Are you ready for an Epiphany?
Epiphany is the season of Mission and reaching out with the gospel. The first story associated with this is that of the Magi as Kim talked about last week. Matthew is a gospel written for those familiar with the Jewish faith, but here at the beginning we have these non-Jews coming from afar to worship the new-born king. The gospel, Matthew seems to be saying, is Open for All. At the end, Jesus sends his followers to “make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19, 20)
The second story that we tell at this time is of the Baptism of Christ. We find three statements that are significant.
“I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?” John is confessing that he also needs to repent and be forgiven; he needs the Lamb of God to take away his sins. He seems to recognise that Jesus, alone, is not in need of this but is the one through whom God’s love, forgiveness and Spirit will come.
“Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.” Jesus is adamant that he must be baptised, but it can be a puzzle explaining why this was so. Primarily it was an act of obedience: he was sure this was what his Father wanted. He did not need to repent: “for he alone from first to last our flesh unsullied wore; a perfect life of perfect deeds”. It seems therefore to have been a deliberate act of identification with all people everywhere; we are sinful and need a Saviour, but Jesus does not arrive, as it were, with his cape flying in the wind, impervious to all harm and danger, to dramatically change the situation. Instead, he lives as one of us, and gently identifies himself as being fully human.
“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We, and John, are meant to be reminded of Psalm 2:7 “I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” and Isaiah 42:1 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.” This is a revelation, an epiphany of who Jesus is. Just as the coming of wise ones reveals him, and the turning of water into wine reveals his glory, so here the Father proudly says “That’s my boy!” to anyone and everyone who will listen. He is fully human, but also fully God. This is a slightly different focus to the words reported in Mark and Luke where it says “You are my Son ...” which would be reassuring and comforting to Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry that he is on the right track. Here in Matthew the words are also for us; make no mistake, do not be misled, this, THIS, is God’s best and only way of revealing his love and sharing his life with you. Many would like to know God and have a relationship with him; Jesus said of himself: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
How, then, do we receive this epiphany? How can we encounter God and grow in him?
First, how much do we want this? Is it our consuming desire to fulfil righteousness? Do we have a concentrated, un-distracted heart and mind that is seeking after God? Or is our interest in spiritual things something that must be fitted in to our family, our career, our hobbies and pursuits? Jesus said “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8); pure here does not mean morally upright but rather settled and undivided; no distractions.
Second, are we prepared for an epiphany from outside our normal frame of reference? Last week we saw the glory of the infant king revealed through the most unlikely means, star-gazing travellers from afar. It may be that God is trying to reveal himself to you, but perhaps you are concerned that this seems strange or slightly way out? Take heart. Why would you expect an encounter with God to be familiar and comfortable? The recent BBC production of the nativity, for example, spoke to some people in a profound manner.
Third and coming from a different direction, are we prepared for an epiphany from that which is already known to us? From the familiar? For all we know, it might have been a profound shock to John that he was to announce as the promised messiah ... his cousin! He had always known, perhaps, that Jesus was devout, but was this taking things a bit far? Just like Israel wandering in the wilderness and revisiting the old places in order to learn the lessons God had for them, might it be that you already know all that you need to know to encounter God? In a situation where we were slow to respond to God’s love before, might he be visiting us again?
Fourth, we may have fixed expectations about what God is planning; might we need to open ourselves to God’s new ways? John expected the messiah, when he came, to be obviously in charge and superior; it would be John’s place to bow and receive baptism from this exalted one. Whatever Jesus was up to, this was not how John expected it; we see this later when John sends messengers from prison for reassurance that Jesus really is the one. In the passage from Acts, Peter and his colleagues have firm expectations that the gospel would never for be non-Jews, and God must take the initiative to shake him free and open his eyes. God does this by baptising the congregation in his Holy Spirit, so that Peter feels obliged to baptise them in water as a sign of their inclusion in Christ. The epiphany will by its nature be not as we expected it to be; if it were, how much of an epiphany would it be?
Fifth and last, how seriously do we take our own baptism? Jesus was baptised as sign that he was totally immersed in and surrendered to the will of his Father. We have sometimes allowed baptism to be relegated to that little ceremony near to when we were born, which has very little bearing on how we live our lives today.
This will not do. Baptism, which includes confirmation, is as essential as communion; the two go together as the only two ceremonies that Jesus commanded us to undergo. To miss out on either or to minimise their importance is to be disobedient. To be baptised and confirmed is to signal that we want to be deluged in God and bring our lives fully into harmony with him. It is not the ticking of a box but the committing of a life. It shows that we are concerned to fulfil all righteousness. It becomes central to our experience of God and a springboard to receiving the Spirit. Paul writes that “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.” (Romans 6:4) Every day we are challenged to reject the devil and all rebellion against God, to renounce the deceit and corruption of evil, and to repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbour. Every day we turn to Christ as Saviour, submit to Christ as Lord, come to Christ the way the truth and the life.
Every day we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done”; this is a prayer about God changing the world, but it is also a prayer about God changing us, so that we become more like our baptised, crucified, risen and ascended Lord Jesus. Every time we come to communion, we pray “as we eat and drink these holy things in your presence, form us in the likeness of Christ, and build us into a living temple to your glory.” Every day we look for an epiphany, a new revelation of Christ being lived though us. Every day we look to see our neighbours, friends, colleagues and relations encounter God and start to grow in him, through our prayers and changed lives. In the street where we live, the place of work or the college or school, in the places that we socialise, and in our homes, our baptism promises mean that we seek to be Christ centred, living as disciples and growing to be like Jesus, serving those around us as ministers of Christ, actively seeking to build community, and concerned to see others have an epiphany of Christ for themselves.
Questions for discussion
1. How much do we want to see God?
2. How prepared are we for a revelation of God outside our normal frame of reference?
3. How prepared are we for a revelation of God from within the sphere of the familiar?
4. What signs have seen recently of God at work in ways that have surprised us?
5. How are we living out our baptism in our everyday lives?
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