NewCreation

Homily for the Epiphany of the Lord

Welcome, my sisters and brothers, to this the homily for the Feast of the Epiphany — the Shining Forth, the Manifestation. That's what today's feast is about. And of course the text which we have is the text which is the arrival of the three wise men, the three kings, the three magi, about which so many tales have been told, so many paintings have been done, which have come to us in so many different versions. Let's see what's going on in this wonderful, wonderful tale. "So in the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem" — wise men, magi, astrologers, kings. The role of astronomy, the studying of the stars, was much more important than we perhaps realize. At the time, these things were taken very, very seriously and were part of incipient science in a way which now seems to us to be odd, but that was a very, very important part of the philosophical — the world of learning, the world of studying, the world of understanding what is. So these people — the term "magi" comes from Persia, but these people may have come from Arabia, which then didn't refer to what we now think of as Saudi Arabia further south, but something much more like Jordan, the area around Petra. So there's a wisdom there, a wisdom to do with much studying, much meditating, and the relationship with stars. And what's going on here is that the prophecy of Numbers 24 is being fulfilled. The prophet Balaam himself — not an Israelite — had announced that a star would arise. This was his prophecy, and it was made to Balak, a Moabite king, a thoroughly nasty piece of work, one who had evil in his heart for the people of Israel. And so here is the prophecy of Balaam from Numbers 24: "I see him but not now, I behold him but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the borderlands of Moab and the territory of all the Shethites. Edom will become a possession, Seir a possession of its enemies, while Israel does valiantly. One out of Jacob shall rule and destroy the survivors of Seir." Now, why was this important? Because Herod was from Edom. Where it talks about here about "Edom will become a possession" — Herod was from Edom. Herod was not a Jew, he was not an Israelite. The king — he was, if you like, a foreign usurper, much hated and disapproved of in many ways by Israelites, because they knew he was not one of them. He got into his place by making suitable friends with Caesar, and he was a particularly nasty and brutal man. This we know — this is not from Christian sources, this is from just about anyone who had anything to say about Herod: he spoke about the magnificence of his works. He was a very, very considerable builder. He was, if you like, great on the economic side of things, but he was a cruel and clearly very disturbed person, including having his three sons killed amongst many, many others. So this Balak figure — the arrival of wise people who had thought much about the stars and their meaning from the east, when they should see the sign and come to him saying, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?" — well, this was a prophecy that had a personal touch for Herod as well. It was assumed to be a messianic prophecy. This was well held at the time to be a messianic prophecy, and Herod himself had shown interest in the past when the Temple priesthood had attempted to work out when the prophecies of the book of Daniel — the 490-year prophecies, the weeks of days — would be fulfilled. In fact, he had tried to get the information from them privately, and had had a number of the priests killed. That was in 34 before Christ, a massacre of the Temple priests, precisely because of his concern about prophecies. So Herod has form in this area. He's not a pleasant person, and he's very susceptible to the notion that the real thing is going to come along and it's not him. So these people come: "We've observed his star as it's rising." So they're saying, "We've worked out that this is the one, this is the fulfillment. We've come to pay him homage." So when Herod heard this, he was frightened — he was perturbed. This is going to be one of the persistent features of the arrival in our midst of the light: that it perturbs some and brings joy to others. You remember when we had the angel coming to the Virgin Mary in Luke — she was mega-perturbed, but then was full of grace and joy. And here likewise you have Herod being perturbed, but then later, when the kings arrive, they were overwhelmed with joy. So perturbance and joy — these are the two effects, if you like, of the shining. The shining comes in on its own, and it perturbs some and produces joy for others. "And he was perturbed, and all Jerusalem with him." Not necessarily out of loyalty to him, but no doubt out of concern about what he might do when unhinged. We are not the only period living under the threat of a head of state who is seriously unhinged and no one quite knows what he's going to do next. So he calls together the chief priests and the scribes of the people and inquires of them where the Messiah was to be born. In other words, he's taking this threat seriously. And they say to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea," and they put together a quote from Micah to indicate that that's the place, and a quote from Samuel to indicate that it's a Davidic fulfillment — in the house of David, it's to be fulfilled close to matters to do with shepherds. We saw how Luke brought that out in earlier homilies: the relationship of the Davids to the shepherding. So they're on the same track here. They know that the real thing is to happen not in Jerusalem but in the house of David, and it's to be linked with the shepherding. So now Herod – or Balak – calls Balaam the prophet who had announced to him the star, and to learn from them the exact time when the star had appeared. And this is one of the interesting things: that actually we have very good reason to think that in the year 7 BC by our calculations, which was about three years before Herod died, there was a particular conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter such that they came together and were inseparable – otherwise a very, very bright star. This happened, this was visible on three occasions during that year, including the spring, the autumn, and the beginning of the winter. So the one that had been seen – this was seen in Jerusalem, this was commented on – this is entirely independently, again, of Christian sources: a very, very striking star was seen, and there was considerable question as to whether this was one of the stars that fulfilled prophecy, particularly as it was Jupiter and Saturn in conjunction in Pisces, which was supposed to be the constellation of the Hebrews. So there is, you know, ancient knowledge concerning stars was much in operation at the time. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying: "Go and search diligently for the child; when you find him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." In other words, the hidden malice is very clear. When they had heard the king, they set out; and there ahead of them went the star that they had seen at its rising, and it stopped over the place where the child was. Apparently, if you were in Jerusalem at the time of this particular conjunction, it would have appeared over Bethlehem. So, for what it's worth, on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. Interesting – they don't mention Joseph, and that too is part of the prophetic fulfillment of what's going on here. Because in the Hebrew royal imagery, if you like, the first lady was the mother, not the wife, of the king. If you were to see the royal couple, the royal couple would be the mother and the son. This was what the royalty looked like, and strangely the mother became the bride of the son. Sounds weird to us, but that was how these things were understood in the Davidic temple lore. So when they go in, what are they seeing? They're seeing the real royalty: the Davidic royalty, the birth of the firstborn and his mother. This is the definite sign that the real royalty is here, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then opening their treasure chests they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Of course a huge amount of commentary is taken up with indicating what these signified. The traditional reading is: gold for royalty, because he was a king; frankincense for his temple function, so he was a priest; and myrrh because of the prophetic nature of his death, since myrrh would be the symbol of anointing a prophet for dying. But there's another possibility as well, there's another possibility which is at least as interesting and at least as plausible: that these three were people who were part of the long-standing diaspora of exiles from the first Temple, and that they were bringing him back the signs that the first Temple would be coming back in his person. The vessels for the Temple were gold; the incense that indicated the presence of the Most High was frankincense — a little bit of frankincense put in amongst the other incense was the incense for the presence of the Most High — and myrrh was the anointing oil especially for the Holy One in the holy place. It was the oil which brought forth holiness from the Temple. In other words, they're indicating not only that the Royal One but that the Holy One is back. The new Temple is about to be fulfilled. And Matthew's a subtle fella. He often has little textual references within his own Gospel. And one of the really interesting things that Jesus teaches — this is in Matthew 13, after he's finished explaining parables to his disciples — is what is the good household like, what is a disciple like. He says: "Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." So we have these three householders giving what is new — the gold, the frankincense and the myrrh — but it's also come from something very, very old: the first Temple. And as they give it, they are becoming radiant. They are seeing the radiant one; they are the first disciples. The first disciples, if you like, are Gentiles who are bringing back the old and the new and becoming disciples for the kingdom. This is the radiance: as the radiance of the one who looks upon them causes his face to shine in them, they find themselves becoming radiant as they take out the old and bring in the new. This is part of what is offered for us today. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.