The root message in this feast day is that Jesus was brought into this world for more people and nations that Joseph and Mary. His birth is a source of new life but not just for Judea and Israel. Likewise he is more that light signaled by a bright star for three men who we might consider to be astrologists not astronomers! Interestingly these gift bearers studied the stars that would give them a gift never imagined.From these three kinds we are introduced to a "new way" not a "new age." The revealing child of the Bethlehem manger came to them just as he comes to us during the days of the Christmas season to invite us -- yes, once again -- to a new way, a a good we do not fully understand or know.
At the present time I am read William P. Young's The Shack, Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity. It is a missionary's vision of what an Epiphany experience might be in our times. As with any Epiphany experience, we have to focus not so much on the three finders of the baby. We are the wisdom figures in the story today. What we need to focus upon is what the infant child is revealing both then and now. How strongly does the message impact you life this year?
In all honesty, have you felt the grace of Jesus' birth knocking at the door of your heart and soul this year?
We can celebrate this Epiphany day and all the Christmas season perhaps as we have in the past: another celebration of present-time, family-time. Truly good moments but far from the genuine purpose of the season. With the three wise men do we have the wisdom to see, to hear and to sense the "new way," the revelation Jesus is giving us today?
In The Shack, MacKenzie, the principal figure, is stunned by the way the Father, Son and Holy Spirit appear to him in a rare encounter in a forest where three years earlier his youngest child had been abducted and presumed murdered. Mack came to see what Magi discovered: God, the Son of God, the Messiah was presenting himself in utter simplicity. He is teaching form his supposed bed of strong that we more often than not create confusion in our lives because we try to fit God into our image of what a divine Creator should be.
Epiphany truly is a call to be "humbled, not humiliated." God is inviting us to a genuine relationship with himself. This feast is a true challenge to us because, if we are honest, we see that we humans have made a mess of God's creation -- from the Garden of Eden to the plea, the message, from Pope Benedict VI earlier today: "End all war! War and hatred are not the solution to the problem(s)."
Today's Epiphany is a calling to us to turn our world and hearts back to God. "Trust in me." This is the message that comes to us from the child once again. Let my love and care be the guiding star you should follow today in your times. Yet, do we truly believe that for trust to become a reality, all of us, singly and communally and globally, have to believe that God loves us, each of of us.
This is what the wise men discovered ... and so returned to their kingdom "humbled, not humiliated." It was a different Messiah than most expected. The call was a true challenge ... even to each of us today.
