EPIPHANY: GOING HOME BY ANOTHER ROUTE

Isaiah 60:1-4a
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
   and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
   and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
   and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
   and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes and look around.

Matthew 2:1-12
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?  For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."  When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.  They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:   
 
   'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
     are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
   for from you shall come a ruler 
       who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.  Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."  When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.  On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.  Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Epiphany is such a rich feast day in the church calendar.  There are at least three separate themes (Light, Gifts, Manifestation) that can be developed by the preacher – any one of which could easily provide three individual sermons – and yet we only get one day, and so we have to choose.  There are stars and kings and fabulous gifts, but today I have chosen one small half-sentence tucked away at the very end of the gospel reading. I think this half-sentence is very important.

I want to share a poem with you - one written by one of my favorite storytellers, John Shea.  This is where I first truly noticed this half-sentence (after years of hearing the gospel reading and never really catching it).  It’s little long-ish, so settle back and enjoy.  The poem is a word of advice directed to King Herod on the occasion of the three Magi, or Wise Men’s arrival in his kingdom.

Magi only journey at night
like the guarded secrets of dreams
and, at morning, always arrive from the East,
the rising sun at their backs,
haloing them in light.
You will have to shade your eyes
to watch them,
step by step,
approach you
with their request.

They are not wise in usual ways.
They cannot make a chair,
their soups are regrettable.
It is conjunctions
symmetries
balances
that interest them.
Heaven shakes, earth quakes.
As above, so below. 
A star moves across the sky
and they are in the saddle
convinced an earth child
has yanked a string.
They come from a country of kites.

They also puzzle prophecies,
living in perpetual pregnancy,
awaiting the births of the predicted.
They unroll ancient parchments
to find new babies,
then read the wrinkles of the newborn
as testimonies of the past promises.
They are not your average observers.

That is why they have come to you--
why they come to us all.
Your replacement has been born.
They need your help
to tell them
where
they can find the child.
Lost in higher logic,
they will not see you blanch
or notice you are troubled.
They want to teach you the lost art of homage,
how freeing it is to be prostrated before promise.
They are the strangers
who have come to tell you
the truth
you have forgotten.

Do not try to trick them,
coaxing from their enthusiasm
murderous information.
It will not work.
Wise Men always go home
by another route.
You will end
by slaughtering hope
and you will not see
the fleeing child, your child,
reach for their gifts.* 

The wise men were undoubtedly naive, for all their wisdom, asking Herod to help them find his replacement – never a good idea with kings.  Luckily, they were warned by an angel in a dream and turned from their chosen path – taking another route homeward – thereby avoiding another meet-up with the murder-minded Herod.

Wise Men always go home by another route – this is the line that caught my attention – wise Men always go home by another route.  For some reason this snagged my thoughts where the more prosaic “they left for their own country by another road” of the gospel reading did not.  It is fairly obvious that this was a good choice in this circumstance, but the peotic line says “always”  – Wise men always go home by another route.  The more I thought about it, the more obvious it became to me that, of course, you go home by another route after you have sought out and found the Lord of the Universe, the King of Kings.  Of course, you do, because you are no longer the same person, so how could you possibly travel the same path?

And this is the heart of this Epiphany message.  If we travel in search of this “king” who has come to live among us – and if we find this king – if divinity manifest itself for us –  how can we be anything but changed?  For good?  How could we ever come face to face with Jesus and remain the same people we have always been?

To meet God’s love in human form – whether that form looks like the infant Jesus of 2000 years ago or the homeless woman asking for help on the street today, cannot possibly leave us untouched – unchanged.  If we allow ourselves to truly open up and meet God’s love in human disguise, we WILL be changed.  And once we are changed, even if we walk the same road, it will not truly be the same!

The Feast of the Epiphany celebrates the first manifestation to the gentiles of the Christ in human form.  An epiphany (with a lower case ‘e’) is that moment when we grasp what is right in front of us - when we recognize divinity right here with us now.


This is what we celebrate today - the moment when we stopped putting God on a massive throne way up there in the heavens, way far away from us, and recognize that Godself is right here with us - right here in the middle of our human mess.  And has always been – we just couldn’t (or wouldn’t) see it.

Of course we’re traveling another route home – that blind, oblivious being we used to be no longer exists and a new being lives and walks in its place.  Even if the path is the same, the journey is always new.  If we do not experience that new road then I suspect we must question whether or not we have truly seen God.

Our new road may not necessarily come with comets and kings and a new landscape.  It may look, at first glance, just like our old road, with the same old cast of people.  Our first reading today, from Isaiah’s prophecies, tells us to ...lift up our eyes and look around...because the light of God is now shining out into our darkness.  If we will only open our eyes...if we will only look around us...truly look...we can see a new road, a new world, a new life in Christ...radically different from the life we knew once before. 

Let us travel on together down this new route on our journey home.
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*John Shea, Starlight: Beholding the Christmas Miracle All Year Long,  (c) 1992; The Truth of the Stranger, originally written for "Epiphany in Doubt", unpublished