a good time, too.  Anyway, the point of the whole thing is, we went fishing, for the fun of it.

Now, way, way, way back when folks didn’t just “fish for the fun of it,” they had to fish to actually earn a living and just to have something to eat.  Or so it was with Simon, and his buds, James and John.  Now, I don’t know if any of them had little brothers who were wont to throw rocks into the sea and scare the fish away, but on this particular day, no matter how much they fished, they caught nothing.  Bummer.  So they packed up their nets, returned to the shore and started to clean up their stuff so they could try again the next day.

Now, not too far away from there, there was a crowd of folks listening to this new preacher dude, who apparently was pretty great.  So great in fact that the crowd started pressing in on him so to get closer to him.  Since the preacher dude didn’t have a security team at the time, and being the observant type, he took a short break and trotted down the beach to our guys, Simon, James, and John, and asked them to row him out a bit so he could continue his preaching gig, and not be trampled in the process.  So they did.

Now, after preacher dude was done dispensing his words of wisdom, my guess is he was kinda hungry and asked our guys to catch him a fish.  And nope.  They told Jesus, who was the preacher dude (but you already knew that, didn’t ya?) that they hadn’t caught anything all night long.  And Jesus said, “Try again, only lemme help ya a bit.”  And so they did.  And hoo-whee.  They caught them a heap of fish!  So much so that they had to ask for help to get their haul back to shore.

Because of all of this, Simon recognized Jesus as being more than just a preacher dude, and was pretty tripped out.  He told Jesus he wasn’t good enough to hang around with Jesus, and Jesus told him, “Dude.  Stick with me, and I will have you catching men.”  I can imagine that our guys, Simon, James, and John, were even more freaked out, but they left everything and followed Jesus.  (Luke 5:1-11)

Kewl story, huh?  So, you ask, what does that have to do with us?  Imma tell ya.  In the past few weeks, how many of us have said/posted/read/agreed with things that would most definitely not be considered Christ-like?   How many of us have let our personal political beliefs get in the way of acting like the “little Christ” we are called to be?  Sure we can disagree, often vehemently, but under no circumstances can we allow ourselves to allow those differences of opinions to get in the way of our witness for our Lord.  (You gotta remember that even Peter and Paul argued, but they didn’t let that stand in the way of building Christ’s Kingdom.)

Let us not forget that in many cases, we are the only Bibles that many folks will ever read, and we are the only Jesus that some folks will ever see.  It is up to us to see the Jesus in everyone, regardless of political belief, race, creed, color, sexual orientation, whether we cheer for the Chiefs or for the Eagles, or anything thing else that can be used to divide us.  We are all of us HIS people, the sheep of HIS pasture, and we have far more in common than we do the things that divide us, if we truly identify as HIS.

As Christians, have we lost our focus of what is truly important?  Regardless of politics, of whether we are ‘blue’ or ‘red’ or ‘rainbow,’ we are to remain focused on the one thing that really matters in this world and the next:  Spreading and sharing the love of and for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  No matter who sits in the Oval Office, our job, our mission, our focus, has not changed and will not change:  We are called to love and to serve the Lord with gladness and singleness of heart.  We are called to care for each other, regardless of our politics.  We are commanded to ‘bless those who persecute us’ and we are called to ‘pray for our enemies.’  We are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless. (Matthew 25:31-46).    It is up to each of us to conduct ourselves in a manner fitting our faith.   Look at what you say.  Look at what you post.  If you were accused of being a Christian, would your timeline bear witness to the fact?  

What are you doing to actually become a “fisher of men?”  Does what you say or do truly make folks want to come to Jesus?   In the movie “Sister Act” the nuns sing another song that we’re all familiar with.  “I Will Follow Him.” 

“I must follow him, ever since he touched my hand I knew that near him I always must be And nothing can keep him from me He is my destiny.” (Songwriters: Arthur Altman / Franck Pourcel / Jacques Plante / Norman Gimbel / Paul Mauriat)

So, having said all of the above, shouldn’t we, like the nuns, like Simon Peter and James and John actually do what we are called to do?

Follow Him.  In EVERY word that we speak.  Follow Him.  In EVERY post that we make.  Follow Him.  In EVERY action we take.  Follow Him.  Amen.

Well, y’all, Christmas is over.   Officially.   And before you start to think that I’ve finally lost my mind, lemme tell ya what I mean.  Today, 2 February, is the 40^th day of the liturgical Christmas/Epiphany season, and marks the presentation of Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem and the purification of Mary.  Way back then, and in many instances still today,   40 days after giving birth to a son is when a mother was blessed and gave thanks for safely making it through childbirth. This was called “purification.”  It was less about a mother being somehow impure and more about giving thanks and giving time for recovery from birth.

Today is the day that Jesus was presented in the temple. According to the law of Moses, presenting the firstborn male as an offering to God was done for all livestock animals. This was to remember and give thanks to God for delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt. The final plague in Egypt was the death of the firstborn, but the Israelites were saved at that first Passover with the sacrifice of a lamb. A firstborn son is dedicated to God and redeemed at the temple 40 days after birth with an offering.

Now, at the temple lived a priest who was very, very old.  His name was Simeon and he was very, very faithful to God, and God had told Simeon that he would not die before he had been able to meet the Savior.  Well, lo and behold, when Mary and Joseph got to the temple, Simeon KNEW that Jesus was the Savior he had been waiting a very, very long time to meet.  The Gospel according to St Luke tell us that Simeon took the baby into his arms and blessed God, saying: 

 “Now, Master, you may let your servant go 
        in peace, according to your word,
    for my eyes have seen your salvation,
        which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
    a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
        and glory for your people Israel.”

Well, you can imagine that Mary and Joseph were kinda tripped out, especially when Simeon continued to Mary:

“Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
-and you yourself a sword will pierce-
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Great story, huh?  But, you ask, “What in the world does this have to do with us today?”  Well, as is my custom, I’m gonna tell ya.  We all of us know that that baby that Simeon was very, very excited about grew up and, indeed, became the “light for revelation to the Gentiles,” and whilst he was at it, he gave us some very, very specific instructions.  He told us, no, commanded us, to go into the world and preach the gospel.  And reckon wonder how do we do that?  Jesus told us how to do that, too.  He told us, no, commanded us, to love.  Period.  He even said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)   

Now, you’ll notice that the scripture says, by this everyone will know that you are my DISCIPLES.  Today, there are SO SO SO many folks who claim to be “Christian,” but are nowhere near to being a “disciple.”   What’s the difference, you may ask?  My friend, Rainbow Joseph, explained it best when he wrote:

“You were called by Christ to be a disciple, not a Christian.  A disciple is an apprentice. A disciple learns from a teacher how to be like the teacher. A disciple learns by doing. A disciple practices the skill that is learned, over and over, improving a little more each day.  Jesus THE Christ has called you to be a christ to those around in your own personal Israel.  If you are not the Christ to those around you, then you do not serve THE Christ and you have learned nothing.  If you are not the Christ to those around you, then you are not a disciple, and if not a disciple, you are certainly not a Christian.”

Period.  Hands down.  Those who claim to be Christians, and who are not disciples, do a disservice to the gospel message by watering down his message to one of religious platitudes. We like to generalize the words of Jesus and transform his life into a one-size-fits-all model that can apply to all of humanity.  He intentionally, purposefully, and passionately addressed very specific causes. He radically addressed the diverse and complicated conflicts of the time and shattered the status quo.  Are we, as Christians, not called to do the same?  By addressing racism, immigration, gender equality, and a litany of other issues, we are following in the steps of Jesus.  By remembering that there is not one person on this planet that God does not love, that Jesus did not die for, and acting with that love that Jesus talks about, we are disciples.  By working for the change that would better the entire world, and each individual, we are disciples.  By asking for mercy, working toward that mercy, by loving those who are oppressed, by loving those who are hard to love, those who are opposed to everything that we (not necessarily Jesus) want, we are disciples.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)  

Amen.

In an era filled with trivial chatter, where tweets broadcast mundane activities, politicians lie without shame, and words like justice, love, and God are diluted by arrogance, we forget the power of words.

We mistrust each other and settle for superficial interactions, avoiding the risk of genuine loving. We distract ourselves with busyness, ignoring others’ needs. Words can deceive us, trapping us in falsehoods. The lie that deceived humanity continues to mislead us today. Our modern arrogance claims we can control the world with science and ingenuity. Are we smarter than Jesus?

Even in our pride, we know something is amiss. We yearn for eternal words full of meaning, spirit, and life—to hear them, break free from our falsehoods. The 5,000 who journeyed with Ezra from captivity heard the sweet truth, felt God’s word pierce their hearts, making them weep and washing away the lies that bound them.

Centuries later, people who heard the voice of a young man reading from the scroll likely desired freedom. The act of Christ reading the prophet’s text may have held significant power. His audience was attentive to his words. In the modern age, are people, are you still interested in hearing the words of the Galilean preacher. Every Sunday they are read and yet I see people not listening, they may hear but there is a difference,

Our emotions are similar to those who mourned with Ezra or experienced renewal through Christ. We want to cleanse falsehoods with our tears, but language fails us. Thus, we must rely on faith to lead us to the living Word.

St Paul sensed this reality, this consoling Gospel, and although his words at first seem mundane, they speak to us of a reality that breaks the chains of self-centered isolation and draws us into relation with one another. Listen without distraction! By Baptism and the Eucharist that we share, the Body of Christ speaks of our solidarity, our call to play an integral part in one another’s lives. It is the lie of this age that tells us that I am my own master, that the ego is absolute. We will never be free, never find true happiness locked as we are in the isolation of our self-absorption. No matter how many gadgets we have or how much we tell ourselves that we are socially networked, it is all a lie if we fail to be the mystical Body of Christ. Community and communion complete us, incorporate us into the Body of Christ.

Paul struggled to find a way to help us realize that our lives each play a unique role in the Body. He knew that we understand ourselves not in isolation but in relation with one another. We all take part in Christ, we all manifest God’s call, God’s Word made flesh dwelling among us. It shatters our deceptions and sets us into the drama of God’s saving act in history. By the waters of Baptism, we were given our Christian names and given a share in the divine name itself.

Words do have power to heal us, to set us free, to restore our sight, to give us comfort, if we but hear the Master’s voice. Listen. Put away your earbuds, turn off the noise, listen with an inner stillness and you will hear the Word of everlasting life. This mysterious Body is made real in our Eucharistic ‘Amen,’ a word that bids us to become what we receive. The power of the prophetic word hits us even today amid earthquakes and wars, amid poverty and neglect. Do you hear it? Does it speak to your soul and call you into caring? For there is its power, our being the Body of Christ.

Today is the story where we find out that Mother Mary is not Latina or Italian! Son of God or not, if I had told my mother or grandmother “woman,” they would still be finding pieces of my rear end.

‘On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.’ (“What might “on the third day” stand for in John 2:1?”) In context, then, the third day after leaving Judaea, way down south, where Jesus had been involved in the movement associated with his cousin John the Baptist and had undergone the what we now know is baptism into the waters, with extraordinary effect, at John’s hands.

The journey on foot up the Jordan valley to Galilee takes about two days, so this makes sense. Cana – Khirbet Qana – is nine miles north of Nazareth on the road into the hills, west from the Sea of Galilee, so most likely there was time to stop and pick up our Mother Mary. As we read, ‘The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus himself and his disciples had also been invited to the celebration’. In this period, it seems, Jewish weddings took place on Wednesdays and the celebrating lasted for seven days.

Naturally, the wine ran out (perhaps some of those invited, had not contributed anything), was about to cause humiliation, a minor disaster, for the newlyweds. Mary gets her Son’s attention to the redness of the groom’s face, an expression, we can suppose, of a natural response. ‘They have no wine.’ Her Son refuses to help with the issue at first. Was it for family situations such as this that he had been set apart for his mission as the Christ, the Lamb of God, the Suffering Servant who was to actualize the Messianic promises? His hour had not yet come, he tells her, replying with a seeming roughness, ‘Woman’.

Consider speaking from a son to a mother, that way of talking to her has no present parallel in Hebrew or Greek. That should alert us to the fact that something more is going on here than meets the eye. The phrase ‘my hour’ has in this Gospel-book a technical significance: it means the time of the Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ. In particular, it means the moment of the Crucifixion, the power and glory hidden in the Cross being manifested in the Resurrection. And at the Cross the Son will say the same word to his mother in the same way as he does at Cana. He will look down from the Cross and call out, ‘Woman’ – not just to gain her attention, but to tell her she will be the mother and protectress of the infant Church. She is the Mother of the Messiah, and her place now is in the struggle against the satanic serpent as prophesied in Genesis to the Mother of all the living: she whom the Fall narrative indeed calls ‘the Woman’, the first Eve. Mary appears at the Cross’s foot to be given new offspring in the shape of the beloved disciple who stands here for all Christians: it will be her task to protect these offspring in the ongoing contest between Satan and the followers of Christ.

So back to Cana, then: there is no rudeness here, but a revealing of the significance of an internal problem in the light of the destiny she is to share with her Son in the plan of God.

Yet, he agrees to do something. She says to the waiters, ‘Do whatever he tells you’. The spiritual assurance the grace of her Immaculate Conception gives her allows her to rely on a response. The generosity of God can embrace things as small as local disappointments as well as things as large as the salvation of the world, and in any case this little domestic drama is, as it happens, filled with symbolic possibilities which the Messiah now exploits in his first ‘sign’. The result is one hundred and twenty gallons of what an enthusiast found to call quite excellent wine.

The Church of course accepts the possibility of miracle. Creation, we say, is not a completely closed system, but is open to its Creator at a range of points. It should be said, however, that the miraculous element is not in itself the climax of this story. The climax is the disciples’ belief of what the miracle symbolizes. The abundance of this splendid wine symbolizes the unheard of, profuse, generosity of God that is now, in Jesus, to be crucified. This overwhelming generosity became incarnate in him, and the story marks the moment when the change began to drop. ‘What Jesus did at Cana in Galilee marked the beginning of his signs; thus, he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.’

Today’s celebration is one of great significance, having many intense and important themes. It celebrates an end and a beginning, the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of the Church’s year, ordinary time.

The boundary between these two areas is not clearly drawn; the Baptism of the Lord has what has gone before, and points to what is to come. At the beginning of Christ’s public ministry, we can detect some of the themes which we shall meet in the course of the Church’s year.

During the Christmas liturgies we experienced once again the birth of Christ, ‘the fulfilment of prophecy and the pivotal point of history’, as theologians described it, in its two presentations in the Gospels. In the feast of the Nativity we witnessed the local presentation, witnessed by the Jewish people represented by Mary, Joseph and the lowly shepherds; in the feast of the Epiphany, we witnessed the wider, greater presentation, when Christ was presented to all the nations of the earth, in the persons of the Magi.

We also bring into our understanding of the feast the dark element found in the nativity descriptions, the killing of the innocents, a reminder that that the joy and peace associated with the birth of Christ, his mission, the mission of the Church, will always be opposed by sinful people. Today’s feast marks the end of the closed, private period of Christ’s life, and marks the beginning of the start, public ministry.

The two most important features in today’s Gospel reading, marking the beginning of Christ’s public ministry, are the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist, and the appearance of the Holy Spirit and the voice confirming the divine Son of Christ.

John’s voice was heard clearly during the Advent liturgy, proclaiming the coming of the Savior, and denying that he himself was the Messiah. John knew the limitations of his mission. He could proclaim and point the way only. John also knew the limitations of the baptism he advised:

I baptize you with water, but someone is coming who is more powerful than I am? He will baptize you with Holy Spirit and with fire.

The baptism presented by John was concerned with repentance and the forgiveness of sins. It was not necessary for the sinless Christ to be baptized; he accepted baptism from John to show himself as human, to be seen in the flesh like the people whom he had come to redeem.

The Father proclaimed the divine Sonship of Christ:

You are my beloved Son, in “whom I am well pleased”.

The Spirit then descended upon Christ, the final preparation for his mission When anointed by the Spirit he began his public ministry, the preaching and teaching of the kingdom.

Baptism confers life, but it is also connected with death; to gain new life, we must die to the old. The baptism of Christ foreshadowed his death. It was his mission to suffer, die and rise again.

When we received the sacrament of baptism, we are admitted into membership of the Church, the body of Christ, and became sharers in his mission. We were immersed in the waters, died and buried with him; we rise again because of the redemptive sacrifice of Christ.

The Church will explain to us the public ministry of Christ, the preaching of the kingdom, in the daily and Sunday readings. The divine, redemptive mission of Christ is still active. The kingdom will be preached and built up slowly and gently, often among the poor the outcasts, sinners, but whose poverty and weakness enabled them to grasp more easily divine truth. The mystery of the Trinity, present at the baptism of Christ, will be declared: all peoples will be welcomed into the kingdom.

As we begin the Church’s year, we do so in the knowledge of what has been placed on us by our baptism, that we, too, have been commanded to proclaim the kingdom in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who were present when Christ was baptized in the Jordan.

Today we mark the end of the Christmas season – the Day of Epiphany.  We celebrate this day to reflect on the visit of the Magi – the wise men – to Jesus and the giving of their gifts. We reflect on the meaning of this visit of those wise ones to see Jesus.

Epiphany is about Jesus and his message being available and relevant to people of every age and race. Jesus isn’t just a Jewish prophet with an exciting message, but God made present amongst us and available to all of us to worship and follow. God’s love reaches beyond the everyday barriers of race and class; something the Magi didn’t quite get at first.

So Who Were the Magi?

We don’t know much about the Magi from Scripture. All Saint Matthew tells us is that they were “Magi from the East”. Some translations have “Wise men from the East”. The word in Greek refers to priests of the Zoroastrian religion. They came from Persia, the countries now known as Iran and Iraq, and they saw meaning in the movement of the stars. Their visit fits an Eastern pattern of great births being accompanied by momentous events in the sky. Certainly we know of a comet in 11BCE in Gemini with its head towards Leo, seen by many as a symbol of Judah.  We also know of planetary conjunctions in both 7BCE and 6 BCE which would have added to a sense that momentous happenings were on the way. The Magi would have noticed these things and taken them seriously. But who were they?

One commentator, Brian Stoffregen puts it like this;

“Originally in Persia, Magi were dream- interpreters. By Jesus’ time, the term referred to astronomers, fortune-tellers, or star-gazers.   They were horoscope fanatics – a practice condemned by Jewish standards. We might compare them to people in fortune – telling booths, or people on the “psychic hotline” or other “occupations” that foretell the future by stars, tea leaves, Tarot cards etc. They were magicians, astronomers, star-gazers, pseudo-scientists, fortune tellers..”

Another writer, Nathan Nettleton, puts it like this;

“They were the speakers of the sacred words at the pagan sacrifices. At worst, the term referred to a magician or sorcerer, or even a deceiver. Magi were people whose activities were repeatedly condemned and prohibited throughout the scriptures and were completely anathema to the people of Israel.”

Whilst in English we get the words “magic” and “magician” from Magi, the Zoroastrian religion forbade sorcery. They clearly were looking for a new king and had found meaning in the movement of the planets and stars which led them to come to Israel to greet the new-born king. They journeyed from their homes in Persia to Bethlehem in search of this baby. Instead of angels and visions, we have the image of the Magi following a sign in the skies – in nature – and for a long period of time. The magi see the intentions of God in the skies. This is not new: Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens themselves declare who God is, and that his handiwork is seen in created nature.  “We observed his star at its rising”. The magi know that there is something significant happening.

When did they come?

The Gospel of Saint Luke doesn’t mention the Magi and holds that the Holy Family returned to Nazareth after the presentation of Jesus at the Temple where he was circumcised. It’s probable that Saint Luke didn’t know of this episode in Jesus’ early life. Saint Matthew seems to place the visit of the Magi some time after Jesus’ birth. The Holy Family are in a “house” not in the
stable of the inn.  Herod kills all the newborn boys under the age of two years. So it’s likely that the Holy Family had stayed for some time in Bethlehem and the Magi came some time after Jesus’ birth, perhaps as long as two years after.

WHY did they come?

Clearly, the Magi were searching.  The Magi recognized much of the truth of Jesus, who he was and what he would become.  The magi had a general idea of this God and this King of the Jews, but they didn’t really know who or what they were looking for.  Bono and U2 were criticized some years ago by some supposedly orthodox Christians when they produced a song entitled, “I still haven’t found what I am looking for.”  I can’t see the problem with that especially given the spiritual depths in many of their songs. You see, the example of the Magi was that they were searchers, not really knowing what or who they were looking for.  They didn’t claim to have it all but they saw their lives as a journey of discovery. And in that they are an example to us. We don’t know it all. But if we like them are prepared to be diligent seekers, then like them we may be graced by God’s light, by our Epiphany.  When the wise men finally found Jesus, we are told that their first response was joy – “they were overwhelmed with joy”. That is what happens when we find Jesus. This is what awaits us at the end of the journey. Next, they paid him homage – they worshiped him and acknowledged Him as King. After the joy comes the worship. That means acknowledging Jesus as King. Jesus as the center. Jesus as Lord. And then, after joy and after worship, comes offering of their gifts. In response to who Jesus is and the joy He gives, we offer ourselves and our gifts to Him.

So my message for today is to dare, like them, to take the risk of seeking, and God may well bless us with our own Epiphanies which transform us as doubtless the Magi were transformed by what must have been a surprising experience for them as they knelt before the infant Jesus.

So how do you find Jesus? Maybe you can start out like the Magi – with a general idea of God, and a general idea that He is guiding you. Like the Magi, we need to turn to the scriptures. If you don’t read them, you will never really get the specific directions that God is trying to give you. Approach them with the right spirit, the right purpose. Ask for help along the way – the church, God’s people, are meant to help you along that way. The wise men knew when they needed to ask someone else for help. And pray. Ask God. When you find Jesus, rejoice. After all, He is God. Put Him in the center of your life. Ask yourself whether what you are doing honors him a King. Offer to him what you have, who you are.

Where can this Jesus be found?  He is with you now.  Won’t you seek Him?  Won’t you recognize Him?  Won’t you let Him fill YOUR life with joy?  Amen.